Whilst the rest of the family were eating their cake and drinking their tea and chatting to each other, I gave the bridesmaids their presents.
Somehow they had managed to squash themselves onto a sofa to drink their tea so it seemed the perfect opportunity to hand over their gifts and also to stop the questioning of what they needed for the next day. They all seemed to be pleased with the contents of their bags and, indeed, the bags themselves.
In fact, if you look carefully, on the arm of the sofa you can see the last minute additions I made to each bag: a bridal party survival kit, containing tissues, mints, safety pins, plasters, paracetamols and a nail file.
So, after about 10 minutes of peace and quiet it was rush rush rush as M and I led a 5 car convey to the chapel for the rehearsal. Previously, our Chaplain had indicated to us that this might be a very emotional run through, that people often cried and so on. We all arrived at the chapel and after some milling around we did a walk through of the service.
And then a walk through of the vows and ring exchange. Much to M’s surprise, we added the words “etc, etc, bla bla bla” instead of 2 lines of the vows. Quite obvious when you think about it however, no point having the wedding the next day if you have already done it all the night before!
The rehearsal ended with a prayer for the next day and a round of goodbyes. Our photographer arrived and had a look at the chapel and then we looked round the university for good places to take photographs the next day. This done, we embarked on our last journey together unmarried: delivering champagne to our ushers who by this time had all arrived in Exeter.
Driving around the back lanes of the countryside gave us some time to reflect together on the day ahead and what we were looking forward to, as well as expressing our surprise that the rehearsal had been surprisingly mundane. No tears, no disasters {aside from forgetting the orders of service}. Having been warned we might be very tearful we were both a little flat that it hadn’t been like that at all. Privately I started to wonder if I would ever find it emotional, as usually I am a very emotional person. Even the marquee hitch hadn’t upset me or bothered me, as it usually might.
By 8.30pm we were back at the wedding reception venue, Fursdon. No long drawn out goodbye here either; a quick kiss and good luck, and with that, M headed back to his parents’ cottages for his last family evening and I headed inside to see mine, for lasagne and for an evening of work which ended at 12.30am with Mum, Dad and I making the bouquets.
{All images by Alex, my sister’s boyfriend}