We got our wedding photos through yesterday, and I'd already written a long letter to my grandparents giving them a wedding blow-by-blow, so here it is - another epic of a wedding report!!
The run-up
On the Thursday we had a few people staying with us – OHs best man and his wife, who had flown in from Tel Aviv; FSIL, who had arrived from Helsinki; my friend and her sister, who flew in from Vancouver; and my BM who had taken the train up from London. It was truly an international event! I cooked a big chilli con carne for everyone and we had a nice time catching up, then early to bed as there were a lot of tasks to be done the next day, Friday. Friday was extremely busy, picking up all the last minute things (like the cake) that we couldn’t do until then. Made all the more difficult as we didn’t have the use of a car! In the morning myself, dad, uncle and brother went to M&S to pick up the buffet food for that night, while OH and Best Man went for breakfast and then took the tram up to Bury to pick up the wedding cake, and then took a taxi to the reception venue to drop it off. After picking up the food I had a little downtime – I went for a coffee with best man's wife and then met my mum & BM so that we could have manicures done. Taking this time out seemed a little self-indulgent at the time, but in hindsight I’m so glad I had those couple of hours to relax and focus on what was to come – I had been quite stressed in the week leading up to the wedding and it helped to calm me. Especially sitting in the "spa lounge" with a glass of fizz!
Directly after the manicure, I met everyone at the church for the rehearsal. Up until then, we weren’t 100% sure how the music was going to pan out – the music director had had trouble drumming up a choir (especially tenors, no surprise there!) as it was both Bank Holiday weekend and the start of the schools half-term holidays. I was very happy to find out from our Rector that we would indeed be having a choir and all the music we had requested. The florist had also started putting our flowers out, so we had a “sneak peek”. The Rector was extremely thorough and serious, especially with the ushers – “You may think you’ve ushered before, but you’ve never ushered at St. Ann’s before!” – making it clear to them that he felt they had the most responsible job on the day. It was very surreal going over our vows, I hadn’t realised that we would be saying them to each other at the rehearsal, it seemed strange to do it and not “mean” it so to speak.
After the rehearsal Nic and I rushed off with one of the usher's (who let us use his car!) to take all the decorations to the reception venue. They were just starting to set up so we left them the decorations with instructions for where they needed to go. It was so nice to be able to trust them to sort it! I had originally wanted to go earlier in the day so that I could come back and see how everything was set out, but there was no time and in the end I needn't have worried, they did a great job setting everything out. So we headed straight to my parents' airbnb apartment for a family buffet. It was really nice to have time to properly catch up with people before the madness of the next day, and having it at the rental apartment meant that Nic and I could slope off relatively early to get some rest. The next time we saw each other would be at the church!
The morning of
My BMs were staying with me the night before, while OH stayed at the neighbours across the hall. We were all in bed very early, and I had no trouble getting to sleep – the only problem was, I then woke up at 5am!! Sleep would not come, and nerves were making me feel nauseous. Unfortunately as the girls were asleep in the front room, I was stuck in the bedroom. Around 7am I finally got up and woke them so that I could have some toast, and then I had a shower. It was a nice slow start to the morning as no-one was arriving til about 9:30am. Once people did start arriving though, it got very manic very fast! The hairdresser arrived first, then mum (who brought pastries!), followed by the tog, and finally the MUA. Mum brought pastries, which were essential, but I’d forgotten to make sure we had any coffee so it was cups of tea all round (and mimosas, of course)! We all took it in turns to have our makeup and hair done while the photographer flitted around capturing it all. At some point the flowers arrived. These were a surprise – I’d told the florist our colour scheme, given him an idea of what designs I liked, and told him to use seasonal flowers, so I wasn’t sure exactly what flowers we would be having or what exactly they would look like. We had talked about having rununculas and tulips in whites and purples, and instead I got white peonies and pink roses, but they were gorgeous and there were some purple tones still in there so it was all fine - my least Bridezilla moment of the WP! Similarly the bridesmaid’s flowers were meant to be simple white tulips, but ended up being only a couple of tulips, with hydrangea and peonies to fill them out. They turned out nothing like I expected, but I loved them! Similarly when we got to the venue our centrepieces were absolutely nothing like i had discussed with the florist, but they were gorgeous so I didn't care!
Unbeknownst to me the men were having their own problems across the hall – one of the usher's hired suits didn’t fit! The store had sent a 28 inch leg instead of 32. Our neighbour saved the day, taking the Ush to the rental store to swap out the trousers and then ironing all the men’s shirts and polishing all their shoes for them. What a star! He even tied all their cravats. He got a special mention in the speeches, which is the first I heard about it (which was probably for the best!).
The morning flew by, and all too soon, it was time to get in my dress. This required the help of mum, both bridesmaids, MUA, tog, and my friend who had popped in from across the hall! Basically it was all hands on deck as every layer of the skirt had to be “fluffed” individually and then all the buttons on the back of the lace buttoned up. They struggled to get the hook and eye closed as the seamstress hadn't accounted for the band of my bra when she made the adjustments, which stressed me out no end. My ever-tactful mum said "right that's it, you're in and you'd better not eat anything all day", and I gave her a right glare! (she'd been making comments about me not fitting in the dress/not being able to eat all week). Finally, I was in, and it was just a question of waiting for the taxis. I couldn’t believe it – and we were ready early!
