Saturday, June 6 had finally arrived!
Sleeping the night before the wedding….mmmm….well – it was pretty non-existent!
I did try! I am not normally a person who struggles to get to sleep, I think I managed about three hours, and then I was wide awake by 5.30am.
I had been hit by a massive amount of pre-wedding jitters, I am usually a VERY calm person. My stomach was churning, I couldn’t eat, and I had to keep myself busy.
By 7am I was making my flower crown, I had already wrapped the wire in florist’s tape the night before, so all that was left to do was to prepare the flowers.
I used ivy for my first layer, tying each piece on with green garden wire, more green foliage also created the first layer. I then gradually added some purple flowers including sweet rocket and cat mint. I added a piece of wire to the stems of any flowers that were likely to droop, I had a couple of anemones which I did this to. The crown was kept it in the fridge to keep the flowers cool. Wrapping each stem with florist’s tape helps to hold in any moisture and stops the flowers from wilting.
Mum left to go to the hairdressers and to drop off Lee’s suit and buttonhole, Jon headed up to the field to drop off the bottles of flowers for the tables.
9.00am: Hair time! I was very lucky to have a friend from the school come and do mine and the girls hair. I had shown April some pictures from my Pinterest board, and she nailed it straight away. I had my hair slightly backcombed, then French plaited at the sides meeting in the middle. She then loosely curled my hair with an amazing contraption (BaByliss Pro Perfect Curl) and she used serum to separate the waves afterwards.
The girls had waterfall braids, which I’d also been practising at home too, but I decided that trying to do both the girls hair on the wedding morning might be too much for me, April has done waterfall braids before so luckily for me she was happy to do their hair. The girls had sections of their hair curled and it was clipped at the back with a large white flower. April was with us for two hours in total and she did a fantastic job!
I managed to eat a roll (just about) and I’d taken some tablets to calm my tummy. Our bouquets came out of the buckets to let them drain off.
11am: Make-up time! Marie and Debbie from Bridal Beauty Experts turned up, again Marie is a friend from the school, and she always looks amazing. I had been for a trial with her a few months before and she did such a great job. Paul put some music on the record player, so we listened to my original 1980’s vinyl - Culture Club Karma Chameleon along with White Wedding by Billy Idol and Footloose, I was now starting to feel a bit more calm. Mum had her make-up done by Debbie whilst Marie did mine. It was all very natural looking, with slightly dramatic eyes (for the photographs) and nude lip gloss and flawless looking skin. I was starting to feel rather glam!
Meanwhile, at home, Lee had already been up to the field, taking various bits up there and applying finishing touches. His family had also all arrived from Cornwall, so they were all busy getting ready in our flat.
I had to put the finishing touches to the bouquets, I wrapped the stems with hessian first and tied string around them. The girls’ posies were then tied with sari ribbon in various tones of aqua and blue and I tied mine with sari ribbon in wild orchid colours of lilacs and soft pinks. The sari ribbon came from Yarn Yarn.
My brother Andrew had also arrived, and was helping to keep Finley entertained. I’m guessing it was now after midday? I had no concept of time at all. Mum took the children upstairs and they all started to get dressed. Paul had been taking pictures most of the morning of us getting ready, now he was dressed too. I had a quick freshen up and then got my dress on, put in my earrings, put my bracelet on and headed downstairs to put my shoes on. I pinned on my beautiful bridal charm under my dress, it was made by friend Claire from Betty’s Glamour Box.
We did a final check: Rings; box of bubbles; birdcage; flowers and chunk of wood (for the table decorations in the registry office) they were already in the car. I put on my flower crown and headed outside where my Nan was waiting and a lot of the neighbours had come out to watch.
The sun was shining and the sky was blue – how blessed were we?! I got into the Paul’s Fairway with the children, he’d decorated it with white ribbons. Mum, Jon and my Nan travelled behind and Andrew followed.
I’m glad I travelled with the kids, it kept me calm, it’s possibly the calmest I’ve seen them! It’s a 17 mile journey to Leatherhead but we seemed to arrive very quickly, I had butterflies and a very dry mouth! We were all very early, another wedding was still finishing, so I had to wait in the taxi with the children so that Lee didn’t see us. It was so lovely gradually watching friends and family arrive.
Pictures copyright of Paul Martyniuk - Anarchy Photography
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