Rock My Wedding
In 2009, in a wedding chat room, I was emailed by the lovely Charlotte O'Shea, and asked if I minded writing about my wedding planning for a new blog she was starting up called Rock My Wedding. I jumped at the chance because writing is a huge part of my life. I became RMW's first ever Real Bride in a segment called What Jenny did.
After William was born, I began writing again for RMW, in a segment called Ask Jenny, and became an agony aunt of sorts! The whole RMW experience changed my life, it opened doors for me and lead me to live my dream of becoming a freelance make up artist.
Here's the Grand Finale post of What Jenny Did, check out Rock My Wedding (and all my posts of course!) for more wedding inspiration.
After William was born, I began writing again for RMW, in a segment called Ask Jenny, and became an agony aunt of sorts! The whole RMW experience changed my life, it opened doors for me and lead me to live my dream of becoming a freelance make up artist.
Here's the Grand Finale post of What Jenny Did, check out Rock My Wedding (and all my posts of course!) for more wedding inspiration.
What Jenny Did……..The Wedding part 4
October 20th, 2010 by Charlotte@rockmyweddingLeave a reply »
This is the fourth and final part of Jenny’s beautiful wedding day, with huge thanks to photographer Kim Hawkins and assistant Jon Mold for sharing the images.
Enjoy the gorgeousness lovelies!
The Father of the Bride
My brother, Rob, knocked me sideways with the amount of support he gave me on the day, and his speech was outstanding, nothing prepared me for how much thought and effort he had put into it. He even mentioned by name my lovely Emma who had travelled from Aus and one of the guests that let me down on the day, although he doesn’t know they let me down it angered so many people I thought it best not to mention it to him!
It wasn’t an easy task, giving me away, the pressure was on him to sort of conform to the ‘father of the bride’ roll and I know his two daughters (my youngest bridesmaids) were proud of him, and how lucky they are that when it’s their turn to marry their Dad is already well practised in the art of ‘giving away’! He’s always successful in anything he tries his hand to and so I had faith that his speech would deliver all the necessary info (too much info about me – I could have throttled my friends!) and then of course there was Mum. I knew he would mention Mum, because despite her ‘being there in spirit’ there was still a big gaping hole where she should have been.
It wasn’t an easy task, giving me away, the pressure was on him to sort of conform to the ‘father of the bride’ roll and I know his two daughters (my youngest bridesmaids) were proud of him, and how lucky they are that when it’s their turn to marry their Dad is already well practised in the art of ‘giving away’! He’s always successful in anything he tries his hand to and so I had faith that his speech would deliver all the necessary info (too much info about me – I could have throttled my friends!) and then of course there was Mum. I knew he would mention Mum, because despite her ‘being there in spirit’ there was still a big gaping hole where she should have been.
During the getting ready process in the morning we only mentioned her to each other briefly, because we knew between Rob, Sarah, and I it would probably set us all off and the last thing we wanted was for painful tears to fall. It went without saying though that she was at the forefront of our minds all day, I for one never imagined getting married without her proud beautiful face waiting for me at the top of the aisle.
My brother was already a massive hit with Matts friends and family at the low key (low key my arse) stag night he held a few weeks before the wedding. In fact my big brother (who is old enough to know better) instigated drinking games and subsequently had to sleep with one foot on the floor just to stop the room spinning! I make him sound old don’t I, he’s only in his early forties but he’s a good time family man and I am so so proud of him I could gush about him for hours.
Learning a lot about me through my friends on the run up to the wedding, and knowing how much I love poetry, he included the following in his speech – there wasn’t a dry eye in the house;
“Every parent wants the best for their children, and wants them to be happy. I stand here now, on behalf of all our family, but particularly our Mum Sandra, immensely proud of Jenny, and what she has achieved, both today and with her life as a whole. To celebrate I’d like to read a short poem entitled “You are the mirror of my past” and I dedicate this from Mum to Jenny, and wish, as I know you do Jenny, that she could be here to read it to you herself;
You are the mirror of my past,
The future of my dreams,
The hope for what in life may last,
The jewel that time redeems.
The future of my dreams,
The hope for what in life may last,
The jewel that time redeems.
You are yourself, of course, no less,
But also you are mine,
The light of all my treasured days,
The gift for which I pine.
But also you are mine,
The light of all my treasured days,
The gift for which I pine.
Long may we this closeness share,
This place where memories play,
And if our friendship needs repair,
May love reveal the way.
This place where memories play,
And if our friendship needs repair,
May love reveal the way.
And now that you’ve become a wife
With loves and passions new,
May you find in your sweet life
The joy I have in you.
With loves and passions new,
May you find in your sweet life
The joy I have in you.
It took every ounce of strength I could muster up within me to not lose control and sob like a child, but when he read this amazing poem I closed my eyes and tried to imagine my Mums voice. And it worked. It was like she was reading it to me, considering I haven’t heard her voice for so long now it surprised me that the memory came so easily, and I thought about the baby I am carrying and how much love I have for it already and it gave me strength. I swallowed the lump back and vowed that when I had a moment to myself to reflect on the day, I would re-read the poem and allow myself to weep.
All In The Details
When it came to knocking everyone bandy with quirky ideas and details, I decided to stick to my guns and not go for anything too ‘on trend’ and just stick with the basics. Good food, beautiful surroundings, great music and flowing booze. I’ll run through the list of suppliers we used because I can’t recommend them highly enough. We had to have live music, this was the best decision we made, the string quartet were fabulous and people are still talking about our band ‘Flood the Floor’ (as recommended to me by Rockmywedding reader and real bride Lucie Sidwell) MASSIVE thanks to her for that they totally entertained us all. And it turns out I have a mutual friend with the lead singer, he knew some of my guests too – fate maybe? We asked if they could play ‘Unforgettable’ by Nat King Cole as our first dance, and they didn’t let us down.
We had cupcakes made by local lady Catherine at Honeysuckle Bakery, they were heaven! She dropped us round four flavours to taste, and after one mouthful we knew we had to have them! Delicious they were. Cookies and cream, Strawberry, Double chocolate and vanilla. I got the cupcake pennants from www.vintageglamblog.com. Our pageboy carried a ring bearer bowl by Paloma’s Nest www.palomasnest.com and our favours were by the wonderful Kate Aspenthey very kindly sent me some samples and I had a job to choose which to pick but the lovebird salt and pepper shakers went down really well! Matt decided they weren’t manly enough and so he ordered the men miniature bottles of Whiskey.
The jam jars I collected over the 18 months of wedding planning looked great, although if I see another jam jar again soon I might just keel over! I think the country chic look I was going for worked though and a fair few of our guests took the jam jar flower arrangements home with them! We only had a tiny number of favours left behind too so they were definitely worth it! We didn’t have a standard guest book, but found a ‘Make a Wish, Take a Wish’ through Etsy. They use the colours of your wedding and personalise it for you, we were left with some lovely wishes from our guests for our future as man and wife ‘Always keep your anti freeze topped up’ was one of them which made us laugh. The best man presented Matt with an Arsenal shirt and a marker pen for guests to leave messages on, which we’re going to get framed and find a home for! Our table numbers were from Hobbycraft, which we spraypainted in antique white and leaned against the centrepieces.
Our heartshaped chalkboard for the ‘Just Married’ sign is from Van Hagues. The bridesmaids hair flowers were from New Look (and they matched the dresses perfectly! Good old New Look!) The gorgeous Brian The Camper we hired from Vanilla Splits and can’t wait to hire him for our anniversary and go off for a weekend! Our rings came from our local family run Jeweller Equinox, who Matts family have used for many years and they gave us a brilliant service.
My Favourite Moment
My best part was feeling so strong and happy walking up the aisle, focusing on Matt and seeing how choked up he was. I walked on air up the aisle to a beautifully classical piece of music and seeing the impact it had on Matt was priceless. I couldn’t have asked for more, the moment I arrived next to him and he told me how beautiful I looked just made my heart bang even harder in my chest!
My Not So Favourite Moment
Walking through bramble bushes for a photo and ripping my dress to shreds……
My Advice To Other Brides-To-Be
Is Simple.
Don’t sweat the small details – focus on the love and the celebration with the people you love.
Get a good photographer. Good doesn’t have to mean pricey! Both Kim Hawkins and Jon Mold were outstanding I can’t praise them both enough, and considering Jon Mold is new to the Wedding industry (which surprised me when I heard this!) he acts like a pro, put us all at ease and his images are stunning. How lucky we were to have both Kim and Jon on the day! He captured some amazing candid shots of our guests and the wedding party, which we can’t wait to share with them! He is the next big thing in Wedding Photography, without a doubt. (And he drives a wicked VW Camper!)
And if you find yourself getting caught up in wedding planning madness, stop for a second and ask yourself… ‘What Would Jenny Do..?’
Love
Jenny xxx
I can’t begin to tell you how sad I am that Jenny’s real bride wedding adventure is over……although it isn’t really is it?
Just the beginning of a long and beautiful love story.
Big What Jenny Did Was Marry The Love Of Her Life And That’s What Matters Most Love
Charlotte xxx
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what jenny did next…
I love that your details were simple and held the essence of the day without being too gimicky.
I absolutely love the idea of What Jenny Did Next. The little pearls of wedded wisdom that come from Charlotte and Rebecca should be joined by the wonderful Jenny. Afterall. We need to know what were all in for once the wedding shenanigans are over!
And definately a picture of Baby O at least!
Jenny you have so much to look forward to! Your one amazing lady. xo
Your blog, although at times is sad it stays in my thoughts all day and brings a smile to my face.
The poem has made me blub and well done you for keeping it together.
And Ancient Brother, you have a complete stranger sitting here sobbing her heart out. I know what it’s like to lose a mother, and I wish I was lucky enough to have a wonderful brother like you. You rock!
Congratulations of your little bun, hopefully cooking nicely now. You can let him/her know they were guest of honour at the wedding of the year.
Thank you so much for sharing xxx
What an amazing brother you have – he had me in tears and I dont even know him!!
Wishing you all the love and luck in the world with your new life (and new arrival!!)
Can’t believe there’s not a 5th part
Kxx
Loved reading your journey to the big day and the account of the wedding day itself didn’t disappoint. Am totally moved by everything – the sentiment, the baby, the gorgeousness, the sheer happiness that radiates out of every frame. Wishing all three of you every happiness together xx
Enjoy your married life and good luck with your pregnancy and arrival of your baby.
I also am in favour of a ‘what jenny did next’/'rock my baby’ blog!!
X
Your brother’s poem had me in tears, and his post is just as lovely.
You should be very proud of yourself, you have achieved what the rest of us dream of.
I wish you all the best in your future as Mrs O. Congratulations and good luck with the little one. Keep us posted!!
Lots of love
Xx
It would be good if you could stick around with the other married ladies to offer your words of wisdom and advice to us all in the future as I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs
What an absolute corker of a day, feat the original RMW Real Bride. Sniff, I’m a bit sad its all over, but I would be most cheered if there was a “what jenny did next/rock my baby/another suggestion that people made above that mean we dont have to lose Jenny!” xoxo
Congratulations Mrs O – thank you for sharing your journey in all its glorious detail! x
x