Well, hello there. It's me again. It's been AGES...

As you know, the team at Isaac let their baby take its first fledgling steps away from the nest. It came home again this week, and we checked its feathers thoroughly from head to toe, oohed and aahed over its beautiful colours and sent it on its merry way again. 

So, now we have a little time on our hands... just a little. Just enough for Kassi and I to talk about weddings. What? You have free time and you talk about weddings? I hear you exclaim. Well, this one was different. This one was mine. 

When you get into a conversation about weddings, (pretty easy to do so, considering our job) inevitably the talk turns to, “when I got married....” And so it was when Kass and I celebrated the fledgling leaving the nest. After we clinked our glasses of iced water together, (I know, total party animals right?) I exhumed my wedding photo album from the depths of the bookcase and shared it, somewhat nervously, with Kassi.

You see, it was sixteen years ago since I walked down the aisle to the sounds of a Gregorian choir and Sissel, the Norwegian pop/opera singer. Oh my god, I hear you gasp, what the hell? No really, it was GREAT. I loved that music. I have absolutely no idea what the choir or Sissel were actually singing about, but it sounded AWESOME. 

Weddings have changed a LOT in the past sixteen years. Kass and I both giggled at the puffy, pirate sleeved shirts the boys wore beneath their vests, and the large sword my new husband insisted was required as a prop for some of the photos. I cringed at my round cheeks, and in some photos, my rather voluptuous bust threatening to burst forth from the neckline of my gown. I did my own hair, with the aid of my bridesmaids, and it wasn't even on both sides, a fact that still bothers me today! But... admittedly, I am a perfectionist and I can reassure myself that I'm the only one who noticed. Also, my makeup wasn't as beautifully natural as wedding makeup is today, I was perhaps a little heavy handed in my application. The girls earrings, which I made, (Did I mention I was a DIY bride?) kind of looked like bunches of grapes hanging from their ears...

You will do it too, don't think you won't. You'll look at your wedding photos in sixteen years time and you will laugh, and like me, you might even cringe. With the benefit of hindsight and the comparison with today's wedding fashions, there are definitely things I would change... but there are also plenty I wouldn't.

To this day, I still love: 

My flowers.

Our wedding cake.

Our wedding car – A car I absolutely loved and a surprise organised by my bridesmaids.

Our wedding singer – A grey bearded man in a battered cowboy hat, with a guitar. Awesome.

The photo of my husband-to-be seeing me for the first time.

Photos of family members and friends no longer with us.

A photo of my three bridesmaids throwing their heads back in delirious laughter.

My husband's speech and gift to me of a lawnmower. (That's a story for another day)    

And... my husband.

No matter what else I would change or  do differently on that day, I got THAT part right. The husband part. And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters, right?

Mel x

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