Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue

I mentioned my friend's wedding.  It was held at Lympne castle (pronounced Lim) in Kent.  We had a gorgeous morning walking along the beach in Hythe, Kent in the sunshine! After my friend's wedding, we stayed at the Mercure Imperial hotel and spa.

(photo from the Mercure website mentioned above)

It was a gorgeous hotel which I was gutted not to be able to use the swimming pool as I didn't bring my cossie!

WHY oh WHY did I not check that there was a swimming pool????

Boo hiss to last minute disorganised packing! It was right by the sea too. I shared a twin room with my pal C whose husband, who is vision-impaired and has a guide dog, who was not able to come last minute because of a bereavement. She had reserved a disabled access room and of course, she didn't think to change it. It was a huge room with really good access for anyone with a wheelchair etc so I'd recommend it if you ever went there!  We ate a hardy breakfast after waking up horrendously late!

We had a glorious walk along the Promenade chatting and then a friend drove us home via Folkestone where we had a cup of tea near the harbour and laughed at the seagulls!!!





The wedding at Lympne the day before was really beautiful.  For the first time in my life, I cried at a wedding- it's crazy!!! As L came up the aisle, I felt tears welling up and then as the vicar said, "Let us pray!" to my horror, tears started coming out!!  The service was lovely and proper.  We sang as a small choir at the front.  She looked so beautiful in a lovely Medieval looking dress with loads of beautiful lace and embroidered details.  Her daughter and the other 5 bridesmaids looked resplendent in sage green dresses!



The meal was delicious though freeeeeeeezing cold setting of a marquee.  Luckily we headed into Lympne castle for the evening dancing! The speeches were really short and simple but heartfelt. A good way to keep the speeches!


I went to the hairdresser in the morning to get a haircut and somehow was convinced by the hairdresser (not my favourite one) to let her do something different to my hair in terms of style as I "always have it the same"- I thought it looked a bit of a mess.  It looked better later on when it had dropped a bit and I could brush it!
(dress and fascinator Monsoon, shoes- Marc Jacobs (not the real one, some local one), cardie-H&M.)



She had thought of so many details.  Each table had a literary theme (she's an English Lit graduate)- our table was Elizabeth Barratt Browning and we had her poem, "How many ways do I love thee" as a table centre with the flowers.

The wedding favours were little retro tins filled with sweeties. Again, great fun!

Another great fun thing was the photo booth which she'd hired.  You could dress up in silly hats and glasses and have an instant photo to stick into a scrapbook for her.  Here's me and a friend enjoying the glasses!  I was totally taken with these red ones! Lots of us had fun with them!



One thing that kids and adults alike enjoyed was the sweetie stall!  There were paper bags and lots of sweets to choose!  The kid whose hand I captured here was highly amused when I said, "Can you just reach your hand in for a photo please?"

Later on, there was a hot buffet of hot dogs, chips and a "Cheese" cake!!!!

All in all, it was a gorgeous affair and I am so happy for her finally to have married him!  It's been a difficult journey for them!  It was also good to steal some wedding ideas!    Today, we have been doing wedding invitation type activities!!!

How's you anyway!?
xx