And so, after nearly 9 years together, J and I were finally getting married!
Hair and make-up went ahead without any major problems. I’d had a trial done a few months before, and was really pleased with my hair and make up lady. She brought two assistants with her, as altogether we needed 5 people’s faces and hair sorted before our 10:30am ceremony. The only thing I would say is that I was disappointed that she herself didn’t do my makeup. Whilst I was pleased with the outcome, it wasn’t what we’d agreed on in the trial, and I don’t think she passed on my plan to her assistant (hence why I have not tagged her, especially as I recommended her to all my friends and I think every single one of them had something to complain about!).
Our venue was fab and Ali, our wedding co-ordinator, couldn’t have been more attentive on the morning of and night before the wedding. She made sure I’d had breakfast and was aware of what time the registrars were turning up etc. She took photos on the venue’s iPad as we walked to the ceremony, however whilst I was happy for them to be on the venue’s Facebook page – I didn’t expect them to be up before we’d even made it to the reception! People from work saw the photos, and so I felt it kinda ruined the surprise for the evening guests.
The ceremony room was beautiful. I could not have been more pleased with the décor, and Ali had ensured that we had rustic hessian tie-backs on her chairs, which were new in that season! (Remember, this was a 2015 wedding – it pains me to see burlap and wood EVERYWHERE now, when I had to source it all myself!!) A beautiful archway graced the end of the aisle, framing J and I perfectly as we said our vows. We’d made little reserved cards for the first few rows of seats, ensuring our favourite people were right at the front of the action. The music was loosely linked to our favourite film soundtracks, and included pieces by Vitamin String Quartet, who take popular chart songs and turn them into elegant string versions of said songs!
The ceremony itself was lovely. Think what you like about civil ceremonies vs. church weddings, but I really loved ours. It was only about 20 minutes long, but we felt that everything that should be said, was said. I loved walking down the aisle with my dad and couldn’t stop grinning at people in the pews. I think if I looked at Jim I would’ve balled my eyes out! It was only until we were signing the register and people were clicking their smart phones away that it really hit me how much it meant for all these people to be here, watching us say I Do. Then the tears came!
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| I made all of the decorations myself - the Table Plan was actually a frame that I dug out of a skip and cleaned up myself! |
As previously mentioned, we’d gone for quite a rustic theme. There was lots of hessian – table runners, chair tie-backs etc, and natural flowers like white roses and gypsophilia. The table themes related back to my love for films (see first ever post!), and each one was named after a different favourite film. On each table was a quote from those films, which I really loved researching. After Father of the Bride, my most favourite film is Pearl Harbor. I’m a MASSIVE Josh Hartnett fan and proper fangirled on him when I was a teenager. I walked down the aisle to the film's theme tune, which was Hans Zimmer’s “Tennessee.” Our top table was named after the movie, and the quote was one I’d regularly say to J: “You’re my best friend.” The food was delicious, and still to this day we have compliments for how good it was! This is why we chose a restaurant rather than a hotel for our reception - they’re used to catering for large amounts of people at a high standard! We had a massive menu, with five choices for starters, mains and desserts!
H and her then-fiancé (now husband!) kindly performed our first dance song for us. As J and I are into our rock music, it wasn’t hugely appropriate to have songs by a band called Bullet for my Valentine at our wedding! That was just our opinion, of course. ‘Our song’ was a cover of the song “Everywhere” by Michelle Branch, but we liked the Yellowcard version. This was just a bit too up-tempo for our first dance, so while H sang a beautifully soft version of the song, her other half played the acoustic guitar alongside her. It was one of the most special parts of our wedding day and made it even more personal. I think I cried the most during this dance!
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| Our first dance was extra special - an acoustic version of "Everywhere" by Michelle Branch/Yellowcard, performed by one of my bridesmaids H and her husband M! |
One thing I always remember people saying before the Big Day was that you should make sure you and your partner take 10 minutes away from it all and just watch it go by. I made damn sure I did this, as I just wanted to take it all in and see our nearest and dearest celebrate the happiest day of our lives. Unfortunately, I also remembered to do this right at the time that J was suitably hammered. Bless him, he was a good drunk though. He kept saying over and over how much he was enjoying himself and thanking me for everything I’d done!
KEB x
