Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts

Monday, 11 June 2012

A gorgeous vintage wedding and a little moan about the weather

I am a true English gal so I am going to start with a mini weather report.  It was appalling last week - not just rainy but extraordinarily windy too.  My carefully nurtured little seedlings have, for the most part, spent their first vulnerable weeks in the earth being battered by heavy rain and strong wind.  Every morning I've nipped outside in my jim-jams, anxiously checking for damage and tipping excess water out of the flooded vintage enamel trugs.


I am not enjoying this weather at all.  I am fed up with damp clothes drying all over the house, I am annoyed that I have to switch the lamps on before lunchtime and I generally just feel cross that flip flops, ice cream and heat rashes do not feature in my foreseeable future.  (Well, actually, that's a fib.  We've got a couple of holidays coming up, but you know what I mean.  I want sunshine at home! *wails*  In fact, I demand sunshine!  *stamps feet*)

♥♥♥♥♥

There is nothing quite like a forthcoming wedding to really ramp up the weather-related wobblies.  One of Andrew's oldest friends was getting married on Saturday and the wedding was one of the loveliest I've been to. (And there was no rain!)  I hardly took any photos because a) I was too caught up in the emotion of the day, b) the only camera I had with me was my iPhone and c) it was so windy that I had to hold down my dress to save flashing my [enormous tummy tucker] pants at passers by.  So I'm afraid that you will have to just take my word for it that the wedding was beautiful.  


Imagine a very slender and strikingly attractive bride in a creamy silk vintage sheath dress, her hand-span waist accentuated by a plain silk belt and diamante buckle.  She wore a little fur cape over her shoulders and just an embellished silk hairband to set off her thick blonde hair which was pulled into a low side ponytail.  She carried a posy of flowers that looked as though they had just been plucked from an old English garden and the shoebox-sized church was filled with peonies, roses and candles.  She and her husband (tall and handsome in a grey suit with bright pink socks) grinned from ear to ear all day.  It was such a treat to be part of their special day.


The reception was held in a black barn deep in the Suffolk countryside and a vintage double decker bus was hired to drive everyone there from the church. (They travelled separately in a chauffeur-driven pastel green classic VW camper van - so cool!).  Inside, the barn was gorgeous.  There were fairy lights and tea lights everywhere you looked, the table decorations were an electic mix of vases and old bottles filled with pale pink blowsy blooms.  If only the silver window vase on one of the tables had fitted in my clutch bag! :-)   We drank plenty of fizz, ate the biggest strawberries I've ever seen and washed down huge chunks of chocolate wedding cake with tea drunk from vintage china.  


The bride and groom have been together for ever having met in Australia when they were both on their travels.  When the groom, as part of his speech, thanked his parents for lending him the money to go to Australia, all those years ago, I felt a lump in my throat.  Aw!   

But every wedding needs a few minor incidents to make it memorable.  I will never forget the best man's speech which was shocking and hilarious in equal measure.  The entire wedding was translated into sign-language by a lovely jolly-looking grey-haired old chap and I still chuckle to myself now when I imagine how he interpreted some of the more 'blue' stories!

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So the jubilee bunting has been packed away and it's back to a full 5-day week at work for me this week.  Our spa membership is proving worthwhile so far - we've been a few times already.  In the evenings there are very few people and we often get the swimming pool entirely to ourselves.  RESULT!  The jacuzzi outside is uh-mazing and one of the other members told me last week that it's even lovelier out there when there's snow on the ground so I'm quite looking forward to that this winter.  I'm having my gym induction on Wednesday lunchtime and so don't expect to be fully mobile until the weekend afterwards.  I am ridiculously feeble in the gym.

Have a great week! 

Nicki 

x

Sunday, 25 September 2011

First Anniversary

We got married a year ago today.


This weekend I have been thinking about all the little details of our wedding: 

The night before, staying at the hotel with my sister.  Having beauty treatments in the spa all afternoon together.  Drinking champagne in the lounge and trying to calm my nerves.  Mum and Dad coming to join us later for pudding and more champagne.  Sis snoring all night (ha! she had a cold) with me lying wide awake beside her, willing the morning to arrive.  

Couldn't eat breakfast.  The hair and make-up lady arrived super early.  The morning was quiet.  Unnervingly quiet.  Mobile phone service was low at the hotel so texts from friends and family were not coming through - I worried that everyone had forgotten!  The minutes crawled by.

Then, suddenly, people started to arrive.  Time sped up.  From high in our room overlooking the courtyard I drank champagne and watched, unseen, Andrew and his friends, J, my dad and my brother in law all fussing with buttonholes having their photos taken.  Fixing their cravats.  The only thing that Andrew was in charge of for the day and everyone wore the wrong things.  The best man wore the wrong cravat.  My dad wore mum's corsage instead of his buttonhole.  


The bridesmaids appeared:  my cousins two little girls.  They were so excited to be princesses for the day and couldn't wait to have their photos taken.  I didn't realise that in the adjoining room, whilst I was having my photo taken, panic prevailed:  the littlest bridesmaid's dress was too small and her petticoat hadn't been altered so it was huge.  (The wedding outfitters had advised that alterations for children didn't need to be tried out, there was nothing that could go wrong - pah!).  The next hour was fraught with females getting ready.  Niece screaming and crying (she was a flower girl but so ill with a cold she had to be kept away for most of the day), hair being fixed, champagne being poured, wedding gifts and cards being delivered.  I was starting to feel stressed, I just wanted to go downstairs and marry my man.


Then, things started to quieten down.  The last photos were taken before the ceremony began.  Mum, dad and I started to relax:


And then, quick as flash, I was walking into a room with a string quartet playing and Andrew waiting for me.  He'd been told not to look around at me as I walked in and I had to tap him on the shoulder to say hi!

Our friends and family, the people I like best in the world, were all there looking fabulous.  The music was lovely, the weather stayed fine, the food was lush and we had the most amazing day.  I loved every minute.



 It was truly the happiest day of my life.  

Happy anniversary, Drew.  Bring on the next 30!

xx