The Wedding

Just as I expected, the wedding was lovely and as predicted, I spent most of the day in tears !

I think actually it was one of the loveliest weddings I've ever been to. It was so unlike any of the hushed stuffy, pompous weddings that we usually go to. Don't get me wrong - I love a bit of sumptuous ceremony. After all it's what I had and I already have great plans for Sasha's wedding which will definitely be in the huge abbey-like church that we have near us so that she has a lovely long aisle that she can glide along with her father, probably to a bit of Handel. Oh yes, I have it pretty much worked out.

But this wasn't anything like that. Gemma's wedding was perfect in it's simplicity. The church was a tiny, beautiful medieval building and she wore a simple ivory dress with burgundy red embroidery. Her little sister came in first wearing a similar dress that was burgundy red with ivory embroidery, scattering burgundy red flower petals along the aisle.

And the service itself was so relaxed. There were no hymns but they had a band in the church that played christian rock through the service which sounded amazing and when the couple signed the register everyone got up and started chatting away to each other. There was a real feeling of joy in there amongst all her friends and it moved me more than I can say.

I was emotional for most of the day to be honest. I started when I saw Gemma standing at the entrance of the church; then joined Ashley who was crying as she watched her husband accompany her beautiful daughter up the aisle to her proud groom; carried on through the vows and was still crying at the reception when Ian couldn't finish telling his bride how much he loved her in his speech because he was so overcome. And then when they both had their first dance and looked so ecstatically happy, that was it for me. I had to disappear into the loo as I was bawling so much! Honestly, all my carefully applied make-up was pretty much gone by the end of the evening and I had made such an effort to look nice!

It really was a special day and I felt so honoured to be a part of it. I don't normally feel like that at weddings but this one was truly something different. I think they're going to be OK. They're both so young but very sure of their love for each other. They'll grow together, build a life together and if trouble comes they'll face it together.

I genuinely wish them true happiness.