We decided on July 11th that we would finally go ahead and get married on 11/11/11 as when we originally got engaged many moons ago I had said I wanted to get married 3/3/3, 4/4/4 etc and every year on those dates we would get texts/facebook messages asking why we weren’t getting married - no more woo hoo…
The week of the wedding I got the worst flu that I have had in years and even lost my voice and was ordered to stay in my pj’s and talk to nobody - 4 days before the wedding, I think my hubby was delighted.
The main draw back to this was that I had left lots of small things to the week of the wedding, like finalising table plan, getting photo’s to photobooth company, getting the sweet bags for the sweet table, my makeup trial and getting my underwear so nothing important haha….
Two days before the wedding I finally finished up most of the small things and had them sent to the respective suppliers phew (up till 1.30am making stupid paper cones for the sweet table as couldn’t get bags on time - state of them haha).
The day before the wedding we had to collect our cake and drop that and the other supplies to the hotel. I had my makeup trial scheduled for that evening as the girl couldn’t make it the night before. When we got to the hotel we bumped into some of our guests that were staying there the night before and we went into the bar with them. I finally got to relax and had three of the nicest large bottles of Bulmers I ever had. My hubby kept saying we had to go as I’d to get my makeup done. I arrived home to my Mam’s and at this stage I was flying high (otherwise known as tipsy). As we had stopped to have a drink I hadn’t time to go to Debenhams so my hubby and my sister had to fly down to pick up my Spanx - I am a disaster , my family were going to kill me. I was just delighted we had not stayed in the hotel that night as I would never have left the bar
After my makeup trial I went to bed where my Mam had bought me new sheets for my bed and there was a gift bag on it. I opened it and inside was lovely new flannel pj’s and slippers from my sister along with a lovely card she had made out to “My Naughty Little Sister” as she used to read me those books when we were small and she had wrote a really lovely message inside - made me all gimpy going to bed.
Day of the Wedding
I slept like a log and only woke up at 7am as my dog was jumping on my head as he wanted to go out and play with my sisters dog - my Mam’s house was taken over by everyone staying for wedding.
I got up to let him out and then sat in sitting room talking to my family and having cups of tea. The morning seemed to drag in until we started to get ready then it flew. The hairdresser came to my Mam’s about 10.30ish which was grand. My Mam went to her own hairdressers to get hers done but it was lashing rain so my brother flew off to collect her and when she came back she had stopped and got me loads of balloons as she knows how much I love them. All in the wedding colours with a big balloon car and hearts in the bunch - too thoughtful, she had already covered downstairs with banners saying Just Married - my niece gave out to her over this my poor Ma
My brother then made us a huge fry it was just massive mmm…My hubby called up to collect the dog to bring him to the minders as we’d be gone for two nights and my sister gave him the gift bag I had for him. I had done the something old, borrowed, blue just in case blokes were meant to get them as well. I put blue “Help Me” stickers under his shoes as my something blue was “I Do” stickers. His new was socks with the bloke from Hangover in it with Dude We Made a Pact written on them and on them I put a sticker saying “in case you get cold feet” I had also had a t-shirt made for him with two skeleton heads (one male other female) on the front with Til Death Do Us Part written underneath and on the back was a bleeding heart and I put 11.11.11 underneath.
I hadn’t expected him to do anything but I was at the door talking to my neighbour and a florist pulled up and brought me two lovely roses from him with a hand written card with the cutest message on it - I was totally shocked and we all started welling up, I text him and he said that they were all laughing at his bag of gifts.
We all left to head to the hotel (The Osprey Hotel in Naas) at around 12.30 my brother had put ribbon on his car but it was all tangled in the wipers so we had to cut it off as the winds were howling, it was a really stormy day.
When we got to the hotel, I text hubby to let him know we were pulling into the car park in case he was wandering around. He said he was close as well. When I was walking through the car park the car he was supposed to be traveling in pulled in, I nearly died. It was funny though cos instead of getting out of the way I just put my hand in front of my face - like that would cover me, luckily it was just his parents he had driven down with someone else and was waiting outside the hotel until I gave him the all clear.
I went to reception and got the key to the suite. It was amazing!! When you walked in there was a little bar, then a huge sitting room with floor to ceiling widow and a bathroom. The upstairs also had floor to ceiling windows looking down on the living room. Another small toilet but a huge marble bath right beside the bed. It was truly amazing. Then out on the balcony was a hot tub - I could easily live there!! My brother went to the bar and brought us up a round of drinks. My family were going around like headless chickens and kept asking me how I was so calm but in my mind I was marrying my best mate so couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
Most of my extended family and friends popped up the room to say hello as their rooms weren’t ready and it was great to waffle to them before all the madness began. I had my makeup done in the room and then went downstairs to get dressed. My cousin did a final run over with the steamer on my dress once it was on and I was ready to leave at 3:15 but the manager asked me to hang on as the guests weren’t all in the room so we went out to the staircase and took some family photos. I found out later my other half was also stopped and told to go to the bar for another pint - he didn’t put up a fight
I walked up the aisle with my brother as my Father passed away a few years ago so he was giving me away. He had to hold me back as I was like a startled horse when all the flashes started going off, I hate my photo being taken so I tried to bolt up the aisle haha…
The ceremony itself was a great laugh from the start to the finish. Even the registrar said we were making her all giddy as we were all so relaxed. I loved every minute of it.
When it was over we went to a private bar for the welcome reception and had a few beers and I used this chance to get to mingle with everyone. I made a point of going to every table to catch up with each little group - in case I didn’t get a chance later in the day.
We then went and had a few photo’s taken. My brother-in-law has a good camera so I asked him to just take a few as to me the thoughts of a photographer taking pictures for ages is not my cup of tea as I hate photo’s of myself.
We were called for dinner at 5.30 and we did the speeches first as I think there is nothing worse than making the poor men sweat through their meal worrying. My brother gave a lovely speech but had most of us choked up when he started to talk about my Da. My FIL then gave a funny speech but ended it on a lovely note. My hubby just winged it, he said he’d loads more to say but it all went out of his head because my cousin wouldn’t stop laughing, when you watch the video you can hear my cousin alright - serves hubby right as he was only laughing at him slaging off my birdcage veil J. Then his brother who was the bestman gave a great speech the whole place was laughing at him but like his Dad he ended with a lovely quote. - Marriage is not about finding someone to live with but about finding someone you can’t live without.
My two nieces then sang I think I want to Marry You for us - too cute
I love holidays so we named all the tables after holidays we had taken and then we had the cake made into the shape of suitcases with two little penguins on top as I found my little penguin to mate for life haha…
The Ireland game was on that night so when the meal ended half the wedding went into the bar to watch the match. It was perfect timing as they had to set up the room and the DJ was setting up his equipment as were the photobooth guys. It honestly was great to have the game on as while they were gone I got to sit with the one’s that stayed behind and I also managed to sneak out for a bit and catch the end of the match.
Our DJ started up and honestly from the first song to the end of the night the floor was full. We danced our first dance to Brandi Carlile “The Story”. Ruairi was fantastic and edited out the music part of the song as I wanted to shorten it to as little as possible.
We then just danced the night away. I think I finished up about 5am but my shoes were dumped shortly after the first dance and I took a pair of the flip flops I’d left in the bathroom as the fancy one’s I’d bought for myself I’d left in the room and if I’d gone to the room I may not have come back.
The next morning we met up with the family at breakfast and they did not look healthiest. It was funny I was buzzing but I forgot I’d just had half bottle of champagne with breakfast - lovely hair of the dog
We all sat in the lobby area and looked through the photobooth album, I still say this is the best thing I organised for my wedding as we have some amazing shots of our guests and the lads from http://www.photoandvideobooth.ie are soooooo amazing to deal with.
We stayed in the hotel the second night and a few family members hung around and we had a mini cocktail session.
I had a great day but it went by in a blur I am so glad my nephew recorded the ceremony/speeches for us as it’s funny the silly little things you miss. So if you can’t afford a videographer just have a guest film it for you.
So the suppliers:
Hotel/Ceremony: The Osprey Hotel, Naas
Cake: Local girl did the two tiers chocolate biscuit and the penguins for €160 she’s based in Wicklow if you want her details PM me, she priced me 3 tiers for €200 (without figures).
DJ: Ruairi Finnegan from Irish Wedding DJ (http://www.irishweddingdj.com) mobile 0876604916 - amazing DJ, he had a good site that lets you ask for all the songs you want but also put a list of songs you hate so they won’t be played.
Photo/Videobooth: http://www.photoandvideobooth.ie seriously amazing company!!
Sweets for sweet table: http://www.retrosweetz.com best value I could find
Suits: Black Tie
Flowers: Kays Florist, Rialto, I got one of the todaysdeals
