So here it is. It's not the best and I don't have any professional pictures back yet. It's very waffly and not very well written, but I hope you enjoy reading it!......
The run up
Friday –
We go for a walk to see our florist. She lives locally and grows her flowers in her meadow garden. It’s lush. I’m taking her a piece of lace to wrap around the stems of my bouquet. It’s off my mothers wedding dress who died when I was 6 years old from skin cancer, I thought it would be a nice way to remember her in the wedding. We go to the pub and get drunk and have a takeaway.
Saturday –
Final meeting with the hotel. Goes well. Were excited. We have a really lovely day out together. We go and buy waterproof jackets for the honeymoon (were going to Wales!). I buy a pair of jeans that look amazing and are the first pair I try on in the shop. This never happens. Especially after takeaway and wine the night before! We then go home and walk into our town for lunch. It’s armed forces day so there is loads going on. A big craft fair, and an owl display, bouncy castles etc. We buy hand made Baileys cookies and get amazing sandwiches from the deli. We sit in the sun to eat and then go home to watch telly.
Sunday -
OH decided to have a dress rehearsal. He’d bought his shoes at the weekend and wanted to try everything on for size one last time. I’m sat playing Bubble Witch Saga on my tablet (how sad am I?), in walks OH and I burst into tears. He looks so handsome.
OH goes down to tinker with his car. I take this opportunity to go and sort out the present I’ve got him for the morning of the wedding. I am completely giddy by this point. I might have had a glass of Cava or two. For those that don’t know, I had a boudoir photo shoot and had some sexy pictures taken. I had these printed into a hardback book. I wrap a ribbon around it and put a sticky note on the front saying “for your eyes only”. I empty my bedside table drawer of all the crap an place it inside ready for a few days time when I plan to get my sister to text him saying “L’s forgotten something, she thinks it in her bedside drawer” mwa ha ha ha ha! I only wish I could be there to see his face when he opens it!
Monday –
I wake up feeling pretty nervous. Never mind butterflies, I think I’ve got an albatross flapping about in my tummy! I try and stay focussed throughout the day. It doesn’t work. OH emails me about 10 times about the wedding car and to confirm all the timings and logistics of the day. I think reality is finally setting in with him as well.
I get a phone call of my mum “I’m on my lunch break, I’m so excited!” (I presume she means about the wedding, not that she’s on her lunch break!). I feel like throwing up! I let out a massive squeal in the corridor and get a few funny looks from passers by.
Zumba class done, I go home, get a shower and then we have a practice boogie to our first dance song in the front room just to try and feel comfortable with the song and how long it is. OH is feeling particularly anxious about this. He can’t dance. He keeps mentioning how my long dress is going to get in the way (little does he know!) and that he thinks we’ll look silly.
Tuesday –
My last day at work. I really wanted to leave early but there is a meeting at 2:15 and I’ve been roped in to do the minutes. Yey! My lovely colleagues give me a card and I leave feeling super excited!
Wednesday –
It begins!! I woke up feeling really really really excited. I’ve got a lush day planned, massage, eyebrow threading, nice lunch etc and I am buzzing! I do lots of little things like put labels on my jars for our table centre pieces and fill up with mini biscuits (these were our table names) and start to pack things in boxes and sort out my suitcase.
Thursday –
I am a proper d**k head. Every wedding needs a hiccup and I created mine by being an absolute numpty. I have always home dyed my hair. Never had a problem. Until today. This day. 2 sleeps before I am due to wed. My hair is blacker than black. I look like an Adams Family extra. I feel utterly sick with stupidity. WHAT THAT EFF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW!!!! To make matters worse. Future MIL and FIL are here and staying the night so I have to put on my bravest face and act like nothings the matter when in fact, I feel like sobbing uncontrollably. I decide to wash my hair following the advice of YouTube in fairly liquid approximately 10 times. It works. But oh wait, my expensive hair extensions no longer match. OH, MIL, FIL and I all go to the pub for tea. I can hardly eat through nerves but the cringingly bad Elvis impersonator makes for a great distraction! WHY DID I DYE MY HAIR??!! OH, MIL and FIL all have a lovely time drinking and eating and laughing and joking. I try to crack a smile but I just feel like shizzle…
Friday –
I go to Morrisons as planned to buy flowers to put in the jugs for the centrepieces. I pick up another box of hair dye for my extensions; wander around aimlessly trying to find something to eat that doesn’t induce vomit. I decide on bread being the safest option, pay and leave. I frantically dye my extensions in the bath whilst MIL finishes off the wedding cake that she has made for us. Fast forward 90 minutes and the extensions are dry and now match my head hair. Thank foodle! What a relief. I give myself a good talking to, have a little cry and then straighten myself up. MIL and FIL present me with a lovely silver heart shaped locket with a picture of boy and I inside. On the back its engraved with out wedding date. I can hardly speak, I’m so touched. OH comes home early from work and I am desperate to see him as I am leaving that afternoon to go to the hotel with my family. We have a kiss and a cuddle and before you know it I’m sat in my hotel room alone, dress hung up on the back of the door, suitcase at my feet.
I suddenly remember that I’ve left the flowers I bought for the jugs in the boot of my car. Feck. I text MIL and she sends them with a couple of guests that are popping in to see OH at the apartment before heading over to the hotel. Phewf. I start unpacking all my makeup and lining everything out on the dressing table. I put the little envelope with our wedding rings next to my tiara. WHY HAVE I GOT THE WEDDING RINGS?? Oh bloody hell!!! I text MIL again and she says to put them in the safe behind reception and she will pick them up tomorrow when she comes to drop the cake off. Double phewf.
That night, my sister and I (she’s only 16) go to Yo!Sushi for tea. The rest of our family sort of left us to it and didn’t really bother me too much. I think they could see how nervous I was getting and how much of a calming influence my sister is to me. She’d never been to Yo!Sushi before and she absolutely loved it. We had an amazing time together and had a much needed giggle. She’s a love. As she’s only 16 and so couldn’t go for a drink, we decided to pop to the nearest Tesco express and get a bottle of fizz. We went back to the hotel and decided to share my room that night. We painted our toes and she did my fingernails for me, drank fizz and talked about everything apart from the wedding. We fell asleep watching back to back Family Guy.
Saturday –
Holy crap! I’m getting married today!!!! My sister took great pleasure in telling me she saw every hour of the night/morning because I was fidgeting so much! We decided to go down for breakfast bang on 8am to avoid anyone else being down there. That didn’t work. EVERYONE was down there. My dad sat next to me and elbowed me in the ribs reminding me every 5 minutes that I was getting married soon! I managed one bite of toast and a cup of tea before we headed back upstairs.
I was so ill. I vomited whilst attempting to swallow my Imodium. I never expected to get so nervous. It was awful. Luckily I had 3 hours before hair and make up arrived to snap out of it and try and relax. So after a shower, croissant and a glass of champers, my hair and make up team were preening away and I started to feel amazing. My sister was brilliant. She was on it! She organised me so well. Literally couldn’t have done it without her. My brother brought up our flowers from reception and delivered all the buttonholes to the right hotel rooms and then the photographer arrived who snapped away while I was getting ready. I had bought a bracelet each for my hair and make up team (my two good friends) and I gave them these just as they were leaving. They were so happy and it was lovely to give them something to say thank you. We had a group hug and said goodbye.
Everything seemed to go so quickly. I suddenly went from having 2 hours to having 10 minutes to get in my dress and be downstairs where my dad and the wedding car were waiting. I turned around and my sister was completely ready. Dress on. Hair done. Makeup done. She looked so pretty. I gave her a necklace I’d bought her for the day, a gold chain with a hydrangea petal and blue stone to match our flowers. She had a little tear and told me to stop being so soft and to get out of the room!
Our chauffer was great. She was so calming and nice. In the very short journey to the registry office, about 4 minutes, my dad held my hand and I felt so happy, my sister kept turning around to see if I was okay. We had some professional pics of us in the car, of which I was desperate to get out of, it was about 27 degrees by this point and I was roasting! I got out of the car and the whole of Nottingham (it felt like it anyway) were stood in the market square watching me walk up the steps inside.
Outside the registry office (look! bunting to match my theme!) and our wedding car - my boss took this who decided to be "shopping" at the right time!!
I did my little interview with the registrar with my sister and dad in the same room. My dad piped up “oh, I can see he’s signed in then. Good. That means he hasn’t changed his mind!” The registrar wasn’t impressed with his ice breaking skills and just stared blankly! I had a glass of water which helped unstick my lips from my teeth. I was so nervous. I just wanted to be married already!
I had prepared a CD of my entrance music of which I had thought long and hard about. Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me by She&Him. We were stood by the door of the ceremony room waiting for our cue to enter when out pops the other registrar lady saying the CD wouldn’t play. I was just so desperate to see my fiancé and everyone else waiting so they stuck another CD on, something classical, I couldn’t tell you what it was, mind.
The music started playing, she waited 10 seconds and my sister walked in. My dad counted to 10 and then we followed. The room was beautiful. So elegant looking. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me so I decided to have a quick glance around to see where everyone was sitting. Everyone just beamed at me and I couldn’t help but beam back. It was lovely. Then there he was, looking absolutely gorgeous, and handsome. He told me I looked fantastic and beautiful. I could feel my chin start to wobble so I took a deep breath and composed myself. We exchanged vows, all the time he was looking straight into my eyes and smiling and then the rings (he had to help me with his as his fingers had swollen a bit due to the heat). I had thought that I would be a blubbering wreck but I wasn’t but it was emotional and full of love. We held hands all the way through the ceremony and it was just lovely. We signed the registrar and then were cheered and clapped out of the room together.
My grandad (left) and FIL (best man) who were our witnesses
I was handed about 8 lucky horseshoes from various people, which was lovely. After the ceremony we had about a million trillion photographs taken, I was starting to feel a bit frazzled by this point and needed a tall cold drink and a sit down! It was swelteringly hot. Everyone waited patiently while the photographer took lots of group shots of us all, luckily the building inside was mainly marble so was pretty cool inside. Unfortunately, our guests weren’t allowed to throw any confetti as it was deemed littering, apparently and this was a shame as I was looking forward to having a photograph of us with confetti everywhere.
This is my aunt (black and white top), my brother (middle), cousin (right of my brother), sister (bridesmaid), mum (step mum, middle), and brothers girlfriend (purple dress)
We all headed off back up to the hotel where arrival drinks of Pimms and virgin strawberry daiquiris were waiting for us. We laid on a couple of posh mini buses for our guests and I’m glad we did. It would have been far to hot for people to walk the short journey uphill in all their finery. My new husband and I headed off too in our car and it was amazing how many people in Nottingham just walking by waved and shouted their congratulations to us. I was so happy. I don’t think we stopped smiling all day!
After the drinks reception we were called through to our wedding breakfast. The meal was bloody fantastic. I couldn’t manage to finish every last mouthful of each course but I gave it a pretty good go! The room was perfect. It was so nice to see all our friends and family in one room together. Everyone looked so happy. After the first course, speeches commenced. OH went first and he was fab, funny and witty and I just felt so proud to be his wife. Then my dad did his speech. He’d been ever so nervous in the run up to the wedding. I found out the night before from my aunt that he’d been signed off work with stress (not wedding stress I must add, work stress) and had been prescribed anti depressants and so was off the booze as well (though I think he had his prosecco throughout the toasts) but he did so well and it was a lovely speech. He mentioned my mum who sadly died when I was 6 and it was lovely to hear him mention her as usually he finds it too hard to talk about her and at this point I shed a little tear but quickly remembered not to ruin my amazing eye make up! Then last but not least OH’s dad, who was also best man did his speech too which was so funny and also really lovely. I handed out gifts, necklaces for the mums, engraved money clips for the dads and a card for my sister as I’d already given her the necklace earlier.
This is the only photo I have so far of the tables!
After we ate my sister and I went upstairs to undo my dress a bit to give a bit more breathing room. I literally “aaaaaahhhhhhhhh’d” out loud, it was such a relief.
We were all called through to the evening venue and some of our evening guests had already arrived. Cards and presents came at me from all angles and luckily I’d remembered to put a big gift bag behind reception for them to all go into so they wouldn’t get lost. We cut the cake, which was really strange. We stood for about 5 minutes posing with the knife before we could actually cut through the icing! The cake looked beautiful. MIL had spent so much time on it and it really paid off. It was victoria sponge, then carrot cake, and then chocolate with iridescent ivory icing and hydrangea petals (some of which I had helped make at Christmas time) and tasted amazing. Then it was time for the first dance. People tell you that your wedding day flies by and it truly does. It felt like 5 minutes ago that I was getting my makeup done. We danced to Rufus Wainwright singing Zing! Goes the strings of my heart (Judy Garland song). OH was really nervous about the first dance and thought we were going to look like complete wallys. Even if we did look like complete wallys, no ones said we did and whilst we were dancing it felt amazing. I was just so happy.
First dance pic with my dad in the way!
After the first dance, that’s when I think OH properly relaxed. The evening buffet was fab too. I didn’t really eat much of this either. I think I had a bit of potato salad and one mini beef and Yorkshire pudding bite! I didn’t really spend much time with OH after this point! I was so busy talking and milling around people and dancing with people. I changed into my flat pumps by this point, as my feet were so hot and sore. So glad I bought flats! Slowly as the night went on, the older people retired to bed and left us “youngsters” to boogey away the night.
The night ended at 12pm with us and all are close friends and family in a big circle arm in arm wailing along to The Stone Roses, Adore and it was just fantastic. I’ve never felt so blessed to be surrounded by all these lovely people.
Drunken fun! Note FIL shirt! Tie off, buttons open! ha ha
We said goodnight to everyone and staggered up to our suite which was massive. On the bed were rose petals and confetti. There was a bottle of champagne and two engraved flutes. In the corner was a massive sweetie bouquet and coke bottles with our names on and two lucky sixpences. My new hubby had stayed just about sober enough to help me out of my dress, which required a crochet hook to undo the 30 odd buttons that went down the back! We both lied on the bed and just fell asleep. There was no chance of DTD that night that’s for sure! We woke up pretty early and we both still had massive grins on our faces. We headed down for breakfast and I ordered the biggest breakfast on the menu. Woohoo! I can eat properly again! We managed to catch everyone at breakfast and say our goodbyes and thank you’s. Just about everyone thought it was hilarious to call me Mrs --- rather than my first name! I didn’t tire from it though and I quite enjoyed it.
My grin lasted all day and night long and we just had the most brilliant day. Everything was perfect. I am feeling so emotional right now as I finish this report. Granted not the best report in the world. But probably the waffliest!
