The photos!

Probably the thing I was most excited about in the aftermath of the wedding was seeing the photos. Four weeks to the day following the wedding we therefore made the journey down to Salisbury to Helen's studio to see what she had in store for us and to choose the photos for the album. We'd been looking forward to it not just to see the pictures but also because we love spending time with Helen and always end up having a laugh. The fact we get on so well was almost more important than the brilliant quality of her work when it came to us deciding to use her. 

Almost immediately upon arriving our dog Henry disgraced himself. Things were set to get better though and we sat down with hot drinks to watch a slideshow of the photos. I might be biased but I thought they were extraordinary. The creativity of some of the compositions blew me away. Overall when seeing the photos two things struck me - first the sheer joy, not just on my face but on everybody's faces, and second the vibrancy and colour of the photos. Everything was so vivid and it brought back the most amazing recollections of the day. 

Then came the hard part. From the 547 photos we were shown we had to narrow them down to 60 for the album. Needless to say we failed. Our initial shortlist was 127 photos which we managed to narrow down to 120. At the end of the day I don't really mind the extra cost as the album will be with us forever and I want it to be the best reminder of our perfect day as it can be. We're currently busy being very picky customers and are embroiled in the process of approving the album. Thus far we're on the third version with most of the revisions being to reinstate the original images/ sizes/ colours. Seems like Helen knows best after all. With any luck we'll have the albums in time for Christmas. That's a big tick beside Christmas presents for parents! 

The photos are up!

Click Here to see our fabulous wedding photos by the wonderful Helen Rushton. Password is Sammy2014

Generosity

In the last few weeks since the wedding - and even before - presents and money started to pile in, alongside good wishes from far and wide. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and family and could never have believed some of the wonderful ideas that people would come up with as presents for us. 

In cash alone we have been given almost £1000 and we have decided to start a holiday fund with that money, which will hopefully take us on a luxury holiday to Canada sometime in 2016 - before we plan to start a family (for those of you who looked at me suspiciously when I wasn't drinking on the wedding day - you know who you are! -  there wasn't a reason behind that besides the fact that on the whole I don't drink and haven't done so for a number of years!).

There was of course our gift list, which saw about 90% of the item on it purchased - something we were both amazed by. We had a fairly eclectic range of items on there with a heavy bias towards kitchen equipment as we both love to produce and eat delectable delicacies. Some people favoured vouchers above money and we have been able to purchase the few remaining items on the list with those vouchers. 

I can't possibly mention every single gift we received here as it would take far too long and would bore everybody. I would however like to highlight just a few that were particularly impressive. My university friend, Lucy, who has read my blog from the beginning had a book of it published. I'm yet to read my ramblings back but as a present it was just inspired! James' aunt made us a lace picture and my cousin gave us a painting of the church where we married. These are just a few examples of the thought and effort that went into everything we received and I am currently working my way through pages worth of thank-you cards. I'm writing each one with a personal message to reflect the kindness of those people who sent us gifts. 

In return we put a fair amount of thought into the presents that we have the key members of our bridal party. James' dad received a book on rowing Blazers. His mum received her favourite perfume. My dad received two general knowledge books and my mum got a bottle of my wedding scent, honey by Marc Jacobs. 

Our ushers and best man all received quiachs, with two being university of St. Andrews ones as that's where they'd met James. They also received miniature bottles of cardhu whisky, James' choice for all things wedding. Our page boy Zachary received a penknife. 

On the girls side my adult bridesmaids received Waterman fountain pens and my younger two received charm bracelets, tabitha's with a 't' and darcey's with a cat. 

Other gifts that we handed out included a cupcake themed surface protector to my cousin, and bottles of wine to the readers, flautist and car park attendant aka my cousin's husband! 

The details I didn't mention

It's been pointed out to me by a friend that there were certain details about the wedding that I failed to mention. Predominantly these were the details handmade by myself, Mum and James. James made the tablet that was given to guests as wedding favours. I then painstakingly wrapped them in organza and tied them with purple ribbon. I think they were well received by the guests.

The tables themselves were named after whiskies, with the top table being James' favourite, Edradour. Each table name had been printed out by dad and coloured purple by Mum. At the bottom they had a related fact about the whisky or the distillery. The theme of facts was carried on in the place-cards where each one had a calligraphied fact inside, some specific to the person receiving them but mostly pot luck. James came up with the factoids and a lot were focused on our areas of knowledge or interest. The outside of the place-cards had the person's name calligraphied by mum and  purple mosaic corners, a theme which was also an element of the handmade invites, the table names and the menus. The children's placecards had felt animals in the corner - about the only concession we made for their ages! Mum was also responsible for the covers of the orders of service which were handed out at the church. 

The table plan was a post in itself. The ribbon roses, which I had made of evenings over many months, were mounted in oasis around the border and Mum calligraphied the names once the seating plan had been decided upon. In hindsight I have to commend myself for the seating plan as the tables all seemed to gel remarkably well. The overall effect was one I was very happy with and incredibly proud of. I think it is set to be mounted in a frame and will invariably adorn one of our walls in the not too distant future. It will also remind us of all the fabulous people who were able to share the day with us. A further reminder is our very individual take on a guest book. Every place setting was laid with a postcard of scottish scenes and we asked everyone to write us a note and post it in a box. We read them the night we got back from honeymoon and they were great - a very eclectic mixture of characters and I personally feel that it allowed everybody to express their own individuality rather than feeling the need to conform to a standard guestbook message. 

Ribbons were a theme that was also carried on through the whole wedding. The main element was of course the ribbon roses in various hues of pink, purple and cream. However there were also ribbon pew ends which I was able to knock out fairly quickly. My second dress - aka the dancing dress - was also customised with a thick band of purple ribbon. The house is still overflowing with ribbons and there's an outside possibility that I might think about taking on a few small commissions or even trying the break into the wedding industry with handcrafted ribbon products in the future. 

I have also been asked to mention a bit more about the wedding dance. We had been having dance lessons for many months prior to our engagement but we started to focus on the wedding dance fairly early on into our engagement and I very much think that we needed all of that time. The dance may not have had any lifts - although some of the dances in the ceilidh did! - but it had plenty of dips, kicks and flicks. There is video evidence of the dance and I can remember quite a few 'oohs' and 'aaahs' as we were performing it. Music is one of the very few things about which James and I tend to disagree and the choice for first dance had the potential to become quite a sticking point. In the event I submitted to James' suggestion fairly quickly. While I would probably have opted for a more obvious choice such as Angels by Robbie Williams, a song James loathes, he naturally preferred a Bond theme tune. He suggested three options, of which I felt All Time High was the most meaningful and it seemed to work very well for us as a dance routine. 

It would be wrong of me not to mention one of the most important guests of the day... Sam! The only reason we hired our venue exclusively was so that we could have the little cockapoo there. In hindsight it was a great decision anyway but for us both Sam was a VIP - that's very important pooch. Although he missed out on the role of ring-bearer - with us opting to allow the best man this traditional privilege - he instead came up the aisle with my bridal party, joined us at the front of the church for signing the register and was in all the group photos. He sat good as gold under the top table and looked very dapper in his newly acquired purple tartan lead and collar. By the end of the day you could see that he was absolutely exhausted and the main reason that Mum and Dad called it a night was because it was so clear that Sam was all partied out. He was an absolute credit to himself on the day and seemed to be a huge hit with all the guests, and certainly us!

Even now, almost four weeks after the event, the wedding is still the main topic of conversation amongst family and friends and there are still so many treats to come. A particular highlight for me will be seeing the professional photographs on Friday. As I've already mentioned many times James and I adored working with our photographer and I can't wait to see the shots she got of the day - I just hope some of them are of us as every time I looked at her she had eyes only for Sam! 

The wedding day!

I'll start by saying it was absolutely the best day of my life. Someone was watching over us as the early morning rain (I was awake at 0530!) gave way to glorious sunshine for our 1300 wedding ceremony. I won't bore you with all the details - for my own benefit I wrote about 20 pages of literally everything that happened on the day - but I will cover some of the main elements and in particular mention some of the surprises that we had up our sleeves. 

The getting ready period went by in a flash. My brilliant and superbly efficient hair and make-up artist Heidi made my four bridesmaids and me look absolutely gorgeous and kept perfectly to time. We had some lovely photos taken in the garden and the bouquets arrived looking utterly gorgeous and deliciously feminine, just as I had hoped. Massive thanks to Nicole Gamlin for her inspired creations!

Many people asked what my traditional items were:

Something old and something blue - my heirloom sapphire and diamond ring inherited from my pseudo godmother, Alison 

Something borrowed - mums pink pearl necklace

Something new - the dress and everything else!

My incredibly tacky singing tartan garter also had blue in it! 

The cars all arrived on time with only one needing to ring for directions to the house. We set of at 12 even though the journey to the church wasn't going to take an hour - in the end my driver was able to have a cigarette stop in a country lane so that I arrived on time rather than ridiculously early. 

I didn't suffer from nerves on the morning. I kept expecting them to kick in but it wasn't until the doors of the church opened and the piper (Steve Duffy) started up (the first surprise for our guests) with highland cathedral, that I was overwhelmed by emotion. Seeing school and uni friends smiling at me from the pews and my beloved granny sitting at the back with her friends from tredington had the tears welling up and I said to dad 'I'm going to go'. What I meant was that the tears were going to come but he took it to mean that we should start walking. Cue a small tussle as I collected myself before we started the walk down the aisle. I broke off to give granny a hug before focussing on James for the rest of the way. I thought he looked amazingly handsome. 

The ceremony itself was gorgeous. The readers were superb, the vicar was amusing and the vows were lovely. My flute teacher, and friend, Julie, played beautifully while we signed the register and then it was official - I was Mrs Reid! 

We had some photos at the church before the car journey to Wyck hill house for the reception. When we arrived we had some more photos and were met with our requested welcome drinks for ourselves and the guests - mocktails of Virgin sunrise and whisky. 

Then James and I had another grand entrance down the stunning staircase at Wyck, again accompanied by the piper. Photos followed and took us through to the start of the wedding breakfast. James and I nipped into the Lord rissington suite for a sneak peek before everyone filed in and the room looked amazing. In trying to escape in order to prepare for yet another grand entrance we ended up having a very informal receiving line after all! 

The meal began with a grace said by my uncle and then a very dramatic rendition of an address to the haggis by one of our ushers. Most people hadn't seen this before and ours really was a shining example of how it should be done. Well done Hugh! 

Then it was down to the main event. Our breakfast menu was a starter of haggis neaps and tatties with a balmoral sauce. Main was a slow cooked blade of beef with mashed potato and a red onion jus and dessert was a delicious sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. Credit has to go to the Wyck hill kitchen for the quality of the food - quite simply superb! 

The speeches followed the meal although James and I did creep out beforehand to enjoy both the moment and the view of the rolling hills that our venue afforded us. Dad kicked off the speeches with some background to the decision to marry in tredington and a moving tribute to my strong bond with my late grandad. He proceeded to thank the race horse who came good and helped him fund the wedding and spoke about me as a daughter. He ended with some advice to James. 

You can imagine the laugh that got!

James' speech was next. He was very amusing and thanked the many people who had contributed to the day - in particular saying lovely things about me, both sets of parents, and the wedding party, especially best man Ross. He told a slightly doctored version of how we were set up by my bridesmaid Klara and then handed on the baton to Ross. 

Ross's speech was one of my highlights. He managed to allude to James' nefarious past without divulging too many of the gory details. He talked hilariously of their shared past and made sure James was embarrassed in the present by letting all the guests know his mum had ironed him three shirts for the day - in case he dribbled! 

After the speeches we cut the cake and our bespoke cake topper by Julie patchouli was revealed. The cake, by cake sweet cake of kidlington had layers of vanilla sponge, white chocolate and chocolate orange. The piece I tasted was delicious!

Afterwards we all cleared the room and spread out into the bar, the outside areas, the library and the hallways while the dance floor was prepared. I meanwhile snuck upstairs to change. Yes that's right - I had a second dress up my sleeve. The off the peg monsoon gown was modified by the addition of a purple ribbon belt. Falling to the knee and lace covered it allowed me more freedom of movement than my original dress meaning that when the time came for our first dance - a choreographed rumba to Rita Coolige's All Time High (the words inscribed within our wedding rings) I could do the dips and the ganchos and even walk backwards as required! After that we ceilidh'd the rest of the night away to the accompaniment of the Quiet Men. 

There was an evening buffet which I certainly didn't have any space for. This was served in the Adams suite where the centrepiece was a cupcake tower made by my incredibly talented cousin Louise. Her children, Zachary and Darcey were the youngest members of the wedding party and both were fantastically well behaved throughout the whole day with darcey in particular looking and acting like an angel for the entire day. 

My overriding memory of the day will be the sheer happiness that I felt and that seemed to be shared by everyone around me. I shed tears at the end of the night when our song 500 miles by the proclaimers morphed into a compilation of scottish melodies followed by auld Lang syne simply because I didn't want the day to ever end. It was simply perfect in every single way. I know I'm biased but it's the best wedding I've ever been to and I loved every moment. It wouldn't have been the same without all our fabulous guests who threw themselves into the scottish twists with gusto or to all the people whose love and support over the years has made us into who we are, both as individuals and now as a couple. I cannot thank those people enough. 

I would also like to thank Amy, Ben and the rest of the team at Wyck for being so brilliant and for putting up with a burst of control freak behaviour in the final run up to the wedding. My bridesmaids, emz, Klara, tabitha and Darcey were both wonderful and beautiful. James' team of Ross, Ian, Hugh, Poynter, Fraser and Zachary all did a fantastic job. Biggest thanks of all has to go to my parents who have been the best parents in the world and always loved me unconditionally and also very generously funded the wedding. Last but not least I want to thank my husband (that word still sounds weird!) for being the amazing person he is and for being foolish enough to love me and want to spend the rest of his life with me. 

Surely for the last paragraph I should have been accepting an Oscar??  

It'll be a few weeks before we get the video, discretely filmed on the day by David grange, back but next week we see the professional photos taken by the amazingly talented and incredibly charismatic Helen rushton but for now here's a sneak peek of our wedding look and of course Sam! 

The dresses

The dress I wore was a variation of Bardot, from Blue Bridalwear. The original dress had a very plain silk Cymbeline skirt, with modest train and sculpted bodice. It had a bow belt and a lacy overlay that buttons up the back. I loved the simplicity of the lines of the dress and the feeling of quality of the material. As I stepped into it I knew it was the one. However I didn't feel that the overlay suited me as it detracted from the simplicity that I loved and that seemed to suit me. Thus the overlay was out and in its place I designed my own straps, which were beautifully crafted by the seamstress at brides of Winchester. The straps were inspired by the wedding dress in sweet home Alabama. I didn't like the dress but the moment I saw the straps, way back in 2003, I fell in love with them and knew that that was exactly what I wanted. The bridal shop printed out pictures of the dress in order to work from them. 

The dress has needed to be synched in by 5 inches since I was first measured but this has been done beautifully. Many little details have been added behind the scenes to make sure that my underwear is concealed and that the dress stays exactly where it should for the duration of the day. 

I accessorised with a beaded tiara which highlighted my long two-tiered veil encrusted with Swarovski crystals. I chose not to wear the blush down as I walked down the aisle. 

My shoes were very simple cream satin heels with a rounded toe and a strap to make sure they didn't come loose. I felt like an absolute princess for the whole day. 

Of course I didn't wear the Bardot for the whole day though...