Mr and Mrs

The deed is done - I’m officially a married man.

I awoke on Saturday morning bright and early at about 6:30am and started getting ready. I’d spent most of the day before putting up gazebos, tables and chairs so I’d managed to sleep through the night with no problems. In fact, I didn’t feel nervous at all - just excited!

Having woken the best man, donned the shirts Meegan had hidden from us (she didn’t want us to know the colour until the last minute, in case it gave away anything about her dress) and broke open the bucks fizz. Meegan’s Dad and Aunt also joined us as we prepared to leave in the hire car Meeg had picked up earlier in the week (Seat Altea - I hated it, Meeg loved it).

Thankfully I also managed to avoid cameras for the majority of the morning so here are a couple of pictures from the Bride’s preparation.

We’d decided to get married at Haywards Heath Registry office simply because it seemed nicer than those that were closer to home. Unfortunately this meant the trip would take approximately 30-45 minutes so we left at aboult 9:30am just to play things safe. The roads were already pretty busy because the south east of England was experiencing a heatwave and hundreds of us Limeys were heading to the various beaches on the south coast.

At 9:50am it was already 27 degrees centigrade - cracking weather for a wedding!

We arrived in Haywards Heath almost an hour too early and discovered, on talking to the registrar, that there would be another wedding before ours. Meegan had somehow neglected to mention this fact (maybe because she didn’t know) so the registrar sent us off to the nearest pub. This would prove to be a bad move since we somehow lost track of time until one of my friends phoned me to politely tell me that the registrar was looking for me and that my Mum was throwing her toys out of the cot!

I arrived in the nick of time, however, with Meegan hiding behind a hedge somewhere so that I wouldn’t see her. I had no idea of this until the registrar told me once I was safely inside the wedding room.

At last it was time for the ceremony.

When Meegan first walked into the room I was breathtaken - she looked absolutely stunning in the most gorgeous green and gold dress with flowers in her hair and a nervous giggle playing across her face. She smiled the most wonderful smile and grabbed my hand as soon as she was stood next to me. Her hands were shaking and the rapidly growing heat in the wedding room wasn’t helping the situation. In fact, by the end of the ceremony I’m pretty sure everyone was sweating.

The ceremony was beautiful and, periodically, the registrar explained the history behind various traditions involved with weddings; from pink roses to rings made of hemp and grass. (Duuuuuuuuude!)

Once the ceremony had finished, we gathered on the lawn outside the registry office for some formal photos. The wedding photographer was another close personal friend and the whole photo process was relatively painless - unfortunately I haven’t got my hands on the official photos yet but I’ll blog it when I do!

We then all piled into the various cars and headed back to our place for a nice big party! The weather stayed fine so we both changed out of our wedding gear simply to stay cool.

I’m reasonably sure everyone had a good time; even after England were knocked out of the World Cup after playing pretty well with 10 men (penalties - we never win; and no, that shouldn’t have been a red card).

Unfortunately I never managed to get drunk, the karaoke was a bit too loud (and was stopped very quickly) and fewer people turned up than were expected but we had fun and I even managed to end the evening with guitar in hand having a sing song with the stragglers.

Oh and Brazil also went out of the World Cup. Still, nevermind eh?

To everyone that came, thanks so much for all your beautiful cards and gifts but mostly thanks for being there to share the happiest day of my life. It means a lot to both of us and we’re eternally grateful.

Here’s to you all and here’s to our future as a married couple.

Oh, and Meegan? You do realise there’s no money-back guarantee on me don’t you?