Our Wedding: Part 1

It seemed only natural to split this in to two posts, not only to make it less image heavy (the second one more than this one!) but because our wedding took place over two days.

On the morning of the 7th of August 2015, we woke up at our holiday home in Braunston buzzing with nerves and excitement for the day ahead. We decided it'd be easier to head back to ours to get ready, since we had to get married in Milton Keynes anyway, so we packed up our things (along with a big box of much-needed breakfast pastries to line our stomachs) and made our way over to ours, where my Mum and co had stayed the night before.

I did my own hair and make-up on Friday, and spent my morning trying to get ready as calmly as possible. We got the kids sorted, shared breakfast with family and friends and answered texts from those who were wishing us luck, apologising that they couldn't make it or double checking what time they had to be where.

We were getting married at the registry office in Bletchley, and they weren't kidding when they said limited parking on the website. Luckily we had left early and after driving in circles for ten minutes or so, we found a space that gave us one hour and decided we were basically going to have to run back from the ceremony to make it back in time. I'd seen my friend Kathy driving around to find a space too, so I sent her a quick text telling her which car parks not to even bother trying, then told her I'd see her inside.

I love that we have the same "what are you doing?!" face here

Once we were in, Jay and I had a quick interview with a couple of members of staff, one of which being the superintendent registrar who performed our ceremony. We got the fright of our lives when the woman doing the paperwork told us "I'm afraid we have to start with some bad news... We forgot to take a payment from you at your last meeting and unfortunately we can't perform the ceremony until we receive it". Luckily it was just the £4 for the certificate and we were able to find the change for her quickly, but our hearts stopped for just a moment! Jay was taken into the ceremony room and suddenly I was sitting in silence with a woman I didn't know, listening to our wedding CD playing, Moo causing mischief, everybody laughing at him and Jay telling him to sit nicely. I was lead to the hallway, where my brother was waiting (and scolded for playing on his phone!) to give me away. Suddenly it was time. I linked my arm with his, we took a deep breath and in we walked together.

Once we got inside and I saw everybody smiling at me, my nerves all but vanished. I grinned the entire way through the ceremony, and Moo running around behind us, shouting at the top of his lungs and hiding behind curtains and under chairs was actually exactly what I needed to break the tension. We laughed, he cried (I didn't! Woohoo!) and we high-fived after we said 'I do', and it was better than I could have planned it. We posed for some photos after signing the register then ambled back to our car. Luckily everything had ran smoothly and we had plenty of time before our parking ran out!

Jelly did a reading of 'You Are Not Your Age'

The rest of our day was pretty relaxed. We headed back to our holiday home, where we had friends and family popping round all day. We bought a tonne of salad and ready cooked chicken and laid it all out for people to grab if they were hungry, Jay and some friends went on some last-minute party errands and I waited in for deliveries and started cooking burgers for the next day. 

I just love how fed up I look walking back here!

We went to bed on Friday night feeling pretty accomplished, commenting that we couldn't believe how stressed out people got about their wedding day. If only we'd known what the next day had in store...