 The
run up to the wedding had been very stressful with all
the preparations, and to complicate matters, Martin had
changed his surname to incorporate mine, so we seemed
to be forever notifying someone of his name change.
The night before the wedding, Martin stayed at the
reception hotel with all his family who had travelled
all the way to Scotland from Peterborough. I awoke on
the day of the wedding, around 6am, after a very restless
night of shivering, sleeplessness, and generally feeling
unwell. Mum, dad and nana were all still asleep. I switched
on my TV to watch the weather forecast, which predicted
heavy rain. 'That's all I need!' I told myself. Finally
everyone was up and washed and we'd all eaten breakfast
by 9am although due to nerves, I couldn't eat a single
morsel of food!
At 10am mum and I drove out to visit mine and Martin's
two horses. I was greeted by a heart-warming whinny from
my black horse Oliver who was in his stable waiting for
his breakfast. Martin's young horse, Millie, looked down
from the hill in the field then trotted towards me for
her breakfast. After mucking out, and refilling the hay,
it was back home for another wash before my appointment
with the hairdresser. Sitting under a hairdryer, I picked
up a magazine and couldn't stop myself reading a terrible
story about a bride who died while walking up the aisle.
My tummy was now performing somersaults!
 When
I got home from the hairdresser, I decided I wasn't
happy with the way my headdress was placed so I decided
to remove it and re-attach it. By the time I had finished,
the time had simply flown by and it was now time for
mum and nana to help me into my gorgeous one-off couture
gown and underskirt. Finally I put on my veil and picked
up my bouquet; I felt so funny as I'm usually a jodhpur
and t-shirt girl but now I felt like a fairytale princess.
The silver Mercedes Benz car had arrived very early,
and we slowly drove off towards the church. My bridesmaids
were leaving for the church from their own homes and
as we reached the church I glanced at my watch and realised
that we had arrived five minutes early! The moment the
driver stopped the car, the heavens opened and it began
to rain very heavily.I could see my lovely bridesmaids
and pageboys standing just inside the church door, looking
gorgeous. The driver held a large umbrella over dad
and me as we stepped from the car. A shiver went down
my spine as a big droplet of rain ran down my back.
The bridesmaid and pageboys lined up in front of us
as we walked slowly down the extremely narrow aisle,
to the sound of the organist playing Clarke's
Trumpet Voluntary. I turned to my guests and smiled
at them all. I almost felt like stopping for a chat!
There was a real sense of calm in the church before
the Reverend began to speak.
The service went very quickly and Martin and I smiled
to each other throughout. When it was time to make our
vows, I managed to say them loudly and clearly although
I had been scared that I wouldn't be able to get my
words out in front of everyone. Martin was so sweet
as he repeated his vows, after a couple of words, his
voice broke and he started to cry. I felt very emotional
too and put my hand on his shoulder and told him I loved
him. After a brief pause he composed himself and finished
saying his vows. We had a long wait when we came to
sign the register, due to the Reverend Dean's pen failing
to work
 After
the ceremony it was still pouring with rain so we were
unable to have any photographs taken outside the church
but we had lots of pictures taken inside instead. We
were so relaxed by this time that even when the photographer
kept calling Martin Malcolm by mistake we just laughed.
We had wanted to have some photographs taken at the
local harbour which was near our reception venue a couple
of miles away but sadly this wasn't going to be possible
now.
The reception was lovely. We had the traditional receiving
line then took our places at the top-table for the buffet.
We had a few more photographs taken, including the cutting
of the cake but the photographer left before we had
a chance to get all the photographs we would have liked.
 At
7.30pm the disco arrived, and soon Martin and I were
on the floor for our first dance, Truly,
Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. Everyone had a wonderful
time and there was plenty of laughter and dancing. During
the reception we took some time to open all our wonderful
gifts and chatted with our guests, Glen, husband of
my matron of honour, was much admired as he was wearing
full highland dress while their little son Jason ran
round full of excitement. Everyone admired my gorgeous
dress, which had our first name initials embroidered
on the back. Wherever I went Martin was right behind
me carrying my train and we joked that he could get
a job as a train driver! Half way through the reception
Martin disappeared with his dad and best man for half
an hour to go and feed our horses.
Everything was wonderful! I was thrilled with how our
colour scheme of lilac and purple had worked out, and
how beautiful the couture outfits had looked on the
three bridesmaids, flower girl and three pageboys. We
finally ended up going to bed at 1.00am after the last
guest had left. The following morning Marion, Martins
mum took some of the balloons from the reception and
let them float out across the sea, in memory of each
of our grandparents who had passed away, and Martins
previous horse, called Leprechaun who had died not long
before the wedding.
Do Differently: nothing different, maybe have
prayed for a miracle cure to the rain!
Grooms Comments: Deborah looked absolutely gorgeous.
She was my fairytale princess. It was such a wonderful
special day and I wish we could do it again.
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