Now it was time for a drink. We headed downstairs and out into the gardens. We were so lucky with the weather. The whole day was sunny and warm. This meant we were able to go outside and enjoy the views the Island had to offer. We didn't realise exactly how lucky we'd been until the next day when it stormed and rained all day. But back to the Saturday, with the ceremony done we spent the next hour or so sipping bucks fizz, chatting to people, and getting our photos taken in the sunshine.
As well as all the family and group shots our photographer took us off to get a few photos of just Stuart and I. Well we are so photogenic (at least Stuart is!) who wouldn't want to try and get beautiful photos of us? We headed back onto the balcony and messed around trying to look serious and love struck, but I think we only took on board the messing around part, not the serious and brooding part. I don't think I have a career as a model calling but it was fun to pretend for a while.
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| We completely nailed the wistful looking catalogue pose! |
I only have one regret; that we didn't get one big group shot with everyone in. We had asked for one, but it just never seemed to get done. I guess with everything else that happened on the day, it just got missed off the photographers check list. With our balcony photos done, it was time for food. It could only have been around 2 pm but my croissant in the hairdressers was beginning to seem a very long time ago. Tummies rumbling we headed into the dining room to small round of applause from our friends and family. I had left Winchester House to Stuart to sort out on Friday and he had done well, everything was in its right place. Although the room was simple it still looked great and not too fussy. The staff had even gone to the trouble to match the napkins to our colour scheme without us even asking them to. For favours we had gone for a seaside theme and brought sticks of rock for everyone, in keeping with our red, white, blue colour scheme of course! With a luggage tag tied round them it meant we could also use them as name places.
Stuart had chosen the Wedding Breakfast menu, and we had... breakfast. Yep a cooked English breakfast. This was the area I thought the service might not be a high as you would have got at, say, a traditional wedding at a hotel or manor house, especially as the breakfast was the cheapest thing on the menu. We didn't choose it because it was the cheapest (although that helped) Stuart genuinely wanted a cooked breakfast. We figured everyone would like it, we wouldn't have to worry about fussy eaters and the veggie option was easy too. The service was great. On the top table we had waiter service so our food was brought to us first. Although everyone else went up to the buffet area to choose what they wanted, from where I was sitting it seems smooth and relatively quick for those queuing. The waiters came round making sure everyone was ok and had enough toast, tea and OJ (as it was breakfast we had tea, not wine, although there was some fizz so people could use the OJ to make bucks fizz). This breakfast extravaganza was followed by profiteroles, another of Stuart's decisions. If anyone didn't like the food they certainly didn't come complaining to me! I thought it was really tasty and managed not to dribble any beans down my front - although I did put an apron on just in case!
We had decided not to do any speeches as we didn't really like the formality, and wanted people to relax. However Stuart did stand up at the end of the breakfast to thank people for joining us, and let them know what to expect for the rest of the day. I honestly can't remember what he said but I'm pretty sure there were no 'doesn't my wife look beautiful' or 'are I a lucky man' comments. I'll have to have words with him about that! At the end of his little speech he invited people to say something if they wanted, so I took that opportunity to thank a few people who had helped (and inevitably forgot to thank others - whoops). In hindsight perhaps I should have planned something because I did miss some important things out, but nothing earth shattering so I won't loose sleep over it. Then Kris, said a few words and George finished with a toast to us. Like the ceremony, the wedding breakfast had been laid back and carefree. It also meant it was time for the part of the day I had looked forward to the most...
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