Congratulations Sarah and Mike!

On Saturday, Liam and I went to our friends' wedding. I'd already been to Sarah's Hen Do the week before, and now it was time for them to get married! Liam's Mum had the children overnight, so Liam and I stayed in a hotel for the night...bliss!

The wedding was at 1.30pm, with the first food being served about 3pm, so I didn't really know what to do about meals beforehand. In the end, I had a couple of cranberry and date hot cross buns (resurrected from the freezer) for breakfast...

and then had an apple doughnut on the drive down...

Yum, my favourite!

We got to the hotel three hours before check-in, but luckily our room was ready so we were able to check in early to get ready for the wedding. The room was really cute...

Unfortunately it wasn't exactly swimming weather...

We were all so worried, on Sarah's behalf, about the weather as it was absolutely horrible in the morning. It turned out to be really lovely though - it dried out just before the ceremony, and by the time they were married and wanted to go outside for photos, it was glorious sunshine, such a relief! :)

We got to the venue a little early...

 to catch up with some university friends...

and then it was time to go into the ceremony room. The bride was about 20 minutes late because of traffic, so Mike had quite a lot of time waiting at the front...

but Sarah was definitely worth the wait :)

After the ceremony, we did some more mingling with Pimms (my favourite!)...

Shiny face much??!

before going outside for some photos...

We then went back inside to have our delicious three-course meal. The venue looked great!

We listened to the father of the bride, groom and best man do speeches, and then it was time for the food! For my starter, I had the 'trio of melon cocktail served with ginger syrup'...

This was so refreshing. I don't think I'd ever had watermelon before, and to be honest I wasn't overly keen, but all the other melons were delicious and the ginger syrup was lovely and subtle.

For my main course, I had 'pear, goats’ cheese, leek and tarragon in creamy sauce served in a filo parcel'. I was sat on a table of 8, and I was the only vegetarian, but two other people had chosen the vegetarian for their main course as well. It was a good choice - so pretty!

We all loved the presentation of this - edible flowers - cute! Sarah, the bride, is a vegetarian, so I figured she'd choose a good vegetarian option :) As well as looking great, the taste was fantastic too. I've had vegetarian food in filo before where the filo pastry is really soggy, but that wasn't the case with this at all - lovely and crispy. There was so much goats cheese in it as well - the texture was almost a bit too meaty for me - I had to get Liam to check it wasn't chicken! But it tasted wonderful, and I adored the creamy leek sauce too.  It also came with an individual portion of side vegetables which were really tasty - we all especially loved the mashed potato!

This course was so filling, I left a lot of the top layer of pastry, but I still managed to fit in dessert...

'Summer pudding served with berry sauce'...

Yum, as I mentioned in my Oreo Cheesecake post, summer pudding is one of my favourites, and this didn't disappoint!

I was so full after all this food! Luckily, there were then a couple of hours 'free', and as the weather was still so lovely we spent most of it outside drinking Pimms/cider, and chatting. It was really nice to have that time in the day to relax. First though, the confetti (and bubbles) throw!

Sarah and her bridesmaids arrived at the wedding in a camper van, and after the confetti, she and Mike sat there for a little while posing for the many people with cameras!

We then headed round to the back of the hotel, where several rooms and a bar had been reserved specially for the wedding, as well as an outside space with picnic tables.

Sarah and Mike appeared on the balcony of their hotel room, and were persuaded to give us a 'royal kiss'...

Awww! :)

In the evening, there was a DJ and a buffet. Before we could eat though - the first dance. The first dance was the one part of our wedding that I really didn't enjoy - I felt so awkward dancing with everyone watching! Sarah and Mike seemed to be having fun though...

I wasn't really hungry after our huge, late "lunch", but Liam and I still went to investigate the buffet...

This was my plate - an egg mayonnaise roll, potato wedges, breaded mushrooms and nachos...

I also had another egg mayonnaise roll when Liam got a second plate...I love egg mayonnaise! :)

I then did some dancing (I persuaded Liam to join in for one dance, but apart from that it was just girls dancing!)...

And then Liam and I hit up the wedding cake - we shared this plate between us...

vanilla sponge and chocolate sponge, both were delicious! The wedding cake also had a layer of fruit cake but we both prefer sponge.

We went home soon after this - it had been a wonderful day. Thanks so much Sarah and Mike for inviting us to share it with you :)

The next day, I woke up at the hotel with an appetite - I always make the most of buffet breakfasts when we stay at hotels!! First I had a bowl of muesli, lots of toast, coffee, and lots of glasses of orange juice...

and I finished the meal off with poached eggs on toast...

Yum, a great end to a great (short) weekend. We then headed back to the children - it's nice to have a little time away together occasionally, but we were glad to see them when we got back! :)

Phew, this was a long post! I'm now doubly glad I'm splitting up my own wedding photos into lots of different posts!! I posted the most recent installment yesterday, in case you missed it - the 'Getting Ready' photos.

Have you been to any weddings recently? What is your favourite part of the day? I love seeing the bride make her big entrance, and love seeing how happy everyone is. But, true to form, I also get excited to see what the food is like...this wedding certainly didn't disappoint!! :)