I was a Paddy's weekend Millennium Bride- 18th March, 2000. Great time to have a wedding. Everyone off for Paddy's Day on the Friday and then my big day on the Saturday. The biggest problem with it was everywhere closed on day before my wedding. Cake had to be picked up Thursday, my false nails (I bite mine) had to be done on Thursday and how hideous they turned out. You would want to have seen my priest's face when I turned up for the rehearsal sporting 10 long really white tips on my fingers. I had paid IR£30 and spent an hour and a half getting them on so I was stuck with them. Thankfully my cousin painted them a wine colour on the day which made them a bit more bearable. I never was a girlie girl so for me to even wear a dress for my wedding was an achievement.
The day started out a bit hairy but got better as time went on. We (me and my two lovely sisters) got hair and make up done in the 'big' town, half an hour from where we live. I never felt so ridiculous running the streets with big hair, tiara and painted face with jeans and a denim shirt hoping not to bump into anyone I knew. Got back home and had cup of tea and sambo. Got dressed and realised that I had not organised cars to take bridesmaids to church..we had a friends Merc lined up for me and my Da to travel in but forgot about the bridesmaids. Thank God for mobiles. My brother came back in his car - clean and white - looked the part and took them off. I was half hour late at this stage and realised the button holes were still in the sitting room with the mass booklets. My ma was still in the house too so my uncle came back and took her in to the church with a box of buttonholes and books.
I had kept aside cards from those who couldn't make my wedding to be read out at speech time but had left them in my bedroom. My holdall with my lovely night attire, underwear, toiletries, hairdryer etc was in my bedroom also. In my head I was going to come and get it after the service and take it to hotel...I know, unbelieveable how my brain works. After the "I Do's" and the congrats and the photos we headed off for the hotel. The photographer had gone on ahead with his boot to the floor to reach the hotel and set up before we got there. But my hubby's friend, our driver and owner of the Merc had his boot to the floor too to keep up with him, not realising. Twenty minutes into our journey and we were up on a ditch thanks to a speed wobble on a bend. Nothing major thank God but a bit hairy.
Got our champagne on arrival and tea for guests and then asked to move into bar because another wedding party arriving shortly and didn't want 2 brides in lobby. I wasn't impressed. After a lovely meal, great speeches, cutting cake (oh the cake - I have never seen such a miserable excuse for a wedding cake) we drank and danced the night away. I even got down to 'rock the boat'. My own was the first wedding I have been to where the bouquet wasn't thrown or the garter taken off..I never thought of it and obviously the band didn't either. So before we went to bed I threw it to the few hangers on still in the hotel at 4.30 a.m. Went up to the 'bridal suite' and was very disappointed. It was just a small hotel room with an oversized bed and a couple of rose petals thrown on it. I was later to find out the other couple got the proper bridal suite. They had a much smaller wedding party and when their music ended they gatecrashed ours and the bestmen were wearing the same waistcoats as ours but hey who cared I had had a great day.
It took me 15 mins to get the pins out of my hair then realised I hadn't got my holdall with all my essentials and to top it all off the menstrual fairy had cast her spell..So my wedding night ended in me having a shower, rinsing out my undies for the next day and sleeping in my new husbands wedding shirt and poor hubby didn't get his conjugals..start as you mean to go on, I say! The only sensible thing I did do was to send out my outfit for the next day with hubbys suit or I would have been in my wedding dress the next morning..can you imagine?
Breakfast came up to our room at 9 and I frantically tried ringing round my sisters to go get me deodorant, a hairbrush, knickers, anything-everything but to no avail. Tried my mothers room but no answer then could see her out the window putting her stuff in the car. Most guest had gone by the time I got down but hey what could I do? I laugh about it now but it wasn't funny then. We had planned to spend that day (Sunday) drinking with our friends as we were off on honeymoon on Monday, or so we thought. A chance look at the tickets and our flight was leaving that evening! Panic! How could this have happened. We specifically asked to fly out on the Monday. Made the airport in time for our flight to London but I was sitting at the back of the plane and my new husband was in the middle on the other side. The plane landed in Heathrow and took off just as quick..there was a plane on the runway so we circled round until permission was granted to land. We ran to check in for our flight to Kuala Lumpur and as we were so late couldn't be guaranteed to get 2 seats together..I got a bit upset as I didn't fancy 12 hr flight sitting on my own..but hostess was so helpful and arranged some swapping of seats for us. From that moment on life got a whole lot better ( I shall choose to forget the 24hr delay on the way home).
It really was the most thrown together wedding day but the best day of my life.
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