My wedding day highlights

Truth bomb... I didn't enjoy wedding planning in the slightest.

It was stressful, it was expensive, it was time consuming, and it often felt as if it wasn't worth all the stress just for one day.

However, even though there were times when I couldn't wait for the day to be over, the day itself was perfect. I managed to relax and to enjoy it, and all that meticulous planning and preparation meant that nothing went wrong on the day. 

As it was our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday and I've been looking through our lovely wedding photos, I thought it would be nice if I blogged about some of the things I particularly enjoyed on our wedding day. Some of them are pretty obvious highlights which I knew I'd enjoy, but others took me completely by surprise on the day.

1. Getting ready

I thought the morning of the wedding would be a massive stressfest and that everything would feel really rushed. And what on earth would I do if my wedding dress suddenly didn't fit any more?! Thankfully, it turned out to be a lovely morning with my mother and my bridesmaids. The lady who did my hair and make up was super friendly and put me at ease, and we were all ready and raring to go by the time the cars turned up to take us to the church. And, most importantly, my wedding dress fitted like a glove!

2. Walking down the aisle 

I was partly dreading this part in the run-up to the wedding just in case I tripped over my dress or bawled my eyes out, but I loved walking down the aisle with my dad and seeing all my friends and family waiting for us. Although a few tears did threaten to spill over when I saw everyone staring and grinning at me, I managed to hold it together and didn't end up with make up all over my face.

3. Car journey from the church to the reception 

This was one of the most relaxing parts of our wedding day, and probably the most Neil and I spoke to each other throughout the entire day. The formal part of the day was over, we had the rest of the day to look forward to, and we didn't have to worry about entertaining our guests for this brief period of time. So we sipped champagne, had a chat with the driver and generally just laughed a lot while we got chauffeured to our reception venue in style.

4. First look at our reception venue 

We held our wedding reception at the Copthorne Hotel and I'd put loads of thought in to the colour scheme, the centrepieces and the decorations. I was worried that it would look like a mishmash of slightly different shades of turquoise on the day or that the hotel wouldn't have followed my very precise instructions, but it all looked perfect and just how I wanted it. (It's worth noting that this particular shade of turquoise still gives me a little flutter of stress whenever I see it.)

5. Food! 

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that some of my highlights were obvious... this is one of those obvious ones. I was absolutely STARVING by the time we sat down for our wedding breakfast meal and I couldn't wait to tuck in to the food we'd chosen for the day. All three courses were really good and I also loved our wedding favours from Fabulous Welshcakes. We put on a buffet for our guests later on in the evening so we definitely didn't skimp on food for our big day. I'd been on a strict diet for months before the wedding so I wanted to make sure there was plenty of food available for me on the day!

6. Speeches 

If I'm being completely honest, I was mostly excited about the speeches because I could just sit back and enjoy them rather than having to take part. My dad's 'father of the bride' speech was amazing and lots of people have said it's the best wedding speech they've ever heard. Neil's speech and his best man's speech were also funny and very touching, and it was lovely to see everyone smiling and laughing at all the appropriate moments. I really wish they'd been recorded so that I could watch them back whenever I feel sad.

7. Dancing 

Neil and I were dreading our first dance. We're not really dancing people, and our choice of first dance music meant that people would be staring at us for the entirety of Tangled's 'I see the light'. True to form, we didn't really enjoy the first dance and were glad when it was over, but I really loved dancing more informally to our poptastic playlist later on in the evening. I lost count of how many times the DJ played McFly and S Club 7, and that's always a sign of a good night.

8. Breakfast the next morning 

I know this wasn't strictly part of our wedding day, but it was really nice to eat breakfast with our family and friends the morning after the wedding. It was a lovely way to wind down and to say thankyou and goodbye to everyone properly before they went their separate ways and got scattered across the UK. It was also nice to sit down for some food before starting the stressful job of packing away and transporting all our wedding paraphernalia!



I really can't believe four years have already gone by since our wedding day. I also can't believe this is the first time I've blogged about my wedding day highlights... better late than never. Look out for a post about our fourth wedding anniversary next week!