Purple and Pearls

I woke up the next morning very early.  I hadn’t slept very well, between the nerves, tight dress and dancing far too much I regrettably hadn’t eaten much since breakfast, so I woke up with stomach cramps and a banging headache.   My legs and feet were also aching from standing and dancing so much and my sides were sore from where my dress had rubbed.

Even though I was still so tired I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I opted for a hot bath instead.  As I mentioned before Suzie and Hayley had left cupcakes and Haribo in our room, so at 6am the day after my wedding I was sat in the bath with my sugary treats whilst my husband attempted to sleep off his hangover.

We had told people we’d be down for breakfast around 9am, we both got ready and joined everyone else in the buffet queue.  I’d never been happier to see hash browns and bacon before in my life!  Most of our family and friends were already up and greeted us warmly.  After we had finished eating we took the chance to walk around the different tables to good morning to everyone and to catch up with all the gossip from the evening before.  One of the things everyone was talking about was Harriet’s trick with a pair of LED tealights shoved down her top.

After breakfast people started to say goodbye.  A lot of people stayed to help us pack up, there was an awful lot to sort out before we could leave and it took quite a few of us to load the cars up.  Unfortunately we managed to leave a number of things at the hotel that my parent had to collect whilst we were away.

Has and I went back to my parents house to open our cards and gifts, I think the enormity of the day really sank in when things calmed down a little.  We sat with my parents and brother Paul drinking tea, eating cupcakes and read all of our cards.  We were both completely blown away by everyone’s generosity and loving words in the cards.  We also took the time to read through our guest book.  I read allowed the messages until the tears stopped me, they were all so touching I couldn’t help the emotion.

We didn’t have long before we had to get ready to go the the Birmingham City game.  Has had to be there earlier than usual so he could prepare to walk out the team.  We met up with everyone at the pub, I had been pre-warned by Has’ brother Taz about Has’ duty that day so a ticket could be arranged for me.  A few other family members also knew so they had managed to get tickets for the game.  Has left the pub before us and then I walked over with Has’ mom Sue, my new Sister-in-Law Amanda  and nephew Louis.  Has’ cousin Abdul, who had travelled from L.A for the wedding with his wife Farrah also had tickets as well as Has’ cousin Jo and her husband Clive.

We took our seats and waited patiently for the match to begin.  I was actually really nervous for Has.  We hadn’t really had the chance to talk about what was going to happen but I know he was anxious.  As the music started to signal the teams arrival I watched as my Husband proudly marched his team on to the pitch.  He knew where we were seating and waved in our direction which really pleased Louis.

He then walked with the team and the Mascot Beau Brummie to the centre of the pitch for a photograph before running off before the game began.

After the game we headed back to my parents house.  We had a car booked at 7.30 to take us to Heathrow, so we panic packed our cases.  We had already packed the majority of our cases but had a few extras to add, plus we realised they were a little too heavy so a lot of unpacking and repacking occurred.  Some of our family and friends had arrived to see us off and enjoy the fireworks my neighbour was putting on.

It was a little hectic and crazy and honestly at that point I think we were both regretting our decision to leave for honeymoon so soon after the wedding.  I was still feeling a little emotional and knew saying goodbye to everyone would be difficult.  Once we had finished our packing we moved our cases downstairs and went outside to finally twirl some sparklers!  We had over 50 to use as the weather was so bad the day before we didn’t get chance.

I had one last thing to do before I left.  Change my name and relationship status on Facebook.  Ha!  It was now official.  There was a knock on the door.  Our car had arrived.  Everyone piled outside to see us off and as we hugged everyone goodbye, I struggled to hold it together especially as my parents were visibly upset.  Before we left we were showered with more confetti

We sat in the car and waved everyone off.  The journey to our Heathrow airport hotel went by really quickly.  We spent the entire time talking about the day and remembering all the little bits, sharing with each other all of our favourite memories and how we felt at various points in the day.  As we drove down the M40 fireworks were exploding all around us, which seemed to add an extra feeling of romance and magic.

Even though we had barely slept all week we still found it really difficult to sleep, we were so excited about our honeymoon and still on a high that we struggled to stop our minds racing.  I think we finally drifted off around midnight and slept soundly until the alarm went off at 5am.

~

That’s it for the wedding recaps, thank you so much for reading and commenting.  It’s been wonderful reliving all the little details of our day again.  I actually wrote the majority of the report whilst we were away, and reading back over what I wrote made me think “when I wrote this I was on the greyhound to San Antonio”.

I am planning to write a few more posts about our honeymoon and what we got up to, like being driven around Seattle at 4.30 in the morning in a Cop car!!

For now I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas x