Our wedding really started on Friday 9th September.
Months and years of hoping, wishing and precision planning began to come to fruition. David had an army of helpers, family and friends, timetabled for every second of the day from 7.45am until 10.10pm when we finally left the hall, in the final stages of a magical transformation, composed by me and choreographed by David, danced, sung and spoken by our wonderful team of volunteers.
My aunty aptly described the festivities of Friday as being like a scene from The Darling Buds of May. It was a jovial, celebratory, love filled occasion and we all knew that we were working towards making something special extra special for us all to enjoy.
Friday was all about the getting ready. From hay bales to bunting, rope lights to wishing trees, kissing booths to balloon archways. We did it all. We made over a modern village hall and made it the setting for our rustic, summer fete wedding with aulde worlde village charm. In the hall itself we created a star lit white world of sparkles and storybooks. It was everything we had ever imagined and we made it from scratch ourselves making the moments we savoured and the memories we made all the sweeter.
All the tiny details we had added, improved, changed and developed were finally in place to make our wedding day a festival of fun for everyone to remember for years to come.
By the end of Friday we were all exhausted but elated, looking at what we had done. We were ready to collapse in our beds and dream of what the morrow might bring.
For two of us at least it was the start of a new chapter, the beginning of a new dream and it started with this.
The highlights of this day for me were writing the table names and table plan with my Uncle Steven, watching David work hard and get on so well with his brothers, seeing our two families work side by side to create something wonderful, using the creative skills of all my beautiful teacher friends and family, watching pictures from my head become a reality. What a magical feeling that is!
At the end of it all I went to the hotel where I would spend what was left of wedding eve with my best friend. I was tired and nervous, but so excited about what the morning would bring. Tomorrow I would marry my best friend, the one who had just made all my dreams come true and transformed my wedding wishes into a reality ready for people to enjoy.