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!

Bookcase: Reading list

This is my current pile of books to read, mostly gained through amazon marketplace and charity shops.

I love Louis de bernieres, as you may gave guessed since the only other bookcase post was on a book of his too! Red dog is a short story based around a fabled dog in australia.

I read Dave Pelzers first book in this series last year, and I've been waiting for the second to appear in a charity shop for a while since. They aren't easy reading, but they are oddly compelling at the same time.

Some of the pile was influenced by my Christmas television watching - did any of you see toast? I watched it and loved it, so thought i should maybe read the book too. I'm about halfway through now, I'm finding it has a slightly darker undertone than the adaptation, but it's still great.

We also watched 'Eric and ernie' which reminded me of a book I found a long time ago about the pair, but never bought and was never able to find again, until now! This one is a republication so I'm assuming that's why I've not been able to.

The two without visible names in the middle were bought with some vouchers we were given, they are two of the river cottage handbooks. We already have several, these ones are for 'bread' and 'hedgerow'. Each one is written by someone who works around river cottage, so the bread one is by Dan his baker there. I thoroughly recommend the 'veg patch' one, I think it will be my reference bible in the next few years!

I read a thousand splendid suns and the kite runner last year, and saw the file of the kite runner when it was on last week. I love these books, despite all the tragedy, they really do show that we should be grateful for what we have, and that out of adversity can come beauty.

And finally, I read birdsong for the first time last year, so I thought I would try a couple of others by Sebastian Faulks too.

Have you read any of these? I'd love to know what you thought of them.

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!

The morning of the 16th

I slept better than I thought I would the night before, ably assisted by two cats pinning me down, and my childhood friend, penguin.

I did wake up early though, which gave me a chance to write my cards to the girls and my parents. (cards from papermash, that were in this post many moons ago.) I got up, left my presents out for my parents - I got my mum an amethyst and silver bracelet, and my dad got one of the tie pins we had made for all the men, I'll show them later. I managed to eat a banana, which I was actually rather impressed with since I cant eat when I'm nervous. The girls had all arrived by ten, and we all, with mum trooped p to the salon at the top to have our hair and nails done. the nails took the longest, with our hair being done shockingly quickly. really there was nothing to be done to mine, except having it nicely blow dried with a few rollers, and the girls had theirs put into poufy buns on the right hand side of their head. we'd only trialled this with one of them, and the other two were certain that it wouldn't work with either of their hair types (one too short, and one too fine) so they seemed very chuffed when it worked.

We walked back to our house via the butchers - he had taken a massively sarcastic interest in our impending nuptuals over the previous year, to the point where he got mentioned in our sermon, so I wanted to see him - and we found Anna at our house with Dad.

The next hour or so was a whirlwind of photos, makeup and running round in circles. I wasn't very nervous, certainly not like I had expected I would be, which was good. Anna took photos of all my outfit, we hung my dress off the massive old chestnut in the garden, I think James dad could see this happening from next door and must have thought I was mad! I'd mentioned the chestnut and the porch for hanging the dress up in as it would mean some of the photos had things we associated with the house in.

She also took photos of all my jewellery, thats my great grandmothers locket above, which was my something old and borrowed, and the earrings James had bought me the year before to wear at the wedding.

The girls hadn't been allowed upstairs before we went out, as I'd put their presents out up in my room. There was a little pile for each of them, with a card, a clutch bag, different jewellery for each of them, a hankie (remember them from way back when?!), and I'd found toeless tights, great for peeptoes on an october day, but they were more a practicality than a present! (M&S in case you were wondering)

Our shoes were all different, as we all wanted different heights, and I had anna take a photo of them in height order, as a little joke for me, and she popped them in the porch, which I love!

Lovely bridesmaid spent most of her time doing mine, my mums, and her own makeup, while we all floated around eating cheese and biscuits, and drinking bucks fizz.

I ended up with much less makeup than in my trial, just enough to give me some cover, but since James had done a double take at me that day, I went for a more natural look.

It was around this time that Anna left to meet the men in the pub, so there are no more photos, but we all ran around getting changed, my dad caused 20 minutes of panic when he went off up to the church to drop the car off with all our overnight bags in, and didnt come straight back. Turned out that the car park hadn't been opened as promised, and he went to sort it out himself!
meanwhile the wedding car turned up early to pick mum and the girls up and Mum got in a tizz because dad wasnt back (in all fairness two serious accidents had happened on that road the previous week). eventually he turned up, and mums parting words to me were 'make sure he sorts out his hair'.

Dad and I were left alone in the house, he went and got changed quickly while I stood around in the dress, and then I had to tell him what to do (movetheironingboard/letthecatsoutoftheconservatory/movetheirfood/tidythekitchenabit) while I sort of pivoted on the spot for fear of damaging said dress.

then it was time for us to go too!

all photos by the wonderful amazing Anna