Hello! Welcome to Share Your Wedding, a weekly feature that gives you the chance to re-live your wedding day and may just give soon-to-be–weds some inspiration.
This week we have an invitation to Sarah’s wedding. Sarah blogs over at Run Jump Scrap and is also on Twitter so go say hi!
Hi Sarah! Introduce us to your family.
We are a family of three. Chris, me and my little toddler who we affectionately known as the little gremlin. We live in Solihull. I work 3 days a week as a Dietitian and hubby works in IT.
Let’s set the scene..
How did you meet?
This one is a good one. Facebook. We had a mutual friend. He poked me. We got chatting, met up much to my Mum’s horror, and the rest is history.
How long have you known each other?
We met on Facebook in 2006 so have known each other 9 years this November. That is insane.
How did he propose?
We were on holiday in Florida with my Mum and step-Dad and had gone to visit Clearwater beach. I had literally just had a cry as we had to go home the next day and had a moan as Chris had NOT proposed. Fifteen minutes later we were on the beach, he asked me to take a picture of the sea. I turned back around and he was on one knee in the water with this naff ring he bought at a flea market! Of course I said yes.
How long were you engaged before you were married?
About 15 months. We wanted to do things pretty quickly after getting engaged so moved fast. Lots of saving and planning.
Share Your Wedding
When did you get married?
We got married on 7th September 2012.
How many guests, bridesmaids etc did you have?
We didn’t have a massive affair. There was about 80 guests to the main day and an extra 20 to the evening. We don’t have big families so more friends came. I had 4 bridesmaids; my oldest school friend Laura, my best dietitian friend Jemma and my 2 cousins.
Tell us about the Venue: Day / Evening
We got married in Rugby in a place called Dunchurch Park hotel. The weather was STUNNING. We couldn’t believe it as it was one of the worst summers ever and we were preparing for rain. It was warm, sunny and Dunchurch looked beautiful. It’s an old looking house, with amazing gardens and a large sort of pond, covered in lilies. The weather helped the photos look brilliant. The wedding was at 3pm and was a civil ceremony. We had photos straight after, whilst the guests had drinks on the patio (it was soooo warm!). Then it was food, speeches and moved onto the evening for more food and dancing! All the wedding was held in one large room called the Great Hall.
Did your wedding have a certain style?
We did have a colour scheme, turquoise. The bridesmaid dresses, hubby’s tie the table and invites all had this colour. Butterflies were featured quite a lot too! The Mother-in-law is quite crafty so made the cake, invites, table planner, favours and card post box. It was quite a standard hotel wedding, not too quirky but that’s what we wanted. Wedding, food, drinks and dancing!
Tell us about the most important thing, the Dress?
My dress was huge; was a bit like a Princess dress. Strapless with a beaded glittery waistband and it just puffed out! I was amazing and no one expected it of me. I’m quite slim and everyone expected a figure hugging, slinky dress with straps. Nope I surprised them all and myself!
Description of your Wedding, as brief or as descriptive as you’d like, flowers, clothes, food, speeches, gifts?
It was quite a traditional wedding in the order and how it flowed as that was what we wanted. Just a good excuse to get so many people we know and love under one roof. We had beautiful white roses for the bouquets and a traditional 1930s car took me from my parent’s house to Dunchurch. The food portions were huge and I was so nervous I couldn’t eat any of it but everyone else loved it. This is not like me at all. We had choices for the guests so people were not bound to one food for each course. We had the speeches after the main meal and they were just right, funny, quirky and that little bit soppy. I always remember my Mum’s amazing Mother of the Bride outfit, so colourful. We were a bit cheeky as didn’t want any gifts as such and wanted to upgrade out bathroom. So we asked for some money and luckily got enough to do a good job. I loved coming home after honeymoon and opening all the cards.
What was your favourite part of your Wedding?
Walking down the aisle. Best feeling ever!!
What extra touches made it special for you both?
The fact that Chris’ Mum made everything. The cake had little figures on it. Chris holding a little fork as he loves gardening and me a dumbbell as I am a fitness nut. Everything matched and was lovely. We also had a sweet stand (which some friends confessed to taking tonnes home!) and a photo booth. The album we got was great to look at afterwards. Some crazy photos.
Did anything not go as planned? Any funny stories?
It actually all went to plan with no hitches at all. The only thing I remember being bad was the heat. The weather was amazing but that and nerves meant I started to sweat. So much that hubby was surreptitiously wiping my face and I felt the sweat trickling down my legs!! Gross!
Would you do anything differently with hindsight?
More photos of all the guests. We ran out of time and really wanted a group shot of everyone on the beautiful steps in front of the house.
What song did you walk into and what was your first dance song?
I walked down the aisle to a piece of music called Define Dancing from the Pixar film Wall E. It’s by my favourite composer Thomas Newman and totally random. Our first dance song was Michael Buble Everything and we made up some crappy dance that went down a storm!
Do you have any advice for the soon to be married?
On the day just enjoy everything and take every moment in. Try and have a few minutes to yourself to chat and catch up too as everyone wants so much for you. It is the best day of your life. Afterwards it depends. If you have lived together before just be aware that it feels the same and everyone will always ask you, “how’s married life?” and you will say “errr the same as always!” If you haven’t lived together before prepare for fireworks and lots of making up! I remember that when I first moved in with hubby before we got married.
Where did you go on honeymoon?
We didn’t have the most chilled out honeymoon as went all over. We started in Vegas, then went over to Oahu in Hawaii, then Kaua’i also in Hawaii and then over to Los Angeles. It was the best holiday ever. Hawaii was just stunning. We did loads of exploring and “hiking” in Converse as we hadn’t expected to do so much walking!
Is there anything else you would like to share about your wedding?
The build-up to the wedding was almost as good as the wedding itself. My Mum was so excited for me and we had so many events planned in the months leading up. It was just so exciting and a great time to see family and friends. The hen do was brilliant too. All the guests wore red wigs in my honour as I’m a redhead!
I had to laugh at the fact he poked you on Facebook and that was the start of it all- just shows the modern world we live in! Your dress is STUNNING, makes me wish I could do it all again as I think that is the style I would choose now!
Thank you so much for sharing your wedding with us all!
