 Our
wedding day was almost exactly three years to the day
that Ian and I first met. There had been no doubt in my
mind ever since I was about five that I wanted a traditional
big "white" wedding with a religious ceremony
in a church and a big dress! So when Ian proposed in October
1998 I turned into a woman possessed with everything wedding
related! It's a wonder we actually made it up the aisle
with all the wedding fayres I dragged him around and the
amount of magazines I thrust under his nose! I think the
"big day" came as a bit of a relief to him as
it meant that I might begin to return to normal again!
Autumn has always been my favourite season and as it was
near our anniversary we decided to get married in October,
As it turned out though when we went to book our venue
in December 1998, the first date they had available was
October 7th 2000.
The
theme for our wedding was based on the time of year of
the wedding and the style of our reception venue. Fanham's
Hall is a big old gothic looking Jacobean Manor House
and we had booked the Great Hall for our reception, which
has a long stone floored banqueting hall with a minstrel's
gallery, oak beams, stained glass leaded windows, a huge
open fireplace and big wrought iron sconces on the walls.
We decided we needed to all look pretty dramatic to match
our surroundings! I also wanted to go for a "warming"
feel as we figured it would probably be pretty grotty
weather.
My friend Kate and my cousin's fiancée Karen were
my bridesmaids along with my cousin Sharon as the Matron
of Honour and her one-year-old daughter Ella (my God-daughter)
as my flower girl, who was a little angel all day. We
chose long midnight blue velvet dresses for them, with
big gold organza wraps to stop them from getting chilly,
and antique looking pewter and diamante tiaras with unstructured
bouquets of trailing ivy, fern, heather and berries for
a natural foresty look. Ella had the most adorable little
dress with an ivory silk brocade top and a big tulle skirt
with a gold sash and a little Caesar style circlet of
ivy and berries for her hair (or lack of it!).
 Ian
wore a gorgeous dark green frock coat with navy and gold
fleur-de-lys embroidered on it. Keith, the best man, my
dad, and the ushers, David and Peter all wore navy frock
coats with waistcoats in the same material as Ian's jacket.
I
had bought my dress eighteen months previously. I dreaded
the thought of trying on dresses so I only went to one
shop and bought the first one I tried on, an ivory silk
Ronald Joyce dress with lots of antique ivory lace, and
spent the nest year and a half panicking I had made a
huge mistake! I had a really simple tied posy of ivory
roses, ivy, laurel leaves and berries because I'm so short
all the bigger bouquets I would have liked looked really
silly on me (which was kindly pointed out by the first
florist I visited!)
 On
the eve of the wedding I slept at my dad's house with
my bridesmaid Kate, I was surprisingly calm and fell asleep
quite easily. In the morning I was quite upset that I
was the first to wake, I had expected people to rush in
and say "wake up, you're getting married today",
I felt a little down as I looked out of the window and
saw grey skies and very heavy rain. I cried a bit as I
really missed my mum, who had died three years previously
but looking back now, I'm glad I had that time to myself
as I think I got rid of all my sadness early on and didn't
start crying because of it in the church, something I
was really worried about. After half an hour or so things
started happening, I had my bath and Kate and I went to
the hairdresser to get my hair put up. I had decided on
having it half up/half down, as I never wear my hair up
normally and thought I would feel uncomfortable if I had
it up just for the wedding. It was while I was at the
hairdresser that my nerves began to kick in. Kate went
out and bought croissants to try and tempt me to eat,
but I just couldn't face anything. I think the hairdresser
was having quite a time trying to set my tiara in my hair
as I was shaking so much!
When we got back home, my aunt and Karen, Sharon and Ella
had turned up and Karen had made a huge banner wishing
Ian and I luck, which was adorning the front of the house.
It was then that things started to get busy. None of us
were dressed when the photographer and cars turned up
which really panicked me, so we hurried to get Ella into
her little dress (whilst trying to stop her from eating
and wiping her nose on it!), and my aunt, Maureen, helped
me to dress. I hadn't seen everything all together before
and was quite shocked that I actually looked like a bride
when I looked in the mirror! After far too many photos
for my liking the bridesmaids went off to the church in
their old English white Jaguar, (just like Inspector Morse's)
and after another ten minutes, my dad and I were waved
off by loads of neighbours as we drove to the church in
an old cream Austin Princess limousine.
 When
I arrived at the church I was glad to hear Ian was there
(I don't know why I was worried that he wouldn't turn
up!) The organist began playing The
Wedding March by Lohengrin and the choir started to
walk up the aisle, my dad and I entered last after the
ushers and bridesmaids. It wasn't until we watched the
video that we realised that I hadn't actually walked into
the wedding march, but to a piece of music that sounded
more like a funeral march as the organist had started
playing too early! Ian and I had both laughed all the
way through our practice two nights previously but luckily
we both managed to keep a straight face whilst saying
our vows, although we did struggle when the vicar started
to sing in a big booming warbling voice! We had chosen
the hymns Give
Me Joy in my Heart and Jerusalem,
Kate read the wonderful Pam Ayres poem "Yes
I'll Marry You" which made everyone laugh as
she did it in a fabulous west country accent and an old
friend of the Family, Arthur, read "The
Colour of My Love" (Thanks WGUK for the inspiration!)
The little old church looked lovely with the harvest festival
displays of wheat, flowers and vegetables and the service
went by in a sort of haze until all of a sudden it was
over and we were walking back down the aisle as husband
and wife. We stopped outside under a sea of umbrellas
to have our photos taken and after half an hour or so
I got really fed up with waiting and asked my dad why
we were hanging around so long, he replied that as the
Bride and Groom it was up to Ian and I to decide when
to go!
 Half
an hour later we arrived at Fanham's Hall and were treated
like absolute royalty by the staff who were fabulous,
we met up with Nick, our toastmaster who looked fabulous
in his bright red jacket and really was our saviour. We
weren't sure about having a toastmaster before, but he
really settled our nerves and took charge of the day,
we don't know how we would have managed without him now.
Whilst we were having more formal photos taken, we had
arranged for another photographer to walk around and take
informal snaps of the guests, which are and really capture
the atmosphere of the day. The guests were served Pimms
and canapés in the library and we had hired a Celtic
harpist, to play until the end of the wedding breakfast.
We both liked the idea of a harpist but weren't so keen
on the traditional classical ones, we saw Michael busking
one day and thought he was fantastic. He played lots of
old Irish songs and acoustic versions of the Corrs etc.
We were all called into dinner by the toastmaster and
although we hadn't planned on having a receiving line
we did end up having one, which we're really pleased about
now, as it really was the only time of the day that we
actually managed to speak to each and everyone of our
guests. The Hall looked brilliant, we had chosen to have
huge church candles on each table, surrounded by a ring
of dark red velvety roses, ivy, laurel and gold sprayed
wheat, so we could eat by candlelight, which was very
dramatic with the rain outside. We also had gold heart
confetti scattered over the tables with gold
cameras from the WeddingGuide Store on each table.
 We
sat down to a lovely warming meal of French onion and
port soup, Leg of Lamb in Red wine and caramelised onion
sauce and chocolate profiteroles with Tia Maria, we didn't
actually realise until that day that every course we had
chosen had alcohol in it! What with that and the never-ending
supply of wine at the tables we had a lot of very tipsy
guests! Time seemed to fly by and soon it was speech time,
Ian was really worried about his speech but it turned
out fine and even raised a few laughs and my dad's, which
I was really worried about, was really sweet, especially
when he spoke about my mum, I don't think there were any
dry eyes in the hall, but it was really nice to acknowledge
her in some way on the day. Next we were cutting our cake,
three tiers piled straight on top of each other, each
tier in the shape of a suitcase with tags on saying "St.Kitts
and Nevis" (our honeymoon destination) and "Mr
and Mrs.Smith". The disco appeared out of nowhere
and before long we were having our first dance, "When
We Dance" by Sting, which although it only lasted
about four minutes seemed to go on forever! Kate (who
is a professional singer) then sang a great version of
Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" to get everyone
up and dancing. After a very happy evening it was suddenly
1am, time for everyone to leave and for us to try and
get some sleep after all of the excitement of the day.
We couldn't believe how quickly the day had gone after
so long in the planning, but we had an absolutely fabulous
time and just wish we could do it all again! Perhaps without
the rain!
Do Differently: Try to eat something before dinner!
I felt a bit faint and dizzy as I just couldn't eat anything
and also take 5 minutes out just the two of us to take
in the day.
Groom's Comments: A brilliant day, I wouldn't change
a thing!
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If
you would like to contact Sarah and Ian, you can e-mail
them.
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