Well, we did it! We only went and got married! : )
Although it was only seven weeks ago, it feels like a lifetime ago, which for me is quite sad. But I guess with everything else that happened at around the same time it's inevitable. Not only did we get married but I started a new job a week before and we moved into a new house the week after – we don't do things by halves!
Anyway! The wedding! How was it? What happened? Etc, etc...
I'll start with the day before...
I'd spent the morning packing everything up, labeling every box, numbering every box and re-checking every list, every label, every box. I guess because we'd spent so long planning and we were so organised from an early stage I just wanted to get going – in my little head the sooner we got going the sooner the day would arrive and the sooner I'd get to marry my man!
Eventually two o'clock arrived (the earliest I could check in to my room at the hotel) and with a fully laden car we headed off. I hung up my dress in the bathroom & ran a hot shower to get any last creases out of it. I said a very emotional goodbye to Oli – the next time I would see him would be at the altar and I think it was at that moment that it all hit me, I was actually getting married and I was getting married tomorrow...eeeek!!
I spent the longest two hours of my life waiting for my bridesmaids to arrive – the plan was a quiet meal out and a couple of drinks to enjoy my last night as a single woman. Clearly, my bridesmaid Claire had other ideas!!
Two bottles of wine and two vodka & lemonades later my chief bridesmaid is dragging me out of the pub and back to the hotel at 11pm saying “Oli's gonna kill me if we turn up at church like this tomorrow!”
Needless to say I slept like a baby – I later learnt that Oli had the worst night's sleep worrying about his speech!
The alarm went off at 5:45am (it was going to be a long day!), we hadn't been allowed the room to decorate the night before due to another party being held in there so it was all hands on deck from 6am. A huge thank you goes out to my bridesmaids Kate & Claire and also my bridesman Ben, who without it just wouldn't have been possible to achieve what we did...thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I felt awful – hangover from hell! Claire had to get the hotel to open up the bar to get us each a pint of coke – a necessity if we were going to make it to church in one piece!! We worked like trojan's for a solid hour making each table perfect – the room looked just as I'd imagined it to look : )
It was then that the nerves really started to kick in – I tried to eat a good breakfast but just picked at everything, my stomach was slowly turning into knot upon knot and to make matters worse I'd got the shakes after drinking far too much the night before – what was I thinking?!
I left the guys just before 8am and headed across the road to my hairdressers – forgetting that I would need my veil, headband and clips (I was a jibbering wreck!) after a frantic phonecall to Ben who came to my rescue, my veil etc were here and I was ready to be prettified. I had a bit of a strange moment when my hairdresser put the radio on to disguise the quiet as there were only us there and she wanted to concentrate on what she was doing – the first song that came on was our song, out first dance song – Take That 'Rule the World'! She said I should see it as a good omen and sit back, relax & enjoy the rest of the morning.
It was after she'd done my hair I realised my second cock-up of the day – I'd come in a t-shirt, no way was that coming over my hair without ruining it! I had to be cut out of it – all £35 worth of Jack Wills t-shirt cut up and good for nothing but dusting!!
The next hour or so was a bit of a blur – my sister-in-law-to-be did my make up (beautifully I might add!) the photographer arrived, my dress was put on and laced up, Daisy, my flowergirl, arrived looking super cute in her fairy wings, my brother arrived looking very dashing in his morning suit (cue more 'almost tears' from me!) and the car – a gorgeous lowered VW splitscreen camper came to pick us up.
The journey to the church felt like the longest journey of my life, the nerves had well and truly kicked in, I felt sick, excited & nervous all rolled into one! I honestly cannot tell you what happened from the moment I stepped out of the car to the moment we walked out of church as husband & wife – it all passed by in a blur! It was the most surreal experience – obviously we got married, we said our vows (although I could not tell you exactly what I did say!) and from our pictures I can see I was ridiculously happy but it all passed me by so quickly!
Knowing what I know now, I wish we could do it all over again. I would relax, enjoy and savour every moment of the day. Instead I was just worrying about everyone else and whether they were enjoying the day!
More coming soon... xx
