The wedding day - part 2

After being pelted with confetti, dangerously so by my Mum, and jammed back into the wedding car, Jose and I at last had our moment alone together to take in the day. The journey to Newby Hall was around half an hour and it was lovely to be squashed up to my new husband in the back of that car picking confetti out of each other’s hair. He kept telling me how gorgeous I looked, as he had done at the altar about four times. We felt so happy and alive.

We discussed how we had felt before and during the ceremony and I was surprised to hear of how nervous he had been before hand. Having noticed how calm I was throughout the ceremony, he was definitely shocked to hear of my wobbly legs and washing machine stomach back in the hotel. We agreed it was the enormity of marriage that had rocked us emotionally but that now we were fine and excited for the party.

All the time we were following the florist in his van and being followed by the photographer. It felt like we were on some sort of secret mission. I suppose we were all heading there with one objective - to get there before the coach load of guests in order to get some private photo shoot time and set out the flowers that had been brought from the altar to frame either side of the top table. It had been the photographer’s idea for us to race off after minimal time outside the church doors. He certainly knew what he was doing because time was short from the point of view of being able to fit in all the photos we wanted. The ones we got outside Newby Hall before everyone else arrived are fabulous (as you can see from the examples in this blog).

When everyone else arrived we took ourselves off into the house to freshen up whilst the guests attacked the Pimms and canapés. Then it was more photos. In fact we were being looked at through a lens for the whole hour and a half of the time before we went down to dinner in the marquee. We had started outside but then the heavens had opened and put a stop to that. The session resumed inside the house. The rain didn’t appear to spoil anything as everyone was so taken aback with the inside of the house that they seemed genuinely happy to have some time inside snooping around. The string quartet repositioned inside and all went swimmingly (excuse the pun). We, on the other hand, were becoming claustrophobic due to the constant flashing of cameras and requests to look this way or the other. I didn’t think I could ever regain my normal facial muscles. I feared they were locked in a film star smile forever. Every time the canapés were brought our way, a trail of guests would be following the tray – which only served to slow down the photo sessions, due to the wrong people being in shot. On noticing this, I kept ordering the canapés to go the other way, leaving us hungry but with a sense of the end nearing for the photos.

The time eventually chimed for us to brave the rain and head down to the marquee. I was covered with a golfing umbrella and aided with the lifting of my dress and set off across the lawns. He marquee looked amazing. It was standing alone in a backdrop of England’s finest fields. It looked so inviting. The lights, the noise, the sense of anticipation emanating were making me start to giggle. We stepped inside and everyone stood up and cheered and waved and smiled. I took Jose’s hand and led him to the dance floor. I know it should be him leading me but those of you who know me could have expected that I would be leading at this point. Our song was played and we hugged and moved and swung each other around. People hadn’t been expecting the first dance there and then so it seemed to catch people’s attention and their cheering carried on.

After a few minutes of dancing we turned to face the crowd and made our way to our places at the top table. It was then that I started quickly taking everything in about the marquee. Was everything where it should be? Had every detail I had planned been executed? Yes! It looked fabulous. Truly the best marquee I had ever seen, and that includes marquees at weddings on tv and films. Obviously it was exactly to my taste and so it was, for me, perfect. My mother in law, who has very fine taste, was quick to congratulate me when I reached the top table. She was very impressed and that meant a lot to me as her approval goes a long way in my Spanish family. There is a family joke that its near on impossible to achieve if you don’t let her choose or organise something. However, I was given a ten out of ten!