My Wedding Day!

We’re going back a little while here guys – Saturday 1^st July 2006!!

I spent 22 months planning my wedding and can honestly say I LOVED it! Of course I suffered with a few sleepless nights worrying that everything was going to go to plan and that I would fit into my dress (those bridesmaid meetings played havoc with my waistline!!) but overall I really enjoyed the experience! My wedding unleashed a very organised side to me and I found I was a bit of a control freak too!! The only problem I have now is that this side of me didn’t go back into hiding once I was married!

My favourite part was researching each aspect to find my perfect suppliers – filling my Paperchase notebooks full of magazine cuttings and ideas! It’s amazing how much has changed in the last 5 years though. When I was engaged all my planning was done on paper and by phone- It wasn’t until the last few months that I really used emails. I am quite envious of brides planning their weddings now. Most suppliers today have their own websites showcasing all their products & designs and Twitter is such an invaluable source too!

Now I have to confess first of all that I was unable to scan my wedding photos today BUT I am hoping to try again later (the hubby is bringing another scanner home from work for me to try!) and will upload them as soon as I can – I promise!

Like most brides, I spent a lot of time praying for good weather on my wedding day and I must say God was very good to me – a little too good maybe! It peaked at about 98 degrees and was extremely humid!

I got married in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, London by the lovely Canon Cronin. I have attended this church all my life and my Mum and Dad were married here too so it was quite special that I was able to follow the family tradition.

I had my reception at, what was then called The Conrad Hotel – Chelsea Harbour (it is now called The Wyndam Grand I think??). This was all a bit of an accident really as I was meant to be going to view the hotel at Chelsea FC but we took a wrong turn (no Sat Nav for us then – which, going off topic, has actually saved my marriage on a number of occasions but more about that another time!) and ended up at The Conrad. It wasn’t until a few days later, when I took a call from the angry wedding planner at the Chelsea FC hotel, that I realised my mistake – oooops! All turned out well in the end though!

We hired coaches (Redwing) to take all our guests to the reception and the lovely drivers had lots of cold water and the air conditioning on full blast to make the journey comfy for everyone!

Our lovely photographer, Nikole Ramsay (www.nikoleramsay.com) was an absolute angel and made everyone so comfortable. She was very unobtrusive and the photos we have are amazing! They tell the story of our day perfectly. I hate having my photo taken so the reportage style really worked well for us.

When we booked our wedding we kind of didn’t taken into account that our date fell right in the middle of the World Cup. We sat working out the dates on which the games would be played and we were VERY worried when we realised that, if England progressed, they would be playing on the day just as we were about to have our dinner!! Now, both myself and my husband are big football fans so rather than panic we just incorporated it into the day and had a ‘Football’ room and delayed dinner. It all worked out perfectly!

One of the things I knew quite early on when the planning started was that I wanted my guests to have a choice when it came to the meal and again we wanted to make this a reflection of our personalities too so we both chose our favourite meal – Bangers and Mash (hubby) and Steak Pie and homemade chips (Me!!). We also offered a chicken, fish and vegetarian option too.

For the evening reception we had a DJ. Again we spent a long time deliberating the pros and cons of a band but we just didn’t find one that we thought would suit everyone’s taste so we felt a DJ was a good option. When we sent our invitations out we asked each guest to list their 3 favourite songs when sending back their RSVP and we collated this information for the DJ so we could ensure everyone was catered for and it worked perfectly - the dance floor was full all night!

When sending these requests, the DJ also asked us to give him our 3 final songs too and wanted us to choose songs that meant something to us. Our song choices were ‘I’ve Had The Time Of My Life’ as this was a song that I shared with my close Friends who I wanted to say a big thank you to, the second to last song was ‘New York, New York’ – a good old classic but fitting as it was where we were going on our honeymoon. Our final song was one of my favourite memories of the whole day! This one was for my Dad – You’ll Never Walk Alone. My family are all big Celtic fans and all our guests formed a huddle with my Dad and me in the middle. It was such a special moment and still makes me feel emotional just thinking about it – happy emotional!

I loved my wedding day – there were a few hiccups but none of them bothered me and were all fixed (again by the fantastic Terri!) – My husband and I got married and shared our day with all our closest friends and family and that was just perfect!

My advice to anyone planning their wedding would be to try not to stress out over the small things or worry if things don’t go exactly to plan – no one will notice as they won’t know they are wrong! Treasure each moment as it just goes so quickly, and try to sneak in a quick 15 mins alone time with the hubby just to stand back and look at everything you have achieved and the guests all enjoying themselves. That was another great moment!

My final piece of advice would be to bag yourself a bridesmaid who really understands you and will sit and listen to all your wedding woes even though we are boring them to tears! It's always very handy to have that neutral opinion on your choices and they can be the voice of reason when you have your 'Bridezilla' moments too! 

Right, well that was my day! Tomorrow I will upload the photos and showcase all the lovely suppliers I used - keep the fingers crossed that I get the scanner working!! 

I’m sorry if I waffled but once I start I can’t stop! You should count yourselves lucky that my dinner is ready otherwise I would have gone into much more detail!

Emma xx