our perfect wedding day

Hello!

Well....we did it!  After months of planning, stress, tears and one or two tantrums, my wonderful fiancé and I stood up in front of 50 of our closest family and friends, said our vows and became husband and wife.  At the risk of sounding a bit clique, our day was perfect...it couldn't have gone any better.  However, I nearly had a breakdown the 24 hours previous so I kind of felt all my bad luck was out of the way (traffic on the M25, 3 hour journey taking 7 hours, cutting my finger and blood on my dress were just a few of the disasters the day before!!)

It took Glen six and half years to propose to me and on our first day as husband and wife, we had been together eight years.  So...no rushing in our house!  Some people might say that after having two beautiful kids, house, joint bank account etc. etc. marriage would be just a formality and a little unnecessary.  I guess that is partly true, on the face of it nothing has changed (we even had the same surname already, how crazy is that!?) However, I feel different.  I feel closer to Glen than ever, I feel that our family unit is complete and that we're a team that have each others back.  

We decided to get married in Enfield, North London where Glen is from.  The reason for this was, basically, he has approximately 4,000,000 members of his family and I have about 20 close family and friends.  Everyone travelled up from Wales (where we live and I'm from) so I'm so lucky I had everyone there I could have wanted.  My mum was there helping me get ready, my dad was there to give me away and my beautiful children and my little niece were my bridesmaids.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

 

Glen had left for London on the Wednesday morning to spend some time with his best man who'd travelled all the way from Canada, which made our wedding day!  They've been friends since they were born (three days apart) so I'm not sure we'd have done it without him, it meant so much to have him and his family there. 

 

Glen and his groomsmen, his best friend, two brothers, dad and stepdad

 

I'd travelled up the day before with my mum and dad and my girls...what should have been a three hour journey turned into a seven hour test of my nerves!!  For those of you that don't know the M25 it is the motorway from hell on a good day!  I had things I needed to collect from Glen that he had to drop to my lovely friend at my hotel, plus I hadnt seen him since Wednesday and the girls really missed him.  By the time I got to my hotel it was too late to meet up as we wanted to keep the tradition of not seeing each other before the wedding.  So me and my girls, who were in my room, settled down for the night in our hotel.  I think I managed four hours sleep!!

 

So happy my lovely daddy was there to give me away!  He scrubbed up ok too!



The morning of the wedding went by in a blur!! We didn't have to leave for the registry office until 3.30pm but it seemed to go so quickly!  Girls getting their hair done, my make up being done, photographer turning up to take photos of little bits I wanted before the wedding like my dress and my something old etc.  The car turned up (I wanted a traditional London Cab which one of Glens friends drives and kindly did as a wedding gift) and we had a few photos of me and my dad taken before leaving for the Registry Office.  People must have seen me in the back and the ribbons on the car because all the way there people were beeping and waving and shouting congratulations....made me feel so special!

 

 

By now I'd spent the whole morning an emotional mess after the stress from the day before, missing Glen like mad (ahhhh!), tired after only four hours sleep and I just wanted it to be time to leave already!  Walking down the aisle and seeing all my family and friends is a moment I'll never forget...all the nerves went, all the tears dried up and I was just beaming!  That Cheshire cat grin lasted for the rest of the day too!!

 

We did it!  See those smiles....they are part happiness, part relief!

I got through my vows without a single tear (something I was terrified about...I really thought I'd blub the whole way through!) Glen did amazingly too although couldnt look me in the eye incase he burst into tears.  Then it was over...our lovely registrar announced us as husband and wife.  A moment I'd been waiting for my whole life and even more so for the last eight years.

Our first dance and husband and wife

 

From there the day just got better and better.  Lots and lots of amazing photos (some of which are on my Instagram if you follow me!)lots of dancing, speeches, our first dance as husband and wife, good friends, well wishes and maybe one or two glasses of something bubbly!! Glen's best man did him proud with a speech that made us both laugh and cry and everyone danced the night away!

 

Our first dance was "All of Me" covered by Jasmine Thompson.  If you get a chance, look her up on YouTube she has the voice of an angel.  I walked down the aisle to her version of "A Thousand Years" and there wasn't a dry eye in the place. 

 

There's always a worry at any event that people won't enjoy themselves, or something will go wrong, made worse for me by the fact that I'd asked a lot of people to travel across the country just for me!  I was worried that as we paid for everything ourselves our wedding would come across as "budget" and people wouldn't enjoy it but it literally couldn't have been any better if we'd had £20,000 to spend.  Everybody has said what an amazing time they had and everyone got along amazingly which considering England played Wales in the Rugby World Cup during my reception, I'm very grateful for!! (Incidentally, Wales won and we were very gracious about it too....not!!!)

I hope you've enjoyed a little glimpse into our perfect day.  I'll be doing a blog post on a few of the DIY bits I did for our day too, so check back for that.

Until next time, thanks for reading!