Our Wedding Day in Photo's - the official and unofficial photographs

So this is how it all went down on the big day...

These are a mixture of the Official Wedding Photographs and candid photographs taken by the guests. Special thanks to Roy from Landon Road Photography for the photographs and for the guests for the other candid shots. 

Slater's Country Inn, Staffordshire Friday 10th October 2014.

As so many guests were coming from all different places (Northern Ireland, Germany, the USA etc), we decided that it would be nicer and more sensible to have everyone there the day before on Thursday 9th October. We all had a meal in the restaurant and managed to catch up with everyone which was really lovely and I think it really helped set the tone for the rest of the wedding celebrations, as by the morning of the wedding they all knew each other. As our guest list was only 27 people, this meant that everyone felt included, which we were very conscious of ensuring!

The venue was decorated beautifully by Jen and her team JG Elite Designs and I have to say, they did a fabulous job, the room was transformed, it was stunning. It took my breath away when I saw it. Our theme was dusky pink, ivory and burgundy. This was how it looked on the day for the ceremony:

On the morning of the wedding, Friday 10th October 2014, I woke at about 6am, already my belly was churning. I still had vertigo, so I was trying to ensure that didn't make me feel even more nauseous.  My mum rang my room, as she also stayed the night before, and at around 6.15am we went outside for a sneaky smoke to calm my nerves! We sat outside and I chatted with her until about 7am, It was a really nice moment to have with my mum and a memory I will always cherish. We saw my maid of honour and our bridesmaid making their way to my room so we grabbed them and took them upstairs in the restaurant to have breakfast. As for the breakfast, I wasn't hungry at all, I struggle eating breakfast at the best of times, but I was very conscious I wouldn't be eating until about 3.30pm so thought it was best to try and get something down me. Every swallow was like a lump going down, which didn't help. It wasn't that the breakfast wasn't nice, it was just every part of my body was denying me to eat. I was also having an uncontrollable twitch in my face, I really did feel like a bag of nerves. 

I looked out the window and this was what I saw, lovely weather and sun, not a cloud in the sky. After the terrible weather we had leading up to the wedding this was beautiful to see!

After breakfast we walked up to my room (I had the bridal suite all to myself the night before - haha! :)) and my hairdresser was already there waiting, Nikki. I had already met Nikki when she did our hair trials and she dyed my hair with highlights as it was looking quite dull, it was nice to see another friendly face. I highly recommend her for your wedding day. She immediately just slots in with your family like you have known her all your life, she is a genuine, lovely person and so easy to chat to. She is very skilled and has always done my hair exactly the way I have described - and she comes to your house: Hair by Nicola Jayne.

Our maid of honour Amy and our bridesmaid Harriet spent most of the day in my bedroom sorting themselves out and getting their hair and makeups done, it was quite a girly sesh! My sister/maid of honour had bought us white dressing gowns with our names on the front and our roles in the wedding on the back, so we were enjoying just chilling out in them!

Our bridesmaid Harriet just chilling out :)

My sister and Maid of Honour getting her hair done by Nikki  with a glass of bubbly.

Nikki working her magic

It looks like its dawning on me that I am getting married :) lol

 I had my nails done the day before from Bronze & Beautyful's Lauren, who was also doing our makeup on the day. I loved my nails!:

My first ever manicure!

Bridesmaid Makeup by Bronze & Beautyful

Bridesmaids and Bride makeup by Bronze & Beautyful

Mother of the Bride makeup by Bronze & Beautyful

There were some interesting photos being taken while we were getting ready;

Me with rollers in my hair!

While the girls were in the room with me, I decided to give them our presents we had bought them. I made a book for both Harriet and Amy which contained photographs from our good times at university and memories that they both could keep, I thought this was more personal than the standard charm bracelets and they loved them. 

We also paid for their dresses, jewellery, a sparkly clutch bag and some vera wang perfume:

Bridesmaid Gifts

I told the girls that they could choose their own shoes, a woman's shoes are very personal! Both of them opted for silver and sparkly flats, which looked great. As they had long dresses on, it didn't matter too much that they did not match exactly.

I gave my mum her present which was a gold necklace in the shape of a heart with the word 'mum' written on it, with sparkles;

I wanted to get my mum something super special as she helped me so much with all of the wedding planning and crafty items we made for the wedding. 

I also got her an embroidered handkerchief with this poem (from ebay):

Mum reading the poem from the handkerchief 

The handkerchief had embroidered 'mother of the bride' and the date of our wedding

This was the poem that I chose:

Poem:

Mum my best friend. 

 You’ll always be important mum,

Don’t ever doubt your worth,

To me you’re irreplaceable,

The dearest mum on earth.

Just knowing I can talk to you,

If life should cause distress,

Brings comfort to me day by day,

Far more than you can guess.

Your special love’s beyond compare,

It has been from the start,

When first you picked me up,

And held me to your heart.

When times were bad, you always lent

A sympathetic ear,

Always there to help and care

And wipe away a tear.

A mother’s love is constant

From beginning to the end,

And nowhere in the whole wide world,

Will I find a better friend.

I bought my dad a gold plated pocket watch, some cufflinks, some batman socks and a handkerchief of his own too:

Opening his 'father of the bride' cufflinks

Dad opening his pocket watch

The pocket watch I bought Dad.

This was his poem in his handkerchief:

Dad, My Super Hero

Of all the Super Hero’s

Who ever lived on earth,

There’s none who could live up to you

Or ever match your worth.

To me you are the greatest,

Simply an extra Special Man.

I’m full of admiration,

I’m your very biggest fan.

                                               I know sometimes I’ve let you down

And caused you deep concern.

I guess it’s part of growing up,

The lessons we must learn.

But your support was constant,

Through the heartache and the tears.

You took my hand and guided me

And soothed away my fears.

So now I want to thank you,

You’re the best I could have had.

That’s why you mean the world to me

And why I Love You Dad.

Needless to say, there were tears when I was giving these presents out!

Mark gave the presents to his mum, Dad, brother and usher, so I didn't get to see their reaction but I know they were all pleased with their gifts. We bought his mum an handkerchief also with embroidered date of the wedding and 'Mother of the Groom', as well as an engraved silver heart trinket box. 

Similar picture to the handkerchief we bought

This was the poem that we had for the Mother of the Groom:

Thank You Mum

It seems not long since I was small, 
my fingerprints along the hall;
playing games in piles of sand, 
or reaching high to hold your hand.

In those years I learned from you, 
you shared your love and all you knew...
You taught me why the skies are blue, 
and always one plus one makes two.

Then friends to make and school to go,
through it all you loved me so,
and all along you knew would come 
the day when I would find “ The One”...

The time's passed quick and now so near,
Mum, my wedding day is here.
This handkerchief is for your tears 
of joy, and those of yester years.

Thank you Mum for all you’ve done
my life with him has just begun.
Now the love I've learned from you, 
I'll share when one plus one makes two.

We got his Dad an engraved hip flask so he could take it with him when he played Golf. I don't have a picture of them though, sorry! His brother we bought him an engraved silver frame:

 They were all Ebay purchases!

I bought all of the men appropriately named cufflinks and Batman socks so that we could have a shot with them all posing with the socks on, this was a little nod to my Batman-fan husband!

I really liked this because they had so many different varieties which where appropriate for our unique wedding party, they had 'brother of the bride' for my brothers/bridesmen and 'uncle' for my uncle Eddie, as well as the obvious ones.

They also came in their own presentation box which really looked the part. The quality of them are really good and they are quite heavy, I bought them from Ebay, a simple search and you will find them. As you can see they were great value for money but kept with our sentimental theme!

Here is an official photo of the gents in their batman socks:

Up until about 12.30pm I thought the day was going quite slow, I know people say that the day flies but I felt like it was going at quite a nice, easy-going pace. 

All ready to go after hair and makeup. Lauren from Bronze & Beautyful did a great job on us!

After 12.30pm though it all went a bit manic and mad. Before I knew it, I was in my dress waiting for the registrar to come up to the room. 

I had all of my makeup and hair done and felt a million dollars. 

I was ready to get married, but I was absolutely terrified. I had one bridezilla moment where I refused to go downstairs until I had a cigarette, which sent my sister/maid of honour into panic mode as I wasn't in my dress yet and she started flapping, which made me flap and get even more nervous! After the cigarette and a few sprays of perfume later, the registrar came up to meet me. He was actually very lovely, I thought they'd be a bit stuffy and grumpy but he was very funny and made me feel very at ease. He even rehearsed with me what we would be saying, which actually didn't go too well, I felt like I had cotton wool in my mouth and I couldn't get my words out properly. I was really starting to worry that my nerves would get the better of me and I was shaking like a leaf. The registrar asked what type of wedding ceremony would we like 'a formal, very serious one' or a 'funny, laid-back' one? I opted for the latter and have to say he did a great job, he really did make everyone laugh at the ceremony. 

Once the registrar left the room, the time had come to get married. 

 My dad came up to get me and saw me in my wedding dress and all done up. He got so emotional which made me get really emotional too, I was like 'Stop making me cry dad!!' and he was like 'I can't help it!'. 

So after a few words of wisdom (not really, we just mentioned how nervous we both were!), we made our way down to the reception of the hotel where all of my brothers and bridesmen were waiting. I had one bridesmaid, Harriet and one maid of honour, my sister Amy. I also wanted my big brothers Ian and David, to be included in the day. I also wanted my best friend Tom and my brothers partner Ibon to be included too, so I made them my bridesmen - think honorary bridesmaids. They all walked down the aisle before me, I know this is not the way us Brits do it usually, as the bridesmaids follow the bride, but I wanted them all to have their moment. I thought having them go down the aisle before me would make it more special and I was right.

We had arranged for the bridesmen to meet us at the bottom of the stairs in the reception area. I imagined this moment to be like all of my brothers all going 'oooh and aaaahhh', but as I was still on the verge of tears (I was so emotional!) I said as soon as I came down the stairs - "Don't say anything nice! or you'll all make me cry!" so they all just stood grinning at me instead - I could cope with that! 

Then my bridesmaids followed me down;

How lovely do they both look??

We had the Sonoro quartet playing while everyone was assembling for the ceremony, this was such a lovely touch and made it so personal as we were able to select songs that suited us. 

Our videographer, Laura (Vision Wave Productions) was absolutely excellent throughout the day and managed to capture our day perfectly on video without being intrusive, see it here as you can see she did an amazing job, also check out her blog post about the day.

Some of the songs we selected for the quartet to play whilst mingling was taking place were; You're my best friend - Queen, Don't stop believing - Journey, God only knows - Beach Boys, Marry you - Bruno Mars, Just the way you are - Bruno Mars, All you need is love - Beatles. They also played while I walked down the aisle, signed the register and walked back down the aisle as husband and wife, but more on that later. For a complete list of our song choices, see our music selection.

We had arranged with the quartet that when the song 'All you need is love' by the Beatles was played that the next song would be the ceremony song; 'Kissing you' by des'ree and this was our indicator that we needed to take our positions (and get ready to walk down the aisle - eek!), as this was the song we chose to walk down the aisle to. I told the registrar that the last song to be played is all you need is love, so not to worry about timings, he went away and came back within minutes and said 'quick! it's playing, it's playing now!'. I remember thinking to myself 'Holy shit, this is it!' By now my fear was becoming a reality, everyone looking at me and feeling like a spectacle! I kept telling myself it's 27 people.. they are our nearest and dearest but it wasn't helping the nerves one bit! I had been told that once you get up there to the end of the aisle that all of your nerves disappear, so I was hoping that this would be the case for me too.

We made our way outside to the briar suite and where the ceremony was being held, it started to rain but this didn't deter us!;

So me and Dad waited under the arch way to keep out of the rain and caught some very cute photographs in the process;

As soon as I heard kissing you playing by the quartet from outside, I started to cry again!!

The Sonoro Quartet

 (Don't think I'd ever cried this much in my whole life!) 

I had about 40 seconds to get myself together until it was our turn to walk, which didn't end up happening as I was crying as I was walking up the aisle (lol!). The timings of the song went a little bit off kilter because the venue people were pressurising the first bridesman, Tom, to walk as soon as the song played which wasn't how we had arranged or rehearsed it, but the quartet managed to save the day and saw what was happening and amended the piece so that the crescendo in the song was when me and Dad walked in. That's professionalism!

Ken, the registrar, The groom and the best man.

Both boys are biting their lips!

My groom, Mark (in the glasses) and the best man, Mark's brother Chris.

This was my husband's view!

Here they are all walking down (they walked down before me so they could all have their 'moment', we went for the american way!), this is in order of how they walked down:

So, a bit untraditional but I had bridesmen as well as bridesmaids. This is Tom (pictured above), my best friend, I've known him for about 9 years now and we met at University, Mark had already selected who he wanted for his groomsmen/ushers and I knew I wanted Tom to be a big role in the day, so I made him my bridesman! I told him the night before while we were drinking in the restaurant / bar at Slater's that he would be the first to walk down the aisle and the poor bugger went white. Apparently this was horrifying news to him and I should have told him sooner! :) lol it was rather amusing. 

This is Ibon, he has been a fantastic partner to my brother David and is pretty much my brother in law, they've been together longer than me and Mark have (more than seven years!) and he is awesome.

This is my big brother David, I am the baby of the family and he has always looked after us.

This is my big brother and eldest of the lot, Ian, he got very emotional walking down the aisle, I think he was proud as punch to walk down the aisle and it meant so much to me.

This is my bestie Harriet, we met because she was dating Mark's housemate and best friend, James (or Chez as we lovingly refer to him as a nickname). We also had mutual friends, as soon as we met we quickly made friends. She's an awesome girl. 

This is my beautiful big sister Amy, she is my best friend, rock and such a huge part of my life.

So anyway, back to the ceremony...

I was supposed to arrive at the Kissing You (by Des'ree) crescendo of the song that the quartet were playing but as I went to walk forward at the bit, one of the venue ladies had hold of the back of my dress so I couldn't move forward. I turned around and she was faffing with the back of it, so I figured she just wanted to make me look nice...but ruined the whole moment in doing so! Oh well, the crescendo went on as Amy got to the end of the aisle, but to my amazement they replayed the crescendo as I got to the aisle too, so it worked out quite lovely. Good job quartet!

This was how the venue was decorated, so you can imagine why I felt like crying as soon as I walked in! it was so beautiful. We used Jen, Gareth and Jason from J & G Elite Designs in Burslem, Staffordshire. They were brilliant, look at what they did!

My friend had recently got married and her advice to me was 'You will be nervous right up until you meet your husband at the end and then all of your nerves go', I thought 'heard that before and it has to be bollox! she's obviously not as nervous as me' but in a funny sort of way, she was exactly right. As I walked, I couldn't see anyone but Mark who was standing at the end of the aisle. So much so, I was supposed to turn around and hug my dad when we got to the end of the aisle, but I completely forgot about him and couldn't stop staring at Mark lol :D It's like I completely forgot about my dad when I got to the end of the aisle - and probably the nerves got me a bit too - but terrible! oops!

Mark stood with the best man, Chris and the registrar Ken on the left.

Me and my dad walking down the aisle...frame by frame..

The moment he saw me :)

Me and Dad walking down the aisle to my husbamd!

 The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, we were under the arch way and facing our guests at an angle, which is quite unusual as the registrar pointed out, but we preferred it that way rather than our backs to the guests. 

When I said my vows I only messed up once, I got all tongue-tied with 'lawful impediment', I actually think I said 'unlawful impediment' :D but oh well! The registrar was great, he was making jokes and lightened mood all the way through which made everyone laugh, just what we wanted! We didn't want anything ordinary or stuffy so we loved that. When I said my vows I wasn't looking at anyone else other than Mark and it was true - all of my nerves went!, when my Dad gave me 'away' to Mark, I was supposed to hug him and tell him (Dad) that I loved him but I got so caught up in the moment that I just froze to the spot. There was an emotional moment when the registrar said 'Who gives this woman to this man" and my Dad stood up, took both of our hands and his wee face was full of tears. I think he was planning on saying something nice at this point, but emotion got the better of him! Bless! As I'm the youngest of four in the family, the first to be married and his baby as he always calls me, it all got a bit much for him I think! 

My Dad, formally giving me away.

My sister, our maid of honour did a reading for us and read a beautiful poem:

Your Wedding Day

Today is a day you will always remember

The greatest in anyone's life

You'll start off the day just two people in love

And you'll end it as husband and wife

It's a brand new beginning, the start of a journey

With moments to cherish and treasure

And although there'll be times when you both disagree

These will surely be outweighed by pleasure

You'll have heard many words of advice in the past

When the secrets of marriage were spoken

But you know that the answers lie hidden inside

Where that bond of true love lies unbroken

So be happy forever as lovers and friends

It's the dream of a new life for you

As you stand there together with love in your eyes

From the moment you whisper 'I do'

And with luck all your hopes and your dreams can be real

May success find its way to your hearts

Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys

But today is the day it all starts.

Mark's brother and best man, Chris, also did a reading. His was funny, the bit about making compromises such as 'frosties for breakfast instead of champagne' made us all laugh! 

Here was his:

Wedding Day

By Robert Palmer (1945-1997)

The day of your wedding

Is a time to reflect

On the things you can hope for

And the things to expect

You could hope for great riches

Huge bundles of cash

But then lose it all

In a stock market crash

Or you could hope for

A life of great ease

With the time and the money

To do as you please

But it's better to hope for

The good things in life

Like a long happy life

As husband and wife

Like the smile and the kiss

As you walk through the door

And the baby that wakes you

At a quarter to four

And a life of variety

With sunshine and rain

And frosties for breakfast

Instead of champagne

Expect times of anger

The occasional huff

Because no-one annoys you

Like the one that you love

But don't look for problems

That the future may bring

Just to love and be loved

Is a wonderful thing

Life's not all plain sailing

Not always a ball

But I know you'll be happy

Because love conquers all.

We then exchanged rings:

And then we were told we are now husband and wife, and Mark should kiss his bride:

Kisses on the forehead :)

After the ceremony we sat down to sign the register and did the legal bit which just involves signatures from both me and Mark and two witnesses, we chose our maid of honour Amy and Mark's brother and best man, Chris. Then they gave us a 'fake' book to take photographs, as you're not allowed to photograph the actual book, as it is illegal to do so.

I think this face I am pulling is because I thought.. oh no I don't know what my new signature is going to be - which doesn't matter as you sign your maiden name anyway!

You are now husband and wife!

The quartet played Coldplay's Paradise which was perfect to walk out to.

The guests followed us out.

It was amazing having our family and friends clap as we walked out as husband and wife, I was really worried that the song we chose, Paradise by Coldplay, was not jubilant enough, but actually it was perfect. The whole ceremony was.

This was the song we chose to walk back down the aisle as husband and wife, our quartet (Sonoro Quartet) did a great job.

We walked outside to the gardens where me and Mark were greeted with a bucks fizz from the staff and we were able to make a receiving line for our guests. It was great knowing that the nerve racking bit was over, now it was time to relax a bit!

We took quite a few photographs in the gardens outside but it started to rain so all 27 of us huddled under the outside marquee, as it didn't look like the rain was going to stop anytime soon, our photographer Roy (Landon Road Photographers) decided to take photographs from within the marquee with the backdrop of the Inn in the background.  Here are a couple that were taken in the marquee:

With my parents (the Brides parents)

With my in-law's (Groom's parents)

The Bridal Party (The bridesmen / MOH/ bridemaid, Bride, Groom, Usher and Best man)

With the MOH/ Bridesmaid

As you can see below there are quite a few so just to give you an idea of how they looked;

My face was really starting to ache from all of the smiling!!

After a few photographs, the rain subsided and we were able to move outside to take some photographs outside and outside the new wedding house that they had built and we were able to do the confetti shot, here are some of those:

I particularly liked this photo as the photographer asked everyone to do a silly pose and this was the result! 

My fella is a bit of a Batman fan, so as a bit of a nod to him I bought all of the men batman socks to wear and arranged with the Photographer to setup a shot like this on the steps at the venue! I think it turned out quite well! Mark's (the Groom's) are the grey ones at the top and the best man's are the black and yellow ones, the rest are all quite similar.

My mum had made us confetti cones from card and lace for each of our guests to throw fresh rose petals with lavender  sprigs, here are some photographs of that:

While we were outside in the marquee having photographs taken, the staff at Slater's and J & G Elite Designs were changing the room round and getting itready for the Wedding Breakfast. I still don't know how they managed to pick up all of those petals within that time!

But when we walked back into the room, it was transformed. My vision was a reality! Everything looked magical and all of the wee things around the room that we had put together were so personal and just Me and Mark to a T. 

This was our  wedding guestbook table. The card suitcase I originally had a pair of shoes in it that was sitting in my wardrobe for years (it was clean don't worry!!!), my mum made the little mini craft cards and the words 'cards' with little pegs where people put our wedding cards in. She did an amazing job!

These were our handmade (by me and mum) name places, how lovely do they look! We printed the names onto fancy paper and mounted them onto the card. The roses were pre-bought from eBay.

For our order of services we hand-made and printed these scrolls which turned out fabulous. I might make a tutorial on how to make these, would you want to know how to make these? Write in the comments at the bottom of this blog if you'd like me to make a tutorial I wasn't sure!

The log fire was crackling away :)

Me and my mum made the seating plan, it was mostly my mum's effort to be fair though, we were so pleased with the result and everyone spent a good while looking at this rather than finding their seat! Here is another pic below:

Our guests waiting for the wedding breakfast

It was a lovely moment having all of our nearest and dearest in one room, see Roy our wedding photographer and Laura our videographer capturing magic moments!

Our Wedding Breakfast was a Three Course Menu which was:

Starter

Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash & Rosemary Soup

Main

Beef with seasonal vegetables and roast potatoes

Dessert

Bailey's Cheescake

After the meal we began with the speeches, my Dad went first, followed by the Groom, then the Best Man.

My Dad's speech made me emotional!

So did Mark's!

The best man's was funny!

Then we got to cut our cake! (Read more about our cake here!)

Our cake was all chocolate, three tiers was a bit much for our numbers, we were eating cake for a long time!

Instead of wedding favours, which believe me, I couldn't decide what to do for months and months, I decided to give guests gifts they could take home with them; a personalised caricaturist drawing of themselves or with their significant other (if preferred), a selection of sweets and cupcakes from a sweet cart (instead of a few sugared almonds in a box - what is with that tradition?), and unlimited passport style photographs with props in a photobooth courtesy of Snaptastic Photobooths. All turned out to be absolutely great additions to the wedding and made everyone laugh and smile. The photobooth props were moved onto the dancefloor for some hilarious results!

The picture above and the ones below are of our sweet cart, with customised bags and colours. We used a company on eBay that my parents paid for, I *think* they were called Sookie sweet carts. They also did brownies instead of cupcakes and other sweet delights if that doesn't tickle your fancy. We chose white chocolate mice, cherry lips, vanilla fudge, fried eggs, cola bottles and gummy bears for our sweets collection as well as the cupcakes. They went down a treat!

These were quite personal wedding 'favours' I thought, and you got to choose what sweets (and how many) you wanted...what more could you want? :)

...And cupcakes!

Fizzy cola bottles :)

Mmmm...Cupcakes!

To start the evening, the DJ asked the Bride & Groom to have the first dance. Our song was Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, that old classic. It meant that everyone knew the words, therefore started singing it from start to finish whilst we danced. I hadn't quite anticipated that, but it was quite lovely actually. Me and my husband got lost in the dance whilst everyone sang around us. 

I NEEEEEED YOUR LOVE (this was that part of the song) :')

Always surprising me and making me laugh :)

We wanted to do a dance with our parents after our first dance, I chose to do a dance with my dad to Heartland's I loved her first after reading the lyrics online, and Mark chose to dance with his mum to Bob Dylan's Forever Young feeling they suited his mum. It was a lovely moment between us all.

Me and my dad couldn't stop being silly and laughing though (that's just us to a T!)

A lovely moment captured 

The Snaptastic photobooth with props was a great addition to night, it kept guests entertained and each guest got two copies of the photo seconds after; one for them to keep and another to stick in a guest book of ours near the photobooth (with pritt stick and a pen next to it) to write a personal message - this was great to look back on the day after. 

Here are a small selection of the photo booth highlights:

You can fit quite a few of you in there!!! :D

And quite naturally as the alcohol flowed and the evening progressed the props managed to find their way on to the dancefloor...

All in all, it was the best wedding I've ever been to, and it was mine :) We're blessed to have amazing people in our life to have made it so special and memorable. Plus I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend, what more could a girl want? It was a perfect day, even if I was dizzy, I still managed to dance a bit on my wedding day, and I'll take that.

Watch our wedding video here.