I woke up on Sept 7th to a blazing sun and a blue sky, which was a welcome relief since the night before there had been torrential rain! I had a quick bath followed by a big breakfast since I was unlikely to eat again before 3pm, and then dashed off to the hairdressers for an 8.30 appointment. Chaos rapidly ensued since I was counting on being home by about 9.15, but my hair took twice as long as the stylist had thought, and it was about 10 before I got home to even more chaos!

CBM had arrived with her fiancé, and the photographer was already there drinking coffee with my parents and waiting to take pictures of me getting ready. The flowers had arrived and were stunning! The only thing that hadn't arrived were the James Bond cake toppers I had ordered, but by this stage I was running so late I didn't care! Trying to move in the house was a bit difficult since there was myself, my parents, my Nan, my aunt and her partner, CBM and her bloke (who was waiting for CBM to get changed so he could take her bag to the venue), and then BM arrived too, so I headed for my room to start getting ready. It was then that I realised that if the photographer wanted to take pictures of the BMs getting me ready, they had to be dressed first, and they were still 'faffing' around over the champers! So Bridezilla came out to play, telling them to get into gear and hurry up (I had to leave at 10.45). Finally they were ready and I could make a start getting into the dress. I soon realised the room was too small for the dress so I had to change on the landing, but since the dress (and colour) was a huge secret until the ceremony, everyone in the house who was not a bridesmaid or my Mum had to be moved out of sight of the dress!

At about 10.40 Dad shouted that the carriage was here and was I ready? Errr no! Not at all! I had more or less got my make up sorted but was still struggling with the giant dress. He said they were getting impatient so Bridezilla yelled that they would just have to wait! At last by 10.50 I grabbed my bag and ran (well, nearly tripped!) down the stairs before running back up again - I had forgotten my veil!!

I walked out of the front door and all the neighbours had come out to see me - cringe!!!. My BMs waved me off, and Dad and I had the 40-minute journey to ourselves, which was nice. The best thing about being in an enclosed coach rather than an open carriage was no wind to mess up my hair, and no nasty traffic fumes!! People were waving, shouting that I looked beautiful, and I felt like I was partaking in a royal wedding!

I arrived at the manor house with my BMs there to greet me (their car had gone a different way to avoid the traffic jam my coach had caused!), and Luc the hotel manager was a real star sorting things out. Loads of photos were taken, and then when I saw my little pageboy, aged 3, and my 6 yr old flower girl together I nearly cried because they were so perfect! Being a civil wedding, we had had no rehearsal, so I quickly introduced the children to
Hayley, my usherette, and asked them if they would walk down the aisle first when she told them to. They agreed, but I wasn't holding out much hope and the adult BMs knew that they would probably have to take their hands.

After seeing the registrar and going over how I wanted the service, it was time to go up the back stairs ready to make my entrance down the sweeping staircase on my father's arm. As I looked down the staircase, I could see
the two little ones at the bottom and when the music started I nodded to my usherette who pointed them in the right direction and off they went -perfect!! The adults followed, and as the music rose to a crescendo, I walked down the stairs, literally to gasps!! Wow!! The funniest thing was that I was really surprised to see Dave (my hubby) at the end of the aisle. Not as in surprised he hadn't done a runner, just surprised he was there at all!! I think I had been so caught up in the girliness of the day in the morning, and hadn't seen him for about 4 days before the wedding, so it was a bit of a shock! I know… I'm crazy!!! Anyway, he was grinning at me, and as I reached the top he said I looked stunning! He told me later that he could hardly believe it was me, and he was gob smacked!

The ceremony went fine until the registrar left out a section, and I had to ask her to go back and put it in, and she tried to argue with me saying it wasn't necessary! Errrm??? Anyway, it got sorted out in the end, and we had our first kiss as husband and wife. We walked back down the aisle to La Rejouissance from Handel's Fireworks Music, and were handed Champagne as we walked out into the gardens. Thankfully, they shut the door behind us
so we could have a few moments together before the guests came out!

As the guests drank bubbly and canapés were handed out, we escaped into the coach for a 10-minute ride together, sipping Champagne and giggling like children! Then it was straight into a whirlwind of photos, photos and more photos. Yawwwn!!! I am naturally an extrovert, but even I was fed up by the end! One thing we did which worked well was to have lots of small group photos rather than the huge pictures with about 50 people in. Yes, it took a bit longer, but it saves having pinhead sized faces we can't recognise afterwards!

After the photos, I had a look in the reception room and my jaw dropped! My florist had worked miracles. I had asked for the tallest candles and candlesticks possible as table centres, but she had told me that for my budget I was looking at maybe 2ft high tops. Well, she had got me 3ft candlesticks, each topped with a 2ft candle, and flowers cascading down. The top table garland was a masterpiece of architecture, and she had also replaced every floral decoration in the venue with a new one in my colours. The whole place was a mass of orange lilies, gold roses, copper beech leaves and red berries! As I was taking that in, Luc, the hotel manager, asked "what's with the cake toppers?". I thought he was asking why I didn't have any so I just told him they hadn't turned up. He grinned, told me to look at the cake, and there they were! To this day I have no idea where they came from, but I was so chuffed! The cake itself was a dark chocolate cake, with chocolate icing, and gold organza ribbon, and gave a chocolaty scent to the whole room!

Dave and I then took some time out to visit my grandparents grave at the local church. We laid one of the BM bouquets on their grave, and one on the war memorial (H2b is ex army). He was in tears as I laid mine, and when he laid his, took a step back, and saluted, I just bawled. We deliberately went without the photographer or video team, so it was just my father and us, and was definitely a special moment.

Back at the venue it was time to make our entrance to dinner. We were clapped in as the bride and groom (no Mr and Mrs since I still haven't decided about my surname!) and sat down to a 5 course feast! The best man, CBM, my parents, Dave and myself all managed to get round the tables and speak to the guests between courses, and then cut the cake. The speeches were wonderful. My father's especially, and I am so, so glad I will have it captured on video. I made the last speech, reading a poem "Yes, I'll Marry You" to Dave, and then raising a toast to our absent friends.

The day was slightly marred by my mother shouting at my father (she had wanted him to include in his speech the fact that I was an embarrassment to my family for having changed my name years ago - what father would ever do that to his daughter?!) and then ripping the beads off my dress, but luckily one of my aunts came to the rescue with a needle and thread and it was repaired in time for the first dance.

The evening party got off to a great start. Dave and I started the dancing to "Simply the Best". We were going to have a slower dance, but found a faster upbeat song more 'us' and easier to dance to. Our band were fantastic and worth every penny, and there were a few more emotional moments when I danced to "Wind Beneath my Wings" with my father. All too soon (and I hadn't even got to the cheese and biscuits buffet!) it was time for the last dance, and Dave and I danced to "Up Where We Belong", the theme tune from An Officer and A Gentleman, before waving most of the guests off. CBM and her fiancé were staying over at the manor with us, so we found the remains of the cake and retired to the bar with it until about midnight!

Do Differently: I would make sure the registrar knew what we wanted, and I wouldn't have drunk so much, although most of the excess was due to the mother/dress trauma!

Groom's Comments: Brilliant day and my wife looked stunning!