The last retro blog - Sunday 8th September
We'd opted for the continental breakfast in our room, and this was really lovely, sitting on the sofa in the window eating croissant and toast. We packed our bags up, had a look around the grounds and headed off back to the Londesborough to collect the rest of our stuff.
We arrived just as Karen and Paul were leaving, so we got a chance to have a chat with them. They told us that Rich's Folks had been still in the bar at gone 2am, and so were a little delicate today. Then Amanda and Chris came out as well, so we had a quick chat with them too. We waved through the window to Rich's folks and walked around to the front door and met Anne and Keith, and my Mum and Dad as well. So, more hugs all around and Dad told me that they had a lift coming at 11 and so could help us move stuff if we'd like. We decided to go and say hello to Rich's folks and had a chat with Heather and Jono and Emma. Then Steff, Simes and Daisy appeared too, so it was really cool to say Goodbye to people and find out how they all were. We started to load the car, and I got Mum and Dad to take a couple of things in Malcolm and Maureen's car for us. I gave Mum the big table arrangement, and then I took the two bouquets (Steff had already left before I realised she hadn't taken it with her). We packed all our presents into the car, and then sat around with Rich's folks until they'd pretty much packed up. We headed off and called in at the church first, and I took my bouquet around to the Garden of Remembrance to lay where Gran's ashes are.
We got to Mum and Dad's and Mum was still feeling a bit delicate and so wasn't moving very far. Dad, Rich and I got ourselves some lunch and then collected the rest of our stuff together before heading off back down to Brighton. The journey was pretty good, and we made good time arriving back in Brighton at 6.30pm.
We were both pretty hungry, and as the Nando's had just opened in Dukes Lane we decided to treat ourselves to a takeaway Nandos - yummm.
Next job, packing bags for honeymoon. We'd pretty much laid out our clothes last week, which was a really good idea as I don't think either of us was really up to making clothing decisions. We'd just started to feel a bit glum about time passing so quickly when Jeremy arrived to bring us our video camera and the two tapes he shot back to us - his timing was brilliant and we both cheered up. We also decided to take the 4 polaroid photos that Rich's Mum had taken for us with us on honeymoon to guard against any other glum moments.
Posted by Jane at 10:34 AM
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Retro blog - the wedding day - Saturday 7th September
I slept pretty well considering and just lazed in bed reading my book for a while before getting up and starting the day with a shower.
Mum, Dad and I had breakfast together before Dad headed off firstly to church (he wasn't impressed with the state of the carpet in the side chapel - so he went and vacuumed it!!!) and then to buy some sherry to send to church for after the Sunday service. Whilst he was out Mum sat in my room whilst I painted first my toe nails and then my finger nails.
At around 11ish Lorraine and Roy arrived to take the cake and all the other boxes and bags to the Londesborough for me. They told me that Rich was in good form and doing ok.
After a call from Steff to get some extra directions, Steff, Simes and Daisy arrived and Steff, Mum and I headed off to the hairdresser. It ended up taking almost 2 hours to get the three of us sorted, but we all came away looking wonderful, and Steff and I just kept giggling at our girlie hair-dos.
We got back to the house and found that the florist had been and dropped off the bouquets, corsage and buttonhole. They'd also left us Catherine's flowers too, so I called Paul to let him know that we had them and would bring them to the church so that they didn't worry about it not being at the Londesborough.
We were just getting ourselves some lunch together when Pete (our photographer) arrived and so he amused himself taking photos of Daisy whilst Steff, Mum, Dad and I grabbed some food. He then took some photos of us getting made up, and just generally preparing. He was really good and made us feel so at ease (despite having 2 cameras around his neck!). He headed off at 3ish to go to church and meet up with Richard and the coachload of guests.
We carried on getting ready, taking our time and Simes and Daisy got ready and headed off to the church (with the hope that Daisy would sleep - fat chance of that happening!). Steff got all dressed up first, and looked wonderful. Then she helped me get dressed and I started to feel really nervous as I started to look like a bride. It was an incredible feeling to look in the mirror and see this beautiful person looking back. Steff went downstairs and got Mum and Dad to wait by the stairs so I could make an entrance. This is when I shed my first few tears, just a couple though.
The Limo had arrived, but the driver said he was early and there was no rush, so we took our time getting buttonholes and corsages attached and drying out Catherine's flowers and our huge bouquets (they were bigger than I'd imagined but I loved them nonetheless). We got into the limo and headed off. The limo was wonderful and I think we all felt really important being in it.
We arrived at church and Reece, Thomas and Catherine were all stood outside loooking wonderful. Pete was armed with his cameras, Jeremy had our video camera and Sue was there to welcome us. She had a tear in her eye which she claims was just the wind! She told me that Rich was fine, but very nervous and would be very relieved when I joined him at the front.
And then we were announced. The Trumpet Voluntary started and Dad and I started walking. I remember looking down and seeing Rich looking back. I think we probably both looked as scared as each other, but I could tell he was pleased by what he saw coming to meet him. I arrived next to him, handed my bouquet to Steff and took Rich's hand. The service then started, and Sue was lovely, very caring. Everything went fine, and there weren't even any children noises during the "Does anyone know any reason in law" bit which was a surprise. As far as I remember we didn't make any blunders during our vows, and we both got a bit teary eyed but I did feel we made them to each other, and not to Sue. Rich had a bit of trouble getting my ring onto my finger, so he just held it where he could, and I pushed it down properly later. His ring went on no problem, but I think he'll have a job to ever remove it!
The readings and talk were lovely, and the register signing went well with Roy and Karen doing their witnessing and the recording of Pachelbel's Canon was lovely. It was at about this time that we noticed it was pouring with rain, and so we had a rethink about doing the photos in the Garden of Remembrance. We processed down the aisle to the Wedding March, and then pretty much turned around and went and had some photos taken in front of the aisle. It's useful getting married in a church you know, with members of the congregation around as Jon and Peter removed the altar rails so we could fit on better. We had a few different group photos done, including one with the Fothergill Aunts and Uncles as Mary and Norman weren't able to join us for the reception and would be heading off.
Thomas was in floods of tears at this point, and Steve came over to tell me that he was really upset because he wanted to marry me, and now he couldn't. I went over and told him how good he'd been as a pageboy, and that he was still my Godson, infact my only Godchild, and was very special. He stopped crying, and after a bit more hugging from his Dad started to brighten up a bit.
It stopped raining, and so we left the church and had confetti thrown over us (and pushed down our clothes!) and got into the limo. The limo driver drove off, which concerned us as the coach was left behind. He said he'd arranged with the coach driver that we'd arrive at the hotel first. We didn't really want this, we wanted to make an entrance - after all what's the point in arriving in a stretch limo if no-one is there to see you? So, we went around the block and the coach was still there so the driver got out and told the coach driver there had been a change of plan. We waited until the coach and all the convoy of cars had left and then set off. There was a magnum of champagne for us, so we had a couple of glasses each during the drive. I was really glad that we'd chosen a hotel quite a way from the hotel, as we had 40 minutes or so to cuddle, kiss, examine our wedding rings, and chat about what we'd both done during the day and how things had gone. This was a really special time and it was really good to just chill for a bit.
We arrived at the Londesborough and were met by a reception room full of our guests. This felt so lovely, and welcoming that we immediately knew that we'd made the right decision in saying we wanted to arrive after our guests. Colin whisked us away upstairs to await our photographer so he could take photos of us pretending to cut the cake. Pete arrived and explained that he was staying around until 10.30pm and so would see the real cutting of the cake, and so we didn't need to pretend.
Now it was photo time, and we headed into the courtyard and did the group photos. Pete made really good progress and we'd finished the photos with 20 minutes to spare, and so we got to spend some time chatting to some of our guests. This again was really nice, and I got to meet Rich's Uncles and his Godmother, as well as having a chat with one of my Godmothers, and my Godfather.
We were called to go and do our line up, and so the two of us stood at the bottom of the stairs going into the room and welcomed our guests. Despite our initial reservations about a line up, I'm glad that we did it the way we did, as it didn't take too long, and we could relax in the knowledge that we'd definitely spoken to everyone at least once.
We had to hang around for a few minutes whilst everyone found their seats (later it appeared that our seating plan hadn't been fully followed and that the careful planning we'd done of who was going to sit next to who had been ignored, so some married couples (those with different surnames) were split up. Oh well, if that's all that went wrong it isn't so bad). And then we got to make our entrance. We headed off to the top table and made our way to our seats.
We did the speeches then, and Dad made a very nice speech welcoming all our guests, welcoming Richard and his parents into our family. Next up was Richard and he got to do lots of present giving, as well as telling me how beautiful I was today. Paul got to finish and did a really good, entertaining speech. He read out a wedding-gram we'd received from Karl, Debbie and Alfie, and also an email that Suz had sent to him. It's so nice to be remembered by those who couldn't make it.
So, on to dinner, and this all seemed to go off really well. Everything tasted fine, and we certainly had a good quantity of wine available (in fact this seemed to last for much of the evening). There was a reassuring amount of chatter to be heard, and everyone seemed to be getting on together.
Thomas and Reece both came running over to tell us how pleased they were with their presents - Thomas had got his first watch and was so pleased that he was now a big boy, and Reece had got a Steve Irwin (his hero) book (which he then proceeded to bribe his family into reading him pages of for the rest of the evening).
On to the cutting of the cake, and I think I nearly went camera blind. Everywhere I looked there was another flash going off. I started seeing Orange blobs, and Reece was telling us to "Just cut it Jane and Richard". After eating a slice of cake, the top table was cleared away as the band were now ready to start playing. They were really good, and I think most people really appreciated them. Despite it already been quite late, the children were still dancing around and playing together - I've no idea where they got their energy from. Pete wandered up to tell us that he was going to leave in 30 minutes and so if we were going to do a first dance, then we should get on with it. It just so happened that the next song the band played was the song we'd chosen anyway, and so we just got on with it. Unfortunately because it hadn't been announced no-one came to join us, but left us there on our own. Never mind.
We sneaked off with Pete to have another few photos taken with just the two of us, and then it was pretty much time for him to go, and time for us to get Paul to order our limo for us. We did a bit of circulating and I stopped and had chats with quite a lot of people. The band played a twist number, and I spotted that Mum was having a dance and so I went and joined her and we had a nice dance together. By this time people had started to leave, quite a few said "We thought you were leaving at 10.30" and so we just said, well, that was the plan, but we hadn't realised what time it was and so didn't manage to order the car in time. As it was we left shortly after 11 and went downstairs to find quite a lot of people ready to wave us off (and throw yet more confetti over us!!).
We headed off on our last journey in the limo - this time to the Manor House hotel, and went up to our room (ordering a bottle of water on our way). The hotel room was huge (and by this time covered in confetti) and was a really lovely place to spend some time and just relax together.
Posted by Jane at 10:30 AM
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The pictures of our Honeymoon are now up on the site.
Posted by Jane at 1:31 PM
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We've now got two pages of wedding photos up - there are the official ones, and then some unofficial ones. There will almost certainly be a third page when all the disposable cameras come back from being processed. Enjoy them!
Posted by Jane at 3:37 PM
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Another retro blog: Friday 6th September
There was little that Richard and I could do today so we decided that we'd join his folks at The Deep - the new Submarium in Hull. So, my Parents, Rich's Parents, Lorraine, Sarah, Matt, Reece and baby Jack all headed off in 3 cars to explore. We spent a couple of hours there and it was pretty good. We grabbed some lunch there and then Sarah, Matt and Jack went shopping, whilst the rest of us went back to my Parents' house for a cup of tea.
We decided that we'd tackle the cake whilst we were all together and so we started the process of putting ribbon around and cutting dowels to support the pillars of the cake. By the time we finished it looked great.
Rich's folks headed back to the hotel, and we took Rich and his stuff there and checked him in for the night before heading back to my Folks house and attempting to learn how to dance (we spent most of the time giggling)!!!
At 6pm we had our rehearsal at the church, and were quite lucky that we were only 2 out of a cast of 12 or so short. We ran through the service and I think that this was the time that both Rich and I started to get nervous. Sue was great and made it all seem so clear.
We'd booked a table at Home Farm, one of the Brewsters Chain for the 25 people who were around on Friday evening and had a great evening. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the Fun Factory and we had trouble getting them out to come and eat. Bit by bit people drifted off to get their children to bed, and Rich and I said our Goodbyes to each other and went our separate ways until I'd meet him at the church at 4pm the following day.
Posted by Jane at 7:44 PM
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Another retro blog: Thursday 5th September
After checking that we'd got all the essential items (dress, suit, rings, banns certificate) at least twice, we headed off to Hull. We had a good journey (travelling on a weekday was a big improvement) and arrived in Hull at 3.15pm. Of course, one of the things I'd forgotten to bring with me were the keys to my Parent's house, so we had to sit in the garden for 15 minutes or so until they got back from shopping.
Rich's folks were also travelling today, and arrived at the Humber Crown hotel (where they'd stay for the next 2 days) at 6ish. To save them any more driving, Mum, Dad, Rich and I headed off there to meet them and we had a bar snack and a few drinks with them to welcome them to Hull.
Posted by Jane at 12:27 PM
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And another retro blog: Wednesday 4 September
Last night I went to collect my dress. I tried it on and found that the underskirt was about 4 inches longer than the dress. I didn't feel like a Princess that's for sure. So, I get to go back this evening to pick it up. I just hope it is right this time!
Later:
Well, this time the dress was right, so I left with it. Phew! Big relief!
Posted by Jane at 8:39 AM
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Another retro blog: Tuesday 3 September
Dad rang today to tell me that he'd opened the cakes up to have their 72 hours of hardening time. He told me was up at 6 this morning writing his speech as he couldn't sleep - poor guy.
I go to pick my dress up this evening. I can't wait to have it although I will have to hide it so Rich can't see it.
Posted by Jane at 8:38 AM
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We got our official wedding photos back today, and some of them are cracking. There are some wonderful photos of our friends and family, and even some halfway decent ones of the two of us together - shocking! We'll scan some of them in and put them up soon so that the people that we don't get to take the books to can have a look and see if there are any they'd like to buy from the photographer.
Posted by Jane at 6:20 PM
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The first of the retro-blogs: Saturday 31st August
One week to go... I'm constantly touched my my friend's support at this time. This morning, Karen posted me back some CDRoms she'd borrowed a while ago, and in the envelope she sent me a CD she'd found "The Ultimate Hen Night Party Album". She said that she thought I'd escaped without the usual tack for my hen night, so she thought I should at least have a CD to dance to 
.
And Steff has been a star, she's done sewing, made a present for us, and is also organising a guest book for us. She's not good at surprises though, as 2 of these were meant to be surprises and she just had to tell me , mind you to be fair, the guest book was in case we'd already organised something.
I got so hassled printing the Order of Services yesterday that I figured I'd treat myself to a massage, so I'm heading off for a back and shoulder massage later. Lovely!
We've been working through our CD collection, finding suitable music for playing whilst we're eating dinner, and also for playing in the evening before the band, and during their breaks. We've found 33 tracks for the evening, Karen's CD has produced 6 or 7 for us as well so again, Thanks K.
I also have a nice shiney engagement ring again, Rich took it in to be cleaned yesterday. It's incredible how much more bright and sparkly it looks again now.
Posted by Jane at 9:23 PM
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Debenhams delivered our first batch of presents today... we now need a bigger house . We're still a bit overwhelmed by the generosity of all our friends, so thank you again.
Posted by Jane at 8:53 PM
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So, we're married... over the next few weeks we'll post bits and pieces about the wedding, the run up to the wedding and about our honeymoon. But, in the meantime just to say a big Thank You to everyone who trekked up to see us, and to make our day so special. We had a great time, and hope you did too. If any of you have any photos to share, we'd love to see them.
Posted by Jane at 11:30 AM
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On Friday I was walking around town: in one pocket I had a diamond ring; in another pocket I had a stack of foreign currency; and over my arm I had a brand new hand-tailored suit. For a moment I thought I was some kind of international man of mystery, until I realized I didn't have a Walther PPK on me.
Posted by Richard at 1:12 PM
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Yesterday I battled with the Order of Services. After having them approved by Sue (our vicar), we spotted a couple of oddities, firstly that I'd managed to mis-write "uphold" as "upload". Good job Rich spotted that one . Then also that there was more than one set of words for one of the hymns we'd chosen, so we had a look and chose the nicest set. So I took the paper we'd bought into the office and spent the morning printing them out. I got the front cover printed without any problem, then turned the paper, did a test print and all was fine. Went to print the other 149 and discovered half way through that the front cover was printing again - so I had 80 odd with two fronts and no contents. Bah! I rescued what I could, then the printer jammed, and then it jammed again and threw ink around. Grrr! Eventually it was all sorted out tho and there was much relief. Not least at the fact that I'd waited until the lads had gone out to a meeting so I had the office to myself, and they didn't see me tearing around like a headless chicken. The phone kept ringing all the time too, how inconsiderate of clients wanting to speak to us!!!
Still, they're all printed and folded now. Phew!
Posted by Jane at 10:51 AM
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Recent progress has been good and bit by bit things are getting ticked off the ever-decreasing list. I've just booked us some parking at Heathrow whilst we are on our honeymoon. Very exciting I don't think, but it seems I've saved about £70 by booking in advance!
Posted by Jane at 10:59 AM
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