 I
had not expected to sleep the night before my wedding.
I had also expected that it would be just like any Christmas
morning where I wake up at 4am before running around the
house waking up the everyone else.
As it was I calmly woke at 6.30am and went downstairs
to talk to my parents, both of whom had been up for hours
as my Mum was far too excited to sleep! My bridesmaids
(sisters Lucy and Emily, and friends Lucy and Emma) had
done their job well. We'd spent most of the previous evening
at the hotel organising favours, the cake and confetti
on tables. We didn't get back home until 10pm, much to
my Mum's horror. But the girls managed to feed me with
exactly the right amount of bubbly to make me sleep from
the instant my head hit the pillow and still wake up without
a headache.
The hairdresser arrived at 7.30 to put my hair in curlers.
Yes, this is an unreasonable time to start but, considering
that when the photographer arrived at noon I was still
in my pyjamas with my hair in curlers, it wasn't too bad!
It was at this point that my most beautiful flowers arrived.
There were Bianca roses and Singapore orchids for me,
and tulips for the bridesmaids - all in a mass of greenery.
The ushers appeared to pick up the buttonholes on their
way back from McDonalds and assured me that everyone had
arrived at the hotel and that they were organised. Honest.
The day started quite cloudy, although not cold or particularly
windy. I had faith, though, because there had been a large
amount of interdenominational praying for good weather
from our families and friends. I knew it would clear up.
As I looked out of the front window I noticed that my
Dad had strung streamers from all the trees at the front
of the house and Eric, my weeping cherry tree, was just
bursting into flower.
The day started quite cloudy, although not cold or particularly
windy. I had faith, though, because there had been a large
amount of interdenominational praying for good weather
from our families and friends. I knew it would clear up.
As I looked out of the front window I noticed that my
Dad had strung streamers from all the trees at the front
of the house and Eric, my weeping cherry tree, was just
bursting into flower.
 The bridesmaids and Mum had their make-up applied
first, but not without lots of laughter from those not
yet 'done' and from my Dad who wasn't tempted by the offer
of a bit of blusher. After all the weeks of shopping,
Mum looked wonderful in her grape suit and mad-hatters
hat and even made a last-minute decision to wear the scarf,
too.
The bridesmaids looked amazing, particularly my two sisters.
Neither of them usually wear much make-up and they both
scrubbed up really well. They looked stunning in their
silver-blue dresses and silver velvet wraps and I totally
forgot all my worrying about finding the right outfits.
Once my hair and make-up was finished, it was time for
my Mum to help me into my stockings, basque and finally
to get into my wedding dress.
At
this point I found out that the seaweed wrap from the
previous day had made me lose more weight but fortunately
my dress had a beautiful lace up back, which we laced
just a little tighter! The hairdresser clipped in my veil
and suddenly I felt like a real bride.
I always wanted to float downstairs in my dress with everyone
there waiting for me, but they were in the garden having
their photos taken!
The bridesmaids and Mum were bustled out of the house
at 1.20pm in plenty of time to compensate for the variable
traffic going into Worcester City centre on a Saturday
afternoon. Dad and I stood about and waited for it to
be our turn. He was supposed to be telling me ways to
be a good and dutiful wife, but only got as far as reminding
me to eat something before we left.
 The journey to the church was magical with everyone
waving and smiling as we drove past. I was so happy that
even Dad sitting on my veil didn't diminish it. He had
this silly proud look on his face, we realised it was
lovely and warm and the sun was shining.
As we pulled up to the church, Nana, Grandpa, the bridesmaids
and photographer were assembled into a little group, waiting
for us to arrive. Knowing that if I got out of the car
the photographer would make me get back in for some photos,
we waited for them to notice us. And waited. Nothing like
an attentive audience.
Finally we were spotted! Dad came over to open my door
and his carefully groomed hair stood up on end. It wasn't
quite the way he had intended to be portrayed on his eldest
daughter's wedding day and the sight of him trying to
keep it under control made me start laughing hysterically!
As we walked across to the door of the church, I just
wanted to be inside with Joe, but I had been waiting seven
and a half years for this moment and a couple more minutes
weren't going to kill me.
I
could hear Mick, our wonderful organist, playing away
and Joe was just out of sight. Lucy struggled to pull
the veil over my face, Emma straightened my necklace,
Dad gave Father Rob a nod and suddenly the church was
lit up by the sound of Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary.
We were off.
The walk down the aisle is an unforgettable experience.
I think I was slowing Dad down, but then he might have
been slowing me down. As we walked through a packed church
I saw all my friends and my family smiling at me and,
at the end, my lovely Joe.
We stood across the aisle from each other, not meeting
until we said our vows. It was absolute agony. All that
time spent choosing the perfect readings from The Song
of Songs (read by my Aunt Thea) and the letter of St.
Paul to the Corinthians, (read by my mother-in-law, Pam)
when really I just wanted to get to the part where I could
hold Joe's hand!
We sang 'O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder', 'Shine
Jesus Shine' and 'Here I am Lord' in amongst the readings.
The singing filled the church, but, as ever, I could still
make out my Mum's voice despite her thinking that she'd
be too emotional to sing.
Father Rob did the most amazing homily. I am a lecturer
in agriculture and Joe is a project manager and so he
talked about love and marriages being built (his) and
needing to grow and be fertilised and maintained (mine).
 When the time came to move across to the centre
of the aisle I must have been a bit keen, because we ended
up much more on Joe's side than mine! Joe raised my veil
to find I hadn't blacked out my teeth as promised. My
Dad came up behind us to give Joe my hand as we said our
vows, but I had forgotten he was going to do this so I
moved - when he went to kiss me on the cheek, he ended
up planting a large and loud smacker on my shoulder.
We managed to get through our vows without a tear, despite
me being convinced that I would end up crying. Off we
went to sign the register and suddenly it was almost over.
Mick played a wonderful medley during the signing and,
as we emerged, started with 'Praise my Soul the King of
Heaven'. Old-fashioned but glorious.
After the final blessing we walked out on a cloud to Elgar's
Pomp and Circumstance No.4 - appropriate because it was
being played on Elgar's organ, in the church in which
he wrote much of his organ music.
Outside, the sun was streaming down. We had some photos
taken and then were whisked off to The Pear Tree Inn in
Albert in the Humber Imperial car. More photos at the
hotel were followed by guests assembling for a group photo,
taken from a window above. We completed the formal photos
in record time, just as we had wanted, and the guests
went inside to be fed Bucks Fizz while Joe and I stayed
out for some photos of the two of us. We wandered around
the hotel grounds holding hands and kissing for the camera
and trying to look warm until the manager came to tell
us that dinner was ready.
The reception venue we had chosen caught our attention
because of its huge staircase. We had the receiving line
at the top and guests moved down the stairs and into the
main room. I always wanted a grand entrance into our wedding
reception and the hotel certainly provided us with that.
We were introduced and came down the long staircase, without
me tripping up, to all our guests clapping.
The meal was superb, not that I could eat much and neither
could Phillip, the best man. He didn't have anything to
worry about though because his speech was wonderful. He
dropped in the secret about Joe that I had been harbouring
for years - ever since I found some of his old school
books - and he included hints from the stag night without
giving too much away! My Dad's speech was cute and funny,
he wished us as much happiness as he had in his marriage
and everyone started to sniffle.
Joe had been writing his speech on his place card through
the meal, but managed to say all the important things
- including nice things about me - without throwing up.
I had always known that I would make a short speech and
I must have said something funny because I remember laughter,
but I don't remember what it was. I know I did forget
to thank all our friends who had always known that we
would get to this day, even when we didn't, for all their
support over the years. But now I have. Thanks.
 We thought we might have time for a sit down between
the meal and evening party, but we started chatting and
then realised that it was about to start. I nipped off
to change into my silver dancing shoes and then it was
time for entrance number two down the grand staircase.
As we were introduced into the room, the DJ played 'The
Montagues and The Capulets' from Prokofiev's Ballet of
Romeo and Juliet which is the piece that Sunderland run
out to at the start of their matches.
We danced our first dance to 'We
Have All the Time in the World' by The Fun Lovin'
Criminals and had intended to be joined on the dance floor
by our friends for the second dance, 'Sex bomb', by Tom
Jones and Mousse T. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to
put the CD's in the boxes and the DJ, faced without a
second tune, improvised with some Mariah Carey. Joe and
I fled the dance floor until realising that this was our
party and we couldn't sit it out so we dragged up the
bridesmaids and partners and soon the dancing was in full
swing.
Do Differently: Absolutely nothing! The whole day
went perfectly. We would have liked the person who hit
Scott and Jane's car on the M25 not to have done so, so
they could have joined us, but that's all. We had the
most wonderful day.
Groom's Comments: Seeing Helen enter the Church
looking more stunning than I could have possibly imagined
only served to make me even more nervous as I stood at
the front. When she joined me, however, we began to play
around like naughty children when the priest wasn't looking.
This set the tone for the day that, despite the seriousness
of the event, we were there to have fun and enjoy ourselves.
Everything happened better than we had planned and the
whole day was perfect. |
If
you would like to contact Helen and Jonathan, you can e-mail
them.
|
