Time to Rehearse {Recap}

I'm going to start the recaps with the wedding rehearsal which took place the night before, on Good Friday, the 2nd of April. I have decided to wait to do the honeymoon recaps after I have told you all about the wedding, as I wanted to keep it in order, and since I still had the few DIY items to tell you about first too!

After we had finished at Ocean Terminal, Dad headed to the station to pick up Ashleigh's fiance Patrick and Graham came to pick up me, mum, Ashleigh & Enzo. We dropped them off at mums then headed home to get ready. After packing the last stuff I would need for the next day, and getting all of the bridal party & parents gifts too {which almost took up the whole boot}, I dropped my stuff off at mums & transferred the gifts to dads car before heading down to the church. I went with mum & dad while Graham took our car down to his mum & dads so we could leave it there while we were away on honeymoon. I used the journey down to post a couple of quick tweets, since I hadnt had time to post or tweet that day or the day before!

Sorry folks, had no time for a blog post today but this is it!
4:50 PM Apr 2nd via txt

Had a lovely manicure & pedicure today and now on our way to the rehearsal at the church! See you after the honeymoon!
4:51 PM Apr 2nd via txt

We met everyone at the church at 5pm. We had a lot of people there*; me & Graham, mum & dad, Grahams parents, 6 bridesmaids, best man, 2 ushers & the minister, as well as my aunt & uncle, Grahams aunt & uncle, Patrick & Enzo, the best man's girlfriend then the flowergirl's mum. We didn't need everyone, only us, our parents, the bridal party & the other reader but since we were all going for dinner afterwards, they all just came down.

Me & Graham rehearsing our vows! {The church was freezing which is why everyone had their jackets on!}**

I cant really remember what order we did everything in but the minister took the boys away to explain what would happen & what they should do, then he took me, dad & the bridesmaids so we could sort out what order we were going to go down the aisle, then we looked at where everyone would stand and rearranged the chairs to make sure there would be enough room for everyone to stand & to make space for my aunts wheelchair. We decided that the bridesmaids would go down the aisle before me & dad in pairs, so that they would all be there when I arrived, rather than having to try and get behind me and my long train & veil! The minister also suggested that the 2 ushers stand beside the best man during the service, rather than sitting down, so that we had the girls at one side and the boys at the other which was actually really nice and worked out really well on the day.

The bridesmaids; The ushers & best man where they would stand for the service

Then we rehearsed our vows and talked about what we would do when signing the register. We had already discussed signing at the front of the church, rather than going into the vestry. The readers also were told where to go for their reading and my mum even left her reading at the lectern so she wouldn't have to remember to bring it the next day {I made purple cards, the same size as the order of service, for mum & grahams uncle, so they wouldn't need to find their readings}.

We had taken the box of order of service' with us to leave in the church for the next day. We left enough for the parents, bridesmaids, ushers & best man on the seats at the front of the church since they wouldn't be picking one up on the way in. We also left one for me & Graham to share.

Once we were finished, we quickly decided to widen the aisle slightly, to make sure there was enough room for me & dad with my dress! We tried to do this without telling Graham much since he didn't know what my dress was like. Our church now has individual chairs, the only pews are under the balcony and up on the balcony, which made it a lot easier to move things around!


We said goodbye to the minster and made our way down to where we were having dinner. At that point I'm not really sure I could quite believe we were getting married the next day, the rehearsal had made it seem a bit more real, but it was still strange and I was definitely getting a little bit nervous by then.

The flower ladies from the church had already finished all the flowers by the rehearsal so mum took a few photos. They did some lovely arrangements and managed to get all the types & colours I had asked for; they even went searching all over East Lothian to find the tulips I wanted which they put at the side of the church and at the front door.

All of the church flowers in total only came to £66, which I couldn't believe from the amount of arrangements there were. Since we had our florist doing our bouquets, buttonholes & the reception table centrepieces, we didn't need to move the flowers after the ceremony, so we chose to leave them for the Sunday service, after which they were given out to some of the congregation; my aunt got an arrangement too.

*Which did slightly scare me at first until I realised there would be a lot more there the next day so I should just get on with it!

**Ignore my slightly messy hair; I had been instructed to wash & dry it the day before the wedding, without straightening it, so it would be easier to put up the next morning! I didn't want to ruin my french manicure so had to wash my hair before I went to get it done earlier that day.