It's two months on and we've been to two weddings in the meantime of the best-man and the sister of the groom respectively.
The day was a beautiful and wonderful one which we will not forget in a hurry and I am in a quandry as to how to do it justice without boring the heck out of you! We all know how I like to waffle!
So, where I left you on Wedding Waffle part 1 was me being thoroughly out of character and doing early morning cleaning!
Many aspects of the wedding were home-made, borrowed, shared or contributed by friends which I loved.
On the wedding morning, a dear Teaching Assistant friend from school arrived first to come and do my hair. The whole thing was pretty lucky the way it turned out. I was sitting in the library at school and they asked about my hair and I commented that the hairdresser I had tried, had not managed to achieve the look I wanted, which was a cross between Kate Middleton in her Jenny Packham turquoise dress (see here) and Clara Oswin in Doctor Who (here). At which point, the lovely TA asked me to show her a picture and she said she could do it easily. She has done various beauty courses including hair and tried out the hairstyle the next day and did exactly what I wanted.
My little sister also helped in that she did my make-up for me. She's absolutely beautiful and does her own make-up so nicely, I knew she would do a wonderful job and would make it very subtle which I feared a makeup artist might not. I don't really do make-up, apart from Touche Eclat and black liner (which is not actually on in this photo, nor is my Agnes B lippy!)
My Mum and other sister(bridesmaid also) had also arrived at this point and were getting ready with my little niece. They were in good spirits and we had lots of fun also with my Brother in law (who was taking the video of the ceremony) and my Step-Mum and Dad. They were a little surprised when CBC arrived to get his cello which he had left at my house- which crucially, he needed for the wedding!!!!!! I took the opportunity to give him a present of some turquoise Paua shell cufflinks, to match the colour scheme!
About this time, another TA friend from school turned up with the bouquets. Again, she had kindly offered to make them. She was coming to the ceremony with a gang from school and she offered when she heard I was just going to bung some flowers together.
She tied them with some lace ribbon I had bought a while back from a market haberdashery. I wanted a simple white bouquet with lots of gypsophilia which I think is so pretty!
I was actually very chilled during the whole process and sat reading my book whilst all this went on. Everyone thought I'd be panicked but no, I just took it all in (I did have a mega headache though, which meant I wasn't being too active!)
It was actually really lovely having a house full, even though my little Bijou house is not really big enough for them all!
Finally, I donned my dress.
Now, you may find this hard to believe, but I didn't actually ever go to a proper bridal boutique! I fell in love with a 2009 collection designer dress from Johanna Hehir which I discovered by doing a Googlesearch for Jane Austen wedding dress. I never thought there would be any way that I would manage to find one, 4 years on from that collection in a size 8 in my meagre price range, but God was good and I did indeed find one, very very reasonably!
I knew that I wanted something empire-line, simple, not a big skirt but straight down and ideally something Jane-Austen/Regency inspired. This dress, I felt, reflected all that with a nice modernity. The pleats were a nice touch too which meant it wouldn't look creased!!!!
Despite reallllllly not wanting to spend much money on my outfit, I really wanted a Jenny Packham head-dress and wanted to embrace the Great Gatsby trend of the year and my lovely Mum bought me the beaded feather band I wore on my head. I knew I could wear this again, rather than a traditional tiara! I also purchased some crystal and pearl earrings from a Vintage-inspired boutique in Carnaby street at the same time and bought a simple crystal cross necklace with my Step-Mum.
Finally, the lovely Char was responsible for me finding my lovely Debut at Debenhams ivory shoes which crazily, I didn't get a photo of though you can see them poking out in this picture!!!!
I then simply wore 2 bracelets I already had: a Swarovsky bracelet given by a child in my first ever class and a blue one I bought in Bali when I lived there.
As we waited, CBC's flatmate arrived in his Mercedes to drive us to the church in his Chauffeur's cap I found him on ebay! (again, things from friends!)
We were a little perplexed to see CBC and his best man outside the church at his car and had to hastily drive around the block to avoid him! It turned out he was waiting to give my dad his boutonnier!
As we got out the car and waited by the entrance to the church, we heard the musicians begin and that would be the start of the service!!
To be continued....
Photos Copyright of Karen O'Reilly at www.kaphoto.co.uk She is a wonderful photographer and has some very reasonable wedding prices at the moment!
Photos Copyright of Karen O'Reilly at www.kaphoto.co.uk She is a wonderful photographer and has some very reasonable wedding prices at the moment!
