The Weddings
UNITED KINGDOM | Friday, 7 December 2007 | Views [275] | Comments [1]
Well every honeymoon has to start with a wedding!
We had been builiding up to it all year, it was all I thought about. People started arriving... everything was paid off... I was doing all the rehearsals. At work I heard myself saying, 'I'm getting married on Thursday'.
It was stressful, it was manic, it was mind-blowing, it was wonderful, it was surreal.
I was running a little behind because we had to wait for the dressing room to be prepared but it was nothing compared to Gary (who had to speed down the A12 at 100mph). I'm usually pretty laid back but you can't be late for your own wedding. But we all got there in the end thanks to a lot of running back and forth by Hisham.
My little flower girls were fantastic and helped me to stay calm and focused as I talked with them, in fact I suspect they stole the show a little. But I didn't care, this day was about me and gary, being there with our friends and family, not about my 'day to shine' or 'be a princess'. I had a reputation for bawling at other people's weddings and was preparing myself to be saying my vows through blankets of tears BUT I held myself together very well and just felt happy.
After the formalities were done, we took some pics in the garden. We had a lovely day, the sun was shining and I didn't feel cold at all in my sleevless dress (I forgot about my coat I got made in Vietnam which I didn't wear once! haha). It could have been miserable in the middle of October. I guess the Gods were taking care of us. The pics went on for ages! And set us a bit behind (which was kind of a theme for the rest of the wedding).
Back at the Red Lion we had our welcome drinks and canapes. We were going to leave off the canapes, thinking that we'd all have plenty of food, but I forgot the great Shobaki family eating tradition and I don't think much food went to waste all day! I got to see the room all set up, it looked great, I had made most of the decorations myself and it didn't look too much like a nursery craft session. Also my cake looked so beautiful - picked up at 9pm the night before, it was teh first time I had really seen it - too good to eat! (And too expensive! Ouch! But worth every penny)
The meal was a disaster but in a cheerful way, it WAS our wedding day so we were in good moods! We made the mistake of arranging pre-orders and no-one could remember what they ordered. The waiters were getting angry and so were some of the guests, but no-one let it ruin our day. TOP TIP - don't do pre-orders, let them eat cake! :-)
No-one really fancied doing a speech. I WAS going to do one but, let's face it, I did have QUITE a lot to do in the run-up. Gary just thanked everyone for being there and thanks to Gavin for being our superb MC.
The evening reception was great fun and passed in a blur of dancing, chatting, drinking and catching up with all the wonderful people who came. It meant SO much to us that so many people made the effort to come all the way for us. It went by in a blur, but I was really happy that night :-)
The next morning, back into panic mode as we had to get everything for teh honyemoon, sort out Lou and Spence's stuff as they were house/dog-sitting, check out, have a family breakfast AND get to central London en-mass for the Islamic ceremony. They were a few tears and a lot of grumpiness but after a few hours of 'wacky races' (3 cars lost in central London) we all managed to get to the Islamic Central Mosque at Regent's Park at precisely 2.30pm where we met Gary's mum.
Inside the mosque we were led to the Imam's office and he advised us about the meaning of marriage in Islam etc. we then got married again!, signed our certificate and took some pics.
We were staying a couple of nights in London before the honeymoon so we checked into the Rennaisance, took Hisham to Feltham and all had a lovely dinner before a very exhausted sleep.
The next day the boys and Kelly played a bit of pool in the hotel and we then went to Ealing for some shopping. Later we took the tube to central London to see 'Rafta, Rafta' at the National. It was really good and everyone seemed to have a good time. The next day we were set to fly...
Tags: Party time
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