We had a fantastic day with our family and friends with some going to unbelievable lengths to be there! For those who don’t remember our wedding was in the middle of the Great Floods of 2007 (well done Keiron for officially naming the event!)

Everything was perfect, people would never have known that in the day leading upto it we had no groom (stuck in traffic for 6 hours from swindon), a flooded boiler room in church, flooded church graveyard, our vintage car stranded full of mud, a standby car, guests in Evesham leisure centre, usher late (arrived at reception), a stand in usher, guests in army landrovers, no water, 20 hours in car from Newcastle, nearly no vicar (should have been on holiday) another wedding which should have been held in the neighbouring parish requesting to use our church at the same time due to flooding the list goes on……………But most importantly we had fun and enjoyed it.

Hopefully over the coming week we will upload some photos for you all to see. We have had 928 from our photographer!!!

We would like to thank everyone for their cards, gifts and for sharing our special day with us!

Emma trundled off to Quedgeley a few hours ago (and has already rung to remind me of things), with a car full of traffic cones, flowers and orders of service! Mum and Toria have nipped to the outlet (to buy more umbrellas) and I’ve had an hour to get myself sorted….

I’ve attempted to pack some of the car but got drenched with every step. I’ll wait for the rest to get back before I load anything else in I think!

The “good luck” texts, emails and blog posts (Els) are pouring in and I haven’t got around to replying to them all yet, but I will, I promise (he says hopefully!).

More to come if I get a chance later!

Saturday morning arrived and Kate took the tough decision of where to prominently display her racing pass to heart:

After waiting for Gav (no surprises there!) to arrive, the “Stealth Bus” (Nick and Brent’s title I believe!) departed Swindon – with the form guide at the ready several people started to work their bets out – including Darren’s accumulator (more on that later!!).

The racecourse was busy when we arrived, and worryingly the clouds beckoned:

We weren’t going to let a little thing like rain dampen our spirits (largely by sticking to beer and not spirits – and holding our hands over the glasses!). Stuart went on to ask for a Fosters at a bar that only served Fosters (personally I’d have told him “we haven’t got any sir!”.

Everyone proceeded to get in to the spirit of things, with some early wins and a few beers despite the rain!

Even the youngsters were having fun!

Those that weren’t drinking resorted to Ice Cream!!

After some minor losses, a few wins and Darren cursing as the final horse in his six race accumulator didn’t come in. We boarded the bus back to Sunny Swindon… And all that excitement had tired some people out!!

It was only when we got to the Mexican that we learnt we’d got a stowaway aboard (Rich had brought a bird!).

We had a fantastic meal, and played pass the hat!

A very full bunch of people then headed off to The Spot, for more drinking, dancing and playing “Name that Tune!”

After nursing mutual hangovers this morning, we met for lunch and a chat before everyone went their seperate ways home! We’ve had a fantastic weekend, thank you all for coming!

Keiron & Emma

Emma’s just been discussing the virtues of White Umbrella’s with me (Shona! I blame you for this discussion!!!), apparently one will now be winging it’s way towards us along with all the other random tat that Emma buys on eBay. A miscellaneous parcel failed delivery this morning and somewhere between them knocking our front door and taking it back to the depot they’ve lost it (some very bad language from Emma has ensued),  she’s not sure if it’s an eBay bargain (wish I’d never shown her the site) or whether it’s something to do with the Wedding (wish I’d …………………………………………… – I’m being accused of being a cheeky sod, by the person feeling sick from too much chocolate egg!).

See you soon!

Well I’m busy ordering bits and pieces for wedding like favours etc etc. And we’re also collating all our replies for the wedding and getting people into rooms etc etc. All good fun!

We’ve found our most productive wedding planning days are ones spent with glasses of wine, pringles, dips and curries! I feel another one coming on this weekend!!

Em xx