***KyleighB's long overdue wedding report - Loads of flashes***

Planning

I’d always known where I was going to get married and now I had a ring on my finger that hadn’t changed. I’d fallen in love with Wivenhoe House when I was little, before it was a hotel. Just a beautiful house in fields of green. Now just to convince Dean and pray that we could afford it!

Dean though, as much as he loved it wanted to check other venues just to make sure. When we met the co-ordinator at Wivenhoe House though, that was when the deal was sealed. Charley was amazing, nothing was too much trouble and no question was too silly. The cost though was a slight issue. We could afford the package but desperately wanted the ceremony to be in the beautiful ‘old’ house rather than the modern extension which is where our reception would be held. The extra was £1500 and for a 20 minute ceremony, I just couldn’t justify it. Gutted. Charley assured me though that it would still be lovely and that there was wedding fair coming up that would show the layout of the ceremony.

So my mum and I went to the wedding fair. I hated the other ceremony room and just kept on wandering aimlessly through the old house. My mum even offered the pay the extra but no matter who paid for it, it was too much money for such a short amount of time. The amazing Charley stepped forward though, she would knock off £1000 if we booked it there and then, the only catch being it had to be a booking for 2014 (we were looking at 2015). So now I’m even more confused!!! Originally we were looking at September 2014 but found out that my sister would be on a work placement in Japan for 6 months so we’d moved it back to summer 2015. When I’d managed to convince myself that we were only bringing it forward a month rather than a year, I had to ring Dean. He wasn’t best pleased to start off with but once I’d convinced him that money wasn’t an issue (which is what he was worrying about) he said “Even if I say no, you’re going to book it anyway. So do what you want” (He’ll never forgive me for buying a house without him seeing it first!) So big smiles all round but in the back of my head still thinking that £500 was a lot for 20 minutes. Part of booking on the day also meant that you got ‘free’ afternoon tea for 4. Charley agreed that if didn’t want the afternoon tea she’s take another £250 off (how much was the afternoon tea?!) Hurrah! Done. Booked. Deposit paid. It was happening. 15th August 2014. Only 9 months away! Arghhh!

Within two weeks I’d also booked the DJ and photographers meaning that we could just sit back and enjoy Christmas.

Next on the list were the invitations. My brother in law is a graphic designer and quickly stepped in saying he wanted to help. We gave him the key details and a brief colour scheme and he came up with the most amazing design, that suited us and the day perfectly.

So onto dress shopping, something that I thought I was going to love, but really didn’t!

The first shop I went to I found nothing but at least I worked out what did and didn’t suit me.

Next I booked three appointments in one day as my sister was down from London. The first shop; I was baffled by the amount of dresses. I didn’t want satin, white or anything with bling on it but a yes to lace. There are so many lace dresses that all of them just blurred into one. Mum and sister step in and mark 5 that they want me to try on. No, to all of them and then no to all that the assistant pick out. My sister runs off telling me just to try one more on, its different from the rest. Not one I would ever even looked at twice let alone tried on but I love it, cue smug sister! I make a note of it and head off to the next shop.

This shop was a boutique and the dresses were more than the budget and if I had of realised this I would never have booked it but the dresses were beautiful just £1000’s of pounds!

Third shop I didn’t find anything, so we just messed about trying on Jordan’esq dresses! Nothing was going to compare with the dress in the first shop but to make sure we ran back in there to try it on again. Yup, still love! There was still another shop though that I still had to make an appointment at though, so I held off paying the deposit.

That appointment was spur of the moment. Walking past after a few drinks in town I realised that it was still open and that they’d see me there and then! I found a dress that was the opposite of the one I loved and got stumped. This new dress had given me dress wobbles before I’d even brought mine!

I booked two appointments, one after the other to see both dresses again. I didn’t even bother going to try on the ‘must have been drunk’ dress again. I knew as soon as I put ‘my’ dress on that it was the one. Deposit paid but there was a 7 month wait and was due to arrive 3 weeks before the wedding. It arrived a week early though and when I went for my fitting it didn’t need a single alteration, saving some money and also a headache!

My sister sorted her bridesmaid dress on her own. She found it on etsy and only had to have minor alterations made on it when it arrived.

All along I swore I was going to do the flowers by myself, I’d even visited a wholesalers to get a rough price. I then met with a florist, mainly to steal their ideas but ended up booking her to supply some flowers that I could DIY and for her to make up the button holes, bouquets and top table piece all for pretty much the same price as I had worked out doing it all DIY. A big weight was lifted!

I also was sure I was going to do my own cake. I class myself as a pretty good baker so it couldn’t be that hard could it?! I’ve never made one that big though!!! I done so many trials that everyone I knew was sick of carrot cake. I wasn’t bothered about it being perfect but did I really want the headache of having to bake and ice a cake in the week of the wedding?! Not really! I went hunting out options, getting quotes from cake makers, supermarkets even an online cake delivery but all were just too much money. Then randomly my child minder told me that her dad used to make wedding cakes and she’d ask him if he’d be interested. I gave her the details of how many people it was for, what flavours and that I wanted it plain as I was going to be decorating it with fresh flowers. She came back to me the next day saying that he wanted £60 and was it too expensive. No!! Sign me up now! I’d never seen or tasted one of his cakes but just the fact that I didn’t have to do it myself felt so good!

Next up was the room and table decorations. Originally I was going to make tonnes of bunting but to be honest I just couldn’t be bothered! Instead we raided The Range and all the pound shops for anything we could find. My mum and dad have a favourite Thai restaurant and they eat there far too much quite a lot and my mum had mentioned to the owner about the little terracotta pots that the deserts come in. Apparently they just go in the bin, so within a few weeks my mum’s spare room was full of them. She then painstakingly painted each one and tied them with twine. Flower vases done!

Our table plan was maybe my favourite thing. Because we met at Reading Festival, a few years back Dean had asked my brother in law to make the line-up poster from 2006 (when we met) including both mine, his and T’s name, which he gave to me for Christmas. It takes pride of place in our living room and it had to be incorporated in the wedding somehow. Said BiL made a new one as our table plan, each table had a different stage name and our names were all listed as the bands were. The top table names were also in the fonts of our favourite bands. We also hung lanyards with the table names on the front and people’s names on the back. Loads of people commented on it and now we’ve just got to find somewhere to hang it!

Our favours were cheap and cheerful. Dean although he plays guitar in his band, his passion is the drums. So we brought drumstick lollies, tied two together with twine and added a name tag. Probably cost me about £5 in total!

You can't leave it like that!

The week before

I had the week booked off so Monday I spent the day running around town buying the last few cards and presents before getting home to finishing making the page boys bow ties and my sister’s personalised dressing gown.

Tuesday I had a spa day with one of my closest friends. It was so nice to stop rushing around and let myself be pampered. We had a body wrap done which was one of the funniest and weirdest experiences I’ve ever had but I lost 9inches. Woohoo!! We celebrated by probably putting it all back on with burgers and a jug of Pimms! Then we had our nails done which was strange thinking that those were my wedding nails!

Wednesday, I had T with me so I decided to try not to do anything weddingy! We spent the day with my bestie and her little girl with the kids spending most of their day practicing their special walk (down the aisle) although most of the time it looked like something from the Ministry of Silly Walks! That night after T was in bed my BiL/BM/Hairdresser come round to do both mine and Dean’s hair. It took much longer than usual as nothing but perfection was good enough for him for our big day. So at 11.30 after feasting on pizza with perfect hair it was time for bed!

The day before

Thursday was chaos!! Both Dean and ‘T’ were at home. Both got under my feet and Dean decided to do things at the most awkward of times…

Him “I’m just going to get my van cleaned”

Me “What? Now? Why?”

Him “I don’t want to take my brand new suit round to my mums in a dirty van”

Me “She lives two minutes round the corner!! Whatever, take my car, its fine. I have to go out in an hour though so make sure your back”

Him “I’d rather take my van”

Me “Take what you want! Leave now and take T with you! PLEASE”

And not forgetting the time he spent an hour walking around in his suit (unable to do anything in case it got dirty) just to make sure it felt right?!

Eventually all bags and boxes were packed and I said goodbye to my boys and was off to pick up the DIY half of the flowers, my dress and my sister from the station.

Originally we were told that we couldn’t set up the day before as there was a function on, so all setting up would have to be done in the morning. Then I got a phone call from the hotel saying the function had cancelled and we could set up when we wanted! We were almost straight out the door, just stopping to say bye to my dad.

It took much longer than we thought to set up but eventually it was done and I was happy. My only issue was the cake didn’t look great (only paying someone £60, I should have known!) but I wasn’t going to let a cake ruin my day!

That evening I went for dinner with my mum and sister. No nerves yet and so I ate loads!!

Getting back to the hotel we encountered our first problem, none of the lights worked in our room! Obviously we hadn’t turned them on during the day so hadn’t noticed but now it was 10pm and both me and my sister needed to wash our hair. After trying to flick every switch in the room we gave up and called reception for help. Eventually at 11.30, after washing our hair in the dark, with only the light from the tv to guide us round the room, a maintenance man showed up, unlocked a cupboard and flicked the trip switch and voilà there was light!(They refunded the cost of the room because of this!) Around 12 both me and my sister fell asleep, I still wasn’t at all nervous and so slept soundly until my alarm went off at 7!

The Wedding Day

So the alarm went off at 7 and instantly my sister turned to me and said “It’s today!” I still didn’t feel nervous, it still felt like it was someone else’s wedding! She on the other hand looked petrified, she was convinced she’d fall walking down the aisle.

We both jumped in the shower and sat around waiting for the breakfast we’d ordered whilst watching Glee. An hour after our breakfast was supposed to arrive we rang down to find out where it was but apparently in the confusion of last night I’d forgotten to write the room name on the order so they were waiting on someone to ring! No stress though, it arrived 15 minutes later and was bloody lovely.

My mum was supposed to arrive at 9 with the final bits for setting up but she’d been caught up at home and so didn’t arrive until 9.30 meaning that we had to rush a bit as hair, make up and the photographers were arriving at 10. Our togs arrived first, I’d met them before and we’d really hit it off. I love them even more now and know that we’ll be friends for a long time. They made everything so easy, there was no awkwardness with them being there and so everything felt comfortable. My MUA id met before at trials and she is also a friend if my sisters, she set to work straight away on my mum.

Quick text conversation with Dean which put a smile on my face!

My hairdresser though I’d never met. I didn’t have chance for a trial as she was booked last second due to my other hairdresser cancelling on me. She was nice enough and knew what she was doing, it was just that she wanted everything too bridal! I only ever wanted a simple, relaxed half up/half down. I wear my hair straight and generally a bit messy but she was set on doing curly. It took about three attempts but eventually we got down from curly to wavy and even now I wish I’d done my fringe myself. My mum still wasn’t happy with it and she stressed me out by commenting on it for the rest of the morning. It was also raining. Watching the rain falling didn’t dampen the mood at all but it was constantly at the back of my mind. It wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t continual but it was raining.

At this point I get a phone call from my BiL, which I answer with a nervous “What’s the matter?” Apparently one of our guests wasn’t coming as he wasn’t going to be home from work in time and chose to tell us an hour and half before the ceremony!! I had though envisioned that this would happen and already had a friend of mine on sort of back up (I’d told her that if anyone couldn’t come, she was top of the list to replace them). A quick phone call to her, “Any chance you could leave work early?” “Shouldn’t be a problem, how early?” “Now!!!” She was in, perfect. Full house again!

My makeup was heavier than we’d done in the trails and she had warned me she would be doing this and standing in my dressing gown I thought I looked ridiculous, it wasn’t until I had my dress on that it all came together.

A knock on the door and there’s a flustered wedding coordinator. Deans forgotten the iPod with all the music on! Luckily I had a secret back up, knowing what Dean was like. Also they seemed to have lost one of the rings!! The best man put them in the inside pocket of his jacket and there was a hole in it. So now the ring was stuck in the lining! Why I was being told all of this I will never know but they obviously needed me to tell them what to do. “Cut it. Get a pair of scissors and cut a hole at the bottom of the lining”. She ran off and 5 minutes later I get a picture of the two rings. Phew!

So now its 1.15 the ceremony is at 2. I knew the registrars would be there soon so it was time to put the dress on. Apparently I’d lost a bit of weight since the last fitting so the lace up wasn’t quite right, with the bottom of the lace up trying to cross over! But it was on and it didn’t not fit because I’d put on weight, which is what I feared.

It was at this point when I noticed people start arriving. From our window we could see the driveway and so I knew when Dean had arrived (slight relief) but also saw that ‘T’ wasn’t wearing the braces or bow tie (long story short, it was as much as they could do to get him to wear the trousers and shirt. The shoes were still a bit touch and go!) But I didn’t care as much as I thought I would. He was there and he was happy. Perfect.

We sneakily watched the boys having their photos done before my dad noticed us watching from the window and so we had to pull the curtains shut as to not risk anyone seeing my dress.

By now it was 1.45, the boys were still outside and I had a panic “Where the f**k is the registrar?!” This had always been a worry of mine, not sure why, maybe because you don’t have much contact with them but every wedding nightmare in the lead up and been that the registrars didn’t show up.

I didn’t want to get stressed about it so we covered the clock and had a glass of bubbles. My sister was trying to suggest ways of relieving stress, each one annoying me more. I snapped at her saying “Oh why don’t we just dance round the room and jump on the bed”. My togs face lit up “YOU HAVE TO DO THAT” and so we did, best stress reliever ever. I have never laughed so much as I did jumping on the bed and when my sister nearly fell off I had to do everything in my power to stop myself from wetting myself.

Eventually (I found out after that it was 2.10) the registrars showed up and rushed through their questions. They left and ‘T’ and my nephew come running in the room. My nephew ‘L’ was a dream, dressed in all his finery including his braces and bow tie. ‘T’ on the other hand ran in shouting that he didn’t want to wear his shoes anymore and so promptly took them off. After a lot of persuasion and a bribe of some raisins he put them back on. Walking out the door, there was my dad who welled up straight away and started to tell me how lovely I looked when ‘T’ announced the shoes were coming off again! “Nooooooooooooooo!!” Nice dad and daughter moment gone!

After a few photos going down the stairs we were there. The music started and ‘T’ in his shining moment walked perfectly down the aisle, stopped to give Dean a kiss and sat down in his seat!! ‘L’ followed but turned back round half way, came running back and asked where he was supposed to sit. He made it, sat down and then it was time for ‘C’ my flower girl. She wouldn’t walk at all! She wanted to walk with her dad, so dad got called back and he walked as well, commenting that he’d forgotten his matching dress as he did so. Then my sister went, no trips or falls and it was my time. I’d lost track of where the song was, I’d missed my point and knew it but who cares! My dad almost run me down the aisle, he was so much more nervous than me. I kept my eyes on Dean the whole time, knowing that I’d never get that moment again. He was almost shaking with nerves so to break the ice when I got to him, I took his hand and said “Alright you kn0b?!” He smiled, I smiled, and all was well again.

We had two readings one which was a personalised version of ‘A lovely love story’ and another that was made up including a lot of song titles that Dean has written over the years. Both were lovely and so heartfelt.

Neither of us fluffed our lines or cried and we both gave each other a little “well done” and “good work” after we’d said our vows and then we were married!!

We signed the registrar and the first person up to take a photo was our friends 5 year old who wanted a selfie!!

I remember the wedding coordinator saying that if it’s raining then we’ll have welcome drinks inside and when we walked back down the aisle and into a room full of glasses of Pimms the teeniest part of me was disappointed but it didn’t stay for very long, we were married! Within 5 minutes though we were all ushered outside. It had been raining but the sun was now out, blue sky as far as the eye could see and the ground had dried up, Hurrah!

Straight into photos… the dreaded group photos. I only had 6 and had even ordered them in a way that people couldn’t disappear when we needed them. Most stressful 30 minutes of my life!! What is wrong with people, can they not wait 5 minutes for a cigarette or get someone else to get the drinks!!

Anyway (breathe)…. Then it was time for just the Mr & Mrs shots. I’d been looking forward to these, just to have some time to ourselves even if the togs were there with us. We had so much fun, there were nice ones, funny ones, stupid ones, I even climbed a tree and a memory that I’ll never forget of one of the togs pretending to be a tree to get the overhanging branches in the shot. Then we did the ‘star wars’ running photo at which point I was so glad I had flats on!

Dinner time, half an hour late but we’ll blame the registrars for that! Food was amazing, staff were incredible and room which my mum and sister had finished was just what I wanted. All of the speeches were great and I’m looking forward to watching them back as I know they were recorded. A highlight being my dad telling a story about the BM hooking up with a girl when on the stag do, apparently my brother had made the comment “If my dog looked as bad as her, I’d shave its arse and walk it backwards!” Ouch!

Quick make up touch up and dress bustled it was time for a few more photos as the sun was setting. Whilst we were doing this we noticed that our evening guests had started to arrive. It couldn’t be that time already could it!?

Finally we got to go and talk to everyone but before we knew it we had to cut the cake and have our first dance (Foo Fighters – Walking after you) and then the dance floor was open! It was pretty much a free bar (if you were drinking wine) as our package included a bottle of wine per person during the meal and nowhere near was that much drunk.

My best booking by far was the TOG’s not just because they are amazing but also because they had their own photobooth. It was so much fun and apparently we broke the record by having nearly 700 photos of which I’ve got every single one! Everyone got involved, including our nans and granddads, the kids, my boss and even the wedding co-ordinator!

When we first started planning the wedding, the entertainment was a sticking point. Dean is in a covers band that plays weddings and so having another band there just felt weird, that and Dean wouldn’t be able to help himself and want to get up and play a few songs. So we had a DJ, he was amazing, he isn’t a wedding DJ but actually from a local indie bar that we spend too much time in go to every now and again. We’ve known him for years and he knows all of our friends, he knows what we like and what we don’t, he was perfect. He threw in a few wedding classics but we danced to everything from Beyoncé to The Charlatans, from The Stone Roses to Ultra Nate, he couldn’t have done a better job.

And then it was over. The last song had been played, the last photo taken, the last drink served. Sad times indeed! Then I spotted one of my best mates crying and suddenly it dawned on me. She was moving to OZ (as I write this, she’s already there) and had always told me that the wedding would be the last time she would see a lot of people. Cue instant sobs. I knew I would see her again before she left but it made it all very real. We hugged and cried for what seemed like forever until I pointed out that this was the only time I’d cried on my wedding day and it was her fault and then we were in fits of giggles (Did I mention how much we’d had to drink?!)

And then it was really over, everyone had either gone home or gone to bed. Dean and I went and sat in the ceremony room and opened a bottle of bubbles (wish we hadn’t, I was SO rough the next day) already reminiscing about the day.

So now for the photos (the real reason you’ve just read all of that!)…

Lovely :-)

Oh wow! All so so amazing! You look like you had the perfect day. congratulations!

A lovely read! Congratulations

One word......amazeballs!!! xx

Fab report! Love your pictures. Congratulations. x

Love, love, love your wedding. Amazing photos! Your dress is gorgeous and the jumping on the bed photo is ace! It looks like the perfect day. Congratulations x

Brilliant report!

Congratulations, looks like you all had an amazing day.

x

Lovely report! I love your wedding, so so pretty! Looks like you had an amazing time. My fave photo is you and your sister on the bed and the story behind it

x

Wow, amazing report and gorgeous photos ❤️

Congratulations ;-)

What a genuinely brilliant report! It has made me laugh out loud a lot! I love the 'Aright you knob' bit!!

Congratulations and you both look incredibly happy and it looks as though you had an absolutely brilliant day!

Awwww love it! stunning pictures lovely story. Your dress is gorgeous, it all looks amazing! Also, you cake looks lovely, especially for £60!

Fab, fab, fab!! You and your day looked beautiful :-D
Congrats x

Stunning - you look so beautiful!

Thank you for sharing your wedding with us. Loved reading it so much, actually brought tears to my eyes. Sounds and looks like an amazing day!

Congratualtotions to you both!

cheeky request. I loved that you had a DJ that played lots of indie. This is exactly what I would love. Would you be able to point me in the direction of your DJ or perhaps someone/an internet site that would be similar please?
I've spoken to lots of DJ's and they're very pushy with 'wedding music' and ensuring that the oldies like it too. They don't get that 90% of the guests are in their 20's and like indie music.

xx

A-Maz-Ing. Photos are gorg and I love the colour scheme, but my absolute favourite thing is the tales of T running amok! Bless him!

Beautiful, i loved reading that.Congrats!! xx

Quite possibly my favourite report ever! And your photos are fantastic, you look stunning. Huge congratulations!

Beautiful report, what a great read! Looks like a really fantastic day. That table plan is so cool!

Congratulations