Apologies all, I didn't think this was going to be a long report as I didn't think much happened..! lol - get a cup of tea/coffee and a biscuit and hopefully enjoy! I can't believe its all over [:'(]
Sunday 30th Jan my parents flew in from Spain.. first time I’ve seen mum and dad since August and major weight loss nearly 3stone – they were thrilled.. it was really great to see them
Then, leading up to wedding
Had my eyebrows shaped and dyed on Tuesday evening
Weds last day at work – which was great and they decorated my desk and at end of day gave me a card and £60 cash –which was a total surprise.
Thurs – spent 2hours having eyelash extensions done which was total bliss!! Chill out time and when they were first done I couldn’t get over how different it made me look. When my daughter got home from school and I answered the door, she said “whoa they are huge!” but OH really liked them.
My Cheeses arrived on Thurs am as planned, we had them instead of a traditional cake, and mum and dad thought it was a great original idea! I had to pop back to the dress makers on Thurs afternoon to pick up OH’s cravat tie, as she had made a normal tie in error, wasn’t such a hassle as everything else was organised.
Friday… Went to have my nails done (purple tips Bio-gel) and OH and parents wandered around the shops for a couple of hours whilst this was done, then they picked me up – I loved my nails, OH hated them! But he wouldn’t say anything at the time.
Then on Friday afternoon we went up to the venue with all the boxes for the tables, the cheeses and the plans and the extra bits and the CD for the ceremony music, which was the only thing I was worried about, that the CD wouldn’t play, but of course it did! So everything was sorted… this sounds to easy I thought, the room was being set up for the ceremony and the tables were being set up too, which made both me and OH take a deep breath as it was our wedding not someone elses! The staff at the venue made some final checks and were just really helpful.
Fri eve – my mum, daughter (age 12) and I went out for a meal at a local pub eatery which has great food. My daughter - bless her thought that we could have a Mamma Mia type pre wedding party which was really sweet! But of course this didn’t happen and we just had a lovely meal and it was great just to get together as girlies the night before.
OH and my dad stayed at home as it was England v’s Wales Rugby (OH is Welsh) with a steak and chips and beer night – had a great time and we tonked the Welsh which was great as I think if we had lost we would have had some very, very smug remarks at the wedding the next day.
Then OH preceded to tell me that he really didn’t like my nails, but was sure that with the dress it would be in context. So at 10pm I was sitting in my en-suite ripping off the nails and completely chuffed up my natural nails and then got the right hump and thought what now!! Disaster! OH said I shouldn’t have done it… Men!!!! We all went to bed at our house about 11pm.
Saturday!!!
Well I had a great nights sleep and woke up at 8.00am, woke OH up by saying that this was our wedding day! Looked out of the window and it was very grim and grey. So the weather wasn’t going to be great but Feb 5th isn’t the height of summer! Got up and got downstairs – plan was to have bacon rolls with the family but I was down at the local Nailbar at 8.45am to sort out the nails!!! Out of there at 10am and grabbed a nice bacon roll from one of the local sandwich bars. Got home at 10.30 – loaded the car up with all my stuff and my daughters to take over to hotel – planned to get there at 11am – got there at 11.10 – Venue were lovely, showed me the bridal suite, which was 2 rooms with a huge sunken bath and 2 bathrooms and humongous bed!! It was a really beautiful room. Timings were for me to be in the shower and ready for the hairdresser at 11.30 am, but as I was unloading the car at 11.15, (check in for guests was noon) my brother and his 2year old twins turn up mega early and also OH’s parents. Just what I needed, NOT – then spent the next 10 mins sorting out my bruvs family and finally jumped in the shower at 11.30am – hair dresser turned up (she was downstairs early) and then it was all go!
OH dropped my parents and my daughter to the hotel at noon and then went home to get ready, OH sent up Champagne to my room – which was really lovely of him.
The makeup lady and photographer turned up at 12.30 and then it was just the time to get ready – I was getting texts from all sorts of people wishing me luck and some from OH which were really lovely. It was at this time, I then remembered that I had forgotten to pack my makeup for the next day, hairbrush, and facial wipes!! Bless him he brought them to the hotel when he came up to hotel at 1pm all ready and got someone to bring to the room. OH was talking to to guests and getting grief from his family on the table seating plan.
The hairdresser and makeup lady were really great fun, they work together all the time but we had a great giggle. I was still very calm at this point and then the florist arrived at 1.30 and came up to the room – I saw my flowers and cried….. they were stunning and even the hairdresser and makeup lady said it was lovely to see something so different to normal.
My daughter and mum were floating around getting themselves beautified too and then my friend Deb turned up at 1.45 to help us get dressed. I sent Deb away from the room at 2pm and then I was on my own for about 15mins it was great to have a bit of time on my own.
Then my daughter came back at 2.20 and Deb and me started to get her ready, then remembered I’d forgotten her Pashmina – she was not impressed. I’m standing there in this grey veolour tracksuit top, knickers, hair and makeup done and I just put on my hold ups and garter and then the Photographer turned up again!! Not a pretty look. Then Deb helped me into the dress and laced me up and was ready to go… this was the point that I felt it’s really happening!!
I then had some pics done before going downstairs, Dads face was emotional!! It was really lovely to see this.
Ceremony was at 3pm, we were called to go downstairs, I was just grinning ear to ear and wanted to get on with it. I had chosen Adele Make you feel my love to walk down the aisle with and OH knew this but I was going to start walking when Adele started singing, the intro seemed to be on for ages and then we started the walk………… then I saw OH and my bottom lip went but I held it together (just)! And then my daughter stood on my train for a second hmmm – that was not planned! clumsy
Service was fab, registrar had a great voice for holding the rooms attention – and we both struggled with each others rings to place on fingers – theres a pic of me laughing at this point on the official photographers website, it was great to see OH face as we were saying our vows……… And then we were married! Register signing and more pics!
Then we had champagne and the ladies glasses had hibiscus flowers inside them it was really lovely, we had some wedding party pics taken and we even went outside for a few photos but it started to drizzle and I felt abit cold.. All OH could say was how fabulous I looked and the dress was STUNNING!!! I was soo pleased!! As I was worried he wouldn’t like it but he said it was worth the money and was just beautiful.
Circulated with the guests and then time for the meal – which was just superb everyone commented on how lovely the food was. Tables looked stunning, very simply set! and so did the cheeses and our figurines! Which were much bigger than I thought but everyone thought they were great!
We did a joint speech which took about 20secs as we weren’t doing any formalities!! So very simple and no time for guests to get bored! We cut the “cheese”!! Everyone at the wedding and reception even commented on what a great idea the “cake of cheeses” was and it was attacked with vigour day and eve.
We had a disco and choc fountain for the evening – and OH had already told me he would do the 1st dance and no more dancing!! Guests arrived at 7.30/8pm and 1st dance at 8.15 – Etta James At Last. I was on the dancefloor practically all night and only ate 1 thing at the choc fountain to officially open it – 1 sausage to open the buffet and 1 piece of cheese just to try!! Didn’t want anything else – we had loads left over at the end!
So much for OH not dancing again – he was up loads and we even have a number of comments in the guestbook on OH’s moves!! He is dreading watching the video
After the buffet I had hired a Blues Brothers act for 1hour and they went down a storm! Everyone commented on it afterwards. I forgot to bring the BB hats and glasses I had got ready for this to the hotel – so that was a shame but didn’t matter.
The Disco came back on at 11pm-midnight and everyone was on the dancefloor it was a fab night, it was great to see the mixture of people that we both know having a great time.
As the disco finished and the bar closed everyone went to bed and home and we went up to our room. He was too drunk to be able to get me unlaced! And it was an easy laceup dress, I actually thought I was going to be wearing the dress in bed all night – but managed to get myself out of it eventually.. and then hung it up on the wardrobe door, and was just staring at it for about 5mins thinking I’m not wearing it again, was a very sad moment.
The next morning we went down for breakfast and there was everyone from the daytime (they all stayed) and some friends from the evening. I wore my “Mrs Txxxxx” T-shirt and everyone thought it was fabulous, MIL wants one!!
Everyone said they had a great time, the BB act went down extremely well and even my dad said it was the 2nd best wedding he’s been too, and the 1st wasn’t his or my 1st wedding… so it must have been good wedding, lol!
We went home and opened up the cards people gave us and everyone has been extremely generous and we had enough to cover most of the extra champagne, spa treatments, a la carte dinners and excursions on our Honeymoon.
We left home at 2.30pm on the Sunday 6th Feb and went to Gatwick to start our 2 week honeymoon in the Maldives – 5 star, All inclusive, total paradise. We had a fab time as Mr and Mrs but that’s another story…..!
There were loads of guests that hadn't seen me since I'd lost loads of weight and were stunned by my appearance. All the ladies and little girls were STUNNED by my dress and said it was really really beautiful and unique and classy and alot were jealous, even made one of my friends in the evening cry! I was so glad I decided to do something different.
Thank you for getting this far..! Will post separately on points of wisdom..!
If you want to look at the official wedding photos, please look here, I’m still in discussion with the photographer, as the dress colour onsite is good from the beginning but it definitely goes blue in the natural light before any ordering gets done.
http://www.alanbowman.com/
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password = Ashley
lots of love, happy planning, will be here for awhile as there are some great weddings coming up
Ash xx
