Our Wedding Day- Saturday 29Th June 2013 By Mrsgroves2B

Wow! Its been 2 weeks since our wedding day! How quick has that gone?! Still getting used to the signature, the new surname and being greeted with Mrs Groves by people (had to call the police for something at church the Monday after the wedding and they asked for my surname, so gave them Groves, then they called me back later to say the problem was resolved and they said "Is that Mrs Groves?" Although answering yes it felt so strange!)

Well, I'll try and do a wedding report (whether I'll get to finish it today is another matter as we're in the process of sorting out our spare room and washing (including the remainder of the holiday washing!)

Starting from the morning when I got up. I didn't have too much trouble sleeping (got to sleep probably around 12.30am, woke up around 2.30am, went back to sleep fairly quickly, then woke up around 6am). I took my laptop to my parents' house so I could watch some DVD's if I woke up early. My choice was the comedy series "Benidorm" (and ironically one of the episodes was where Madge was getting married to Mohammed in a scam marriage to get some money back that is in his name that was her previous husband's (he died in the Christmas special), and it turned out he was a con artist and was only going to marry her as he knew her previous husband was rich, and didn't know he died poor and left Madge with nothing because of it).

My Maid of Honour, Claire (I'll have to refer to her as Claire A as the lady who did my hair is called Claire too, so will have to refer to that Claire as Claire B, which are their surname initials) was staying with her parents, who are my Godparents and live next door to my parents was texting me, which kept me company when everyone was asleep!

Eventually, when I heard movement from my Mom I had a cup of tea made for me and went downstairs for toast. I was so happy that I didn't get that nervous that I had a loss of appetite or felt sick, in fact I was starving so I was the opposite! I really fancied a nice bacon and egg sandwich, but settled on the toast!

I had a shower and got myself ready for 11.30am when my Mom's friends Jo and Claire B came over to do my make up and hair. Claire B's daughter, Leah came over too and she did my nails again for me. The atmosphere was lovely, very calm and we were just chatting away.

Chris, bless him, got me to listen to the radio station I listen to that morning, and he sent a message in to the station, which they played out saying a big shout out to me on our wedding day, which was so sweet!

My Mom was more nervous than I was, and was "faffing"! I was getting annoyed with the "faffing" but trying not to show it. My Dad kept himself to himself, he doesn't like the house full of people and isn't one to socialise that much. He's not rude, and he'll speak to anyone, he'll be friendly and welcoming, but doesn't like to be around a lot of people, particularly a lot of people, and parties, etc are really not his thing. I'd told my Dad about my Mom "faffing" and said it was getting on my nerves, and he said she'd been like it for weeks over the wedding and in the nicest possible way said he couldn't wait for the day to be over to stop Mom from "faffing", which I totally understood as it wasn't an offense to me, it was putting up with Mom "faffing" for weeks! (Cue the overuse of the word "faffing"!)

Anyway, Claire A came over after her hairdressers appointment to have her make up done by Jo. I think she was surprised over how calm I was, and she was really calm at her wedding nearly four years ago! The flowers arrived at around 1.15pm, and my Mom and Claire A brought them in, with Claire A saying how beautiful they were (I was having my hair done in the dining room with my back to the living room door so couldn't look properly) but when I went in she was right, they were gorgeous!

My Bridesmaid, Abi came over around 1.50pm. She had her hair and make up done at her parents' house (she did her own make up and her Mom did her hair). Claire A and Abi got changed upstairs and waited for me to have my hair and make up finished and go upstairs to get changed into my dress (Mom helped me). They then came upstairs to me and helped me with my necklace and bracelet whilst I put my earrings in. By which time my friend from my last place of work, Andy had come over to take some photographs of me, my parents and Claire A and Abi (photography is his hobby and I asked if he could come over in the morning, and he said he would. I offered to pay him any expenses and he said no, which was lovely). He took some gorgeous photographs, I'll have to try and add them on here at some point! I was chatting away to him when I was downstairs and everyone else was upstairs or somewhere else, and he was surprised at how calm I was! He said he expected me to be a wreck, but I was fine! Ok, a little shaky at times but only a little and nobody seemed to notice that as it was so slight and only occasionally!

The first car (the Daimler for me and my Dad) arrived around 2.45pm like they said they were. The second car (the Jaguar) was picking Chris and his brother and parents up around 2.45pm and were coming straight to my parents house, so anticipated them to arrive around 3.10pm in time for my Mom, Claire A, Abi, and we let Andy go in the car as he needed a lift as his partner had taken the car with her. Instead it had arrived by 2.50pm! We had plenty of time as we weren't due to leave my parents' house until around 3.10pm. We had some more photographs, had a bit of a chat, and then me and my Dad got into the Daimler as everyone else got into the Jaguar and we left for the church. It was only a short journey, around 10-15 minutes in total. Dad was talking away to the driver about cars and the car itself, asking allsorts of questions like how many miles to the gallon does it do, when he got in he said something about the model, which was right, and went over my head completely, but my Dad likes cars so I like to think he was in his element a bit there! We was even having a bit of a laugh and a joke on the way, it was such a calm atmosphere!

On arrival at the church, I was still really quite calm! A little shaky like I said but not much at all! Chris was a wreck apparently! I saw our Page Boy, Joshua, and he looked so proud and was so good. I kept asking him if he was ok, and he was. I asked how his little brother was (he'd been up all night being sick so stayed at home with his Dad), and Claire A, bless her really looked after him. Joshua has a lot of problems going on with behaviour and is getting help from school. His self esteem is really low, and we were worried about him and how it would affect him, so Claire A took him under her wing and looked after him. He was golden! We were both so proud of him on the day, and we praised him up so much all day! We'll see them tonight as it was his Mom, my best friend, Toni's Birthday on Thursday but we were on holiday so going to see them tonight, so he'll be praised up even more when we see him! After some more photographs and getting to the steps just as the Vicar was doing his welcome, fire exits, that kind of talk (which he does before the Bride arrives, but I got there before he'd finished!) He came and welcomed us at the door, then the service began. I was saying "alright" to people, and was so calm overall, more conscious of people looking at me than nervous.

We got to the altar, and it took a while for me to realise that I hadn't even turned and looked at Chris! I suddenly thought I hadn't seen him in 24 hours and not seen him in his suit and looked at him! He was very smart and looked gorgeous! Luckily the service hadn't got underway ("Here Comes the Bride" seemed to play for a long time after we got to the altar so it was ok!) The service began, the hymns were sung, the readings were read, the vows were said, the rings were given (our Nephew, Elliott was a ring bearer and came to give the rings, and was brilliant! He's only two, and was bribed to give them by his Dad, the Best Man and Chris' brother, Nathan, who gave him a small sandwich bag of grapes in exchanged for the rings!) And the best thing was, after all the trouble with the rings mine went on my finger fine on the day!

We did the signing of the register, and finished the service and went outside for photographs. After those we went to the car, and the drivers congratulated us and there was a bottle of champagne on ice in one of those ice buckets on a stand by the car. The driver told us it was a gift from my Mom, which was really touching! We thanked her and Mom then told me it was off my Godparents so we thanked them as well. The driver popped the champagne cork, which went right over the road to some alcoholics that sit there, so guess what happened then...they came over asking if they could have some! They weren't much bother really, just lingered for a couple of minutes and left, no trouble at all! The trouble is we were at a church in a town centre that is notorious for drinkers and drug users, so you'd kind of expect something like that, but it didn't get to us really. One foreign man held the door to stop Chris closing it, speaking away in another language, but he soon left.

We went around to the local grounds for some photographs with the car and just me and Chris to give us some time to ourselves. These went really well, took a little longer than we anticipated but all was well.

At the reception we walked in to everyone cheering and clapping us. We had a welcome drink (which they'd forgotten to do so my Mom, Claire A and Nathan were doing it and distributing it). We had the speeches. They were so good, and really kept us entertained. Time was against us a little so when the Best Man did the cars off those that couldn't come along we didn't do them all, but the first one was from one of the Ushers, Paul and his fiancé, Jo, with £30 inside. I took the money off Chris and did the most ladylike thing ever....stuck it down my cleavage! It was captured on the DVD too and so many people just laughed at me! Only thing was that during the night it stuck up so much, and the dress was a little revealing in the cleavage and boob department that I'd talk to people and they could just see some £10 notes sticking out my cleavage! Hehe!

We had the confetti shot outside and did the first dance, cut the cake, mingled, and Chris and some of his family took things over to our hotel room over the road.

By the end of the evening we went to our hotel room- it had a do not disturb sign on the door handle (you can imagine what it said on there!) When we got in, someone had inflated a giant penis and put it behind our pillows! Anyone who has watched Mrs Brown's Boys will understand, but the first thing we thought of, and the first thing Chris did, was ride around the room on it singing "Sex Bomb"!

We went to bed opening presents and cards, and finished them off in the morning. Chris went down to take things to the car and told me the car was decorated- three helium balloons and chalk pen on the windows, a ball and chain on one window, other things on two windows, heart on another and the back window with Just Married, the wedding date and Mr and Mrs Groves on the back windows. A nice gesture, a little rude but not over the top, so we were happy!

And that pretty much sums the day! It was perfect! Anything that didn't happen didn't matter, it all went perfectly regardless!

Photographs and the Honeymoon report will be written soon!

xx

 

The Groom, Chris.


Chris with our Ushers, Chris' cousin Paul (left) and our God Son, Lewis


Chris with his parents, Tina and Pete, and his brother and Best Man Nathan.


Chris and his Brother/Best Man Nathan


Chris and our Ring Bearer/Nephew Elliott


Me and my parents as we arrived at the church


Me and my Dad outside church

 

At the altar


Sealed the deal!

 

Signing the register with Best Man Nathan, Maid of Honour Claire and Bridesmaid Abi


Us on the steps outside the church


Bridesmaid/Chris' cousin Abi, Chris, me, Maid of Honour/"Big Sis/Godparents' daughter Claire and our Vicar Andrew with our guests behind us.


Having champagne poured out by our driver, which my Mom organised and my Godparents paid for


Drinking the champagne!

Will add some more soon!

xx

 

That's a selection of the professional photographs!

xx

 

Honestly, they are some beautiful photos! Congratulations again to you both! xx

 

Oooooh so much to catch up on! I'm in Dublin at the moment, I'll have to have a read when I get back. Can't wait!

 

Thank you! The photographs are brilliant! Our DVD is fab too, the only problem is there kids crying throughout the ceremony and on the DVD it makes it difficult to hear what is going on. At the front nine times out of ten we could hear but near the back you couldn't, and people seemed reluctant to take their child out if they got restless. Unfortunately the restless children were by the video camera so it picked them up a lot more so. I love children, and could never tell people they can come but their children can't, but I can see why some people choose to have no children at their weddings- its too long for them to sit still and quiet. If their parents take them out to calm them down its different but when people don't it becomes an issue. My best friend (who's 7 year old was Page Boy and who was meant to be my Bridesmaid but was 32 weeks pregnant and couldn't get in the dress) has a 2 year old boy as well. She said she was thinking of leaving him with his Dad as it would be too long for him and he wouldn't sit still and quiet for that long. It turned out he had suspected chicken pox at the start of the week before the wedding and wasn't going to bring him if it was confirmed to be chicken pox as we had pregnant women and Chris' Great Uncle with Leukaemia and had recently undergone chemotherapy so she wasn't going to bring him to risk passing it on to others. It turned out not to be chicken pox, but on the Friday night/Saturday morning he was up all night being sick so he stayed at home with his Dad anyway.

Me and Chris have both said now that if we have children and we get invited to a wedding and the children are really young (I'd say under 2 or 2 and a half) I would seriously consider asking one of our parents to babysit them for the service and collect them to take to the reception afterwards. Every child is different, and some children can sit still and quiet for longer- our Nephew and Ring Bearer, Elliott is 2 and you barely heard a peep out of him, but the majority of young children can't sit still and quiet for a long time. Ours was a church wedding too, which is usually longer than a registry office or civil ceremony (ours was about 40 minutes I think).

xx

 

I'm so pleased it all went so well! Know exactly what you mean about 'faffy' mothers, it can get really annoying can't it?! After all the trouble you had with the ring I'm so pleased it went on fine on the day!!

Your photos are beautiful, you make such a gorgeous couple! Have you decided which ones are going into an album?

 

Thank you Becky! A lot of people have told us that, and yes, "faffing" gets annoying! So pleased about the ring too! I'm glad the phrase "It'll be alright on the night" came true!

Yes, we selected them before we went away and got them back on the day we got home. They're gorgeous! We had 512 photos taken, then had those 512 not only in colour but also in black and white and again in sepia, so that left us with a total of 1536 photos to choose from and needed them whittling down to 90! The beauty of it is that we got the disc with all the photos included with the package so we have all of them anyway.

We got a digital photo frame as one of our wedding presents, so I found out a 4GB SD memory card and managed to get all the photos in colour, about three quarters of them in black and white and about half of them in sepia on it, so the majority of them are now in the digital photo frame (albeit turned off currently!)

xx

 

That's a great idea!

 

I love it! Couldn't wait to get them all on there! I made sure I did it as soon as I found an SD card as I knew it wouldn't get done otherwise!

All the wedding gifts of the Debenhams Gift List have arrived today! Its like that's the final things for the wedding now finished, apart from putting some more money in the building society that got given to us yesterday. Normality, although it came on Monday is now returning even more so, and will do properly Saturday when I return to work!

xx

 

Brilliant photos, it looks like you had a fabulous day

I loved choosing photos for our album so have fun with that!

We didn't have children at our ceremony, well we only had my parents and sister. We had several small children (and a newborn) at our reception and they were all really well behaved and our speeches went on for an hour and a half!

 

It was brilliant thank you, had a fantastic day! xx

 

Lovely! Congratulations!

 

First off congrats to you and your new hubby. Second off, it looks like the day went off without a hitch. It is very exciting. I loved your dress and you made a gorgeous bride.