One year on

One year ago right now, I married my best friend.

Happy birthday grandpa, you would be 90 today. We'll celebrate your birthday too.

And happy first anniversary Ray, my anniversary buddy! Hope you both have a wonderful day.

credit where credits due, pt 1.

venue - Crosby Lodge
photographer - Anna Hardy
Bridal dress shop - Mia Bridal
Dress designer - Suzanne Neville
Stationery pieces - Daintree paper/Paperchase/Papermash/fiskars
Transport - Silver lady wedding cars
Bridesmaids outfits - Laura Ashley/Monsoon
Rings - Michael King/Wedding rings direct

etsy shops, used for jewellery for bridesmaids, and supplies for my headband: pianobenchdesigns/marynotmartha/whiteowl

disposables.

I thought it worth writing about these photos on their own, since I got several different opinions on them beforehand. Personally, I'm really glad we got them, I just wish I'd had more!

(in which I realise that anna is leaving, and james stares at my chest)

We bought 8 cameras in Boots one day, they were on a BOGOF offer so we only paid for 4, and about £5 each, I don't think that's bad. I didn't buy lovely white wedding ones, there's a limit, I reach it before I buy specially-coloured-for-my-wedding disposable cameras. (Having said that I dd make labels for them all, but since they seemed to make Annas day I think it was worth it :), also, thank you R, for help with the quotes!) Bear in mind when you're costing for them that you usually pay to have them developed as well. I think this was another £5 each for us, which SIL got done while we were on honeymoon. It was great to come home tired at night, and to have 8 films to look through straight away, it filled the gap while you're waiting for the professional ones to come back. So the total cost of these was about £60.

( an in joke on the left, from lovely bridesmaid and her husband and Anna!)

I was wondering whether I would be left with a load of half empty cameras at the end of the night, but luckily we weren't. At the wedding of a friend several years ago they had these, and she was left with a lot of cameras with 10/15 photos on each left to use, the only reason we didn't was thanks to the young boys on James side of the family. This was both a blessing and a curse. We put them out on the tables for dinner, by the time the eating was over, 4 of the 8 cameras were finished! The waiting staff then separated them out for us when they cleared up, packed the finished ones away for us, and moved the half used ones out into the bar rooms for us to use. ( I didn't ask them to do this, they were just extremely thoughtful!) The boys then cottoned onto the fact that there were cameras to be used, and went about their work! Its great that we ended up with finished cameras, and no film left to use up, but the downsides were that because they got used so soon I have no record of my evening guests, and I think the boys a) often forgot to use the flash, and b) didn't vary their subjects much, so the ends of the films are largely unfocused badly lit pictures of themselves!

What I'm trying to say is that if you have a choice of when to put them out/who to give them to, do. My mum had suggested doling them out to a few people in the evening and asking them to be photographers for the night. I sort of wish I had done this now, as some people obviously love taking photos, the proof of that is in the cameras from tables who used them up completely before dinner was over. I also wish I'd maybe bought more, given that they were BOGOF anyway, and kept a few back to bring out after dinner for the evening guests. but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The evening of the 16th

(I've deliberated over putting photos in here, all I have is the disposables and theres no way of showing you them without showing you my entire family! so this post is image free. :( sorry)

Once we were all in the dining room everything became a lot more relaxed. My parents and I had spent quite a while sorting out the table plan, and that was even without having any complex family politics! It was lovely to see everyone start to admire the table DIY bits, to see the groups of people we had sat together start to talk (there were some surprising friendships started), to hear the silence fall as people started to eat.

Between courses people moved around, got air -I may be talking about me here, a Suzanne Neville dress does wonders for your figure, bit it does not allow for a GOOD appetite- and took photos with the disposables.

We had a wonderful time at dinner, from where we were we could see the whole room, it was lovely to let the whole atmosphere wash over me. There was plenty going on on our table, even tho my bridesmaids were from disparate parts of my life each of them had met each other once before the wedding, but none of their husbands had ever met each other, or the best man; so it was great to see them all get on. Our tables camera was finished before dinner was over. When I went off between courses a load of random things happened that I didn't get to know about until the photos were developed!

After dinner we cut the cake, with the boys watching expectantly, I think they thought we would just start serving it up there and then. Then we all started to disperse into the other rooms. The evening guests had been starting to arrive as we had our coffee, there was a buffet people raved about for them in the drawing room.

We had swing playing in the drawing room, which for a large portion of the evening hosted one large family group and a lot of cooing over a new baby.

In the bar, which is two rooms joined together by glass doors, we had a massive iPod playlist playing most of the night, but at about 8pm lovely bridesmaids husband stepped up and started to play for us. This was a very last minute decision for us, he turned out to be the 'entertainment' at my hen do, I had never heard him play before that (acoustic guitar versions of pretty much anything he has a while to put his mind to) and I told James about it, we ended up asking him about 3 weeks before the wedding!

The whole evening was very relaxed, exactly how we had wanted, and I had worried that we wouldn't get. Shock horror, we didn't do a first dance! We had chosen a song just in case, but really didn't want to, fortunately. There's no space that demands dancing, so I don't think anyone noticed. In fact, most of you may find this odd and boring, but there wasn't any dancing. We wouldn't have been bothered if people did get up and dance, we'd cleared a space for it, but no one did. It was a really nice relaxed atmosphere, with family groups and friends chatting together, catching up, and getting to know others.

By about 11ish people were starting to leave, and there were a few groups dotted around and the people who were staying the night sitting around chatting. I was quite surprised to find my parents still up and part of the biggest group, by this point I was just wafting from room to room and gazing around, the same way you do after a really good Christmas day. when the last group left/went up to bed sometime after midnight, the bar staff just cleared up around us while we sat in a quiet corner, listened to our music, finished our drinks and mulled over the day. It was a wonderful way to end the day, sitting with my new husband, in my wedding dress, doing what we would normally do on a Saturday night.

The afternoon of the 16th

(yes, those are the gyp hearts we made the day before, outside the front door)

A lot of the afternoon reception is a blur in my head now, we got to Crosby lodge before most guests, and while everyone went inside and were given their first drinks we waited for Anna to grab us for our photos.

We wandered around the grounds of Crosby lodge with her, and a little bit upstairs, but we didn't want to be too close to the guests while this was happening. I don't remember much after this until the speeches, but apparently what was happening was that lots of random groups chatted, laughed, caught up with each other, and in one case, which I wish I'd seen, James godfather did card tricks for the kids!

(possibly the best photo ever. IMHO. thank you Anna!)

Eventually, just after 5, we got into position for the speeches. We wanted to do them before dinner in the bar, a couple of people suggested it to us, for the sake of everyones nerves, rather than having to wait to do them after dinner. I have to say it worked well, relaxed everyone and meant we could all enjoy the meal after.

We started with my dad, whose 2 sides of A4 terrified James I think! He wrote a lovely speech, mum and I had been teasing him for ages before hand about things that could and couldn't go into the speech, apparently he wrote it in one sitting and needed no amendments. The photo above was when he was comparing James to himself and saying how similar he thought they were!

Then it was onto James. The 'speech' word had not been mentioned much around our parts, it's one that was met with tumbleweed most of the time. I know that it was mostly in his head but only went onto paper that morning, as the friend he was staying with rang me to check the bridesmaids preferred names. However it was lovely, he was greeted with a cheer when he started with 'my wife and I' which I think helped!

Then it was my turn. Yes, I did a speech. Anyone who knows me (ahem) will know I always have something to say, especially on my wedding day. I was the classy one who had their speech written on the back of an envelope that I'd taken to bed with me the night before, and scribbled down as I woke up. I'd sat down in a quiet room about 20 minutes before the speeches to read it through, and got lovely bridesmaid to read it too, who pronounced it lovely. Apparently she then went back to her husband and told him that I wouldn't get through it without crying, how right she was! It wasn't very long, but my toast and thanks was to James parents, and when I got to that bit I couldn't speak! Anna managed to get photos of both James parents at that bit, his dad is master if the art of hiding but she got him perfectly.

Then it was the best man...
His speech was wonderful. Again, I think that this was written fairly late in the day, but he still managed 2 sides of a4 as well! He said some nice things, and then went on to give us some advice on marriage. Things like 'leave the toilet seat down' ( the only one I can remember). But the piece de la resistance came with the ending ( bear in mind we asked him to keep it relatively clean for the sake of my 2 great aunts...) 'becca, a man is like a tiled floor, lay it right the first time and you'll be walking all over him for years to come' ( I think the photo above was taken at the moment we realised what he was saying!). thankfully the aunts either didnt hear, or didnt understand, or just chose to ignore it, but everyone else loved it.

Then, it was time for dinner. everyone went through and was told where they were sitting, while we waited with the manager. They always announce the couple into dinner, which we knew nothing about, which is probably just as well as we would have said no, if we had known. I'm so glad we didnt know, as its one of my favourite memories of the day. the dining room was packed, and we had to walk the length of it to get to our seats, having been announced in as Mr & Mrs ..... and everyone was around us clapping and cheering, it was a ridiculous feeling of love.

Dinner was beautiful, there were 3 choices for starters and puds, and one main (plus a veggie option) we were waited on as if out for a meal, no prechoosing, they took our orders table by table. The tables had the most of my projects on:

menus (standing in corks)

table numbers

place names (standing in corks)

table centres - we had left the venue with instructions on assembling the centres, they misunderstood slightly and put the dried hydrangea petals on the table around the bowl. lovely bridesmaid and I wandered in at one point before dinner to check the room out all set up, saw this, and did not give a crap. considering how control freaky we were before the wedding it was wonderful to laugh and shrug and walk out on it again. I mean, what would I have done, spent 20 minutes putting them back in the bowls?

disposeable cameras

favours

we also made little bags of sweets for the kids, and the cake baked by my sister in law, and iced by a local sugercrafts lady, with the cake topper I made was standing in the centre of the room

Our table was us, best man, bridesmaids and their partners (and in one case child/my goddaughter). it was at this point that Anna left, and the disposeables took over, which just leaves me with about one post to write!

Belle amour

Hello all,
I've just dropped in quickly to say that today our wedding will be over at belle amour, written by the lovely Debs! Thank you so much for featuring us, and more importantly, annas work!
X

the ceremony

I'm not going to say too much about the wedding itself, I think it should be relatively private for us and our guests.

So here, instead, is a string of little moments, taken by Anna, with snippets of memories.

Holding hands

Friends reading for us

Godparents reading for us ( this is where I lost my nerves as we both knew James godfather was nervous about getting this right- I just held my breath the whole time)

Singing -the vicar complimented my dad on his volume!he's used to having to get a wedding going, not ours though, my family are all very musical and loud!!

Catching annas eye in the corner, and getting big grins back. It was so comforting to have someone friendly I could see!!

My bridesmaids whooping when we were announced husband and wife, (their excuse being that they couldn't clap for holding bouquets-apparently my mum told them off!)

I love this photo,

James' mum: are you alright mrs D?

Me: yes I am mrs D!!

And then walking out as husband and wife, to one of my favourite pieces of music, which neither of us can remember, and seeing the monocle again!

Greeting family and friends outside the church, many hugs and kisses, many group photos, a small amount of confetti, thrown mainly by tiny people, and then away!

Going to the church

 
I think James headed to the church about 1pm, my cousin, who was playing the organ, was coming up on the day by train, and was one of the first to arrive. James had been really looking forward to hearing him play (he's a tad talented) but he can't remember any of it!

Dad and I were ready to leave the house, but we were early, so we ended up sitting in the car with the driver for a few minutes, them chatting about old cars while I sort of gazed around wondering what was going on. After a few minutes we set off for the church. When we arrived the bridesmaids and a few randoms were waiting at the gates for me, including someone I used to work with. Anna took a few photos of us in groups, portraits with my dad, and some of the ushers staring from the porch. A few guests ran past us, and then the vicar appeared.

I remember there being jokes about the bridesmaids heights, following on from the previous night, hence the photos of shoes in height order, a prayer in the porch once the doors were shut, me needing to ask yet another question, and the vicar being oh so understanding of me.

Then the vicar flung the doors open, and boomed 'ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for the bride' and walked off up the aisle ahead of me.

Meanwhile I was trying to work out who everyone else in the church was, and why they seemed so tall! My dad had the say on when we started walking, (there was a particular point to move off at in the music apparently) so we were still standing in the porch, when suddenly, an old work friend sitting at the back grinned at me and gave me a thumbs up, and Istarted to realise who people were!

We had a friend (also at the back) who had been promising all sorts of bizarre outfits for a full year before the wedding, and as we stepped forward into the church, his hand moved up to his eye, to put a monocle in. (you can just see him and monocle in the photo above!) I'm so glad he did, it made me laugh and calmed me right down. And watching the reaction of his friends ( we all thought he would do it on the way out, not the way in) was brilliant too.

We got to the altar rail, and it was James who was the more nervous I think! His best man had asked him if he was going to look, as I walked up to them, he did, when I got to him he seemed on the verge of tears.

And then it was time to get married!

the mens morning

This is a not very picturey post because of James privacy and a not very wordy post because I dont know what went on. these are some of my favouriste photos of them all because its view onto a bit of the day I didn't see, and hadn't planned for 18 months.

He and the best man spent the night before the wedding at one of the ushers houses, and they all got ready there in the morning. All the men met for a pint at the pub opposite the church, which is their regular drinking haunt, and where anna caught up with them.

His nephews were ushers too, (I think they look best in the suits out of any of them! but dont tell him that...)

And from there they went onto the church, to start greeting guests!