 The
evening before the wedding Iain & I had gone back
home to our parents' houses. My family wanted to have
a big bash to celebrate, although I just wanted an early
night. After many persuasive telephone conversations with
my mum and brothers I finally gave in to a quiet drink
for an hour. Three bottles of champagne later we finally
said goodbye to everyone. The little bridesmaids were
so excited they repeatedly chanted " One more sleep
to go, One more sleep to go!"
My mum and chief bridesmaid attempted to iron the creases
out of the bottom of my dress whilst it was hanging from
a hook in the ceiling of my bedroom! This proved very
difficult and after an hour we gave up and decided it
didn't look that bad after all! Then my best friend, Ros,
gave me a French manicure, and I was instructed to sit
totally still for 20 minutes so it would dry perfectly!
(I felt like a naughty school girl)
I retired to bed at about 11pm, I had worried about not
sleeping, but I went out like a light, probably helped
by those glasses of champagne. I woke at 5.30am and realised
that it was finally THE DAY. I jumped out of bed and ran
to the window to check on the weather. It was really overcast,
and I couldn't see very far for all the mist and fog.
But I didn't care, I was getting married to the man I
love TODAY!
At about 7.30 a.m. I had breakfast with my parents, then
I went upstairs to wake Ros. She had been awake until
3 o clock in the morning and couldn't believe that I had
gone straight to sleep. We set off to the hairdressers
at 9 am. I was so excited, I kept having this feeling
that I was going to be sick, so the hairdresser gave me
loads of mints to suck on whilst she perfected my hair.
Suddenly outside the window, a huge ray of sunshine appeared,
which seemed to follow us around for the rest of the day,
much to everyone's delight! It felt strange driving home
with my tiara on, having to duck down in the car so as
not to flatten my extravagant up-do on the roof of my
car!
When we arrived back home, the florist had delivered the
flowers. They were the most beautiful flowers I have ever
seen, and exactly what I been hoping for. I just had to
ring the florist to thank her, she was very touched that
I had taken the trouble to ring her on the morning of
the wedding! Shortly after, Iain's sister Stephanie arrived
- she was a bridesmaid. I asked her how Iain was, she
replied "Oh he's fine, he's watching Star Trek in
his boxer shorts!" Men! They have things so much
easier! The next couple of hours went really fast, with
people dropping bridesmaids off, collecting buttonholes,
and reading emails from our relatives in New Zealand.
The photographer arrived at 11.30 and was amazed at how
calm I was. Ros was busy with the bridesmaids, doing their
hair and make up. It was like a conveyor belt, hair -
make up - shoes - dress - flowers! One by one we made
our way downstairs looking like princesses, to have our
pictures taken in the garden.
 At
12.30 the two gold Rolls Royces arrived. They took my
mum and the bridesmaids to the church, leaving just my
dad & I. I decided at this point, stood in the middle
of the living room with my white dress on, that I really
needed a drink and something to eat! My dad almost had
a nervous break down whilst I had half a pint of coke
and a chocolate biscuit. "Don't you dare spill that
down your dress or your mother will kill me!" We
got into the car and the driver said that we were too
early and he would wait a few minutes before leaving.
I just wanted to get there and see Iain. As we drove past
the church, some of the guests were still outside, but
luckily the ushers quickly rallied everyone into the church
before we had reached the top of the drive. As we got
out of the car there were people standing on the pavement
across the road, waving at us, it was lovely. As we made
our way into the church, and the vicar organised the bridesmaids,
I could just see what seemed like hundreds of faces, I
was grinning like the Cheshire Cat and loving all the
attention. Then I looked down the aisle and I could just
about see my husband to be waiting for me at the altar.
It was then that I started to shake ever so slightly.
 As
we walked down the aisle to Trumpet
Voluntary, I felt like a princess and when I met Iain
at the altar he just said "Hiya Gorgeous!" At
that point my eyes welled up, and I knew he was the man
for me! He looked gorgeous in his Prince Edward Frock
Coat, but he also looked really nervous.
The vicar welcomed everyone and we began singing the first
hymn, All
things bright & beautiful, I was holding the order
of service which we made ourselves, but I was shaking
and Iain had to hold my hand still so he could read. This
caused us to have a little laugh! We were both worried
about saying our vows wrong or giggling, but we both really
enjoyed saying them and it was very emotional.
Everyone commented that they could hear every word we
said which they really enjoyed as it meant they didn't
miss out on the most important part of the service! Then
just as the vicar pronounced us husband & wife, there
was a huge THUD! Stephanie had fainted and was lying across
the back of my dress. After a couple of minutes, she was
fine, ego a little bruised but otherwise fine. The vicar
was very good about it, and as a consequence we were pronounced
husband & wife for a second time which doesn't happen
that often! Then we sang our second hymn, Give
Me Joy In My Heart. The choir and organist provided
some lovely music whilst we were signing the register.
Stephanie rejoined us at this point, and she was able
to laugh about it. We are just looking forward to the
cheque from "You've Been Framed". We finally
walked back down the aisle to The
Wedding March, and we were so happy! We stepped outside
into glorious sunshine with the church bells ringing,
at last we were husband & wife. We had several group
pictures taken at the church, including some using the
wedding
bubbles bought from WGUK. This was a real hit with
everyone including the photographer who thought it was
a fantastic idea. We were then whisked away in our lovely
Rolls Royce to go and have pictures taken with our 2 horses.
On the way to the farm we drank a bottle of champagne
which the driver had provided and he had arranged for
our favourite music to be played on the journey! We felt
like royalty!
 All
the guests went straight to Manchester Golf Club for a
drinks reception. We arrived just 20 minutes later and
we were greeted by the manager, who had 2 glasses of bucks
fizz ready for us. We had further photos taken in the
beautiful gardens at the golf club, whilst our guests
mingled and had a good laugh at the pictures of Iain &
I from the 70's & 80's, that we had pinned on a board.
It was a really good way to get everyone talking and feeling
relaxed, we didn't want a really formal atmosphere. Our
photographer, Richard Booth of Crystal Clear, was excellent.
He was so organised and had everyone eager to have their
pictures taken. He had an amazing way of keeping all the
children's attention and making everyone smile. His wife
Clare was also a huge help throughout the day. Thank you
to you both.
We sat down for our meal at 4 o clock, we had melon &
strawberry cocktail for starters, tomato & basil soup
(which was delicious), chicken with white wine & mushrooms
with a selection of roasted vegetables and for dessert
a chocolate, toffee and biscuit roulade. We were really
impressed with the meal, the presentation and the taste!
Though I was so excited I hardly ate a thing (except the
soup!). The speeches followed the meal. Iain & I had
prepared poems about each other, which had both the ladies
and the gents in tears. I was really glad I decided to
do a speech, it gave me a chance to personally thank all
those people who helped with the wedding. I had Ros in
tears too, which she still hasn't forgiven me for. Darren,
the best man (who had stepped in just 2 days before the
wedding, due to the original best man letting us down),
did a wonderful job in such a short space of time. His
speech was full of really funny stories about Iain when
he was little. The champagne which we bought from France
was delicious, and a great money saver, even with the
corkage fee of £10 per bottle. Our guests really
loved the cameras
which we purchased from WGUK, they helped to keep the
children occupied and we now have some lovely memories
of all our guests.
The evening guests started to arrive not long after we
had finished the speeches and from that moment onwards,
the rest of the day went really fast. We had intended
to have a receiving line but never made it to the door,
as guests were piling in quicker than we could get to
them. Iain & I ended up at opposite ends of the room
and it wasn't until 10pm that I managed to get hold of
him for our first dance. We danced to the theme tune from
the film Armageddon, "I
don't want to miss a thing". Everyone had been
wondering all day what the huge balloon hanging from the
roof in the centre of the dance floor was for. It was
an exploding balloon which the DJ controlled by a remote
trigger. Whilst we were dancing underneath it, it exploded
covering us with tiny balloons and confetti. The reaction
from the guests was brilliant. We can't wait to see it
on the video. All the guests continued dancing until 1am
when the DJ finally managed to get us off the dance floor.
He had played a huge variety of music which kept all the
guests happy, we had done a playlist for him but had forgotten
to take it with us, but it didn't matter because he seemed
to play almost everything we had on the list anyway. We
then had to say goodbye to our guests and we couldn't
believe it was all over. All the hard work had paid off,
everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable day, lots of people
commented on all the little details, like the confetti
on the tables, the cameras
and the favours.
In the run up to the wedding, we did wonder if anyone
would even notice these things. They did and it was definitely
worth all the hard work. We had the most perfect day.
A perfect start to our marriage.
Do Differently: Absolutely nothing! Except make
the day have about 100 hours to make it last longer! WGUK
was the main source of inspiration for our day! It was
perfect. Thank you!
Grooms Comments: He had a fantastic day! The best
day of his life!
|
If
you would like to contact Emma and Iain, you can e-mail
them.
|
