Favourite Wedding Moments
A month on and the wedding is already a bit of a blur, all mixed into one playlist of songs and no idea what happened when and a haze of hugs and thank yous. I have a list of post wedding admin and jobs I need to get round to doing and one of them is writing down exactly how the order of the day went so I don’t forget and another is recording my favourite stand out memories so they stay with me forever.
Driving home after the ceremony - Undoubtedly one of Jos’ least favourite bits of the weekend was definitely my favourite and that was the few hours we had on our own after the ceremony. I feel like most brides and grooms don’t get much time on their own to digest the fact they just got married but we had and sure we filled the time with chores and making chocolate covered strawberries which probably wasn’t the most romantic start to married life but I really enjoyed that time by ourselves to chat.
Guests arriving - From the Friday afternoon before the pub quiz, we had guests arriving left right and centre and every time another car pulled up I had that familiar jolt of excitement through my bones. I had a proper excited fizzy tummy all afternoon and I loved seeing all our friends and family arriving and settling into their cottages and passing them on the farm that had up till that day been empty.
Walking round the corner of our barn to have our photos - We absolutely blitzed through our wedding photos, willing to run here there and everywhere in the fields in our wellies to get through them all in the freezing February wind. We’d had most of our photos out by our accommodation and hadn’t seen anyone since we’d got into our dress and suit so one of my stand out memories is walking across the gravel in front of the cottages and looking up to see all our guests at the big window of the main barn. Everyone was waving and cheering and people opened the doors to holler at us and it was the first moment we saw everyone and they saw us and we have some great pics of us waving and laughing at them all.
Making our entrance - Jos hates any kind of publicity and all eyes on him and I thought I was the same till the wedding where I thoroughly milked being the bride. I was always found, everyone knew where I was at all times and I loved walking into the main barn ready for our reception and everyone standing and clapping and whooping us as we walked (ran, pulled by Jos) through to the top table.
Eating the meal - I didn’t actually eat more than 4 mouthfuls of the meal so it wasn’t so much the eating itself but more when we were sat at the top table I looked up and nobody was looking at us, they were all just laughing and talking and eating and I had a moment to look around at all their faces and really take it in and I nudged Jos and was like “isn’t this mad that this is our wedding”. I found it really surreal to get out of the idea it was just a nice wedding party and remember it was for us.
Dancing with my nieces - My Mum and my brother got up in the first dance and boogied with my two nieces and after maybe one more song I found my 4 year old niece on my hip and that’s pretty much where she stayed until she went home. We danced to Uptown Funk and George Ezra (her fav) and it was insanely hot and I was SO sweaty and she kept accidentally yanking my veil and headdress down but it was the best hour of the night having them there with me. The baby loved it all and did some dancing herself on the floor and spent most of the evening in my Mum’s arms mingling and smiling at guests and for Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Grace’ it was just me and the biggest niece twirling all along the dance floor on our own and it was one of my most precious moments.
Sparklers - I have talked about how fun doing the sparklers was many many times already but it was 100% one of the best moments of the night, and produced by far some of my favourite photos too. It was 90 seconds of chaos trying to light them all and then passing the flame down the lines of friends and all the screaming, cheering, laughing and fun from everyone involved was just the best. Running up and down and people thrusting still glowing sparklers in our faces when ours were out and the wind (omg the wind), it was a highlight for me for sure.
Take me home country roads - The last but one song if memory serves me right and my friend filmed it which I am so glad about. Everyone still on the dancefloor made a huge circle and everyone was stomping away and singing their hearts out and my Mum was with my friends and Jos was the other side of the circle to me and I was under the arm of someone I can’t remember and it was one of those stick in your head memories for sure.
My little shadow - The Sunday was a much more relaxed affair as people were hungover, tired and ready to hit the road in order to beat the incoming storm but I remember in all the chaos of trying to pack up and get gone, my little shadow was with me all the time. My four year old niece wanted to be with me the whole weekend and was always hanging off my hand or sat up on my hip, mingling with guests, helping me with jobs or just wanting to be next to me at all times - even when I went to the loo. We went down to my Mum’s cottage to get something and she said she wanted to come back with me so we ran as fast as we could against the rain and the wind back to my cottage where she sat quietly in the super king bed, looking all tiny doing some stickers whilst we packed just yelling ‘yeah’ every time I checked she was ok.
