I awoke bright and early on the morning of Saturday 6th May. The past 5 weeks had been very hectic (we had been living in the US for 3 years, and had only arrived home at the end of March). What was on my to-do list today?
1) Hairdresser
2) Finalise seating plan
3) Get married.

I made my mum and dad a cup of tea, then sat on their bed whilst we opened cards that had arrived at their house that morning. A quick bath, then off with Mum to the hairdresser's. While Mum was being coiffured I phoned Mark - he was having a nice lie-in, and waiting for his best man and ushers to come round for breakfast.

When we got back to the house, Dad greeted us with a list of 10 phone messages, the florist had also been, so we had a quick peek at the flowers and Simon, my brother had arrived (far earlier than planned). Yikes - time to re-do the seating plan (one of the messages was a couple who had cried off yesterday, but were feeling better and would now be coming)! We then sorted out the buttonholes and corsages which Simon would need to take to the church, packed the cake and table plans into his car, double-checked his list, a quick hug, and he was off.

The phone rang again, this time it was my mate Flick with moral support, while mid-chat, Richard, our man-with-a-van arrived to take the drink to the reception. Just as he and Dad were finishing loading the boxes into the back of the van, a large motorbike arrived ridden by Barney, my father-in-law's business partner, who was doing the video. He did a few candid shots of the booze being loading, then helped shift the remaining cases into the van. After a brief interview with Mum and a snoop in the florist's box, it was upstairs to video me doing my make-up.

By now, it was getting quite warm. The weather for the past few weeks had been wet and miserable, but the previous Saturday (my hen day) it had warmed up. Today it was definitely going to be a scorcher.

I managed to grab a cup of tea and a sandwich, and put my feet up for a couple of minutes, before realising that the bridesmaids were due any moment. Quickly plucking their dresses, shoes and tights from the spare room, I dashed downstairs just as they all arrived - Sophie (8), Molly (6) and Kitty (3), complete with Sophie's brother Tom (6), and their respective mums and dads. I dashed back upstairs to finish my make-up, (I had changed my mind a couple of days ago about having it done professionally), deciding I preferred my own handiwork.

Out of the window, I could see the girls playing in the garden and my dad practising walking up the aisle with them! After several more mad dashes up and downstairs, my make-up was complete and it was time to get my dress on. By now, the wedding cars had arrived, and the girls were in their full regalia. They looked stunning! We all did some mutual admiration and the girls immediately got into bridesmaid mode, all three carrying my train as I walked out to the car. Progress was slow but after much shuffling, I was able to manoeuvre myself into the back seat of the 1936 Rolls Royce Phantom. Someone had advised me to take some water with me, and I now delicately swigged it from the bottle.

We arrived at the church 10 minutes early so drove around the corner where we sat making small talk for a few minutes. Five minutes later, we rolled up to the church where we were met by our photographer and stylist; "Hold it there, smile, flowers down a bit, look this way, veil that way. A few more steps - hold your dad's hand, Sophie this side, Molly and Kitty that side, feet in ballet positions please girls." Eventually, the vicar emerged and beckoned to us to enter the church.

As I walked down the aisle to The Prince of Denmark's March, with a stupid grin on my face, I felt like Muriel, in that famous scene from Muriel's Wedding! Every time I saw a familiar face, I felt obliged to greet it, but with one hand on my dad's arm, and the other holding my bouquet, I didn't have a free arm to wave, so instead did a lot of inane smiling and head nodding. About half-way up the aisle, all this became too much, and I could feel the old chin going, so had to look down at the floor instead. Molly and Kitty were walking so slowly that the music ran out, and we still hadn't arrived at the front of the church. The sudden silence brought them to a complete standstill, so Dad, Sophie and I all had to push and prod them forward. Eventually the girls were in their pew at the front, Dad was on Alexander Pope's gravestone, and I was next to Mark, squeezing his hand, and giving him a big smile.

The vicar announced the first hymn - Praise to the Lord the Almighty. This had been specially chosen because it is a German tune and Mark's mum is German, and lots of her friends and relatives had made it over from Germany especially for the wedding. I've done a fair bit of singing, so this first hymn was great therapy for calming my nerves. I concentrated on my breathing and singing technique, and after a couple of verses my chin wobble had gone.

Then came the marriage ceremony. This part was worrying me most, as all previous rehearsals had resulted in giggles. In the end Mark and I agreed not to look at each other. It worked, and the next thing we knew, the vicar was inviting everyone to give us a big hand. We were married! Phew - that was the tricky bit of the day over, from now on, I could enjoy myself! Next came the signing the register, the choir began to sing Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring and I caught myself doing a little jig as I shimmied over to the register table. As I looked around I spotted more familiar faces in the congregation, which led to more inane grinning and head nodding.

The rest of the service went by in a flash - Michelle, Mark's sister, read 1 Corinthians 13 in German, then Simon's vociferous rendition of Water into Wine ensured no-one who had nodded off stayed asleep for long. This was followed by Brother James' Air and Jerusalem. Finally, Mark and I walked back down the aisle to Vidor's Toccata - in my opinion the best organ music ever written! As we reached the church doors, the bells started ringing and we emerged into the sunshine. After several more photographs, Mark and I were in the Phantom on our way to Syon House.

We pulled up at the House to the strains of our string quartet. The sun was shining, and we looked at each other - "This is the business"!

Once everyone had arrived, we took our positions for the receiving line. With no official MC to make announcements, we introduced ourselves to the guests but I was so familiar by now with the guest list, that I pretty much knew who everyone was. The line kept getting held up by my Mum at the other end who was having a 10-minute chat with everyone, but eventually we were done.

I was just hoping for an opportunity to taste the canapés that had been proffered to the guests, and to have more than one sip of Kir Royale, when the photographer appeared and ushered us out to the back of the House. Behind Syon House is a water meadow running down to the Thames. It was full of buttercups, so the photographer arranged some arty poses of me, Mark and the bridesmaids. Then a few less arty family and friends ones out on the grass. By now, it was 6 o'clock and time to sit down for dinner.

The entire party ooh'd and aah'd as they wandered around to the Great Conservatory. The Conservatory is hidden from Syon House, but as you come round a bend in the shrubbery, it suddenly appears in all its glory and we could hear wafts of music from the jazz band inside - idyllic!

Everything looked wonderful, as we entered we saw Paul the caterer and there were our table plans, the place cards and menus which I had spent hours writing in purple ink, and which mum had decorated with the purple and gold flowers which she had been frantically pressing since May the previous year! There were the table centres with purple English flowers and church candles. It all looked fabulous!

Simon announced our arrival, and the guests rose to their feet as we joined our table. We had decided against a top table, and instead, the bridal party all hosted round tables. The guests on our table were long distance travellers and Michelle on the next table had the 'young internationals' Otherwise guests were pretty well mixed up, so that most tables had representatives from both families and friends.

The food and wine were perfect. Tomato mousse was followed by supreme of guinea fowl and then chocolate and Cointreau ganache. Champagne was served for the toasts and this was followed by cheese and port. Coffee was taken in the Cactus House. The speeches were witty and not too long, and no one said anything too sentimental or embarrassing

At around 9.00pm, the jazz band began to play some New Orleans style numbers and I was able to sneak off to the loo at long last where mum helped to bustle my train. By now, we still hadn't danced our first dance, so Simon was dragging people in from the bar and peacock-watching outside to witness this event. Mark and I had decided on a waltz, but we hadn't been able to practise very effectively so our waltz standard wasn't up to much!

Before long, Iain told us our car had arrived, and was getting our stuff together. Where had the evening gone? All those months of planning, and now it was all over. We didn't leave immediately though - instead we stayed on until all the guests had said their goodbyes.

Eventually we were in the car, on our way to our first night. Ooh, my feet were sore, The traffic in London was heavy and it was 1.00am before we drove into the approach to the Savoy Hotel. All possible regrets about picking a hotel in Central London soon disappeared. The staff were so nice, and showed us our wonderful room overlooking the Thames. They brought us a big pot of tea and a bottle of Champagne but after drinking our tea (we decided against the fizz) and a quick shower, we found all the events of the day were going through our minds, and it was a long while before we were both able to sleep! However, we eventually managed to get to sleep at around 3 am, after what can only be described as 'a totally brilliant day!'

Do Differently: I wish I'd had more time for myself prior to the wedding - it really was 5 weeks of stress, what with moving back home and sorting out jobs and bank accounts.

Groom's Comments: All our planning came together and everything went very smoothly on the day. Jo looked gorgeous, and we all had a great time.