Wedding Photos - Drinks Reception and Group Photos

It's that time of the week where I get back to look back on our wedding again! :) I nearly didn't manage to post today as my laptop is very much on its last legs. I managed to revive it this time by taking the battery and charger out, and holding down the power button to reset it, which is what the repair man on the phone always says to do. Then my laptop ran "start-up repair" and, for now, it seems to be working again...a new laptop is definitely top of my Christmas list this year, I just hope this one lasts til then!!

Anyway, moving on to happier times! Last week, I wrote about all the food we served at our wedding, the first round of which was served at the drinks reception 4.30pm-6pm ish.

After the ceremony, Liam and I went to get our drinks first and then, although not planned, we ended up waiting in the archway between the two rooms, chatting to everyone as they passed through. It was really nice to get a chance to speak to everybody - that was one of the things I wanted to make sure I did as it would have been too easy to get caught up in the day and not actually have time to speak to everyone who had travelled to share our day. So this worked well, although admittedly it did mean that it took quite a long time for everyone to make their way outside. Here are a few photos from when we were still inside:

Lots of people getting drinks

Izzy pretending to drink champagne!

Me with Liam's Uncle Chris

Us with Liam's Nan

My friend with her daughter - I love that expression!!!

We then went outside, where some people drank more than others...!!

Haha, sorry Marion, I couldn't resist! :) This is my youngest sister's Godmother (and a very good friend of my Mum's)...apparently the 2nd glass of fizz was Olivia's!

Izzy had a fantastic time playing with my cousin...

So much so that she's not in half the group photos, and those she is in, she's looking wistfully over towards the fun!!

The only photo of the 4 of us and she's not looking at the camera!

Paul, our waiter for the day, handed round more nibbles...

And after a while, Paul, the photographer, started taking group photos. I won't share all the group photos with you as they're probably less interesting, but here are a few of them:

Us with Liam's brother - the best man - and my sister Olivia - a bridesmaid

All the siblings, and children (with Izzy not looking at the camera!)

With my parents

With Liam's parents

The "boys"

The "girls"

Everyone

After the group photos, we had a confetti throw...

And then I also threw my bouquet (there was no space to throw it inside later on)...

Liam's sister, Danni, caught it...

People asked me afterwards if I'd thrown it at Danni on purpose, but my only aim had been to throw the bouquet as far as the line of people!!

After this we all went inside for speeches, food and dancing...but I will save those photos for my final wedding post next week :)

What would be your choice of drink to serve at a wedding? Or, what is your favourite "special" drink? We went with pink fizz, but if it had been purely up to me we would have had Pimms. Pimms is my favourite summery drink, and we've been to a couple of weddings where they did serve Pimms - including the wedding we went to this August. However, we decided that, as the drinks reception was being manned by my Mum's friends, having Pimms would have meant more work for them. I don't really like wine or fizz so I stuck to the fizzy elderflower cordial in the afternoon, and then the venue manager made up a jug of Pimms to have behind the bar especially for me in the evening so I still got to have my favourite drink! :)



Wedding Photos - The Ceremony

Time for some more wedding photos! You can catch up with the previous posts under my wedding tab, I think this is the 4th post I've done.

Today I'm going to look back at the moment we'd all been waiting for - the actual ceremony! My Uncle kindly offered to drive us all down to the venue in his car (don't ask me what type, I have no idea, but it was some kind of vintage car I think!) - first he drove Liam and Toby, then my Mum and the bridesmaids, and finally me and my Dad...thank you Uncle Richard!! :)

Before I actually arrived at the venue, everyone else was asked to go into the ceremony room and the shutters were closed to hide my arrival! My Mum stayed outside with the children until the last possible moment...

and my sister, Olivia, was also outside to keep the children under control...

Liam, on the other hand, stood at the front with his brother for over half an hour waiting for me (I wasn't late, but he didn't realise he could sit down until the ceremony time!!!)

 

We did arrive on time though!

 

The one part of the day that made me more emotional than the rest was seeing Toby. (Haha, sorry Liam!!!) I'd only ever left him overnight (and for one night only) once before. The night before the wedding he stayed with Liam, which wasn't a problem, but I was a bit worried about leaving him for 5 nights when we went to Barcelona. When we arrived at the venue and he saw me, he started sobbing and clinging on to me! I just wanted a cuddle with him, but everyone was worrying about my dress, being on time etc...poor little guy!!

 

He was ok once we got inside though, well apart from wanting Isabelle's flowers!

In the end Olivia had to carry him down the aisle, rather than him walking with the ring cushion. We'd kind of suspected that might happen though!

I think Izzy was quite surprised by how many people were in the ceremony room when she entered - I love her face in this photo!

 

and then Dad and I entered...

If you're interested in the exact order of the service, you can click on the photo of the order of service to zoom in on it, in the wedding photos post about all the details.

My sister, Sarah, did the first reading...

and Liam's mother, Karen, did the other one...

The it was time to say our vows and exchange rings...

You may kiss the bride! (with an obviously pleased Registrar in the background, haha!!)

As Liam's Mum had done a reading and my Dad had walked me down the aisle, would be doing a speech etc, we asked my Mum and Liam's Dad to be our witnesses when we signed the register...

and that was the end of the ceremony...

Before moving on to the posts about the receptions, next Thursday I will show photos of the food and cake so look out for that one!! :-D

Have you been to many weddings before? Were they in a church/registry office/other venue? I'd been to a few church weddings before, but our wedding was the only civil wedding I'd been to so I didn't really know what to expect! There was no rehearsal, but we had met with a (different) registrar a couple of times to discuss details of the ceremony. Then, when I arrived at the venue, these registrars took me into a different room before I walked into the ceremony, just to confirm my details and quickly run through the order. It was a bit daunting though, especially in front of so many people!

Wedding Photos - Group Photos Before The Ceremony

This is the third post of my wedding photos. I hope you are enjoying these posts - I know they're not my usual food posts, but I love looking back at my wedding photos and wanted to share them with you all!

Previous posts are:
Part One - The Details
Part Two - Getting Ready

I've also linked (and will carry on linking) all these posts, as well as wedding planning posts and honeymoon posts under my Wedding tab.

As I mentioned in the last post, our photographer came to my Mum's house before the ceremony to take some photos. This was a really nice way to get a few photos of my side of the family before things got frantic, and he also then went to the venue before us and took some photos of Liam etc.

He got some nice ones of me and my sisters...

Me, before I changed into my dress!

Sarah

Olivia (bridesmaid)

and Izzy, of course, always looks beautiful...

He also took some group shots. I won't bore you with all of them as there are so many different combinations of us all! But these are some of my favourites...

The photographer also got a couple of shots of Izzy and my Dad without them realising. I love these photos as they are so 'Izzy' - she loves doing sums and practising her writing more than almost anything!

Finally, to finish up this post, here are a few photos at the venue, before the ceremony. Liam with "his men" - best man Sean (brother) to his left, his Dad far left, and then the other 4 men were his ushers (his sister's boyfriend, 2 cousins, and my sister's boyfriend)...

Our gorgeous page boy...

and, finally for this post, my Mum's friends who were so kind to be our waitresses/waiter for the drinks reception immediately after the ceremony...

They requested the purple aprons, I think they looked really neat! They did a great job as well - serving the initial fizz after the ceremony, and then coming outside with trays of canapes and more fizz for top-ups...thanks all of you! :)

I can't think of any question tonight, so I will just leave you with the above photos, I hope you enjoyed looking at them! I am so tired this evening - with the exception of dinner, I've mainly eaten sugar today - not a good idea for my energy levels!!

Thank you for all the comments on yesterday's WIAW post - I will respond to them all...but probably not tonight, I'm rapidly losing the ability to do anything other than snooze right now!!!