 The
Friday night before the wedding has to be one of the weirdest
nights of my life! My sister and dad (who had travelled
up from Portsmouth) arrived late in the afternoon, soon
after Donna (my bridesmaid) joined us, swiftly followed
by Francesca (my other bridesmaid). We all sat in the
living room chatting and watching the telly. I found myself
pondering if this is what the last night of single life
should be like. Surely I should have been drinking at
least 5 bottles of Champagne jumping up and down shouting
"I'm getting married in the morning"? But this
just didn't happen. My sister and Dad left around 8.00pm
and the rest of us retired to bed around 11.00pm, only
for me to be woken at 12.00am by Steve texting me with
the message "I Luv u xx".
Saturday morning I was woken at 6.00am by my two young
bridesmaids giggling (Lucy, my daughter and Francesca).
I jumped out of bed opened the curtains and was greeted,
to my relief, by glorious sunshine. As I turned around
the first thing that caught my eye was my beautiful
ivory dress hanging from a nail above the wardrobe.
The train had been laid out carefully to minimise creases
and the crystals were sparkling in the sunlight. An
instant grin appeared on my face as it dawned on me
that this was my BIG DAY!
At 7.25am we all set off to the hairdressers armed with
the camcorder to record every precious moment and a
packet of Polos to calm the nerves. We were greeted
by my chief bridesmaid (Sharon) who was already waiting
outside for us. As we entered the shop we were giggling
like naughty schoolgirls but were soon transformed into
elegant ladies.
When we got back to the house the florist had delivered
the flowers, I remember walking into the kitchen and
my breath being taken away, our bouquets were so much
more beautiful then I could ever have imagined. For
the first time that day I had a tear in my eye (this
wouldn't be the last though!). By 11.00am we were all
made up and at a loose end, this was when my tummy started
to churn. I had to do something quickly to take my mind
off things, so like all normal brides I did the hoovering!
Much to the amusement of my bridesmaids. Half an hour
passed and it was time to make our way upstairs to get
dressed. I had already arranged for Sharon to help me
with my dress before she dressed, which turned out to
be an enormous help as getting the hoop on under my
dress was a hard task for two people let alone one.
Finally I was ready, I slowly descended the stairs and
went into the front room where I was greeted by my dad
who had arrived 10 minutes earlier. He looked so smart
in his black velvet jacket and gold waistcoat, I noticed
a tear in his eye as I entered the room, this was all
the praise I needed.
One of the most emotional moments of the day came next
when Donna handed me a present and card from Steve.
It was a silver jewellery box which had been engraved
with the words "To My Wife". It contained
a diamond and sapphire necklace and earing set, I was
now in floods of tears, luckily for me I was wearing
waterproof mascara (this is a must!).
 The
photographer and cars arrived bang on 12.00pm and we were
soon into the swing of arranging dresses and striking
poses. The next thing I knew Dad and I were in the car
and were on our way to the church. The drive took twenty
minutes but seemed like a lifetime. As we approached the
church there was no one outside except my bridesmaids,
the photographer and the two cameras of the videographer,
who we had decided to hire just weeks before the wedding.
With five minutes to spare we had more photographs taken
and were then lined up on the steps leading into the church.
At this point I heard the most wonderful sound of the
string quartet playing my entrance song Pachabel
Cannon in D, I wiped away the tears, took a deep breath
and stepped forward onto the aisle.
 Seconds
later I was standing next to Steve, he looked more handsome
then I had ever seen him look before. He turned to face
me and gave me a huge grin, from that moment on we both
relaxed and enjoyed the wonderful service. To personalise
the ceremony I made my own Order
of Service sheets (with help from WGUK) which I coordinated
with the wedding colour theme, also myself, Steve and
Lucy chose one hymn each for the congregation and choir
(who were our saviours when it came to singing the hymns)
to sing. One of the highlights of the ceremony was a poem
called 'On
Your Wedding Day' which was read by Derek (an usher).
Steve and I had chosen this poem as we thought it described
the way we felt about marriage, and each other, perfectly.
After 40 minutes we were walking back down the aisle as
husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Harnett! (I still can't get
used to that), accompanied by the string quartet playing
'The
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'.
As we walked outside the sun was shining, there was
not a cloud in the sky and the bells were ringing I
thought how lucky I was for having such a wonderful
day to match my wonderful new husband.
After many photographs had been taken and boxes full of
confetti
had been thrown we were in the car, a burgundy open top
tourer, and travelling to the reception sipping champagne.
As this was about the only time we had together alone
we made the most of it!
 The
reception venue looked wonderful, everyone was standing
around the garden merrily chatting and drinking Bucks
Fizz as the string quartet played beautifully in the background.
After yet more photographs (180 were taken in all) we
were invited by Helen the hotel co-ordinator (who we could
not have done without) to go upstairs for the wedding
breakfast. As I entered the room I was stunned! As previously
discussed with Helen the tables were decorated with beautiful
flower arrangements (thanks to my wonderful florist),
small gold confetti
hearts, glass votive holders and candles, which I had
decorated myself, and boxes of chocolate truffles, made
by my dad, as favours.
Steve and I lined up and greeted each guest before we
all sat down and enjoyed a 3 course meal which was followed
by the speeches which were both funny and touching.
When the speeches
were over we all retired back down to the lounge bar for
a grateful and relaxing respite. This gave the hotel time
to transform the room upstairs from an elegant dinning
room into PARTY CENTRAL! Extra tables had been added,
these were now decorated with balloons.
All the candles from the wedding breakfast were lit to
create the perfect ambience, more gold confetti
had been scattered over the tables and a disposable
camera had been placed on each table with a small
note attached inviting guests to use the cameras to capture
those special moments.
At 7:30pm the evening guests started to arrive. Again
we were thrown into meeting and greeting and so much
smiling that my cheeks were aching. To my joy everyone
was soon on the dance floor bopping away to a mixture
of past and present hits being played by the DJ. With
around 180 guests it was hard to findtime for Steve
and I to be alone together so when the DJ called us
up for the first dance we both knew we were going to
enjoy the moment. We had no trouble deciding which song
we were going to dance to. When we first started dating
there was always one song playing whenever we turned
the radio or television on, Aerosmiths 'I don't wanna
miss a thing'. As soon as we were on that dance floor
we could feel all 180 pairs of eyes focused on us and
the room was alight with camera flashes it was one of
the most magical moments I had ever experienced and
I thought to myself that I was lucky enough to be sharing
this moment with the man of my dreams!
 The
rest of the evening went by in a bit of a whirl. We strutted
our stuff on the dance floor along with our family and
friends, spent a lot of time chatting, even more time
grinning and generally having a fabulous time. Everyone
we spoke to agreed that it had been a perfect day right
from start to finish.
All too soon it was time to say goodnight, we made sure
that we said our goodbyes to all the die hard guests that
were still dancing and drinking and then retired to the
bridal suite. Although I was totally exhausted I still
had one surprise up my sleeve. When Steve was in the bathroom
I quickly changed out of my beautiful wedding dress and
slipped into a silky gold night dress! At this point I
will end my story and spare you the rest of the details
but believe me when I say it was the perfect end to what
was the PERFECT DAY!!!! |
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