A wedding story part two.
As before all pictures by http://www.photographybysuz.co.uk/ Pleaseask if you would
like to use After processing out the church we walked outside the old front door
of the church to take group photographs.
This was a little chaotic as everyone came out to watch and take
pictures themselves, and the sun was shing right at us, but credit to
Suz, she got some fantastic shots:
With my mum and dad.
With Tom's Dad and Stepdad
With the bridesmaids
My Family
Southampton Friends
Westbury Friends
Symonds Friends
Pretty much everyone! After that it was tea and cake time. My family and friends had done an
epic job of decorating the church hall and there were cakes a plenty
for everyone. My lovely friend Jess who was my chief bridesmaid had
made our wedding cake with her mum, and we loved the little drunken
bride and groom hogging their champagne: It also had a star burst of spots on the top:
The 260 cupcakes that we had spent hours icing also went down well
with everyone. I loved the careful little gerberas mum had made to ice
them with her cleverness:
There was also tasty champagne in champagne saucers at Tom's
particular request for the toasts:
They definately added a really fun retro edge! I was amazed at how
well behaved all the children were:
We had made party bags for them all to help them bear the church
service and they seemed to go down really well. We even made one for
Tom's Stepdad, Phil, a farmer who doesn't really like churches with a
toy tractor in to keep him occupied too. Fortunately he got the joke! The space in the church hall seemed to work really well, with people
milling about and Tom and I had a lovely time going round to each
group and having a little chat. I know it's a cliche, but I felt so
beautiful and happy on the day. When so many people tell you how good
you look, you have believe them. And coming from me, you know that's a
big deal. There were so many special people there. I loved that my
Northern Irish realatives had flown over, and people like my school
friends were there. Here's a great picture of my Dad and his brothers:
We used the edge of the bell tower for the speeches and Suz got this
great picture of the bell pulls:
My gran kept the pageboys occupied:
and people from different parts of our lives all mingled and chatted:
Just before the speeches we cut the cake:
and I felt so guilty wrecking Jess's work but it was so tasty! I
didn't get to eat any on the day, but Jess saved us some to eat when
we got back from honeymoon and it was so good I ate my massive slice
in one sitting! Then came the speeches:
My dad in action. I was dreading this as sometimes my dad can waffle on and I was
nervous about my speech too, but my dad was really funny. He told
stories about me loving his trainset as a baby, and got Tom and I to
play hand games so he got the "Upper Hand" but the highlight was the diorama he made of Thomas and Thomasina the
Tank engine. When I was a little girl, I demanded he make me a
Thomasisn the Tank Engine, with Arthur and Clarence as I didn't want a
Thomas. He always promised he'd make it but he never got round to it.
So as a wedding present he made one for me, and it was Thomas and
Thomasina getting married, with flowers all round them and with a
little vicar from a trainset scenery set and a fat controller, and a
sheep going in a telephone box he puts in all his dioramas! Tom's speech was lovely too. He thanked everyone beautifully, and
promised me that whilst life won't always be easy he will always be
there for me:
Then I was up. I'm a feminist egalitarian. I think men and women are
completely equal and should be able to do the same thing if they want
to. I left out of the last post the fact that my dad didn't give me
away, he walked me down the aisle, and we added the following into the
wedding service to recognise our equality and the importance of our
families:
PARENTAL BLESSING
Minister: Sharon and Ashley, your daughter, Alex, has chosen to share
her life with Tom. Will you receive him as your son, and at all times
give him your support and understanding?
Sharon and Ashley: We will.
Minister:: Norman and Eunice, your son, Tom, has chosen to share his
life with Alex. Will you receive her as your daughter, and at all
times give her your support and understanding?
Norman and Eunice: We will. Will you, the families and friends of N and N,
support and uphold them in their marriage
now and in the years to come?
All: We will. In my speech, I thanked the special people who had helped me with the
day, and had some special words for Tom:
"Now, Tom, What can I say about you? The other day I found whilst
clearing out my email this short piece written for a dating website
when I was painfully single about me and my perfect man: I love to dance, and I have to say that my perfect match will have no
qualms about spinning me around a dance floor. It doesn't matter if
you can't jive or waltz, just as long as you're willing to try. I
also love to try new things and to be challenged. Why not take me to
that play you've heard about in the paper? Oh the papers...I try and
follow current events and could debate politics long into the night.
Infact I can debate nearly anything long into the night, and love
trying to set the world to rights. It's Radio 4 all the way with me.
When not hidden in the library, I'll be researching other things on
the internet, with interests that range from the latest technology and
scifi, to watching contemporary dance videos at Article19.I am a
history student, but I'm a geek at heart. If you can help explain the
maths at xkcd.com to me you might just be the one. I love SciFi,
especially of the written kind like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. As you can see, I pretty much described Tom! Alongside all this, I
thought you’d find it interesting to know that my something borrowed
today is Tom’s petticoat, just going to prove that we also share a
dress size! Quite apart from him being dared by his Peter Symonds friends to wear
a wedding dress down Bitterne High Street, and doing it, I would like
to say something seriously to Tom about how much I love him and our
life ahead: This is taken from the Book of Ruth: "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I
will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people
and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be
buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything
but death separates you and me." I can’t wait to share a life of love and work with you." I managed to get through it without crying, just! Rich the best man's speech was fantastic: All in rhyme, and very funny and touching it had us in stiches. I've
attached it for your reading pleasure: About 6pm people started drifting off, and the amazing Team Ush and
families and friends started clearing up. So we were off for a short
photoshoot in the park whilst people left and our close family and
friends went on to Dock of the Bay for our evening meal. We'd arranged
our wedding this way because the church service was the most important
thing to us, so rather than inviting people to an evening do, we had
everyone to the church and tea and cake. As we were leaving we were confettied:
and it started raining a little. Which meant rainbows:
Here are my favourites from the photoshoot:
With that we were off back in our fantastic car for a drive to the
restaurant. As we went people were shouting "Congratualtions" as they
walked down the street, waving or tooting their horns. It was a bit
like being famous.... Part three to follow..
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