The wedding day itself!
Saturday 7th July 2007!
I woke up at 5.30am (yup, 3 hours sleep!!), lept out of bed and peeked out of the curtains – bright blue sky!!! Not a cloud in sight!! After all the torrential rain we’ve had on Dartmoor for the few weeks it was nice to see the sun!!I then tried to go back to sleep but failed miserably – was so excited just looking at my dress hanging on the end of the bed and thinking “wow, it’s finally here, I’m getting married!” Paul sent me a text at about 6am to say he was awake and I rang him as Ray was awake too by then.. He’d done much better at getting some sleep – he’d had a good 6-7 hours, lucky thing!
We then just mooched about for a while, starting to get ready as much as we could before breakfast at 8am. We met my parents on the way down for breakfast so joined them, my brother, girlfriend and nephew also joined us shortly after so that was nice..
About 9am we went back up to the room and took lots of petals off 4 bunches of yellow roses to put on the tables – they looked beautiful.. We were given a really useful tip by our florist there, we paid about £12 for all the roses and they looked amazing, lasted the day beautifully and were much cheaper than freeze dried ones!! So we were glad to get plucking on the day, they did look great later on the tables!
We then popped out in to Tavistock quickly, Ray wanted to get a couple of bits and I wanted to get some new (bright pink!) nail varnish as I’d forgotten to repaint my toes.. On the way back to the hotel we bumped in to Sean (Director of Music) going over to the church as two schools in the town, Kelly College and Mount House School, were both having their Founders Day services at 10 and 12pm. I then heard a really cheery “Happy Wedding Day” being called out of a window above me – when I looked up Molly was leaning out of the window!! We chatted briefly before Ray and I then went back up to our room. The only hitch of the day then happened – I was taking my nail varnish off my toes and, just completely not thinking, managed to wipe half of my French polish off!! So, 5 minutes before I was due at the hairdressers, I was running around Tavi trying to find a salon who would do my nails again!! I did and they actually looked a lot more natural than they had the day before, much better and much more me! So I was really pleased with them!!
By then I was about 20 minutes late for the hairdressers but she roared with laughter when I told her what I’d done so she didn’t mind!! She got going on my hair and made it absolutely beautiful – likewise with my bridesmaid.. We both had a couple of small sunflowers put in our hair too which looked really good! I had tried tiaras on when I was looking for my wedding dress but they never really suited me.. A lot of the theme for our wedding was quite rustic – so the idea dawned on me to wear flowers in my hair instead! They looked really lovely (and lots of people commented on them over the day too!). I was really, really pleased with my hair, she got it absolutely spot on! I was originally meant to be going to another hairdressers but, with 3 weeks to go before the wedding, I rang her to book my aunt in to have her hair done too to find that she was off sick with depression.. I thought long and hard but felt that I didn’t really want to take the risk of finding out a few days before the wedding that she was still off sick so set about trying to find another salon.. The first one I phoned (helpfully) told me that maybe I should have thought about booking a few months ago as it’s the busiest day of the year for weddings and they were fully booked weeks ago.. (She apologised when I explained why I was ringing…) The next two I phoned were also fully booked, when I rang the fourth one the manager felt so sorry at how I’d been treated (manager at first salon was dreadfully rude) and the situation I was in she said that, although that Saturday was her day off, she would come in especially to do my hair! It turned out that we knew her though – her son Jamie is one of barstaff at our local pub and is looking after our chickens while we’re away! We’d seen her in the pub a few times with Jamie’s dog, small world!
We then went to the Town Hall to put the petals on the table and have a look at the cake which had been delivered! We bumped in to so many people on the way there, my Uncle Douglas, Aunt Claudia and Cousin Tina.. Plus Megan and Gareth too! When we got to the Town Hall we suddenly seemed to lose an hour then, goodness knows what we were doing but we suddenly realised it was 1pm and I was meant to be back at the hotel having my makeup done by Paul’s sister!! So Ray went and grabbed a couple of jacket spuds with bean chilli and I went back to the room.. I had a text message from Paul just after I got back in the room saying they were parking in the hotel car-park so not to look out of the window – which of course I did!!! I peeked through the net curtain – he looked absolutely gorgeous, he had his kilt and fly plaid on and I hadn’t seen it all on before, there were a few of them there as he had his best man and ushers too – they all looked really handsome walking over to the church!
We then ate the jacket spuds and then Kathryn got started on my make up.. She did a wonderful job, I was really, really pleased with it! I ended up not wearing any eyeliner or mascara as I was really expecting to cry so we thought it safer not to wear any!! It actually gave it a really natural look though so I was glad we didn’t go for any in the end! By this time it was 2.15 and the photographer arrived! She took a few shots of the dress and the room and we were just about to start getting in my dress when there was a knock on the door and it was the lady from the bridal shop who had come over to help me in my dress!! This was a really nice surprise, it was lovely to see her! We got some fabulous shots of me getting in my dress!
It was really busy then – just as I’d got in my dress the florist arrived with all the flowers – they were ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.. I loved them – my bouquet was a mix of Sunflowers and Sonjas (mini sunflowers), solidago and salal leaves and it was just beautiful! She’d really enjoyed doing all our flowers, she’d never used sunflowers for a wedding before and was so excited when I told her what we wanted! She got very creative and did an absolutely super job, not just with my bouquet but with the flower girl wands (of 3 sonjas, tied with raffia and tartan ribbon) and the two sunflower trees at the top of the aisle and the pew ends! She’s wonderfully talented and had, a couple of days previously, been awarded a Silver Award in the Florist of the Year Award, deservedly so!
We spent a few minutes chatting with her but then the photographer left to go to the church to take some of the lads, the florist left and the lady from the dress shop and all of a sudden it was just myself, my bridesmaid and my father.. We opened a bottle of champagne and I had half a glass – but time seemed to go really slowly then for a while.. Dad was reading through his speech and Ray and I were sat on the bed, both in our dresses, watching the tennis – so surreal!!!! It honestly didn’t seem real, was such a strange feeling! Dad then went just to sort a few bits out and the photographer arrived back again and suddenly reception rang to say the clergy and choir had arrived - it was time to go!!
I walked down the stairs and was met by the Parish Church Choir and the Clergy who had lined up in the hotel to process me across the road - they were all clapping and cheering! At this point my nerves hit me like a ton of bricks and I was absolutely shaking.. It finally felt real, I was getting married!! Both the clergy were lovely and did a wonderful job of trying to calm me down.. We then had a quick “vestry” prayer and then we were off! I walked out in to brilliant sunshine and was suddenly aware of all the people who were lining the street.. We even had a police escort to stop all the traffic for us all to cross the road!!! Everyone had come out of all the cafes too and were lining the path next to the church yard..
By this point I was beyond nervous!!! We got to the church to find that my bridesmaid’s page boy was desperately trying to take his kilt off and was in floods of tears – bless him.. Ray soon calmed him down – and then we were walking down the aisle to Charpentier’s Prelude to Te Deum! (Or Prelude to Te De as was in our Order of Service.. Unfortunately we only noticed when we had printed out all 250 and by that point I wasn’t changing it!! The thought did briefly go through my mind to get out my fountain pen and add the “um” on to the end of them all but it left as quickly as it entered my head!) I walked down last – so there was the choir, then clergy, then flowergirls, pageboys and bridesmaid and then, after a bit of a gap, my father and I. I remember saying hi to loads of people who I hadn’t seen in ages and then, when the choir and clergy got past Paul, seeing this big beaming smile staring back up the aisle, I was fine then!! I got to the top of the aisle and he dropped a kiss on my forehead and went “wow!” I almost forgot to hand my bouquet to my bridesmaid so the vicar reminded me, she then sorted out the bottom of my veil and train..
The new vicar did the preface and bidding prayers and then we were in to our first hymn.. The choir (of which I’ve been in for 21 years) were absolutely beaming at me and mouthing how beautiful I looked, I was just trying to take everything in.. It’s funny how it all passes you by – I have absolutely no recollection of how far in to the processional music I was when I got to the top of the aisle for example! The Archdeacon (John Rawlings) then took our Orders of Service and started the marriage, we had a couple of lovely readings, one read by a long friend of my mother (and, therefore, us too!) in the church and the other read by Paul’s sister. John then preached a beautiful sermon – very, very personal.. We then stood back up to do our vows.. I had to stop and compose myself entirely at one point, but the archdeacon was fabulous and just calmly repeated the vow I was stuck on until I’d calmed down enough to talk.. By this point though half the choir and congregation were crying for me! After our vows we walked up to the High Altar during the next hymn for the final prayers.. The choir sang a lovely blessing for us as an extra wedding gift, the words were perfect and they sang it beautifully.
We then went in to sign the registers, a friend of mine sang the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and she sounded amazing.. We are both really looking forward to seeing that on the video.. Sean then filled some time by playing background music on the organ while we were having the photos done and Paul and I then walked out to listen to the main anthem – I was Glad, by Parry! I got my shoe caught in a grate though when coming out of the vestry and we have some wonderful photos of my bridesmaid on her hands and knees trying to get my shoe out of this grate and back on my foot!!! The very end part of the heel had come off, I’ve never seen Ray put anything back together with such determination but she managed it! My shoe now back together (and on my foot) meant we could move to the Lady Chapel to listen to the anthem. The anthem sounded AMAZING, we were so glad we came out to listen to it.. The Choir worked so hard for us, I’m so grateful to them and Sean..
Then that was it! We walked back out of the church to Widor’s Tocatta and in to glorious sunshine!! Wow – welcome to paparazzi!!!! EVERYBODY was aiming a camera at us!! The choir arrived out (still robed!) shortly afterwards with the champagne we’d left out as a surprise for them and we’ve got a lovely photo with them.. We had loads of photos done, in hindsight we wish we had got our ushers to help our photographer more, some of ours were great but others weren’t, she would have appreciated a bit more help at times! We also have some wonderful confetti throwing shots too..
We then walked over to the Town Hall (cue more stopping of traffic!!) and up in to the reception room – as we were walking up the stairs we could hear the ceilidh band playing, sounded so magical! As much as we’d arranged for them to be playing background music during the meal etc I hadn’t anticipated for them to be playing when we arrived for some reason, when we were walking up the stairs and heard them it was such a lovely surprise!! Paul and I grabbed a drink and were immediately whisked off up stairs by the photographer to have photos taken in a studio she had set up.. This was great and we’ve got some really lovely shots from up there!! Someone brought us up some champagne and canapés too which was appreciated as we were quite hungry by then! The guests, at this point, were being served welcome drinks and canapés downstairs in the main hall.
Three quarters of an hour later we were called back down stairs by the Best Man. My brother was at the bottom of the stairs when we came down – he looked so proud of me which was lovely and gave me a huge hug.. The Best man then announced in to the room as Mr and Mrs Harris!! Everyone was clapping and cheering as we walked through the room! It was quite nice actually, the door we came through was at the bottom of the room, meaning we had to walk through all our guests to get to the top table! At this point our Vicar, the Reverend Michael Brierly, said a wonderful Grace for us, very funny and touching! We were all seated and started to have drinks poured for us..
Paul and I then got up to start working our way around tables – we didn’t have an official receiving line so wanted to go round personally thanking people for coming.. It was actually a much nicer way of doing it as we were able to chat at length with people – probably more so than in a receiving line.. Everyone also really appreciated us doing that too.. We had to do it in batches as we went back to eat our starter and then came back out to go round the rest of the tables in between that and the main course..
All the parents were really appreciative of the kids packs we’d done – they were quite simple ones, containing a colouring book, an activity book, some crayons, a toy, a pack of Disney snap cards, a curly straw and for the boys a toy car and an animal face mask and for the girls a Disney “tiara” and a pocket mirror.. They really worked well and we didn’t hear a peep out of the children all the way through the meal or speeches! The kids were all great actually, they all got on so well and were running around playing together like they’d known each other for ages! And they were ~all~ playing too, there wasn’t one single child left out which was lovely!
The meal flew by, I couldn’t eat much of it though.. For one I wasn’t very hungry after the canapes but also eating in your dress with a boned corset isn’t the easiest!!!! I got full VERY quickly! It was beautiful food though – and lots of it.. Pate to start with on a brioche and salad (lovely pate, everyone commented on it.. Almost mousse like rather than firm, was beautiful!), then lamb shank with sweet potato and parsnip mash, new potatoes, green beans wrapped in parma ham, carrots and broad beans.. Pudding was a trio of baileys profiterole, strawberry cheesecake and tarte a citron.. Yum, although I was so full I only had the profiterole!
The speeches were great, Dad’s was lovely - funny, kind and thoughtful, Paul’s was great and had the room in stitches and Simon really took it easy on Paul considering his wife is Paul’s sister so there was lots of room for interesting stories!!!!! I’m looking forward to watching those back again on video!! The cake was then cut (cue lots more people with cameras!!) and the room turned around for the ceilidh!
Paul and I stepped down in to the Square then just to cool down a little – on the way out of the room he trod on my train and there was the most HUGE ripping sound… I turned round to see the satin train and the lace at completely different lengths with Paul as white as a sheet as to what he’d done to my dress, bless him!!! Turned out all of the stitching of the lace to the dress had come apart – which meant when we bustled it the satin bustled but the lace didn’t.. A few safety pins later (I honestly didn’t care how many holes were being put in my dress - you become surprisingly unprecious when you need something mending in a hurry!!!) we had the lace bustled up too and we were ready for our first dance! Thank you Kathryn for thinking to bring safety pins with you!
Our first dance was a Scottish one that we’d had choreographed for us – the ceilidh band kindly learnt the music for us so they could play it which was great! Unfortunately though we couldn’t rehearse with them – so when we asked them to play it a little slower than the music is normally they started REALLY slowly!! A few gentle “speed up!” hand waves from us and we were soon at an ok tempo!! There was one moment that was a bit hairy – I span round and stood on my dress (as much as it was bustled, the back was still ever so slightly longer so I was having to hold the back of the dress up by lifting the hoop, thank goodness for metal hoops!!) so there was a bit of a scary slip and slide moment while I rebalanced!!! Luckily through I still knew what we were meant to be doing so we just fastforwarded to that part of the dance and off we went again! Can’t wait to see that on video – Dave was filming that from a balcony so should look great! My father is pleased it was videod as he hadn’t realised we were doing a first dance,as we were having a ceilidh, and had gone outside to cool down, he was quite disappointed to have missed it..
The ceilidh then got in full swing – they are WONDERFUL for weddings.. Everyone was up at some point and having a wonderful time – and those who were sitting for any particular dance were smiling away watching!! Very happy and fun!! I found it really hard doing it in my dress so only had a couple of dances – but I really enjoyed what I did! The children had a wonderful time here, one of the dances we did involved a couple dancing up through the two lines made by the rest of the couples in that set (4 couples in total). We however had two page boys to weave in and out of as well!!! One of them (my nephew, Ben) got completely lost in my dress at one point – how I didn’t fall over I don’t know!! We were soon untangled though and the caller was laughing so hard watching us that she could hardly talk to tell us where we should have been!!
After the first ceilidh set I then threw my bouquet (well, actually it was my matron of honour’s bouquet as they were, essentially, similar but hers had one less sunflower and a couple less sonjas!).. It was funny how my photographer had to really get people up for this, some people were up as soon as she said why she wanted people, other’s had to be shoe-horned out of their seats to instil some enthusiasm (or hide the embarrassment, one or the other!).. That is until I actually threw it – then, apparently, there was a mass dive that went on as everyone tried to grab it!!! The pageboys and flowergirls had decided to join in too and one poor pageboy almost went flying, bless him!!! In the end it was one of the choristers who caught my bouquet, a lovely 18 year old girl called Hannah.. It’s funny, out of the people who were there, there were 3 or 4 people who I would have ~loved~ to have caught it – and she was one of them!! Sean however then called her over to their table really sternly, took out a pen and piece of paper and went “Right.. Come on then.. Let’s sort out the music now!!!” The poor girl must have thought she was in trouble as she went pale to begin with until she realised!!! Will be interesting to see if she has a ring on her finger when we get back, she’s going out with a lovely guy (who is also a chorister, funnily enough) for a good couple of years now so will no doubt have had some very large amounts of teasing in the meanwhile!!
The evening buffet was served at 10 – but everyone was so full from the meal we threw three quarters of it away.. I’d said to the caterer I only wanted to cater for 50% due to having the meal not long before but she was so horrified she said with the “cheese cake” we were serving we could probably cater for only 85%.. She was so insistant – I wish we’d been equally as so now as we threw away over £400 of food.. The Cheese cake went down really, really well – people loved it!! When we served it people immediately wanted another cake cutting photo – our photographer was tied up in the studio at that point and, as she had worked so hard for us all day, we didn’t really want to disturb her.. Loads of people took photos of it though so hopefully someone will give us a copy, would be good to see what it all looked like! We had 6 “tiers” – a 10.5” Cornish Yarg on the bottom, then a Devon Sage, an Elmhirst, a Cornish Blue, a lovely mature Cheddar and finally a Vulscombe.. All decorated with draping cherry tomatoes on the vine, red grapes and apples.. It looked super! I know a couple of guests didn’t touch the evening buffet at all apart from having a big plate of cheese!! Annoyingly, all the lovely homemade chutneys we’d bought (about 14 jars…) got left in the fridge (why on earth they were in there goodness knows, think that was how we forgot them) so the next day we were apportioning jars of chutney around!
We then had one final ceilidh set which finished about 10.45 with a lovely “goodbye” dance where you danced in a circle and moved on one partner each time, therefore meaning you ended up dancing with every man there in that set!. My nephew, Ben, had decided by that point that he was quite a Michael Flatley and looked quite disappointed when the music ended.. So they played an upbeat jig, just for him, and he did a wonderful dance all on his own with no calling from Anne, completely improvised! The whole crowd erupted into cheers when he finished, I really hope we have that on video as will be wonderful to watch back later!
We left about 11 to lots of cheers and goodbyes and got in a taxi to go to our first night hotel… (Well, we almost left, I realised half way down the stairs I’d forgotten my bouquet so dashed back up to get it – to lots of laughs, cheers and “are you back already?!” type comments!!) The drive went quite quickly, we both realised how tired we were then and just wanted to curl up but we had the most talkative taxi driver known to man!!! It was only 7 miles though and we were soon winding down the long driveway to our first night hotel! It was so beautiful – they’d stayed up especially for us (usually it’s just a night porter after 11pm) and when we arrived, the hall you walk in to was lit solely by two roaring log fires and so, so many tea-lights.. It looked so beautiful.. There was also a bottle of champagne in the room and some amazing truffles.. This hotel was our one extravagance for the day – it’s £400 a night and we stayed 2 nights but oh my life it was worth every penny!!
