A Derbyshire Wedding — Part Two

Today it’s time for the wed­ding recep­tion, and I’ll leave you with part two of Nicola’s wed­ding story to enjoy!

Bertie and I had some pho­tographs on our own in a field oppo­site the church — for which I clam­bered over a style — before join­ing every­one else.

The day started com­pletely gray and with pour­ing rain so it looked like it was going to be a washout. We were putting the final touches to the mar­quee later in the morn­ing and the rain was bounc­ing from the can­vas so we were resigned to every­one hav­ing to cram into the tent for the whole recep­tion. I met insis­tence it would clear up from friends with incredulity but sure enough, by around 2pm, the sun was shin­ing and from then on, it was per­fect. Yes it was a bit windy (which had a pretty cat­a­strophic effect on my hair) but we were so lucky the rain dis­ap­peared. The day would have been amaz­ing what­ever, but the way the weather lifted really added to the magic of it all.

What is really spe­cial about a wed­ding is hav­ing all the peo­ple you love in one place and the over­all mag­i­cal atmos­phere that cre­ates, which per­vades the whole day. It is such a unique, happy occa­sion with every­one wish­ing you well and that’s what I really remember.

We weren’t too caught up in an over­all theme but in my mind’s eye, I wanted it to have a bit on an ‘old Eng­lish’ feel — given the rural, coun­try loca­tion and over­all tra­di­tional approach to the day. To that end, we had pub signs as our table ‘num­bers’ — I sent my brother and now brother-in-law round tak­ing pic­tures — and lit­tle bags of rhubarb and cus­tard sweets for wed­ding favours. Instead of tra­di­tional place cards, we used pur­ple rib­bon to tie white tags around the nap­kins and I made the table plan myself using white card and pur­ple ribbon.

The mar­quee was quite sim­ple, with a bar at one end and dance floor and space for the band at the other, with some pic­nic tables and chairs out­side. Our flow­ers were a mix of pur­ple, light blue and cream.

Bertie said one of his favorite moments, apart from see­ing me come down the aisle, was when we were stand­ing out­side the mar­quee together just before we were called in. We had a brief but quite emo­tional chat — caught on cam­era by our wily photographers.

We chose to have the speeches before din­ner just after every­one had sat down so that every­one could relax dur­ing the meal. I bucked the trend here by speak­ing myself after my father, and then Bertie and his best man followed.

In church, I loved the read­ing of The Princess Bride we had picked which was done by one of the ush­ers, Char­lie. He gave it a bit of drama and it was exactly the sort of indi­vid­ual touch we wanted so that the ser­vice wasn’t too for­mu­laic. The Princess Bride is one of Bertie’s favorite films and the pas­sage we chose was about hav­ing an adven­ture together.

I would also say that the speeches were very spe­cial. We went from laugh­ter to tears and back again. It was really impor­tant for me to make one myself so that I could thank my par­ents and tell Bertie how proud I felt to be his wife. I really enjoyed doing it and can remem­ber look­ing up to see peo­ple laugh­ing and think­ing to myself: “This is going down okay!” Bertie’s was really mov­ing, for many rea­sons. He went from say­ing every­one was there to cel­e­brate the fact that I had “landed the big tuna” to deal­ing with some very dif­fi­cult, per­sonal stuff and there wasn’t a dry eye in house. Best Man Matt then brought the house down with tales of Bertie as a boy, pulling out a hilar­i­ous let­ter he had writ­ten to his brother from prep school. The pho­tos cap­ture all these bits per­fectly – Bertie and I are bent dou­ble, we are laugh­ing so hard.

Wed­ding day advice: what one piece of advice would you give?

It’s obvi­ous but just enjoy every sin­gle sec­ond. The day is (or should be) the best of your life but it flashes past so quickly. Try not to obsess about the details on the day itself. Things will go slightly wrong but it really doesn’t mat­ter. It’s all about enjoy­ing it and hav­ing fun with fam­ily and friends. In the imme­di­ate after­math, we felt ours had gone so per­fectly and were on cloud nine. Over time, there are inevitably things we thought per­haps we could have done dif­fer­ently but you have to let that go and just remem­ber how spe­cial it was.

Bertie adds that you only really need to get the booze, food and music right — every­thing else is just dressing!

It is hard to pick out par­tic­u­lar moments but one we loved was the moment our guests were doing a conga through the mar­quee as the band were singing Love Train. One of my par­ents’ old­est (and cra­zi­est) friends was at the front of a com­plete mix­ture of friends and rel­a­tives of all ages and from all aspects of our lives, hav­ing a great time. It made us realize the party was def­i­nitely going with a swing.

After a three-course meal, the danc­ing started and basi­cally didn’t stop until 1am. Cheese and cake (tra­di­tional three tiers but a mix of fruit and sponge) were served in the evening. We had a great band — Dou­ble Mea­sures — who played some Motown clas­sics and some more mod­ern mate­r­ial which had every­one on the dance floor. Near the end of the night, I changed out of my wed­ding dress and then we left just as it was all com­ing to a close.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

Just Good Food (based in Birm­ing­ham) www.justgoodfood.com
Rowan Tuna­ley Flow­ers (based near Ash­bourne, Der­byshire) www.facebook.com/pages/Rowan-Tunaley-Flowers/193042727417692
Kirsten Mavric Pho­tog­ra­phy www.kirstenmavric.co.uk
Dou­ble Mea­sures – Motown-style band, West Mid­lands www.alivenetwork.com/bandpage.asp?bandname=The%20Double%20Measures
The Birm­ing­ham String Quar­tet www.dgmusic.co.uk
Worths Wines www.worthbrothers.co.uk