 We
were marrying on a Saturday and on Friday lunchtime we
left London to travel up to our wedding venue, Wood Norton
Hall.
After dropping off David, his brother Andrew and the kids,
I then drove straight into Worcester to see the wedding
cakes and collect all remaining wedding items from my
sister.
Lots of our guests had arrived by the time I returned
to Wood Norton Hall. I dashed upstairs to change then
went to join everyone for drinks and a great dinner. We
almost had the whole place to ourselves and the evening
was very relaxed - my daughter even fell asleep in her
chair halfway through so I just moved her into her room
before rejoining the party. We went up to bed at about
11.30pm but I just couldn't sleep! Time to make up all
the favour boxes and fill them with flower bulbs. I even
wrote out the little seed cards with a small message of
thanks and put everything out for the morning. When I
called it a night (or morning!) at 2.30am the rain was
still falling outside.
 I woke up at 5.30am and had to wait for dawn
to see if the rain clouds were still there but the sun
gradually cleared the horizon and shone through an almost
clear sky. At 7am I wandered downstairs for breakfast
only to find out it didn't start for another half an hour
so I had a pot of tea before returning to wake my daughter.
We went down to breakfast together but people kept joining
us at the table and talking to me so we spent far too
long there!
We finally made it back to the room and the hairdresser
arrived 45 minutes later. I'd been so busy rushing around
getting my daughter ready that I hadn't even had my own
bath! So much for a leisurely soak… whilst the hairdresser
started on Maddie’s hair, I nipped into the bath
and washed in the quickest time possible, dived out, dried-off
and rushed back into the room for her to get to work!
Just as she was finishing, the make-up artist arrived.
The poor woman must have thought she had come to a mad
house with four women running around like headless chickens!
I eventually sat down long enough for her to do my make-up
and my sister, who was my Matron of Honour, arrived.
As
we were getting ready in the sitting room we could see
the guests arriving but, by 2pm, my other sister still
hadn't arrived and her two daughters were our bridesmaids!
As the wedding was booked for 3pm, I started to get worried
but they sauntered up to the room at 2.15 and then it
was all systems go to get them ready.
The registrar turned up for the interview just as my dress
was buttoned up. Soon after, my dad popped his head in
the door to ask if we were coming or not. It wasn’t
until that moment that we realised the time. I was 25
minutes late so it was a bit of a mad gallop down the
stairs!
My Dad walked me into the room to Canon
in D by Pachelbel. As we moved towards David I looked
around at everyone else there before finally looking at
him. When I reached the front of the room I saw that he
was crying so I smiled and asked if he was OK. He couldn't
say anything at all - not even the vows - and the registrar
had to start the ceremony all over again! But once David
was given a glass of water and gathered himself together,
he managed to say the words that made us man and wife.
We signed the register in the room next door, to the strains
of Pavane by Fauré, before returning to the main
ceremony room where we received our certificate from the
registrar.
 We
walked back down the room to Brandenburg Concerto No.
3 in G Major and into the brilliant sunshine for our photocall.
Each guest was handed a bottle of bubbles
as they left the ceremony room and adults and children
alike had great fun with them!
We also booked a caricaturist to entertain people whilst
they were waiting and a wedding crèche to keep
the children busy. They were taken to a special room to
play games and draw and loved it!
With all the photographs taken and the sun setting we
made our way into dinner. The room looked spectacular
with each table sprinkled with gold star confetti and
tea lights held in star-decorated holders. The favours
I had stayed up to the early hours working on were at
everybody's setting - my mother thought they were chocolates
at first but soon realised they were bulbs!
The children were having their own party in their adjoining
room and were being entertained by a magician who then
came into the main dining room. Roars of laughter followed
him around the room as he moved from table to table doing
sleight of hand tricks.
 The speeches were hilarious, especially as the
best man had asked the caricaturist to do some sneak drawings
of us, which he held up to entertain the guests. It was
then time to cut the top cake in our stack of small cakes
on which our cake decorator had painstakingly written
each guest’s name before stacking them all up together.
The perfect end to this part of our wedding day was when
we all went out to watch the firework display.
By this time we could hear the band, Short People, warming
up and, to a round of applause, we made our way onto the
dance floor for our first dance to Dream a Little Dream
of Me by the Mamas and Papas.
Apparently the band finished up the evening at about 1am
but we had already gone to bed by then and were enjoying
our first night as husband and wife!
Do Differently: Make sure the venue coordinator
wasn’t leaving the week before the wedding and not
to panic so much.
Groom's Comments: I wish I had lost weight so I
looked better on the day, combed my hair before the photos
and spent more time talking to the individual guests.
Comments: A special thank you to the caricaturist,
Roving Artist; the band, Short People; and the photographer,
Angela Lloyd-James. |
If
you would like to contact Tina and David, you can e-mail
them.
|
