The Wedding!

If I’m describing my wedding I need to start with the night before when the flowers arrived. My bouquet was heavy and it consisted of roses, carnations, lilies and a lot more lovely smelling blooms! All the flowers smelt! even the corsages! My bouquet was done up with a ribbon. The whole kitchen smelt of flowers. I always think that flowers make weddings smell like weddings, probably a strange concept for anyone with sight, but if you think of the amount of flowers at weddings, you’ll get my meaning.

We left for the rehearsal at around 7:45, and when we arrived at the chapel the flower smell was present there too which made it feel like we should be doing things for real, not just rehearsing. It felt odd to walk down the isle in trackies and a hoodie! but I had the same flutter of nerves that I imagine every other bride experiences! The same excitement and apprehension and butterflies in my tummy, even though I could only hear and not see the people watching us rehearse. It sounded like there was a lot of people there, but having 5 bridesmaids, and 3 page boys, as well as ushers, parents, best man etc didn’t even come close to the 130 guests we’d invited for the actual wedding.

The next day things started quietly, for me anyway! i enjoyed my 3 cups of tea, and listened to the bridesmaids and page boys getting ready. Sounds of hair driers, clothes rustling, and the smell of make up and hair products, and nail-varnish filled the air in my mum’s large kitchen. I was quite calm. then i decided to have a bath, and as soon as I decided to do that, the nerves racked up a bit! I had my bath whilst keeping 1 ear on the iPhone which kept announcing the time. I then went down to the sitting-room and had make up applied. Its a strange feeling. i never use make up, so for my wedding day i thought it would be different to ware some. It was skillfully applied for me by 2 of my friends, in between my nervous sips of tea and nibbles of biscuits. My tummy was churning!

My hair is long and curly, and for the day, after a lot of deliberation and different styles, we’d all decided on half up half down. I had the front of my hair pulled back, and split into 2 sections which were twisted and put into a ponytail, leaving the rest of my hair to curl down my back. The ponytail made sure that none of my hair would fall in my face, and the back of my hair was decorated with flowers and butterfly hair slides. Into the top of the ponytail my veil was pinned, and round the front of my head sat my tiara which was all one hight rather than the crown stile tiaras. It was covered with pearl beads.

My dress, which i’d practically starved (at least it felt like that!) to get into, was fitted at the top, with flowers on the shoulders at the front, and lacy sleeves which were decorated with diamonte beads. Just at the top of the skirt there were flowers which were pink, and then the skirt flowed out! It was covered in lace and frills, and brushed the floor on its own, without the yards and yards of lacy train spilling out behind me. At the back were about 30 little buttons which all had to be done up! My shoes were low heeled sandals with diamontes on them. I felt like a fairy-tail in the dress!especially when i walked and heard the swish of the material all round me! I have never felt more special. and I use the word “felt” in two different ways, One was the feeling of being special and of knowing i was in a dress that everyone would notice, and that I was getting married. The other, is that the dress felt special to the touch! It was tactile, it was detailed, and i felt special in it because I’ve never worn anything like it before. No, i couldn’t look in a mirror, but I felt a million dollars, as people assured me I looked it. but I could feel every detail, and hear every rustle of the dress, veil, and my hair. I could smell the flowers, the hair spray on my hair, and my perfume. All together, it was a wonderful aroma, and one which will always bring back memories of my wedding.

Getting in the car was interesting! All the layers of the train were piled on my lap when I had slid in, and the flowers were placed on top. I had to try and stop my bracelet catching on the folds of dress! Then getting out? Finding the ground through all the folds of dress was hard, but once I was out, i had time to notice the sun was shining and it was a lovely day! The bridesmaids and page boys took their places, and dad and me stood ready to enter the chapel. I’ll never forget hearing the first notes of the wedding march, and how my dress swished behind me as we traveled slowly as possible up the short isle. I could sense and hear people all round me, and could tell the chapel was full! When we all arrived at the front and the first hymn was announced, I could hear from the singing that there was a lot of people there!
The vows said, it was time to put on the rings. Will and I had discussed how we would know which finger to put them on. I pointed out that will would have a clue, because I would be waring my engagement ring. Each time Stan (who was performing the seromony) needed us to do or say something in turn, he would touch our hands so we knew when to speak, and who should speak. Everything went smoothly, and it was time to sign the register before we knew it!
Since we can’t read print, the details from the register were read out to us, and we were shown where to sign. I don’t have much of a signature, but it must have been enough because the registerer soon announced “Philippa and William, your marriage has been registered”. Throughout the signing, the sweet sound of my sister in law’s singing filtered through to us. We then had a slide show of photos shown for the guests to watch of us growing up.

After the service, we walked out of the chapel arm in arm and unaided, as any other couple would. We had practiced the root and it was simple enough, we just walked straight out, followed by the rest of the wedding party. This made us feel independent.

we were then lead over to the grass field for the dreaded photographs! But the sun which made everyone else squint was no trouble for us. So for what felt like an hour but was really only about 20 minutes, we stood and smiled in every direction, following the shouts of “this way!” “Phil, Will, look at me!” “jest one more!”

We traveled to the reception, met our guests, and then were lead into the reception hall for the meal. I will never forget the round of applause, or the sound of my heels on the floor, accompanied by the swish of my dress as we made our way to the top table.
We had chosen an informal reception with no seating plan, just letting guests choose who they wanted to sit with. This was our idea, because of weddings and formal occasions we have both attended in the past where we have been sat with people we didn’t know and were not able to start conversations. We wanted people to feel comfortable.

The reception smelt of food mostly. We had a buffet, and it was lovely food! The hall was full of chatter and everyone seemed to he having a lovely time. Music played low in the background.

We had arranged for a synthetic ice rink for our guest’s entertainment. All the afternoon we could hear the sounds of skates in the background, and the happy sound of people enjoying themselves!
Our wedding cake was 4 tiers high, and was very tactile, with butterflies all over it! We cut the cake, and then changed to go ice skating! We had previously had some photos in full wedding outfits on the ice, and W was amazed how much like laminate floor it felt to walk on. But after we were changed, we asked for the rink to be cleared and instead of a first dance, we had a first skate. We have never liked dancing, and didn’t want to make ourselves feel stupid on our wedding day by just shuffling around waving our arms, so we ddid something we both knew we could do. to skate on synthetic ice was an experience! my feet seemed to go sideways instead of forwards! Still it was a lot of fun!

It felt strange without the folds of dress everywhere,! Earlier when we had been opening some of our wedding cards, and feeling each card in turn as they were all tactile, I’d been taking it in turns to admire the cards and my dress train, which was easier to feel when I was sitting down.

We set off for our honeymoon in style, with all the guests lining up to sing “congratulations!” while forming an arch with their hands which we passed underneath.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was wonderful in every way and I shall remember the sounds, smells, and everything my whole life long. We have a video as well, which helps us to remember. since photographs are useless to us, this is our way of remembering. plus as its a video we can show it to whoever wants to see while following the audio ourselves. We have also kept things like pressed flowers from my bouquet, ribbon off the bouquet and the cake, my veil and dress, shoes, hair slide, tiara, will’s suit and cufflinks, and a whole load of other things which will be our photographs of the day. Not only that, but when we arrived home, we found mum had left the balloons from the reception in our flat, as well as the flowers that were still alive. This enabled us to feel the arch of balloons which had been over the top table.

So though we couldn’t see our day, and though we couldn’t see each other, we will both remember it for the rest of our lives in so many different ways. We can’t gaze at our photos, but we can remember our wedding each time we feel the dress or smell flowers. We couldn’t see each other, but we love each other. and we will see in heaven. And though the planning was not accessible for us, the wedding was.