We have been married for two months now (we have to celebrate the little ones until we get a big one!) so I wanted to share some photos of what was definitely the best day of my life – the day I married my best friend. In the run up to the wedding we heard this song many, many times:
The night before the wedding, after a couple of hours of bridal party pampering, I stayed at my dad’s house with my bridesmaid, flowergirl and myself having a girly sleepover in one room. I woke up on the morning of the wedding around 5am or 5.30am and was trying to get back to sleep but then I could hear Sarah, my bridesmaid, whispering “Are you awake? It’s so exciting, you’re getting married!” and that was the end of getting any more sleep! Rhys and his family stayed at my mum’s house a few miles away and my neighbour cooked them all a huge fry up for breakfast, meanwhile at my dad’s I couldn’t eat so it was champagne for breakfast only! We had the hairdressers and beautician come out to the house and the flowers were also delivered to us which made the whole morning a lot less stressful, I live in the middle of nowhere so it would’ve been a lot of hassle trying to ferry us around on time to appointments. It also gave me time to open gifts from Rhys which included a story book of our time together leading up to the wedding, he’s such romantic really! A few pics of us getting ready:
This was the first really emotional moment of the day, when daddy and I saw each other for the first time all dressed up, you can probably see I’m trying to take deep breaths to stop myself from crying and ruining the make up!
It’s quite common in Northern Ireland (and maybe elsewhere) that people come to see you at home on the morning of the wedding so when I went downstairs in my dress there were maybe 10 or so people there ready with their cameras. So after a bit of posing we then decided it was time to hit the road. When we were about fifteen minutes from Newcastle (where the wedding was taking place) we stopped at Spelga Dam for a little more champagne (shloer for the little ones of course).
The men travelled separately from my mum’s with Rhys, his dad, best man and four of my brothers who were ushers. They’d obviously had a very tiring morning as Kris and Nick couldn’t resist a wee power nap en route to the venue. But the beauty sleep must have helped and they all looked pretty dashing in their suits 😉 I love this photo of Rhys, Mr Cool, Calm & Collected.
We arrived at Slieve Donard Resort and had time for a trip to our room before it was time to walk up the aisle. My mum and stepmum led the way, followed by Jack our page boy, Molly our flowergirl, Sarah and then myself and daddy. Rhys’ sisters played us up the aisle with the piano and violin (I’ve married into such a talented family). I remember walking in and seeing everything come together at last, I had been worrying about how everything would look, but as soon as I walked in and saw everyone I knew it was perfect. I was so happy walking up the aisle but also getting a little teary as my dad squeezed my hand and gave me away. Of course, I had Rhys’ smiling face there waiting for me.
We had a religious ceremony with my little sister and my auntie giving readings, we sang two hymns and as we signed the register Rhys’ sisters played for us again.
Following the ceremony we had time for some family and group photos with the photographer, while we served tea, coffee, shortbread and ice cream for the guests. There were a lot of young ones invited so we also had a giant connect four to keep them entertained. We had a postbox for guests who brought cards on the day and as the invites had been travel themed (because of our upcoming Wedventure) we had guests sign a map of the world instead of a traditional guest book.
Before dinner we had the speeches and thankfully Rhys came prepared with plenty of tissues for me! He also impressed our guests with a wonderful speech, straight from the heart and absolutely no notes required, he did me proud.
The weather wasn’t amazing on the day (although the sun popped out as we said “I do”) but after dinner it was dry enough to go outside and have some photos.
These are some of the only professional photos we have actually seen as they are all on a disk back in Northern Ireland and while we’re in Dubai we don’t want to get it posted over so we have to wait until we get home around Christmas time to see them and the DVD. (Photos below courtesy of Whiteline).
After an awesome wedding party, seriously our band were amazing and had the floor filled all night, and some late drinks at the residents bar we were in need of the great breakfast we got next morning. The sun also came out to say hello the morning after and here is the view from our suite. And there we are carrying out our gladrags, can’t I wear that dress everyday?
So thanks again to all our family and friends for helping us have the best day of our lives, we will never forget your kindness and support and are so happy that so many people could join us from near and far. I’ve written so much here and yet I still don’t feel like I can actually put into words how much I loved our wedding day. I couldn’t stop smiling, everything went so smoothly, I married the love of my life and we had all our nearest and dearest in one place for probably the only time ever. On the day I felt like everything was so perfect I wouldn’t change a thing but now I want to go back and do it all again!
P.S. you can read our best man Nick’s story of the wedding here.
