I started my day just before 7am, after a relatively fitful night's sleep - not due to nerves. My Mum had decorated my old bedroom with balloons and streamers, which proceeded to fall on my head throughout the night. I still managed to grab a few hours though.

I did start off with butterflies in my stomach, which didn't help me when I was trying to eat breakfast (and swallow maleria tablets). The butterflies disappeared as soon as my one and only bridesmaid, Alison, arrived. She was so excited my nerves just went completely. By the time I'd showered, the hairdressers arrived, followed shortly by the make-up lady. The conveyor belt of hair and make-up started and we were soon really enjoying ourselves.

We dressed just in time for the photographer. He was fantastic, and made us all completely relaxed. Just as he left, he complimented us on being the calmest house he'd been to all year. We then noticed that the car had arrived ready to take us to the church. It was a 1932 Austin Morris taxi called Thomas. Because the weather was so good, we drove with the back down thoroughly enjoying the attention we were getting.

On the way to the church, we stopped by to see my grandpop in his old peoples home. He's 88 and was too ill to attend the wedding. He'd even put his Sunday best on for me, and we made sure he had a buttonhole, so he didn't feel left out. Seeing him made me very emotional, and I just about managed to keep the tears at bay for some photo's.

We arrived at the church five minutes early, as per the instructions from the photographer. The vicar greeted me, and told me not to worry - my groom had turned up! Just then, my brother and his family screeched into the car park in a little red mini - the photographer simply said "very Four Weddings!"

My mum was giving me away (divorced parents!) and she kept squeezing my hand telling me it would be OK. I think she did this to keep herself calm, because I was fine and really looking forward to it.

As I walked down the aisle, I was the happiest woman alive, and apparantly I had the biggest grin ever seen. I got level with Stuart and we looked at each other. He said 'you look lovely', I just said 'so do you'. As we took our vows, I realised that Stuart had a really bad cold that he must have woken up with that morning - my heart went out to him. As we walked up to sign the register, more flowers fell from my bouquet, which the photographer quickly fixed for me. And then they fell back out again as we walked back down the aisle!

We had a short drive to the hotel, and when we arrived, the manager took charge for us while we had the rest of our photo's taken.

The hotel were wonderful. They allocated a waitress to follow us around with our drinks, so we never went without - it made us feel like royalty. The hotel has lovely gardens, and because the weather was so good, we were able to have all of the photo's taken outside, it looked like a garden party.

The food was perfect and the cake looked amazing (my mum's creation).

My mum made a speech, which she'd written as a poem. It was well received and gave people things to giggle about. Stuart's speech was also well received. He made a toast to his late father and other absent and missed family. We lost his dad last year after a long illness. As Stuart spoke, I could hear his voice trembling. I looked across at his mum. She was sitting there bitting her bottom lip, trying hard to keep her composure - they both did very well.

We started off the evening's proceedings with our first dance, which was to Hold On My Heart by Genesis. We only had a few slow dances, and then the party started. The evening guests started to arrive and the room was suddenly full. Everything was perfect.

I threw my bouquet to a crowd of expectant ladies - Stuart's niece caught it, so I think we'll have a while to wait for the next wedding.

We then left through the traditional arch of people, and retired to the honeymoon suite at the hotel.

Quite a few people had stayed at the hotel that night, and it was nice to have breakfast with them all in the morning, and talk about our wedding day.

We went outside to start loading the car with presents, only to discover that Alison and her husband had been up at the crack of dawn, decorating the car with the usual balloons, silly string, banners etc. Apparantly she was seen in the car park in her pyjamas without a care in the world.

We took off on our honeymoon to Sri Lanka on the Tuesday, and had a thoroughly wonderful time - the only problem was, we had to come back!

Do Differently: I would use a different florist, but not change the design,style or type of flowers used.

Groom's Comments: He'd like to do it all again, but without a stinking cold!