# Going Faster Than A Rollercoaster - A Whirlwind Romance- Our wedding report.



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*MEETING.*

Hi! My name's Toni and I'm 23 years old. I was born in Edinburgh, moved to London when I was 8, Durham when I was 15, Sunderland when I was 16 (and went on to study health and social care), Edinburgh when I was 17 (and went on to study maths, English, sociology & psychology), Northern Ireland when I was 18 (and spent a month living and working in Spain), back to Edinburgh at 19 (and studied photography), back to Northern Ireland at late 19 and, finally, back to Edinburgh at 20.

I've had a very, very unsettled life both physically and mentally. There have been, and still are, many things that made me sure this day - our wedding day - would never come.

Colin is 24 years old and, at the time of meeting, lived in Northern Ireland, where he's from. It's kind of amusing that, during my first year in Northern Ireland, he was living in Glasgow. He studied something to do with computers... I'm not quite sure what though, hah!

Back in January of 2007, I joined a body modification forum. I got my first piercing at 11 years old and was hooked. For the first 5 or 6 years, it was all about piercings. Then the tattoo bug hit and, since then, it's been one of my biggest loves in life. This forum was a big part of my life for those first 5 or 6 years. I have a couple of mental health issues that are now, thankfully, under control but I was at my ultimate worst then. I never left the house. The forum was my haven. It's where my friends were! Eventually, said forum had a "forum meet". I stumbled along, terrified, and met who would go on to be 2 of my best friends at that meet. Those 2 friends went on to become my bridesmaid and bridesmale at my wedding.

Fast forward a little bit and I was now 22 and living on my own. I'd not long spent a stint in hospital and had been out with friends the night before. I was extremely hungover and decided to visit the forum. At this point in my life, I was very inactive on the forum. I rarely visited and, when I did, it was just to browse rather than participate. This semi-drunken-hideously-hungover morning, I stumbled into the "Pictures of You" thread - where members post photos of themselves - and there he was! As I said, I almost never posted on the forum anymore but I did browse although rarely. However, each time I came back there was always a photo of this guy in the Pictures thread. Ahh, he was gorgeous. Totally out of my league though. And there he was again this morning! As mentioned, although I was hideously hungover, I was actually still quite drunk too. And I'm guessing it was the leftover alcohol that lead to me leaving a simple reply to his photo.

"ooooooft!"

Urban Dictionary says it best: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ooft

I don't remember his exact reply but I do remember it left me thinking, "wait... is he saying he feels the same or is he dismissing me?!" Very confusing and very embarrassing!

"The" photo he had posted.


And me around that time.


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At the same time, another thread had been made for another forum meet, this time in Glasgow. He commented that he was going to try and make it over. I saw that and commented that I would go. Those who know me know that I do not like Glasgow. I would never dream of going to Glasgow, especially for a forum meet. But I had to! If he was going, I was going. Time went on and he booked his tickets over. We still hadn't spoken past the comments in the picture thread!

The day came and he still hadn't said whether he would be there 100% or not - as I said before, he lived in Glasgow for 1 year so had lots of friends there - and I was panicking. I was due to leave for the coach in 10 minutes and I didn't even know if he was going to be there! Using my initiative, I got his facebook link off of his forum signature and sent him a message with my number saying if he was coming, to text me and I'd tell him where the group was.

I got to Glasgow and no text yet... I have never watched my phone so much! Finally, about an hour after arriving, I got a text; he was coming!! We were in Kelvingrove park at this time and I told him we'd wait. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, it was time for me to go home. He still hadn't turned up. By this point, we'd been to the pub and I was drunk. If you couldn't tell from the photo thread comment, alcohol gives me lots of confidence! We got to the train station and I called him (yeah, I know). He was literally 5 minutes around the corner. I said if his friends would wait, I would just come and say "hi" for 5 minutes. He told me they wouldn't wait. I was actually gutted! I said goodbye and made the walk to the bus station and went home.

From there, we were texting 24/7. All day, everyday. We were getting very, very close very fast; the fact that we hadn't even met didn't bother any of us and, 3 weeks later, we set a date for him to come over to Edinburgh to see me for the weekend.

The week before that date, I was on holiday with my mum and nephew. At the place we were staying, there was just one place I got signal on my phone; the childrens play park about 1 mile away from our chalet. It's safe to say my nephew and I spent a lot of time at the park that week!

We got back at around 2 on the Friday. Colin was arriving at the train station at 5:30. I had enough time to unpack, eat and gain alcohol confidence.

And the rest is history! He came that Friday and he has never left. We've yet to spend a night apart. He came here in the July, we were engaged in November and, this November 10th - 5 days short of a year engagement, we were married.

I've met and married my best friend and I could not be happier.


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Our very first photo together haha!


About a month after he came over and never left...


Our first "date" was to the zoo.


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## aly888

Aww. You must have known on a deep level that he was the one. Most people would have given up after the failed forum meet :lol: You two look and sound perfect together. And you are so pretty :drool: (no appropriate smiley. Sorry. Haha)


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haha thank you!!

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*THE PROPOSAL.*

It was November and Colin had been here with me for just 4 months and we'd already spoken about getting married. Sounds mad, doesn't it? But we both just knew. I'm sure it's a feeling everyone has had at some point over everything; no matter how mad and crazy it may sound to those on the outside - and even yourself - sometimes, something is just RIGHT. We were just *right*. And we both knew it. Our friends knew it. My family knew it.

It was a very, very cold November last year. I am so heavily into Christmas and was already panicking that we didn't have a tree, let alone have it up! So off into town we went on November 15th. We were going anyway; we'd decided to get a matching tattoo. Again, mad you say! A matching tattoo?! Yep, a matching tattoo. But not really. Hopefully it'll make sense!

I am flighty. I am so full of wanderlust it's unreal. My head is constantly in the clouds and sailing away to all these amazing fantasy worlds and the plans I come up are a little out there. Colin grounds me. He brings me back down to Earth, back home.

Colin got a bird to represent me. I got a birdcage to represent him. I am constantly flying off to other worlds in my head (the bird) whilst he keeps me grounded at home (the cage).


After that, we headed into town to hunt around. Neither of us had ever had a tree that we had to decorate ourselves so we played it safe and got a pop up, ready decorated one. Trudging home, I don't think I even took off my jacket I was so excited to get it up... Once it was up, Christmas had really begun!! :D

We spent the rest of that evening just chilling out, watching Christmas movies and snuggling on the sofa. At one point, I got up to check my email. I was sitting on the same couch as he was but with my back to him, the laptop on the arm of the sofa. He pulled me into a hug, kissed me on the forehead and asked me to marry him. I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when. Every little "big" thing that happened, every "special" day that happened, I was sure *that* would be the day. It never was. When we stood back admiring the tree, "right *now* would be perfect," I thought. It didn't happen. The fact that he waited until such a seemingly insignificant moment actually made it all the more memorable. And I loved it. I said yes immediately and, until now, I couldn't remember a time when I felt happier.

This was the ring her presented me with. I fell head over heels immediately for it. It was GORGEOUS and I was amazed.
https://i50.tinypic.com/2r3h2yb.jpg

Later on that night, I got on the phone to my mum. I have always been very very close to my mother. She's the most amazing woman in the world to me and I was incredibly excited to tell her. She took the news amazing! Despite us only being together for 4 months, she never questioned it. She congratulated us, was happy for us and, a few days later, was already talking about making plans.

If you noticed in the first paragraph, I said MY family knew it. Colin hadn't spoken to his parents since he moved over. Right now, I don't even remember what caused it but there was animosity. The contact was non-existant. He never told his family at this point.

Fast forward a few months, we'd already started planning, and somehow he got talking to his mum and told her. His dad has advanced Motor Neurone Disease so we left it to his mum to tell him. To say his mum didn't react well would be an understatement and we'll leave it at that! We didn't talk again for a good few months. Not even once.

Eventually, his mum seemed to get over it although I don't think she ever liked the idea. At one point, just 3 or 4 months before the wedding, the 2 of them came over to visit. I was incredibly nervous; she is very traditional older mother who made no qualms about not liking his choice in partner because of my tattoos. She hadn't even seen a photo of me! But I gave her the benefit of the doubt and met her and his dad. From there, although she wasn't happy with our decision, she tried to help as much as she could and was involved. She would be invited.

A couple of images from the week we got engaged.




The following month, we travelled back to Northern Ireland to spend christmas with my sister and her family. At this point, he was talking to his mum but he'd yet to tell her we were engaged nor had they gotten past whatever had caused the animosity; she didn't even know we would be in the country for Christmas.

It was an amazing Christmas. My sister and her family - my nephew was born in the October - absolutely loved Colin and they all got on amazingly. It was really great to see her again too. Our first Christmas together was beautiful. It was incredibly fun and we all just had the best time.

On the train on the way to the ferry.


That Christmas, however, was the time I lost my engagement ring. We got home and spent boxing day with my brother and, after that, it was gone. I was adament I hadn't seen it since we were at my sisters. Colin is adament I had it on at my brothers on boxing day. To this day, we still do not know what happened to that ring! I was devasted. Really, really sad but Colin made the decision to get a new one. Initially, I was going to get the same one but then changed my mind. I'd constantly look at it as a replacement for the lost one and I didn't want to do that so I decided I wanted a completely different one. A set, this time. An e-ring and w-ring that came together. Colin wanted me to choose it. I wanted him to choose it again, he'd done such a great job the first time. Eventually, we compromised. I picked a "Top 10" and Colin picked the final one, secretly, from that. Once again, the boy done amazing.

My e-ring and w-ring together.


An awful photo but the detail is amazing.
https://i49.tinypic.com/30t5aph.jpg


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My speech! I decided to put this at the start in the hope that it will give you more understanding of the people involved and what they mean to us!!

I decided to write a speech because there was so much that needed to be said to a couple of people specifically and I really wanted to be the one to say it. All in all, it took me about 10 minutes to write this and it went down a storm on the day. Everything loved it and there was not a dry eye in the house!!

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"

I know it's not a common occurence, for the bride to give a speech, but as I'm sure you're aware by now... it hasn't really been the most traditional of weddings so far has it, and why chance that now? There are some things I want to say to a couple of people so please grant me these next 5 minutes.





First of all, thank you SO much to everyone for just simply being here. Your presence is the best present Colin and I could have hoped for and it means the world to the both of us to share this day with each and everyone of you.





I'm going to start with saying thank you to Henri. Of everyone from London, you're the only one here and, despite not having seen you for 7 or 8 years, I just need to look at you and know nothing much has changed; isn't that what true friendship really is? It means more than I could tell you that you went to the effort of travelling to be here with us. When you think back to that horrendously cold, rainy day in London, lying in the grass listening to that Snow Patrol song on one of our phones... could you ever have imagined back then that we'd be where we are now all these years later? It's amazing and you're amazing. You've got the most perfect little family of your own and, today, I made a start on mine. Thank you for being here.





Thank you to Maurice and to Wendy for all the help we've received in the run up to the wedding and for welcoming me so well into the Gamble family. We met for the very first time not that long ago in the entrance lobby of a hotel and whilst Colin and I waited for them to come down from their room, I think my stomach was more of a mess than it has been at any point today! But the minute Maurice saw Colin, his face broke into the biggest smile I've seen and I was quickly pulled into a hug; any nerves I'd had vanished then and it's made me so incredibly happy to have the both of you involved in the planning as much as possible and so appreciative to the help you've give us. Thank you and I'm looking forward to a thousand and one happy years as a Gamble.





Thank you to Leigh, my maid of honour and my sister. You look absolutely stunning today and there's no one else I'd have wanted by my side throughout the planning and here today. The fact that you never once questioned what I asked you to wear was not only very very surprising but highly appreciated! You've made a large portion of the planning process ridiculously easy so thank you for that, thank you for being here and thank you for the mountain of support you've given through the years; I was never the easiest sister to live with and you sure did let me know it the majority of the time but I couldn't have asked for better and I'm so proud to be able to look at you and say "yep, that's my sister!" Thank you.





To Katie and to Ross. You're 2 of the best friends a girl could ask for and you've both been there for me through numerous ups and downs and I know I can turn to either of you when I need it; you both look amazing and you've been such a calming influence on me throughout today. I couldn't imagine doing this without either of you. Thank you.





To Jarred and Pete. We met for the first time just 2 days ago but you're really, really great guys. It means so much to Colin to have you both here today therefore it means the world to me too. Thank you for being here with us today.





To Alan! My big brother. Growing up, my grandad so greatly filled the space my own father should have taken and he done an amazing job. When he passed, my big brother stepped up and followed in his footsteps and for that, I'll be eternally greatful. Now that I'm old and married, I suppose you can step down from that role now! And now you're even older, you've got your own beautiful children and I'm so proud of the man you are and the dad you became. I never had to think about who I wanted to give me away today; it was always going to be you. Thank you for everything you've done for me and thank you for being right by my side as I made the most nerve wracking walk of my life today!





Mum. Where do I even begin? Everyone says they've got the best mum in the world and, when they do, I just smile and nod my head because it just can't possibly be true... because I truly have the best mother anyone could ever ask for. I can't even put into words how much you mean to me, mum, and if I tried, it'd just be a hideously inadequate attempt.My childhood was an amazing one full of fun, love and laughter thanks to you and when I look at myself, Leigh and Alan, I'm constantly amazed at the job you've done raising us. When I was at my worst, there was just one person I could rely on to be there day in and day out, at any hour and that's you. Your love and support has been constant and unfaultering and to think of everything you've dealt with, put up with and done for me is just mind blowing. It's all thanks to you, this person I've become today. It's all thanks to you that I learned to love myself enough to allow someone else to love me. Everything I am today and everything I hope to be in the future is all thanks to you. If I grow up to be half the woman and mother you are, I'll truly be the happiest woman in the world. Thank you so much for everything mum. Like I've said, there are just no words to describe just how much you mean to me and how much I love you. You don't hear those words anywhere near enough as you should from me so I'll say it again: I love you, mum. And thank you from the bottom of my heart.





To Colin! I should probably fit you in here somewhere! Who'd have thought this day would ever come? It's been a complete whirlwind since the day you entered my life and I hope that whirlwind never stops. For those who don't know, Colin and I met online and he was meant to be coming over from Northern Ireland to visit me just for the weekend. He arrived for the visit... and just never went home! We've yet to spend a night apart, even last night, and I can say, honestly, I'm yet to grow sick of him! There's not a soul on this earth that I could even begin to imagine spending the rest of my life with but you; things I thought would be impossible are seeming possible now that you're in my life. You've awoken feelings and emotions in me that I never thought I'd be lucky enough to feel. You mean the entire world to me and the thought of our future fills me with the most intense excitement. Thank you for that. Thank you for being you. But, most of all, thank you for becoming my husband today. I can't wait to see what we can acheive together. I love you.





Lastly, I'd like to raise a glass to those who couldn't be here today. To my granny and my grandad White. My grandad McEwan. To Dani. I hope the view is as good up there as it is from down here."


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## Lauren25

I didn't even realise you hadn't been together that long before you got engaged, I thought you and your OH had been together for ages, just shows doesn't it!

Loving reading so far :)


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## kmbabycrazy

Those are my favourite kind of proposals and the ring is gorgeous xx


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Thank you!!

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The Wedding Party.

As I mentioned before, we'd spoken about marriage a lot before the actual proposal. So much so I'd already told one of my friends numerous times, in a very drunken state, that she was going to be my bridesmaid haha!

The men were a little easier than the girlies so we'll start with them! We'd asked them to wear whatever suit they liked and we would provide little details. Not once was it questioned; our wedding party are pretty amazing! The men's bits and pieces, we picked up as we went along. If we saw something we liked and could afford it, we added it to their little outfit pile. Whilst they would be in mismatched suits, we wanted to provide the little details that would make their outfits and bring them all together.
The idea of mismatched suits really, really appealed to us. It wasn't just a budget based decision for us. We actually find wedding parties that are wearing the exact same outfit actually look quite stiff and awkward and too... put together. Too much effort. It just wouldn't match our wedding at all! So whilst we bought them little things to pull them together as the wedding party, those too were completely mismatched. Different colours, different patterns. We, and the boys, absolutely loved how everything came together and don't regret the mismatched decision one bit!

Bow ties are amazing aren't they? Colin never even considered your normal tie for his outfit; it was a bow tie from the start. We debated, then, having the men in ties to counteract his bow tie but inevitably settled for these. These were an amazing find and incredibly cheap but the quality was awesome and the men loved them! We also bought them, and Colin, really bright braces. I can't find the photo I took of them but I think these were the biggest hit with the men! These, alone, really finished off the outfit and were actually one of the last 3 or 4 things we bought. Very last minute but one of the best outfit decisions we made! The socks also went down a storm
https://i46.tinypic.com/2cdzvgi.jpg

https://i50.tinypic.com/m963k6.jpg

When Colin first moved over here, he lost contact with everyone from back home so the decision was made to have one of my good friends be his best man. Colin was happy with the decision but something kept eating at me. This man was known for his flakeyness. He was known for agreeing to plans and then just not turning up. He was now living in England so that last point was an even bigger issue; every day, I wondered if he would even turn up. Eventually, the decision was made to drop him. It was a very easy decision to make and very clearly the right one; I haven't spoken to him once since then!

From there, Colin was best man-less! He had wanted from the start to ask his 2 best friends from Northern Ireland but never had because, as I said, he had lost contact. It took a little bit of pestering from me and, within a few days, Colin had regained both contact and 2 best men. The very same night he asked them, their travel over here and accommodation whilst here was booked. It was such a stark contrast to our first best man choice. They were so happy and excited to be a part of our day and went above and beyond to make sure they were there. I love them!


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Another very important male member of the wedding party was Ross, my bridesmale. Another member of the aforementioned forum, this guy has been my rock many times and he was one of the first people to be asked to be with us on the day. He was so excited too, bless him! From the day we asked him, the excitement and honour of being asked was there. I'd frequently wake up to new messages with ideas and things we might like for the wedding. He was amazing.

Their buttonholes were very fun! We were always going to have pinwheels and I'd found some I absolutely adored from etsy. They were very cheap and exactly what we were looking for so I ordered them. Only for them to get grabbed by customs with a charge we just couldn't afford... for about half of the customs charge price, I bought supplies and eventually made them myself. I wished we'd done this in the first place as I'm so, so proud of how they came out and they look pretty much identical to the ones we bought!
https://i50.tinypic.com/29eng5z.jpg

https://i46.tinypic.com/ive8i9.jpg

But those weren't enough... so many people have pinwheels, we wanted to add something a little more "our wedding" to them and that's where these came in. Little toadstool brooches! 
https://i46.tinypic.com/2wdrpz4.jpg

The buttonholes are actually quite amusing... I'd shown Colin how the men should wear them and trusted him to show said men.
On the day, ONE man was wearing the buttonhole the "correct" way; my Uncle Davy, our witness. The only person I, personally, had handed the buttonhole over to. So whilst he was the one person wearing it correctly, everyone else was wearing theirs the same (not correct) way so it looked like he had put them on wrong haha! Of course, there's no "right" or "wrong" way so it really didn't bother me; when I noticed, I laughed and jokingly told Colin off. Silly man hahaha!


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We'd said from the beginning that the bridesmaids would need to buy their own outfits and, luckily, everyone was totally okay with that at the beginning. I got a lot of ideas together for their outfits but one really stood out to me. One Colin and I both loved and would fit our wedding amazingly. I showed the dresses to the girls and, amazingly, they liked them too! So the decision was made!

https://i45.tinypic.com/2e3pjc1.jpg

https://i46.tinypic.com/15h1uh4.jpg

But then one of our bridesmaids hit a rough patch. It was looking incredibly unlikely that she'd be able to afford her dress in time and we were definitely in panic stations. We hadn't asked them to buy their own because we wanted the money for something else; we literally could not afford it. But something had to be done NOW and do something we did! With the help, again, of my amazing mother, we were able to buy the girls dresses and petticoats. Now all they had to worry about was their shoes; that is definitely something we couldn't help with.

We did want to buy them a little something though. We wanted some form of brooch or corsage... something small, inexpensive but very very pretty. And then I stumbled upon these! They were perfect! We bought one for the female bridesmaids and our flower girl. Somehow, Colin's mum ended up with one too and we're not too sure how that happened haha!

https://i47.tinypic.com/205dt1w.jpg

With my sister in Northern Ireland and Katie very, very hard to pin down, the first time I saw them in their outfits was on the morning of the wedding and I was COMPLETELY blown away! My girls looked beyond everything I thought they would. It was amazing and I was over the moon with them.

Katie is a really good friend I've known for years; she was one of the friends I met on the modification forum and we've spent many a good, often drunken, time together! There was no question as to who would be a bridesmaid when the marriage talk was going on. She's pretty damn awesome!

Leigh is my sister and it was her that I chose to be my maid of honour. There was no question about it! She was absolutely amazing and always making sure I was okay with things; although they were buying their own shoes, she would run every pair she saw past me first. Although they were sorting out their own hair and make up, she would run every choice and option past me first. She really was amazing and made what could have been a really stressful situation so, so easy.







The mum's were left to their own devices and they really did appreciate that. Throughout the planning, I've come across SO many couples, and the mothers themselves, stressing about colours and fitting the theme... from the start, we told our mothers to wear what they liked and that is what they did. They both chose their own outfits, no stress on matching, co-ordinating or sticking to a single colour that we had appointed. And man, they looked amazing! Again, like the bridesmaids, we did want to provide them with something. It's usual for the mothers to wear wee flowers attached to their jackets or wrists in some way, I think.... that wasn't for us at all. 

Instead, we bought my moomin this brooch.
https://i47.tinypic.com/2nlx1jq.jpg

And Colin's mum wore this one. She also somehow got hold of an owl brooch haha!
https://i50.tinypic.com/fkcwo8.jpg

Both ladies actually loved them! I was very surprised but so, so happy. They looked amazing with their outfits.










[love my face in this! Hah!]


Our little flower girl was my 1 year old niece, Eilidh. She wasn't quite walking yet so, instead, my brother - who walked me down the aisle - carried her in and it was a very special moment having her there. She's like a little doll and looked absolutely amazing.


Our ring bearer was Charlie, my 1 year old nephew. He WAS walking and he walked down the aisle first with my sister, his mum. This boy completely stole the show! He was completely fantastic and I was so proud to have him there; he lives in Northern Ireland so I don't get to see him anywhere near as much as I would.

His little buttonhole.
https://i50.tinypic.com/241m1oj.jpg


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I want to just dedicate this post just now to my mum. As mentioned in my speech, words just aren't enough to describe what she means and what she's done for us during the wedding plan but I honestly and completely mean it when I say this wedding just would not have happened if it wasn't for her.


She's my best friend, my hero and a complete and utter inspiration. I love her to death.






And to Davy, my beloved Uncle. This man is second only to my mum in the support he's given me throughout my life. We've suffered very similar things and have an incredible, overwhelmingly lovely bond. He once spent an entire New Year night talking to me whilst I sobbed in my garage!


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Lastly, to Henri. I haven't seen this girl for about 8 years. Since I left London. She and I have been through a good few novels worth together and despite the wedding day being the first day I'd seen her in ~8 years, it was like I had never left. She's a very special lady!




Introducing Colin to my oldest friend.


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*THE BUDGET.
*

This is the big one, eh? We didn't have very much of one at all to put it quite simply! Sure, we could have waited 2 or 3 (or 4, 5, 6...) years to get married and had a lot of fancy crap and whatever else. But that's not what we wanted. Neither of us has ever been the type to have dreamt of getting married as kids so neither of us had this expectation that the day had to live up. So there was no "OKAY I HAVE TO HAVE THIS NO MATTER THE COST THINGS". So we were engaged on November 15th 2011 and married on November 10th 2012. Our budget? £3,000. And the honey had to be included in that.

How did we find it? Well, pretty easy to be perfectly honest. Of course there were highly, highly stressful moments and moments of "are we going to be able to pull this off?" But doesn't everyone have those thoughts at least once, no matter the budget? Any issue that hit us was, nine times out of ten, quick to resolve and those that weren't? They can't have been that important or we'd have found a way.

No matter what would have, could have, should have or DID happen... not a single bit of our wedding would have been possible without all kinds of help that we received from numerous people. The key players being my beautiful mum and a person who'd like to remain anonymous haha! If she reads this, she'll know who she is <3

So yeah... less than a year to go and just £3k to spend! It's been a fun year, a stressful year and an "oh my god, what are we doing all this for?" year. There have been moments where we've wished we had just gone to Gretna Green and moments where we wished we had more money but all of that was outshone by the excitement of what we were doing and the gratitude to those helping us out.


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*OUR THEME*

Oh lord. We've had a few. Lime green, hot pink and polka dots. Retro-come-shabby-chic. UP! inspired.

Eventually, I stumbled across a photo that settled it for us. This photo was where our wedding was born, essentially!
https://weddingsbyviptraveldiscounts.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/blue-petticoat-wedding-dress-03.jpg?w=490&h=318

Red, white and all shades of blue. That's where we started and my shoes were the first thing I found! But we'll get to those later!

Every day, both online and off, we were bombarded with "okay, you've got your colours... so what's your theme?" I was aware of wedding themes. Aware that there's many different takes on it; from full on, for example, Alice in Wonderland themes to more vague vintage themes. We didn't really want to tie ourselves down to anything so we made a decision that anything we loved was fair game.

When it came to decoration for the wedding, I'm not sure we bought a single thing from a specific wedding focused shop. We looked everywhere. And I mean everywhere! If we saw something and liked it, we made a space for it somewhere. I casually joked on a wedding group I run on facebook that we made decoration decisions based on how we'd decorate our home but, the more I thought of it, the more I realised that actually... I wasn't joking!

And the truth of that is in our home now. We have nothing of the wedding to sell on as all of it is now being used to decorate our home. Some things are now Christmas tree decorations. Some things are now hanging from our wall, sitting on shelves and out on display in some way, shape or form.

Our wedding was totally and 100% us. The only limitations were our imaginations.


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## emyandpotato

I love how personal your wedding was. I am totally with you on the theme and colours, ours will be a complete mishmash of things we love. Your whole day was just stunning and you can see your personalities as a couple in every photo.


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*MY DRESS*

As mentioned earlier, I wasn't one of those kids that had been dreaming of their wedding since the day they were born so I never really had much of an idea of what was out there in terms of wedding dresses. In fact, I had just 2 requirements: It didn't cost even near £1k and that it was "me". That it had a bit of my character, personality and style attached to it in some way or another.

I had a look about online and was actually really overwhelmed... there were thousands of them. Millions! But they all looked the same to me. I struggled to differentiate between them... until I found a specific designer. There was nothing spectacular about his dresses. There was nothing very different about them. Nothing that really set them apart from the millions of other dresses.... but they had something that made me look twice. Something that made me want to go to the effort of trying them on.

So I got on the phone and called around every bridal store in Edinburgh and made an appointment with the one that stocked the most Justin Alexander dresses. It helped that I knew I wanted a tea length dress and I'd read that a lot of his dresses came with the option of tea length.

It was a cold December afternoon and my mum picked me up from college to take me. We got there and walked in and it was just as I thought. I was really quite intimidated over going dress shopping because it's so alien to me... I was under the impression that they were posh shops full of condescending and unnaturally beautiful women. I was under the impression I'd be looked at with my modifications and my age and not be taken seriously. And I was right. I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable in my life. But I sucked it up and my mum and I picked out some dresses and I tried them on. 3 of them. Enough to get a feel for a "wedding dress" but not so much that I was going to be in there so long.

Number 1 of 3 wasn't Justin Alexander. I don't even know who the designer was but it was tea length so I tried it.


I HATED IT. There was not one thing I liked about it. I knew it'd have a hefty price tag but it felt incredibly cheap and scratchy and I just did not like it. I couldn't get it off fast enough.

The second was a tea length Justin Alexander. I liked it the moment I put it on. Then I looked in the mirror. What looked good in photos and on the hanger looked hideous in reality. The detailing on the front. It was truly awful but my mum fell head over heels for the length. Because I'm short, it was too long on me but my mum and I both agreed that we actually quite liked it. My mum moreso! I'd have preferred it just a little shorter but not by much. If they could tear even just the dangly-fangly bits off, I might have been able to get used to it! But no. This was a dress to look at and admire in photos but one which would never even be an option.


Now it was time for the third and final dress I'd picked out. Well, I said "I". My mum actually picked this one out and almost begged me to try it on. When she pulled it off the rack and showed it to me, I pulled a childish face of disgust. It was NOT me in any way, shape or form but she seemed really eager to see it on me so I obliged. It was the least I could do for her!


The minute I stepped into it, I was in love. It fit like a glove (although not lengthwise!) and was disgustingly comfortable. My mum cried. I wanted to cry. I was positive I'd found the one. So whilst I flounced about in front of the big ornate mirror a little more, my mum got the details and price of the dress. When I was back in my own clothes and we were in the car, she handed it over to me. A grand total of £1750 for the tea length version. YIKES.

Oh well, I thought. We'll make it work! Somehow, we'll make it work. And that's how it went for a few days. I was close to getting the deposit together when I found myself browsing dresses online and found this one.
https://i49.tinypic.com/33u99pd.jpg

I found the name of the designer and sourced the nearest stockist. Antrim. Northern Ireland. Ugh. I let it go out of my mind. But it got me thinking... if I'd loved the Justin Alexander dress as much as I thought I did, would I really be looking at other dresses and sourcing stockists of certain designers less than a week later? I didn't think so. I kept the photo of me in the dress on my laptop and I looked at it every so often and, every time I looked at it, I felt less and less for it. It wasn't even a further week until I looked at it and felt nothing. I'd clearly got caught up in the moment in the shop and let my heart run away with itself. It wasn't the dress for me. And some part of me inside breathed a sigh of relief! Yes, we probably could have made it work but now? I didn't want to. It would be going against everything I believe in with things like this. It's a ridiculous amount of money and I outright refused to pay almost £2k for A DRESS.


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I found the name of the designer and sourced the nearest stockist. Antrim. Northern Ireland. Ugh. I let it go out of my mind. But it got me thinking... if I'd loved the Justin Alexander dress as much as I thought I did, would I really be looking at other dresses and sourcing stockists of certain designers less than a week later? I didn't think so. I kept the photo of me in the dress on my laptop and I looked at it every so often and, every time I looked at it, I felt less and less for it. It wasn't even a further week until I looked at it and felt nothing. I'd clearly got caught up in the moment in the shop and let my heart run away with itself. It wasn't the dress for me. And some part of me inside breathed a sigh of relief! Yes, we probably could have made it work but now? I didn't want to. It would be going against everything I believe in with things like this. It's a ridiculous amount of money and I outright refused to pay almost £2k for A DRESS.

So the hunt was back on. I found lots in quick succession. I was very, very tempted to go with a lace Vivien of Holloway dress. And at one point, I was *this* close to buying one purely because I could find nothing that made my heart stop. And there she was.


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I'm a user of tumblr and follow a blog that posts cool things the author stumbles upon on etsy that day. I actually hadn't used tumblr for about a month the day she was posted so I like to think fate had a hand in it! I followed the link and, within the week, my dress was bought. Handmade to my measurements and shipped from New Zealand.

I was happy. I looked at her every day until the day she arrived and at least three or four times a week from the day she arrived until the wedding day and I never once got sick of her. The excitement to wear it FOR REAL was massive from day 1.

There was just *one* thing... It was all white. I wanted a blue petticoat. I'd already bought it, petticoat included, and spent forever researching the best way to dye it when I eventually sucked it up and emailed the dress maker, asking her for suggestions. Her reply? "Tell me the colour and I'll do it for you." No extra charge. She even included a few extra layers in the petticoat again, for no extra charge. The excitement just grew.

(model photos!)


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THE REST OF MY OUTFIT

I think I mentioned before that the shoes were one of the first things I got. I'd had my eye on them for aaaaages, I could just never justify the almost £100 cost for them when I didn't particularly have anywhere to wear them. Then the wedding rolled around... and the new colours... It'd be rude not to, right?! But £100? That more than 2/3rds of the cost of my dress. There's just no chance I was spending that amount... so onto ebay I went and, about 10 minutes later, I was the proud owner of my dream wedding shoes for a little under £60.

https://i45.tinypic.com/24mcdvq.jpg

https://i45.tinypic.com/35jy1kh.jpg

https://i46.tinypic.com/rmtbx2.jpg

Now it was just the bag and some kind of cover up... I'm a smoker and we were getting married in winter. Both things were very important! I didn't spend long looking for bags. Actually, I didn't spend any time at all looking for bags!


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The Christmas after we got engaged, we all got the ferry over to Northern Ireland to spend it with my sister and Colin and I were sleeping in one of her spare rooms. The first night there, we went up to bed and there was my bag. It was the same brand as my shoes and I was in love. I got on my phone there and then and looked it up; it was expensive so the next morning, I asked my sister if I could borrow it for the wedding and she said yes, of course! Done. I was ecstatic.
https://i46.tinypic.com/nn1yky.jpg

https://i46.tinypic.com/qxp9oo.jpg

https://i49.tinypic.com/smf6eu.jpg

The some for of cover up wasn't quite so easy... There were so few options that would look good with the dress, I only spent a few days total looking for something. I looked at cutesy cardigans, faux fur boleros... everything. Then it hit me. Why do I have to buy something in?

I've got a leather jacket. It's like my comfort blanket. Our dog at the time as a puppy had chewed one corner off but still, I wore it. I loved it. It was, quite possibly, one of my favourite things in the world (haha not quite... but close). So one day, I just decided that was it. Why the heck shouldn't I wear it?! The deal was done!


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*HAIR AND MAKE UP
*
Again, I wasn't one of those people that had any expectations for our wedding pre-engagement. I also wasn't one of those ladies that gets engaged and immediately starts growing their hair. From the date of engagement to the wedding day, I'd had shoulder length hair, cut it all off, chin length, cut it all off. I had it black, blue, brown, white blonde. However my hair happened to be at the time was how my hair was going to be at the wedding. As it turns out, it was my usual short crop and my natural blonde. I really couldn't care less about hair... I actually couldn't tell you whether I bothered to brush it on the morning of the wedding or not!

Make up was another thing altogether. I used to be very, very into my make up and always had a full face on every day. I loved to experiment. Then I just sort of... stopped. And for years, it's not been much more than mascara and foundation unless I was going out. I always intended on getting back into it though, it was just one of those things I never quite got round to... until the wedding! The perfect excuse to start experimenting again. I was excited to do my make up myself. Like the dress, I was not forking out hundreds of pounds for someone to slap make up on my face. I can do it myself, get that satisfaction and save myself a lot of money.

I had so many elaborate ideas. So many pretty, bright, colourful, bold statement ideas. But then I wrote my speech and couldn't read it back to myself without balling like a baby. If I was like that during my own speech in front of no one, how was I going to hold up for the rest of the days events? That's what decided for me. I was going to go for something simple and classic but still very me. I wore this style of make up a lot just before I stopped making any effort whatsoever. And I'm so glad I went with this option. Looking back on the photos, it fit my outfit perfectly.


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*BOUQUETS*

I'm quite a big fan of flowers but I knew right from the start that I didn't want real flower bouquets. I wanted something myself and the girls could keep forever, something I could have on display after house. Nor did I want fake flowers... I like those too, I just wanted something a little fun. Something with a bit of personality.

That's when I stumbled on button bouquets.
https://i45.tinypic.com/2whqzj6.jpg

But something was holding me back. I absolutely LOVED them - I have a weird fascination with buttons - but they were a little... dull. A little boring. Then I thought of novelty buttons... I'll be the first to admit button bouquets are everywhere, especially ones with novelty buttons but back then, I wasn't even aware things like wedding blogs existed. The only button bouquets I knew of were the ones like the photo above.

Novelty buttons got me quite excited and I was immediately on ebay, searching out the bargain buttons I wanted and it was only a few days later that I had all the buttons I'd need plus the floral wire, ribbon and fabric to wrap around the wires to form the handle. But once it was all here, the steam had gone out of me again... it wasn't enough. That's when I stumbled on this.
https://i47.tinypic.com/2v0js02.jpg

I absolutely loved it but it was too... fabric-y for me. So I decided to stop searching and made my way to hobbycraft. I probably could have got what I needed cheaper on ebay but I was SO excited about this, I had to start it TODAY. I came home with several different coloured bits of felt. Now the person who makes the bouquets in the photo above will have a fancy craft machine that cuts all those flower shapes out for her and all she has to do is sew it.... I don't have one of those. My bouquet consisted of 100 fabric flowers. Each flower consisted of 4 shapes. 400 small, fabric flowers. 

https://i45.tinypic.com/syo8jp.jpg

Cutting them out was a NIGHTMARE and many times I questioned whether it was actually worth it because I designed it in my head for the flowers to be barely visible. Barely visible but *there* all the same. Quite a few times, I decided it wasn't worth it but I pushed through anyway and, eventually, I was done. It took me about 3 or 4 weeks but would have been a lot quicker if I hadn't spent so many evenings staring in bitter disgust at the meager amount of work I'd already done!

https://i48.tinypic.com/2nbzqmb.jpg

I did finish it. And the moment I could lift my tired hands off it, say "it's done!" and mean it? It was *all* worth it. I was so, so proud of myself and I absolutely loved what I'd done. I couldn't wait to show everyone! Thankfully, I contained myself to just showing Colin, my mum and the lovely ladies of the wedding group I mentioned before. And, of course, on here! But I saved it from everyone who would be at the wedding and I'm glad I did. I received a lot of compliments on it on the day.

https://i45.tinypic.com/16tk6e.jpg


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So I suppose the natural step to take after making my own fabric, paper and button bouquet would be to do something similar but on a smaller scale for my bridesmaids. That really wasn't what I wanted. I wanted something completely different from mine and I already had the idea in mind so no time was needed to be spent trawling the internet. I just had no idea if it would actually work or not! It's probably been done before, and much better than my final efforts were, but I hadn't - and still haven't - seen it before.

https://i49.tinypic.com/if0v83.jpg

I already had all the supplies needed for them and, one night, I sat on the couch with a good film and got started. It was very daunting because, like I said, I didn't have a clue whether it'd work or not.. I'd been thinking about this idea since I'd started making my own bouquet and I was worried that it wouldn't work. I wouldn't have been able to find something I liked as much as this, I thought.

https://i50.tinypic.com/v6kglc.jpg

At the end of the evening, I had one finished bridesmaids bouquet. I was over. The. Moon. It had come out *exactly* as it'd looked in my had and I was actually a little bit jealous! I wished I'd done something similar but on a bigger scale for my own. It wasn't until I saw all three bouquets (2 bridesmaids and my own) that I realised just how amazingly they worked together and I was extremely happy, once again, with my own but still equally as happy with what I'd done for my girls. I loved them.

https://i46.tinypic.com/2m5av0h.jpg


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COLIN'S OUTFIT

Colin had just as much, if not more, issues when it came to choosing what he was going to wear! There were so many options and so many epic combinations that it seemed almost impossible to find one that he could settle on. He liked the comfort factor of a short sleeved shirt but wanted to wear braces and preffered them with long sleeves. He wanted mismatched trousers and jacket but loved how smart jet black suits were. He wanted a bow tie but he struggled to find as much variation for a good price like there were with ties. He wanted epic shoes but there was almost no choice.

I only ever bought one dress. Colin bought, in total, 2 suits. The first was a black suit and white shirt. He hated the black and took it back. The second was a grey jacket and black trousers with a red, white and blue shirt. It did look pretty epic but the trousers were standard fit and he's a short guy... back to the shop it was and slim fit trousers were purchased. MUCH better!

When we'd bought the braces, it brought up a question in both of our minds: What would the suit look like with a plain white shirt? Back to the shops it was and we found a really nice white shirt with black buttons in Matalan and, when he tried it all on, we both knew it was the white shirt he was going with. His braces, buttonholes and bow tie produced enough pops of colour that his first shirt would just have been overkill.







His shoes, I found! I was casually browsing around looking for shoes for myself when I found them and about had a heart attack. I loved them!!! I actually waited 2 or 3 days before showing Colin because I was sure he was going to hate them so tried to put them out my mind. But I couldn't so I showed him. And he loved them just as much as I did, thankfully! His outfit was sorted.


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THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BIG DAY



This was something that was an issue but something we never really thought about... We knew we had to figure out who was going where and what was happening but never actually sat down and made decisions until 3 or 4 days before the wedding. Oops!



Initially, I wanted the typical "night before". I wanted Colin to disappear somewhere and to spend the night with my bridesmaids (and bridesmale!) and, if she'd like to, my mother. But there were issues with that. My bridesmale has health issues that meant he couldn't spend the night over here. One of my bridesmaids didn't want to spend the night away from her boyfriend. My other bridesmaid had a baby and was paranoid he'd keep everyone up all night. And space. We live in the tiniest of one bedroom flats and, should we all be here, no one would get a comfortable, undisturbed nights sleep.

So that was out of the question.



I even considered spending the night in our house on my own. Then I quickly realised I REALLY didn't want to do that. Colin was going to be spending the night at my Uncle's house with my Uncle and his 2 best men. That had been the plan from day 1 and there was no issues there whatsoever; he was easy!



So what the heck do I do?!

Well, it was pretty easy actually. Since the day Colin arrived from Northern Ireland, we've yet to spend a single night apart. Why change that now? There. Done. Decision made and dealt with! We would be spending the night before the wedding together. We were happy.



The best men were coming over from Northern Ireland and had already booked their accommodation, however it was through a website where no deposit was taken and you didn't pay until your arrival. Colin and I were talking and, ever conscious of our travelling guests and their expenses, we decided that we'd like to offer the 2 best men the option of staying with us from Thursday to Monday. Yep, that included the night before the wedding! They were over the moon to spend the time with us and to save a good amount of extra money!



Most people would probably be horrified at the suggestion of spending the night before your wedding with your almost-husband and his 2 best friends - even moreso when you've yet to meet those 2 best friends! - but I was actually really looking forward to it. Colin hadn't seen them since he left Northern Ireland and it made me really happy that he was going to have all that time to spend with them before the madness of the wedding ensued. On the morning of the wedding, the 3 of them got up before me, got their things together and left to go and get ready at my Uncle's; I never saw on the morning of the wedding and I liked that. I got to spend the night with him but still have the magic of the first time I saw him on the day would be when we were all made up and ready to get married.



I got up at 8am to an empty house. I wake up every morning to an empty house, Colin works, so it should have been pretty normal. But there was something very, very different in the air that day. Despite it being November and the weather up until then had been awful, it was like a summer's morning in my living room. The sun was shining and the air was electric. It just felt like huge things were about to happen.



I had a grand total of 2 hours completely and utterly alone before my bridesmaids/male and my mum arrived. I'd worked it out that way on purpose. I knew the entire day was going to be stuffed full of people and manic excitement; this was the only time of the day I'd be able to sit down and reflect on what the hell I was about to do.

Honestly? It was one of the best wedding decisions I'd made. It was a totally magical 2 hours and I can't even begin to describe the magic in the air that morning.



At 10am, my mum, my sister (bridesmaid), her son and my brother in law arrived. Within the next 30 minutes, my bridesmaid and male arrived, too. It was manic but relaxed. The excitement was immense but everyone was chilled out. I can't say it enough: it was just completely magical.



At 10:30, Sassy and her amazing Assassyn Katie arrived. And then the day exploded!


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THE VENUE

I've already mentioned our budget so I think you'll understand that this wasn't the easiest of jobs. But it's never one that stressed us out or upset us. We understood our budget so we looked solely at venues that supported this budget and that's as simple as it got, really. And it was pretty simple! We were initially going for the Holiday Inn package. And why the heck not?! It's just a building, what will happen inside that building on your wedding day is what's important. Plus, you provide the decoration... so where's the downside? We couldn't see one, really. There were plenty to choose from in Edinburgh in all sorts of locations so we were made up and had booked an appointment to go and see the one just up the road from where we were staying at the time and the one by the zoo.

Then my mum came to see me one day after work and told me she'd been speaking to a friend. This friend was also getting married but not until 2013, I think, and had found this venue. It offered the same package as the Holiday Inn but with a few added extras. Primarily, it's a fitness center and restaurant and I hadn't even seen a photo when we pulled up outside it a couple of days later for a tour and talk with the wedding co-ordinator.

I was in love.

https://i49.tinypic.com/143ait.jpg

The ceremony room was absolutely stunning. Decorated in a more-blue-than-green teal and brown and with outstanding views out over the harbour, I was hooked. The room was large and light and airy and the colours were gorgeous.



The ceiling light fitting, even, was beautiful. The chairs were gorgeous (I was actually gutted when they replaced these!) and the setup was amazing.



Just off of this room is a little bar type area that would be the location for the drinks reception. It was part of the ceremony room but out of the way. It followed the same colour scheme. It was a good size. It was GORGEOUS.



I was so overwhelmed by how beautiful the ceremony room was especially that we never even considered decorating it in any extra way other than a few little things on the register signing table. I could see us standing at the top of the aisle, surrounded by family and friends the moment I entered the room. I could imagine us having our photo taken out on the harbour.

I was ridiculously happy and we had provisionally booked a date by the end of that visit. The Holiday Inn appointment wasn't held.


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THE MUSIC

The music was actually pretty easy. Colin and I have identical tastes in music so it really was one of the easiest wedding decisions. We were done in an hour or so! We had a couple of songs that played more than once during the day intentionally. It would have been very, very easy to have any song played more than once (our initial music list was over 500 songs long!) but the repeats were there for a reason; we LOVED them too much to play them just once!

Guests being seated
All I Want Is You - Barry Louis Polisar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHXau3zAe7E

You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00M1BDtC-jo

Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKs3bybeTO8

Wonderwall - Oasis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc

Brighter Than Sunshine - Aqualung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDNfwIrx1M

1,2,3,4 - Plain White T's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9x8Icrnswc

Brightest - Copeland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiymVDq4pyo

Mine & the bridesmaids entrance
Everyday - Buddy Holly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao-5mml5iEQ

Signing the register
The Luckiest - Ben Folds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ANqzV2liI

Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKs3bybeTO8

First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwFS69nA-1w

I'm Sticking With You - Velvet Underground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5je_eK0V1w

Earth Angel - Death Cab For Cutie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLK4eorLDBw

*Our exit*
I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipADNlW7yBM

*Drinks reception*
I Will Follow You into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am0IFwjPyYA

Earth Angel - Death Cab For Cutie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLK4eorLDBw

She is Love - Oasis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHeszfOsrPo

Brighter Than Sunshine - Aqualung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDNfwIrx1M

Wonderwall - Oasis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc

I'm Sticking With You - Velvet Underground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5je_eK0V1w

Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKs3bybeTO8

1,2,3,4 - Plain White T's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9x8Icrnswc

You & I - Ingrid Michaelson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEN1b-dwlw

As it turns out, both of us only recall really hearing two of the songs. My entrance - Every Day - and one of the register signing songs and one that was played during a fe times throughout the day- Grow Old With You. Both are enough to reduce the two of us to giggling, stomach-butterfly wrecks and we love it :)


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*TRANSPORT, PHOTOGRAPHY & MEMORIAL.*

Transport never really bothered me. We originally wanted a Classic like a VW camper or a Mini or a... something old and pretty. But then the logistics didn't really match up and it would be a hell of a lot more effort than it was worth and a lot of money for what would be an all of 15 or so minutes journey. Once we'd realised all of that, we didn't want anything at all. Taxi's would do for us!

In fact, Colin got the bus to our first look session in the morning HAHA! That really is how much of a eff you see kay we really did not give. That £200-£500 was a lot of money to save!

I, on the other hand, squeezed into my mum's teeny tiny car with Sassy and Katie and then, from there, we all got in a taxi. It was fab and it was money saving. Everyone was happy!

I've already mentioned Sassy a lot so I should probably talk about why I picked her!

We had https://assassynation.co.uk/
We went with Sassy because her photography style is very, very similar to mine were I to shoot weddings. Essentially the photographs I'd love to take myself. From the first contact we had, we got on like a house on fire and knew she would go above and beyond. She has the same photography ethos as I do. She approaches it the same way I do. The passion for her work was evident from the get go. The passion for her clients was evident from the get go. She doesn't just take photographs, she herself works to create amazing memories and that, too, was evident from the first point of contact. When I started talking to her and we were sharing plans and ideas, not only was a fire lit up inside of me, I could tell it was the same for her.
Now, after the wedding, she was the best wedding decision we made by far. There were a few points through the day where she stepped in and played wedding co-ordinator and literally saved the day for us. When something happened with a who-was-giving-a-speech-mix-up and it overwhelmed me, she played best-friend-shoulder-to-cry-on. She made such an impression on us that, when the reception started and it was time for us to go, we were *sad*. The next day, the both of us actually *missed* her. I was very, very sick on our wedding day and Sassy had all these plans for *amazing* photos but what came first was my health and how I was feeling and holding up. She spent the entire day making sure I was feeling okay and holding up well and let me know that at any time at all if something was too much, that's it; it's too much and we will stop. Each new photograph idea was only put across to us after asking if I felt up to it. With every idea she put forward, we felt very comfortable in the fact that we could say no, that idea wasn't for us. Not once did we have to... but we could! And Colin and I are very shy, very people-pleasing people. Sassy made us comfortable enough to tell her what was and wasn't working for us should we have needed to.
All that matters to Sassy is that her couples are happy, having fun, their day is going the way they wished, they're comfortable and they're stress free. If something happens that heightens the stress of the couple before the day AND during it, no matter what the issue, she will work to resolve it. If it's a problem with the venue on the day, she'll help out to fix it. Anything. Nothing is out of the question for her. 

When we received our photos, I had to pretty much sit on my hands for hours and hours waiting for Colin to come home from work to look at them and the wait was MORE than worth it. Everytime we look at them, we're completely overwhelmed with how much we love them! Colin's mum is a very "typical mum" and we expected her to have her reservations; she, too, was completely over the moon with them. My mum thinks they're beautiful. Both of our families are amazed. Our friends, our parents friends, friends of our friends, people we've never met but have somehow seen them... everyone loves them! My sister's boss was questioning how to book Sassy for his own wedding after seeing our photos. I'm amazed by the reaction to them and how far they've got around the inner and outer circle of our lives but I am not in the least bit surprised. Sassy deserves this love from all of us and from complete strangers and SO MUCH more. I've had comments from other brides, who have seen more than enough wedding photos over the past few years, that ours are the best they've seen. And we wholeheartedly agree. So many people had so many expectations for our photographs and Sassy exceeded every single one of them.

Sassy isn't just a wedding photographer, she was our wedding necessity.

And now the gushing is over! Let's move onto the memorial.

Over on Rock n Roll Bride, Kat was wanting to write a post on name changes and who was taking whose name and why etc etc. I figured we had a pretty interesting story so I wrote ours out to share and sent it into her. She didn't end up using it but here was my email anyway!

"I've never felt my name is my own. From being able to understand and say my name when still a child, it's never been my name; I've always had some sort of detached feeling towards it. It wasn't my mother's surname. It wasn't my dads. It was my brothers dads name.

Growing up, my dad wasn't in my life. In fact, I only met him for the first time 4 years ago. And after meeting him, his name would not be mine either. He wasn't my dad - he was just my father, 2 entirely different roles in my eyes.

Your name has always been an incredibly proud thing to me. A real family thing. But how could I be proud of my name when it wasn't mine?

Growing up, my grandfather took the place of my dad. He was the one that was there on my first day of school and he was the one that kissed my scraped knees when I fell off my bike. It was my grandfather that picked me up, not my father.

My grandad passed away some years ago now. He always said he feared the family name wouldn't last long. Myself and my siblings had my brothers dad's name and my grandparents had just one son who only birthed daughters. A couple of years ago, a long time after my grandad had passed, my brother legally changed both his and his sons name to the family name. The pride I felt in him was immense. But it also saddened me; he was the last remaining Preston along with me and now I shared my name with no one. My sister had married. As had my mum, whose marriage sadly didn't last but she took the decision to keep her married name.

Cue meeting Colin and getting engaged. The thought of how to remember my grandfather on our day cropped up and it's probably been the thing I've put the most thought into because nothing ever seemed to be enough. And then, one day, it just came to me.

Less than a week later, my future husband had paid to legally change his surname and now, when we marry, I too will have the family name. White.

I know it's not a clear cut case of me not taking my future husbands name but I've never felt so proud of Colin nor has he done something for me that meant as much to me as this did. I didn't take his name and he didn't take mine, either; together, we're taking the same name and carrying on one of the last wishes of my grandfather. I can't think of a better way of keeping his memory alive not only on our wedding day but for the rest of our lives, too."

So that was that! However, as the wedding got closer, I had my doubts. We were doing this to preserve the family name in honour of my grandfather. But by doing this, we were "killing off" Colin's family name; he was the last Gamble after his father. I wasn't happy with that. I couldn't be comfortable with that. So, soon after, it was changed. Now? Now we're Gamble-White's. Now we're preserving the family name from both of our families and I'm ecstatic about that. It might not be the prettiest sounding name in the world but it means absolutely everything to me and I'm happy. We're happy.


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INVITATIONS

We spent a hell of a lot of time looking at invitations. They were quite important to us because they're what sets the tone of the rest of the wedding in the eyes of your guests. It was important to us to start off on the right foot and do our wedding justice.



There was nothing out there. Nothing affordable that would do any of our wedding, or ourselves, justice. We could have gone down the bespoke, designed-for-us route but we knew that would have ran into the hundreds of pounds zone and that was not something we were prepared to do so I got my creative head on. I opened up photoshop and I set to work.



In the end, I'd designed two or three sets of invitations and the one we went with was the very last one I had worked on; the first one or two just weren't doing anything for me and when I put the finishing touches on this last one, we both just knew. I didn't need to carry on with other designs in case I came up with something better; there would be nothing better. This one was perfect.



Then came the "how the hell do we get them from the computer into our hands?!" dilemma. I spent a lot of time on vistaprint trying to figure out the best and cheapest way but, again, it just wasn't working out. Nothing was perfect. They were already designed to our own specifications, not to vistaprints, so there was a little bit cropped here and a little bit cropped there and we weren't happy. I moaned and complained a lot. I almost wanted to cry from the frustration. Then my mum turned up a day or 2 later with a printer and ink. "Do it yourself," she said. "You've come this far."

So that's what I did.



I designed them, I printed them, I cut them all out and I assembled them all myself over 2 afternoons and, at the end of it, when they were all sitting on the floor in front of me, I was completely over the moon. I was so, so happy that my mum had pushed me to finish them myself. Like she said, I'd "come this far" with designing them myself, it would only be fair to myself to take the job right to the end myself and I'm so proud! A truly, 100% DIY job and EVERYONE loved them. My mum took hers in to work to show her colleagues - who I know! - and they were amazed by them. When everyone had received them, I got nothing but compliments. My family were amazed that I'd done it completely myself and a few just outright didn't believe me!



The evening invitations were a similar story. I designed, printed and assembled those too but I wasn't 100% happy with them. I could have done, and wanted to do, so much more with them but, by the time I got around to doing it, it was already 2 or 3 weeks before the wedding. What they are is what they are... I didn't have time for anything else! Thankfully, these received the same reception as the day invites. Everyone was happy so I was happy.


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*YUMMY STUFF*

Way at the beginning of wedding planning, we decided we were going for a small cupcake tower. Neither of us were hugely into cake but I have a love affair with cupcakes so it seemed like the obvious decision. An easy one! But, as time went on, we both changed our minds. We wanted a statement cake. Something epic! And that's when I found the Little Cherry Cake Company.

https://www.facebook.com/littlecherrycakecompany?fref=ts

This lady was amazing. But man, we could NEVER afford a cake from her. Then she put on a competition... and I won! A half price wedding cake would be ours! We talked and talked and, eventually, a digital mock up was sent over. I. Was. Blown. Away. It was AMAZING.

Things were good! But then they weren't... As usual! Nothing is ever as smooth as you plan for it to be, is it? Towards the time where the cake HAD to be paid for in full, we ran into a concrete wall. Not a brick wall, a concrete wall. It seemed we'd been a little bit too adventurous with a £3,000 budget and we just couldn't afford it anymore. It was horrible. I was sad. But then Colin pointed out to me that we're NOT cake people. That we were going with a big, elaborate cake for no reason other than it would look cool. The only time we would enjoy it would be in the photos. And he was right, I realised. So the sad faces were gone. Thankfully, she was incredibly understanding, and my win was given to someone that could use it now.

But we were without any form of cake now. It's okay, I thought, not the end of the world. It was a bit crap, yeah, but it really wasn't the end of the world! A cake doesn't make a wedding and we really weren't too fussed. But then my mum stepped in again and we were given what we'd initially wanted and MORE.



A lot of pretty cupcakes that tasted AMAZING and a pretty cake to look at. We were so happy! I immediately set to work creating little cupcake flags and cake bunting. We weren't having a first dance so this was the way I incorporated "our" song into our wedding.

The Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdR0491gUSA



Then there was the sweetie table!



We didn't want a huge amount but we wanted *something*.



It was amazing! And just the right amount of sweets. All of our favourites and about 90% of them were gone by the end of the night. It was a big hit!


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*THE TABLE/SEATING PLAN*

This wasn't fun in the beginning. There was nothing to be seen that interested us. Nothing to be seen that didn't bore the life out of us. The rest of our wedding was fun and epic and amazing (to us, of course!) but this was just... falling short. It took a long, long time but eventually I fell on something we both absolutely loved.

Rather than going for a table plan, we were going for escort cards to some degree.


We knew none of our family or friends had been to a wedding where the seating plan wasn't a simple, pretty designed board with their names in a line next to their table so I created a sign to explain how to use it and put it in an epic frame on the table.

"Each pot represents a table. Please have a rummage through the pinwheels in the pots and find your very own pinwheel. Once you've find your pinwheel in its pot, look at the table name above the pot and take your pinwheel with you to your table. The table names are displayed on cameras on the table and you can choose your seat from there.

For those of you on the top table, please find your face and take that with you to the top table."



We had three tables for guests so three pots. Each pot was filled with pinwheels and each pinwheel had a name tag on it. I filled the pots with sand to weigh them down and hold the pinwheels in and made up SO MANY mini wool pom poms to cover up the sand.



However, we wanted something different for the top table. Something that would be that little bit more fun.



I bought a block of fimo clay, acrylic paints and a spray varnish and I set to work. I made a mini, child-like replica of each person that would be joining us at the top table and wrote their names on the back. I was happy with these! They were very amateur and, like I said, pretty child-like but that's the look we were going for. These in particular went down an absolute storm!









Colin's best men with their faces!


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*THE GUEST BOOK AND THE CARD BOX*

We wanted this to be a real "statement" table so a lot of thought went into what was going on this table. We wanted clutter and junk and lots of little things that were really us and things we loved. I'd attempted to create a "mock up" of this table a couple of times but absolutely NOTHING could prepare me for how it looked on the day. I was blown away! We, and all of our guests, absolutely loved it. There were more people checking out this table than were checking out the sweetie and cake table!





This wooden block was, and is, one of our favourite wedding purchases. It's just beautiful! It was quite expensive for our budget but very, very cheap for the quality of it and what is actually is. 


The little "T" and "C" vases came all the way from China for the grand total of about 50p and we absolutely love them haha! They are so teeny tiny and just the most adorable thing.


Those little paper piles are the notes for the guestbook. I designed and printed those, also. The actual guestbook itself was the blue and white birdbox and the rules were simple: Write a message, roll it up and pop it through the hole!


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*THE CEREMONY AND RECEPTION ROOM DECOR*

As I mentioned before, we were in love with the ceremony room as it is and didn't need, nor did we want, to decorate it with much of anything. All we included were a couple of random pieces on the register signing table and we were extremely happy with that. Not only did the room not need anything, we knew there was a lot of things going on in the reception room and we didn't want that for the ceremony. We wanted the ceremony to speak for itself. To have no fancy decorations to fight for attention with. We wanted the main focus of the ceremony room to be us and that's exactly the way it was. It was perfect.



This was SO funny! You see the lantern IN the pot? Yeah, the pot was meant to be upside down with the lantern on top. Whoever setup the room obviously didn't understand that despite us providing photos hahaha!!




For the top table, we wanted a lot going on... but not over the entire table! We focused the attention towards the center of the table and, again, filled it with things that we liked and loved and that were 100% "us". We were both super happy with how it turned out!










We had a very small selection of my vintage camera's as the table names. I'd wanted to include them and managed to fit a couple of some of the tables but wanted to include a little bit more with 1 on each table. The idea for the table names came pretty quickly to me and we think they worked amazingly.


They worked really well with the centerpieces! The centerpieces were another thing that was a little hard work. We went through a million and one ideas before settling on the one we did and I'm so, so glad we went with what we did! The "cake stands" are actually white, plastic icing stands. They're used to stand cakes on whilst you ice them because they rotate! That's why we bought these particular ones. At the weddings I've been to, at least 2 or 3 people from a table would be touching and picking up the centerpieces to get a look at what was sitting where they couldn't see. This way, they wouldn't have to!






At the tables, we had records down in place of charger plates. Polka dot napkins. Jam jars with paper straws for their drinks from the bar. A small thank you note. Little details that we could have easily done without but that added that little finishing touch that we loved.


Our favours were a little Troll doll and a Russian Doll keyring.




And on the backs of the chairs, we had little toadstool hearts. I LOVED these SO much!!!


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*Henri*


I'm not sure if I mentioned the fact that I grew up in London. But I did! From the age of 8 to 15 years old, London was my home and it was both the best and worst time of my life. I suffered very severe mental health issues and was extremely bad but I had a great group of friends that helped keep my head *somewhat* above water.


Henri was one of those friends. The best. If it wasn't for her, I'm not quite sure where I would be right now.


As mentioned, I left London at 15 years old. I'm now almost 24 years old and I haven't seen her since. That's almost 9 years ago. From the start, I knew I wanted her there. I still thought about her a lot and I still loved her deeply. So, a few months before the wedding, I tentatively asked her for her address and she provided it. And she came. She was there.


During the ceremony, she was sitting where she should have been the first person I saw but, to be honest, I didn't see *anyone* but Colin. I was so overwhelmed with emotion, I didn't even see him until I got to the end of the aisle.


The first time I saw her was when she walked through the curtain into the drinks reception room and we immediately just threw our arms around each other and cried.


It was amazing. It made an amazing day even more amazing and I am so, so happy that she made it all the way and that she went to the effort to be with us on the day.


Despite it being nearly 9 years since we had seen each other, not a thing had changed. It felt like I'd seen her just a few days before the wedding.


It was magical.


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*THE FIRST LOOK*

When talking about our "first look session", I'm almost always asked what it is. Here, I found a pretty good explanation:
"So what exactly is a first look? Simply put &#8211; it&#8217;s when the bride & groom spend some time before the ceremony (yes, before) in a private moment where we get to capture the intimacy of them seeing each other for the first time on their wedding day&#8230; seriously private and seriously worth it. Typically, we&#8217;ll scout out a spot that is remote and away from guests. Then we&#8217;ll lead the groom over to wait anxiously for his bride to tap him on the shoulder so he can turn around and&#8230; WOW&#8230; see her in her glorious beauty, share true & intimate emotions, and admire who he is about to walk down the aisle with.

Not only does this make for some amazing memories & photos, but you get to share in a private moment just between the two of you! Most couples say that their nervousness is completely gone afterwards, and that despite having seen each other before the ceremony, they still feel equally special when they walk down the isle and see their bride/groom again. Why? Because both moments are completely different. Nothing can ever replace seeing your bride/groom at the end of the isle, locking eyes for the first time and realizing that in a few minutes you will officially be one anothers The first look, on the contrary, is more of a moment spent together, in privacy, in a slow pace &#8211; in what otherwise might be the hustle and bustle of your busy wedding day. It&#8217;s a chance for you both to soak it all in and enjoy one another 
There are some circumstances that truly call out for a first look, such as:- You have an evening ceremony and you want to use natural light to capture your important photos.- You have a tight wedding schedule and you need to do all of your group/family photos before the ceremony.- You want to have plenty of time to venture out for your bride/groom photos.- You don&#8217;t mind trying out this new tradition.

Does it create some awesome memories? Yes. Can it improve your wedding day schedule? Yes. Is it for everyone? No!Only you can decide if this is the right choice for you & your groom! If you have a full day for your wedding and aren&#8217;t constricted on time, or if you have a day-time ceremony where you&#8217;ll have plenty of sunlight for your photos&#8230; maybe you can afford to wait until afterwards and not do a first look. It&#8217;s definitely a break from tradition! And it&#8217;s completely your choice!"



Our first look was one of the best times of our lives! We had the most fun ever and it was just amazing.



Why did we do a first look?

Photography is my main love. My biggest hobby. So you can imagine how important the photographs were to me! I work with natural light 99% of the time and it was important to me that we got the vast majority of our photos using natural light, too. Having a 3:30pm ceremony in a Scottish winter wouldn't have made that possible! Or it would have been... but it would have been rushed. We'd be lucky if we got so much as a 45 minute window for our photographs. Nope, not going to happen!



We also see the moment you first see the person you're about to marry as a private moment. Incredibly so! Not a moment we wanted to share with all of our friends and family. Yeah, our first look took place firstly in a busy city centre cafe and then out into the busy city centre town. But there IS a difference; we were surrounded by strangers. People that didn't matter to us. People that didn't even come into the equation. We could seperate them from the moment in the way that we couldn't seperate our friends and family from it. So despite being surrounded by people, it honestly felt like we were completely alone together.



It really was one of the best mornings I've ever had!



We started off in the City Cafe. Katie, Sassy and myself got out of my mum's car outside the building and Colin was already inside, waiting. Sassy disappeared for a bit to let him know we'd arrived, to get him into position and to explain to him how things were going to work; she'd already explained to me in the car! I was outside with Katie, my knees knocking! And when Sassy poked her head around the door and motioned that it was time... I was almost sick from nerves!! This was it!!



I got inside and there he was, sitting in a booth. Sassy gave him the thumbs up, he stood up, turned around and there I was! His face broke out into the biggest smile and the tears erupted from my eyes!! It was amazing. Such a beautiful, magical moment. He threw his arms around me and I could have stayed in that moment forever.



We sat down at the booth he was sitting at previously and that was it... we were just a ridiculously loved up couple sitting in a cool cafe spending time with each other. Sassy brought us a drink and then left us to it. For a few seconds! The next thing we know, the most amazing looking milkshakes were being placed down in front of us. On the house from the staff! Mmm, it was amazing but so, so sickly sweet. Nomnomnom!!

















We were in the booth for what felt like no time at all, just lost in each other, when Sassy suggested moving along the cafe for more photos. The jukebox, the pool table, the bar!!










Then we moved over to the pool table at the back of the room. Sassy asked if I could sit on it and they were more than happy! So up I jumped but, before she could even start, a staff member was up there with us and removing stuff from the window. The windows were full of tea light holders (to be placed on the tables in the evenings!) and she offered to remove them all so they weren't distracting in the background. Amazing!














After that, we moved over to the bar seats. I LOVE those! It was a pretty hilarious effort from me to get into it in my dress but I managed it; I just didn't want to get back down, haha! Then another staff member appeared and SHE asked US if we'd like to get some photos sitting on the bar! The staff in this place were just absolutely Amazing! They were so accommodating and offering this and that before Sassy had the chance to ask. Major props to them.
















Once I'd managed to get down, we had a cigarette break and came back into the booth to continue with our drinks and have a bit of "down time" before we moved on. As I mentioned earlier I was sick (flu and chest infection) on the day and I was very thankful for the chance to sit and catch my breath before we moved on again.












But! Before we moved on, we had to make use of the stairway! In the basement of the cafe is a nightclub but it's also the way to the toilets haha! So we were in a lot of peoples way and had to stop to let someone past every 2 or 3 photos but not a single person was arsey. It was lovely!


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After the cafe, it was time to move on.







It was time for our wedding day tattoos! I absolutely love this studio and love the people that work in it. I'm proud to call them my friends it really is a home away from home!





I was feeling a bit drained of energy - remember, I was sick! Not just lame haha - but a quick lollipop sorted that out. They always have a bowl full of them sitting out. Perfect! And Liz, bless her. She was getting work down that day too - hence the PJs! Comfort is paramount haha.









My tattoos are like a keepsake box of memories I can carry around forever but still have space in my handbag for everything else. When something big happens to me, it's almost instant that I think of something I can get permanently etched on my body to represent that moment in time. It was only natural that I'd want something from our wedding; everyone says one of the very few things that will last forever are your photos. Not for us. We have those AND this.


Colin is into tattoos but not quite as much as I am. I don't think they hold so much of an emotional feeling for him as they do for me, if that makes sense. If we both really like something, we'll get it... but for me, the recording of memories is ridiculously important. I need photographs. From everywhere. Of everyone. But what if something happens to those? Tattoos are my backup memories. No matter what happens to everything else, they will be there.


When it came to WHAT to get, it was quite easy for us. We wanted tattoos that would be matching but completely different. Something that, for others to look at, isn't automatically a matching, wedding tattoo. I chose a toadstool and he chose a pinwheel; 2 of the main "elements" of our wedding. It's actually my second toadstool tattoo! The first is on my ring figure which I find quite fitting!


The process of getting those tattoos ON the wedding day rather than just before or just after was really quite important to the both of us and, luckily, we've got 2 of the greatest friends in Nick and Steph at Old Town Tattoo. Along with an AMAZING photographer in Sassy, our need was allowed to become a reality and the process was almost as emotional as the ceremony itself. By getting these tattoos, it was almost like our very own personal set of vows are now etched on our skin forever.



We were *stoked*.

Once that was done, it was time to hit the streets of Edinburgh and just chill out... go where we wanted with no destination in mind and this was actually really fun! We were in my favourite part of Edinburgh and I had the best time ever. I love the resulting photos!



However, it did to start to rain right at this point! But that's okay! We took shelter whilst Katie - Sassy's Assassyn and all round amazing lady! - ran back to their hotel (just behind where we were standing thankfully!) to grab the umbrella. I've always said, "rain is just water.. it won't kill you." And that's the attitude we had. So many people worry themselves sick over rain on their wedding day... it's okay! Really, it's okay. Your photos will still be beautiful. Ours are.

















And, before we knew it, it was time to head back to Sassy and Katie's hotel to meet the pre-booked taxi. It was *show time*!!!


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*THE CEREMONY*



Sassy, Katie, Colin and I turned up at the venue in our taxi. I instantly realised the mistake we'd made in not giving the driver clear instructions; he pulled up at the main door. The main door and walls either side of it our floor to ceiling glass. Every one of our guests saw us pulling up. Thankfully, I realised before the guests did! And I was promptly hidden by Sassy whilst Katie jumped out to help Colin get out without flashing any part of me! But whilst this was going on... all of our guests started coming outside! Clearly to greet the groom. Every one of them - aware we were having a first look - were obviously very eager to see us haha! It was really, really amusing although quite frantic; not a single soul had seen my dress. Not a single soul knew ANYTHING about it. Nope, not even the bridesmaids! Just my mother and myself. I wanted to keep it that way! So once Colin was inside, Katie jumped back in the taxi and the driver whipped us around to the back enterance! Here, we all got out and Sassy told Katie and I to wait behind the wall whilst she went inside to see if they were going to move the guests upstairs to the ceremony room or if they had an alternative way of getting me inside and sitting down somewhere without any of the guests seeing me. It was freezing outside whilst we waited but Katie really is awesome; we passed the 10 or so minutes just blabbering away to each other before Sassy motioned that it was safe to come inside.



And so we did! There, I was greeted by me bridesmaids, my bridesmale and my brother who was walking me down the aisle. He also had my darling little niece - our flower girl - in his arms. My sister also had my beautiful little nephew - our ring bearer - in her arms. They looked amazing! We were all led up to the bridal suite - an awesome dressing room - where I was able to put the umbrella and my bag down and make any last minute make up fixes - I didn't need to! Yay! Then it was time!!



Down to the ceremony room we went. We were ushered into the drinks reception part of the ceremony room and the most gorgeous teal coloured curtain was up, seperating us from the rest of the room and the guests. It was here I met the registrar and she was so, so lovely! But then the music started. At this point, I don't think I was fully aware of what was happening other than to think "man, I really do LOVE this song!" My sister and nephew walked through the curtain. I was good! My bridesmaid and bridesmale walked through the curtain. Awesome! I'm doing well! Then the instrumental part of the song started - I would be walking in when the vocals started back up - and that was it. I. Lost. My. Shit. I was in pieces. I was sobbing so hard, I started hyperventilating. My brother, bless him, was amazing and really helped me get myself together. By the time the vocals had started back up, I had stopped. But then I stepped into the room and saw everyone and started again! Luckily, I had more control this time and it was just a few tears. No hyperventilating this time! But then I saw Colin! And it took everything in me to not just dissolve. I was a wreck!!







When I spoke to people about a first look, one of the main reasons they wouldn't do one was always the same: they didn't want to take away from the emotion of seeing each other at the other end of the aisle for the first time. Well, ladies, I am the prime example that that does not happen! Yes, Colin and I had seen each other and spent time with each other that morning and seeing each other for the first time in the cafe was *so* emotional.







But this was different. At the cafe in the morning, we were both still in the "this is too good to be true" mind frame. Seeing each other at the other end of the aisle? There's no denying it then. It was the most emotional part of the day for the both of us and the first look made no impact on that special moment whatsoever.





The ceremony was beautiful and simple. We opted for the "middle" one so it wasn't too short but it wasn't too long. We also opted out of things like readings etc. It was just us, together. No decor distracting us. Nothing but the pair of us. And several other eyes watching from either side!





I spent most of the ceremony trying to control my tears and the completely and utterly ridiculous amount of outright trembling my entire body was doing! But, in the background, my 1 year old niece and nephew were babbling and giggling away to each and it helped the both of us focus, oddly enough. It was that that kept us both from literally falling to pieces!





And it was amazing. Just magical. She pronounced us husband and wife and everyone was cheering and clapping and before Colin got the chance to "kiss the bride", I'd flung my arms around him like it'd been a year since I last saw him! Magical. Every single moment of it. The best.


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