Post-bride

Well, I’m back.  Spliced, hitched, be-knotted.

 

I think there’s more to say than a single post without writing a piece so long that it would try your patience, dear Reader.  I won’t tease though and start on the day before – today I’ll talk about the wedding.

 

It was a wonderful day.  I have to say, without the bias I obviously feel, it was the best wedding I have ever been to.  This was essentially because the food and wine was of such a high quality, rather than any super-hosting skills.  Although the ceilid band helped (think carnage on the dancefloor).

 

We kept the newspaper after all and I think it went down really well.  Who knows if people wondered if I was up the duff?  We did write “(not the)” in front of ‘shotgun‘ which people seemed to take as an intended joke.  I have seen a couple of photos from a friend of P’s and I certainly look fat enough for people to believe I was about ready to pop out a sprog or two.  But on the day I felt pretty good.  Initially I felt a bit anxious, but even the most suspicious person can’t help but be disarmed by such a torrent of compliments – even two women dashing off the street as I got into the car to tell me I looked “beautiful” and the registrar saying it was the most beautiful dress she’d seen in 10 years of being a registrar.  I did voice to one friend that no-one says to a bride “not a great choice there, love” but she said she’d be just less effusive if she hadn’t liked it.  Thinking about it now, it was probably the dress that knocked people for six – I certainly didn’t do it justice.  In fact there was a girl trying on the sample when I picked mine up and she looked lovely in it (I think she was a size 10) – I was definitely the sow’s ear masquerading as a silk purse but who cares?!  P thought I looked beautiful and, he told me firmly, ‘not fat’.  Although the photographic evidence shows he’s wrong, I’m just glad that that’s what he thought.

 

And the ceremony was lovely – really emotional and meaningful.  I had been worried it might feel impersonal and perfunctory as I have been to civil ceremonies like that, but it was anything but.  I felt so happy I coped with the photography and videographer because I really felt like I wanted a record of the day (having now seen a couple of pics, I may live to regret this).  Really I want to see everyone else though.  My bridesmaids looked AMAZING – they really did look stunning and I was so proud of them.  I enjoyed their transformation far more than my own!

 

And the sheer overwhelming feeling of everyone there for us, wishing us well, it was humbling, intoxicating and magical, all at once.  I wish I could go back in time and relive it over and over, scooping up the details I missed (I have NO IDEA what the cake looked like, or the cheese stack).  And annoyingly, I hardly ate or drank a thing so would like to go back and rectify that error!

 

I’ve made up for it since.  Got to get off bread and sugar and back on the wagon – a subject for another post perhaps.