Wedding Day!

Finally!! Quite an early start this morning, the alarm was set for 7am but Sal was awake before then, I don't think I seemed quite as excited as her when there was still 15 minutes before the alarm and I decided to go back to sleep while she started getting things ready! We were at the hairdressers for 8.30am and they switched the appointments round a bit so that we all ended up being ready at once - not until after a little bridesmaid and a photographer had already been waiting at the house about 20 mins for us though.

The cars - 2 Model A's - arrived about 12pm and as they don't go more than 50mph and don't go on the motorway then we knew we'd need to set off by about 12.30pm. I've no idea what time we did set off because by this point I had completely lost track of time and was more concerned about getting Sal laced up into her dress. Our car arrived at the church and we waited for Sal and Dad to arrive after they had a quick stop at the petrol station in theirs! When they arrived Sal had a quick dash through to the toilet which meant running past the glass door at the front side of the church near where Rob was sitting - thankfully James spotted the streak of white running past and made sure that Rob faced the other way until she'd gone past again!

The service was lovely, I was slightly concerned that I might cry all the way through it but I managed to limit that to almost crying during the first hymn and when Sal started crying during her vows. I had a reading which I'm told went well but it's just a bit of a blur to me now. David, the vicar, had told me at the rehearsal to look at the person in the fourth row but I didn't dare lift my eyes off the piece of paper for fear of losing my place. I also realised as I was reading that I was rocking back and forth on my shoes but when I stopped doing that my legs started shaking, if that's all that comes out on the video I'll be happy - at least I didn't fall down the stairs getting back to my seat which was my other fear about doing a reading!

After a few photos at the church it was back in the cars to the hotel, which was further than the house so in the old cars it took quite a while and everyone was waiting for us when we got there. A few more photos there and a quick drink (or two) and it was into the receiving line for dinner. I didn't realise that I was going to be in the line but it was lovely to get a chance to say hello to everyone and put some faces to the names that I have been hearing for so long.

The food was lovely and during the main course and dessert I'd gone for a little walk to say hello to a few tables (by this point the shoes were well and truly disregarded under the table and my feet were feeling very happy for it). Leah and Rebecca (the little bridesmaids) joined me at this point as they were starting to get a little bored of sitting at the table so we went visiting a few tables for a little while to keep them occupied. I left them at one point to talk to Sarah & Jon and as the desserts arrived and there was a spare place at their table I ate one from there and carried on chatting. About 20 mins later Sal came up and said they had all been looking for me and thought I must be ill as they hadn't seen me for so long! So I moved back to my seat on the top table after that :)

The timing by this point had been thrown completely out of the window and the speeches started at about 6.45 the three of them taking about an hour altogether - including James's quiz of getting to know the stag which I still think the correct answer for Rob's chat up line should have been Hi I'm Harry Potter's double.

The casino had set up outside of the room so as we all moved out for them to get the room ready for the evening and for the band to set up we filled the time with Blackjack and Roulette. I stuck with the Roulette and after winning a little then lost all of my chips. After the cutting of the cake and the dancing it was suddenly all over. It was a great day - I really enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure that Sal and Rob did too - they both looked great and now have a fantastic holiday to look forward to.

Quiet Day

Bit of a quiet day today, Sal had left the day pretty clear for any last minute jobs but there hasn't been too many that were added to the list. Dad and I went to the hotel this morning to drop off the last few things, and we've had three trips to Sainsburys so far today, there will be one more visit to Sainsburys later as there are still a few things to get! Rob's family is arriving about 2pm, Alicia about 3pm and then we're going to get nails done at 3.30pm, to the church for the rehearsal at 6pm and back to the house with our side of the family for food this evening.

Busy Day

Managed to get through my list of jobs for today, with help from Jill. We managed to get from Hedge End to Southampton, to Winchester, to Eastleigh and back home - without getting too lost! Very glad we'd taken Sal's sat nav out of her car before we went and programmed everything in which meant the only difficulty we had getting anywhere was finding the entrance to the Swan Centre in Eastleigh, we drove round the whole thing and eventually found it.

Sal came back from the hairdressers with new hair and beautiful makeup following her trial for Saturday and it was a quick lunch before going to the Rose Bowl to pick up a few things from the shop for presents and then back home to wait for Mum & Dad to arrive. After being very calm and relaxed so far, today was a little blip for Sal but after a big cry when Mum & Dad arrived I think she'll be ok for Saturday now.

Fun Day!

Today was officially Jen & Sal's day of fun. Sal's started off less fun with a trip to the gym while I sat in the sun in the back garden making more order of service. - almost finished now. I was also listening to the Hairspray soundtrack which I turned the volume down on after I realised there were quite a few people walking past the back wall and it was on very loud, while I didn't definitely hear any comments I did think there were possibly one or two people suggesting that they weren't appreciating the music as much as I was!

Fun day moved onto Spa treatments at the Hotel, Sal had the facial while I had the back massage (and I'm aching a little bit from it now), after we'd relaxed for a while we moved onto find somewhere for lunch. We ended up at Frankie & Benny's with good intentions that we were both going to have salads but then the menu came and we changed our minds very quickly - Sal took a little bit longer than me but then went for the pizza....and the cherry crumble, while I had the chicken sandwich....and the waffle with ice cream..... it was lovely!

Lunch was then followed by shopping and then an evening of order of service making. Not the most fun end to the day but we did get them finished at least. I have my task list for tomorrow, while Sal has her hair appointment I'm making myself useful collecting the hoop from the bridal shop, the pottery that they painted on the hen day, a few more shopping things to do and waiting for Mum & Dad to arrive later in the afternoon. My main task is to keep Sal calm...hopefully I'm doing ok on that one so far!

Dress Collected - Tick

I think I've finished everything I need to do on my list of wedding things before I go to Sal's. Laraine has shortened my dress for me so now I don't need to hitch it all up just to be able to walk in it and I've been to collect it this evening. Now I just need to add all these things that have been collected to the list of things to remember to take with me, I don't think Sal would be too impressed if I arrived without my dress!

I've got a lovely long week off work to look forward to now so that we can get all the final tasks done before the wedding. I don't think there's too much to do - but it sounds like I hadn't completely handed over my order of service duty and we'll be finishing those off when I get there. Only 9 days to go now :)

New Hair

After the hair trial last weekend didn't go quite as planned I've decided to leave my hair down for the wedding but get it cut shorter. I described to Kirsty, the hairdresser what I wanted - as instructed by Sal before I got there. At one point Kirsty did check with me that I was ok as I think there was a rather pained, scared, unsure etc look on my face, to which I replied 'It's very short isn't it?' I suppose it was a bit late then for her to stop so she just smiled and carried on chopping!

Thankfully she did a great job and I'm really pleased with it, 3 weeks for it to get a bit of length back and then it should look good for the wedding.

Wedding Preparations

As it's a bank holiday weekend I added a days holiday in on Friday and travelled down to Sal's on Thursday night. It turned into a weekend of wedding preparations mainly so we have collected the wedding dress (it's lovely!), made all the place cards and all the outsides of the order of service are ready. We've also met with Simon who's arranging the band to discuss music and been to the hairdressers for a trial to see what we're having on the day. Sal's hair looked lovely, I tried to have it a bit curly but ended up looking more like Annie with really tight curls so have decided against that one!

As the weather was so good this weekend then we've also had a trip to Hillier Gardens on Sunday morning, it was the start of the annual Art in the Park - I'm not sure if that's the official name for it I might have made it up - so we spent a couple of hours wandering round and finding the expensive pieces that we'd never buy and then went for scones in the coffee shop.


We didn't manage to tie in my weekends here with a Hen Night in Southampton so the girls will be taking Sal out in 2 weeks time and then in 4 weeks and I'll be back for the last minute preparations.

New York, New York...Part 4

Monday turned out to be another early morning, which was probably good because we needed to pack before another breakfast at Cranberry Cafe. The weather forecast once again wasn't great so we set off for the Rockefeller Centre and an indoor tour of NBC studios. There wasn't much to the tour, a history of NBC, a visit to the Nightly News studio next door to MSNBC and a make up room. We'd already toured the gift shop as we had an hour to kill before the tour started so we set off for Carnegie Hall for the second tour of the day, collecting Sal's now incredibly sparkly ring from Tiffany's on the way.

We collected tickets at Carnegie Hall but had time to go for lunch before it was due to start. We had a lovely lady called Sheila Weinstein show us round, the tour was changed slightly as they would normally spend time looking round the auditorium but the Minnesota Orchestra were practicing for their performance that evening so we were able to sit and listen to them practise for a while. After the tour it was back out into the rain and back again to the Cranberry Cafe to satisfy my craving for hot chocolate. We stayed for two cups as the rain was worse and it didn't seem worthwhile doing the last thing on the list which was to go to Central Park so we'll wait for a better time of year and go back for that one in the sun.

It was soon time to collect our bags from the hotel and head to the bus station to get the bus back to the airport. The whole check in experience this time being much smoother and faster than 3 days earlier leaving time for a little shopping at the airport. I don't remember the flight back much, I was asleep before we even took off. I woke up after an hour as the food was coming round so had something to eat and watched He's Just Not That Into You and then fell asleep again, woke up for a croissant for breakfast and then again in time for landing.

So now it's back to work and planning for when I can go again!

New York, New York...Part 3

It pretty much rained all of Sunday. After our usual start to the day with breakfast in the Cranberry Cafe we took the subway to the end of the line at South Ferry and took the ferry from Battery Park over to Ellis Island. We'd decided not to bother with getting off at Liberty Island, having taken all the pictures of the Statue the day before and as it was pouring down we just stayed on the ferry to its second stop at Ellis Island Immigration Museum. As we didn't have any ancestors to look for in the records we just looked round the exhibits instead, downstairs are the statistic based exhibits with all the facts and figures. Upstairs in the Great Hall there isn't much to see but the hall itself is an amazing looking room. Off one end deceptively hidden by what we thought was a mirror and ignored it the first time, was a trail of rooms following the experience of the immigrants when they came to Ellis Island - medical tests, legal questions, mental tests etc.

After leaving the ferry back in Battery Park we walked in the rain up to the World Trade Centre and to ground zero. From seeing the view of the skyline you can see where the twin towers are missing from the picture and it's amazing seeing the space on the ground that two huge towers stood there, there doesn't seem to be enough room somehow. We walked through alongside ground zero to the Winter Garden at the World Financial Centre, and after a bit of shopping stopped for a bit of chinese for a late lunch. My learning point for the day was always go for what you want off the menu, I thought it was a shame to all order the same main course so I went for angel hair pasta and veg which was a bit bland and then had to steal some Lemon sweet and sour pork from both Mum and Sal's plates.

We got the subway back uptown for a bit of shopping in Bloomingdales, take Sal's ring into Tiffany's for a clean, and a quick look at St Patrick's Cathedral and Grand Central Station and then back to the hotel for a rest. By 9pm Sal and I were very settled in the room and ready for staying in for the night but Mum persuaded us to get up as planned and we walked over to Rockefeller Centre to go to the Top of the Rock. We'd decided to see the city from here at night so that we could see the Empire State lit up, this was only half successful as the fog covered the top of the Empire State so we could only see as far as the band of lights. The view of the city was great though and we were pleased that Mum had insisted that we get out of bed!

New York, New York...Part 2

Saturday was another early start. I blame Sally for saying that she always wakes up at 5am the first morning in America, and so we did. Kept awake early by the marching band that made it's way down Broadway at 7am and set up camp in Times Square just outside the hotel so we eventually got up and made our way over towards Planet Hollywood to collect our New York Passes. This was made slightly more difficult by the 40,000 people gathering to take part in the Revlon 5k Run/Walk for Women that was setting off from Times Square at 9am. We found a very cheap little cafe for breakfast with pancakes and french toast that we went back to all weekend and by the time we got back to Broadway all the runners had set off but the roads were still closed to traffic so we took advantage of being able to walk down the middle of the road and take lots of pictures.

We then made our way to the Empire State Building, the weather forecast suggested that it wouldn't be quite as wet on Saturday as it would be all the other days that we were there, so we planned a trip to the top to see the sights. The rain didn't quite hold off so we did have to shelter inside for a little bit but we still saw the view from all sides while listening to Tony's Audio Tour. The weather started to brighten as we got back to ground floor so we went over to Pier 83 for the Circle Line Tours, rather than waiting over an hour to get the 2 hour cruise we decided if we were going to wait an hour we might as well be seeing more of the views so we had a shorter wait and got on the 3 hours cruise for a round trip of Manhattan Island. The sun finally came out for a while so the pictures look great for that afternoon and we got to see all the main sights so it was worth spending the extra hour on the boat.

We got back to Times Square and went straight for dinner and then to our second show - The Little Mermaid. Completely different to 9to5 but still another great performance. I never thought there would ever be a good use of 'wheelie' shoes but it turns out it gives a good swimming effect for all the mermaids! It was just a shame that Mum and I were both so tired by then that we were really struggling to stay awake throughout. It was absolutely no reflection on the performance at all, but we had to spend the second half nudging each other throughout to keep awake. Next time we come I think we'll need to factor in a bit more sleeping time for the second day....

New York, New York...Part 1

Friday started a little earlier than usual as Mum & I set off to Manchester Airport to meet Sal for our flight. We both panicked a bit about making sure that we got there on time, having to travel round Manchester during morning rush hour traffic. Turns out there was no need to be so over cautious and after 1.5 hours we were parked and ready to get on the bus to the terminal. In fact we were in the queue to check our bags in while Sal was still at Nikki's house where she'd stayed over night. Sal arrived and we'd moved about 4 places in the queue as the Continental crew checked all the passports of people in the line, asked all the security questions and then still took ages to actually check bags in and give us boarding passes. Having checked in online on Thursday night most of the process seemed quite pointless as we'd had to put all the passport details, accommodation etc in online already so why they needed to ask for it again I have no idea.

Anyway after that the flight was fairly smooth, a bit of turbulence but nothing too worrying. I watched Benjamin Button, about 1 minute before Sal so if I'd missed anything on screen I could just look across to hers and catch up on it! I didn't want to watch another film so I went for a couple of episodes of House instead and fell asleep for a while.

We knew that the weather wasn't going to be so good for the weekend and the drive to the hotel started off a little grey but by the time we pulled up at the hotel it was pouring down so it was a quick jump out of the car, pull the bags from the boot and run instead - and we still got soaked. After finding our way all the way up to the 50th Floor we found our room and the fantastic views from being so high. It had been a fairly long day already so we lay down and closed our eyes for a bit before braving the rain again for some dinner and out to the Marquis Theatre to see 9 to 5. It was a great show, being very new (just a month of preview performances and the opening night) we didn't know what to expect but it was really good. The songs, cast and set were all fantastic. Sadly one of the most exciting things (I thought) was that I forgot in America that the programmes -Playbill - and they are free!