Have to admit, when I pictured our first wedding anniversary, it wasn’t quite like this.
Our wedding was amazing, if I do say so myself. We had a really small daytime ceremony, with only our close family there, in our local park.
It had been the end result of lots of hard work from the venue, suppliers and my family. Days of work, but it was amazing.
I woke up at 6am or something ridiculous and it was raining; I was horrified. 15th August and raining?! Husbeast was exceptionally comforting, of course and so I toddled off to have my hair set (mostly) ok about the rainy weather.
I arrived back at home about 20 minutes before the car arrived to pick us up, we had a light green V8 Daimler to take us to the ceremony venue.
The ceremony venue is the old, converted lodge house of the park. It’s a stunning mock Tudor building with a new, partially underground, extension that has glass all along one wall. Wonderfully light and airy. We walked down the aisle to “Darling I do”, from Shrek. Yeah, love that film. My nephew gave the rings to us, there’s a set of photos I love where I’m trying to give him a hug and kiss and he’s doing a wiggle to escape. We had the rings tied around the neck of a duck from DCUK, and on the day I had to ask hubs to untie the string holding it in place, my hands just wouldn’t do it for me!
I was giggling throughout the ceremony, not sure if it was nerves or because I was happy, or a combination of both, but our photographer just managed to capture so many smiles and happy faces. I love looking at the photos because there was just so much joy that day. It felt really relaxed and natural, which I’m really not when it comes to being centre of attention!
The park just looks so good, as did my bouquet.
We then drove in the wedding car to our reception venue, which was; a boat! This is where my family’s handiwork really came into play. We’d spent ages preparing the flowers, mixed purple wildflowers in jam jars wrapped with twine and ribbon. Believe me, it took ages, but they looked so good and I am really sad I didn’t get more photos! The cake was made to our design by a local supplier, and just fit so perfectly. Yes, the ducks made a reappearance on the cake.
We also had a sweet bar, because I wanted one! I sourced the bags from amazon to match our theme.
Honestly I can’t compliment the venue enough. They arranged everything for us, and it looked beautiful, we had our own playlist, they let my nephew run riot (and he loved every minute) and they went out of their way to accommodate all the dietary needs (and there were a few!). We had champagne, and a three course meal whilst having a lovely sail along the canal. By this point the sun had broken out and it was a stunning summer day. We were even invaded at one point by, what my Grandad calls, an Eddy-feeder (that would be dragon fly to me and you).
Then it was time for a quick drink in the pub nearby and we headed out on our honeymoon.
We’d intended to celebrate our first wedding anniversary by going back and having a meal in the same place, whilst I was wearing my wedding dress. I love that dress and I haven’t worn it since then. Unfortunately at 36 weeks pregnant I think either the dress or me might explode.
Not to mention on our actual anniversary we’ll be travelling for a family holiday, so we had to improvise.
Sources
Flowers: Felicity Farm Flowers
Hair and Nails: The Hair and Beauty Co.
Cake: Kate’s Cakes
Reception Venue: Canal Boat Cruises of Riley Green
Photography: Happy Photography
Dress: Vivien of Holloway
pipandblossom.wordpress.com 