Wedding - Part 5 - Partyyyyyy!

So after all the debacle of the keys, the cake and the speeches we were finally able to relax - at least I was!

I started as I meant to go on and cracked open a bottle of red!

The children were brilliant - they both danced until their legs fell off. TJ, who is normally the more reserved of the two, was holding court on the dance floor - he was spinning and doing cartwheels and the splits in full - thank goodness his trousers went with him... TJ has hyper mobility and can do amazing things with his body. I remember once when we were at a local shopping mall and TJ suddenly slipped and went into the full splits - sideways! I rushed over to check he was ok and a lady grabbed my arm and said, "Did you know he could do that?" I replied that I did to which she said with a startled expression, "That's not normal for a boy - I think my husband has just fainted!"I looked over and her husband had indeed gone a strange colour...... It always amazes me that people are so happy to tell you exactly what they think about your children. I just smiled, picked TJ up and went on with our shopping.

But the wedding reception was in full swing. TJ and his cousin discovered the Nintendo DS - so we lost both of them for a while. I make no secret that I am not a fan of hand held computer games - but the boys seemed to be having a great time and at least they were playing together.

It was all going really well - a fantastic atmosphere. Then I was summoned by my Aunt (who has a habit of summoning people) "Nan wants to go back to her room, we need a wheelchair," came the order (I would say request but to be honest....) As I was obviously now part of the staff I went off to find the organisers - who I had met the previous day when we were assembling the cake. They were brilliant and a large gentlemen led me around the back where we explored the storerooms to find the wheelchair. We duly found it, dusted it off and after we assembled it got it back to the venue to take Nan down the drive to the cottages where we were all spending the weekend.

My aunt took over and loaded my Nan into the chair - Nan was not too happy about the experience but having been on the sherry herself was soon to admit that she was probably better off being wheeled back to her room (which thankfully was on the ground floor of our cottage). We took Nan down the ramp - but didn't realise that between the ramp and the drive there was a patch of grass - of course the front wheels caught on the grass and the chair came to an abrupt halt... it was sheer luck that Nan didn't fly out of the chair - she wasn't happy. "If you keep this up I shall walk!!!!" she threatened. I thought about that but realised that the threat was real - if we walked Nan down the drive, which was about 200 yards, then it would be at least half an hour before we could get back to the party, so my Aunt and I agreed to push the chair together. Unfortunately, my Aunt had also been on the same sherry as my Nan and as I tried to push I noticed that we were veering to the right, back onto the grass verge. "Watch where you are going!" screamed Nan as a tree loomed before us. "Yes, watch it!" shouted my Aunt who then slipped, grabbed hold of my arm and erupted into peals of laughter. "Maybe you should hold onto my arm and not the chair?" I suggested. "I think thats a good idea," said my Aunt and so I valiantly pushed the chair down the hill whilst supporting my aunt who was now singing away - she has a lovely voice, so it wasn't all bad, although I'm not sure if Nan appreciated it, she as more concerned about the flight of steps that led down to the cottage door - "Don't worry Nan," I said "We'll take the driveway that the cars use - no steps there.." "Can we just get home," she said, "My feet are killing me!"The irony of that comment escaped her I think....

We got Nan into her room and made sure she was comfortable in bed before I helped my Aunt back up the hill and back to the party. I wont mention my Aunt nipping to the loo and coming out with her dress tucked into her knickers.... although she and my Nan found it hilarious - I on the other hand was now in a state of shock... "This better not end up in your blog!" my Aunt giggled... "Urm.. ok," I lied....

As I got back The Sprog came up and said, "Daddy, I'm tired now, its past my bedtime."  One of the things that The Sprog needs is constancy - he doesn't like her routine to be interrupted - even at a party. That is quite common for adopted children, so the therapist says, where they have been brought up in chaotic homes in their early years they crave order and routine and become a little unsure if that is broken in anyway - consequently whilst a lot of adopted children can cope with school they find holidays very difficult and that's when there can be behaviour issues. This is very apparent in  - TJ was a baby when he came into care so it doesn't effect him as badly - anyway, at that point TJ was jumping on a table and beatboxing with my younger, much cooler cousins. Papa came to the rescue and took The Sprog to his room, which was above Nan. Nan was by now in bed reading her book so she agreed to listen out for The Sprog and call us if there were any problems - although as my Nan has pretty poor eyesight I did have visions of her shouting into the TV remote control thinking it was a mobile phone but as it was, all was well.

TJ went back to the dance floor. I went to join him - he pushed me away, "No, you're not as cool as them." he pointed out my younger cousins. Great, my 7 year old was already ashamed of me... but not to worry - I can now officially Dad dance!!!!!!! So I gave him something to be really ashamed of as my two very beautiful (and by now very merry) female cousins and I danced whilst doing Girls Aloud and Lady Gaga routines - Britney Spears and Will-I-Am had nothing on us... Once TJ realised we were just all there to have fun he was soon forgot his embarrassment and we all danced together until the small hours...

A brilliant ending to an amazing day....

The Wedding - Part 3 - The Church

The car pulled up to the church and there were a gaggle of girls eager to help my sister out of the car and sort out her dress etc. A very irate vicar was standing outside looking at his watch and I knew we were in trouble...

Papa ran inside to tell everyone to get ready, As he ran I grabbed him and hissed, 'Buttonhole - I need your buttonhole!" He is such a sweetie, he unpinned his flower (which had been practically stapled to him by my cousin) and pinned it to my jacket just as my sister arrived at my side - the page boys and flowers girl stood in front of us - as planned my two were at the very front where they could do the least harm - although to be honest, once they had seen how many people were in the church they were suddenly very quiet, "Just remember to walk slowly," I advised quietly before we left, 'You'll be fine."

I went to take my sister's arm as we had practised and she whispered, "I'll have to hold onto you, I'm terrified I'll fall over my dress but if I hang onto you then you can catch me if I topple over."I hooked my arm through hers as she held the dress up slightly with her left hand and we took our place at the church door.

My nephew and the flower girl were ready, my sister took a deep breath as the wedding march played and we began our walk towards the aisle. We walked towards the main aisle across from the church door and the children took the turning to the right to walk through the congregation. Unfortunately my nephew and flower girl turned left (they obviously thought they were on an aeroplane) and my sister and I rushed forwards to grab them and put them back on the right track - it was a lovely way to enter the church, the congregation laughed, my sister laughed, everyone just seemed to relax - I guess the 20minute wait for the bride had been quite stressful and this was a fantastic way to bring fun and laughter back into the church.

The walk itself was lovely, so many smiling faces, people congratulating my sister as she walked, the words 'beautiful' and 'stunning' were heard many times across the church (I was grateful for their comments but felt they should really have been looking at my sister) - she was positively beaming - It was then that I noticed that she hadn't pulled her veil over her face, but I don't think it really mattered, it was only when we stopped and I moved in next to Mum that it was noticed - mainly because the bridesmaid whose job it was to straight my sister's veil stepped forward and then realising she had nothing to do tried to make it look as though it was perfectly normal to step in front of the bride and re-adjusted her hair... which looked perfectly natural, so was a good save.

The children sat behind us and were joined by Papa - they were so pleased with themselves. We stood for the first hymn. I say stood I was kind of standing at a strange angle as my Mum's hat was so huge (I think she could have received signals from outer space using it) that it kept hitting me in the face every time she moved her head. I looked at my sister and felt yet another tear coming on - I can honestly say I have never seen her look so happy.

We sang the first hymn, I think it was 'Lord of all Hopefulness', I say think because (and I hope I wont get into trouble here), but the bridesmaid on my left really couldn't sing. She told me later that she didn't really know the tune either but (please don't hate me) it was so bad and so off key that I started to giggle and then I couldn't sing. I tried to turn it into a cough but it just got worse, so I opted for tears instead, which was ok as I was actually wiping tears from my eyes, just tears of laughter. She is such a lovely lady and what she lacked in talent she certainly made up for in enthusiasm and in the end I recomposed myself and the two of us belted out the tunes as loudly and as coherently as we could.

I don't know if it was just me but the rest of the wedding seemed to go by in a blur - it wasn't helped by the fact that the vicar (who is a family friend) was now rushing slightly and even skipped his sermon - which may have been a blessing, who knows.

The service over we went to the back of the church to witness the signing of the register and all lined up ready to process back. That was no mean feat as there were about 20 of us in this tiny space trying to arrange ourselves into some sort of order, all I could remember was that I was bringing up the rear and accompanying the groom's mother. We walked through the church to a huge round of applause - again, I was pleased to be there, they really didn't need to clap but if I could bring just a little sunshine to their day I was happy to do so. We went outside, I looked to see if I could see the vicar to thank him but I think he had nipped out the back and was speeding away in his Ford Mondeo to his next wedding.

The children and I met up again outside the church. "Can we get messy now?" TJ asked. "No, you cannot," I snapped, "We have all the photos to do - loads of photos." "Photo's are boring!" exclaimed TJ. "Well, get used to it," I replied, "Because from now on the whole rest of the day will be about photos!" The man behind me laughed and TJ looked glum. But then all the children were given confetti and soon cheered up. Although we did have to point out that they were only supposed to throw confetti over the bride and groom - not over each other and anyone else who happened to be standing near!

More photos were taken and then everyone got into their cars to follow the bride and groom to the venue for the afternoon reception....

And it was then that the fun started....

The Wedding - Part 2

So the morning came for the big day itself - Prince William and Kate had nothing on the level of organisation...

We got up in the hotel and went down for breakfast - the wedding wasn't until 1pm and the photographer was coming to the hotel to take pictures of the groom, groomsmen, page boys etc at around midday - so my theory was that the longer we kept TJ out of his formal suits the better -  I would have preferred to change them in the car on the way to the church, but they were required for the pre-wedding photos so that wasn't going to happen.

After breakfast Papa and I went to get changed. The suits were all rental, as most wedding suits are, and we had tried ours on back in February and I knew that I had lost quite a bit of weight since then, so I was a bit worried that my suit would no longer fit - I had even bought a new belt, just in case. I needn't have worried, I got the suit out of the bag marked with my name and put it on. The waist was so tight, I could barely sit down and the waistcoat fitted like a corset - I couldn't even breathe, to say I was gutted was an understatement - 6 weeks of low carbs and no alcohol to actually put weight on. Papa was also having problems, he had to tighten his trousers and his waistcoat needed pinning at the back. 'They've given us the wrong suits!' I shouted, now getting angry. I called the groom, "Have you got our suits with you?" I asked, "No, I gave them to you last night," he replied, 'How drunk were you?" Admittedly I had drunk quite a bit the day before but was pretty sure I had collected the right suits. I checked again, yes the bags definitely had our names on them. I looked at Papa, "I'll have to go to Manchester and change them," I said, "I can't walk my sister down the aisle wearing this." Papa went online to see if there was a branch of the store nearby as I got the children dressed. As I did up TJ's waistcoat it suddenly hit me... "Papa," I said, "try my waistcoat on." He grumpily got off the computer and did so, "It fits perfectly," he said. I took my trousers off and handed them to him, "Lets swap suits." The upshot was that the suits had been labeled the wrong way round, which looking back seems obvious, but when you are juggling your own dress requirements with your kids then you tend to lose all grip on reality....

Properly dressed we went downstairs to get our buttonholes. But there was no buttonhole for me - I was walking my sister down the aisle without a buttonhole. "It's at the house," the Groom's father informed me, "It must have been put with the bridal party." It really wasn't a big issue except the photographer kept asking me to stand behind other members of the party to hide the fact that my buttonhole was missing. So I have a horrible feeling that when the photos come out you will only see my left ear in all the shots.. we shall see... but the TJ met up again with his cousin and the two of them were having a whale of a time. The atmosphere was light and relaxed - and, to cap it all, it was a beautiful sunny day!

After the photographer had finished I rounded up the page boys and headed off to Granny's house to join the bridal party leaving Papa and the grooms party to head off to the church....

I arrived at Granny's house with the very excited boys, suddenly there was a commotion in the back, "Uncle," came a small voice, "I think I need help."I looked in the mirror to see my nephew with the largest amount of snot I have ever seen in a child pouring out of his nose, I didn't have a tissue to hand and it was about to fall onto his new suit. I did what any parent would do, I put my hand out and caught the snot as it fell. Great, now I had to get out of the car making sure that the boys kept clean and that I didn't get my nephew's snot on my own suit. I raced into the house and into the downstairs toilet, and, be sure to take note, here begins the problems - I put my car keys down on the window sill in the toilet as I grabbed for tissues for my nephew and washed my own hands - my own children thought this vision of me juggling snot, keys and tissues was hysterical. I had just finished washing my hands when my nephew turned to me, 'It's happened again,' he said. And sure enough there was another massive globule of snot hanging from his nose - luckily one of the bridesmaids was on hand with a box of kleenex to help us both out...

I washed up again and went into the living room which was abuzz with make up girls, bridesmaids and photographers. I saw my Mum, "Where's your buttonhole?" she cried, "You should be wearing a buttonhole - you can't walk your sister down the aisle like that!" I felt as though I had forgotten my trousers... "Right, let's not panic," I said calmly (calm was to be my word for the day), "I can always take Papa's at the church if needs be - his ushering duties will be over by the time we get there." Problem solved - then I went into the study which my sister was using to get dressed. I opened the door and there she stood in her wedding dress - it was beautiful, she was beautiful - everything was beautiful and, I'm not ashamed to say, I actually welled up. I always wondered why people cried at weddings - now I knew. To say she was stunning is an understatement, her gown was pure silk with a lace overlay and her veil was under a pearl and diamond tiara. I even think she had had a wash...

The boys sat down to watch TV and eat crisps.

We were about to leave when the bridesmaids realised they had to pack all their stuff for the evening, so the taxi driver and I loaded the bridesmaid's mini bus (don't worry the bride had a limo) with all of their luggage - one bridesmaid had just had her baby and the amount of paraphernalia that goes with a new born is phenomenal - but we got it all in - at least we thought we did (again note that for later).

My phone then started to ring, we were now 15 minutes late and the ushers (and I guess the groom) were beginning to panic - the vicar had told us not to be late and it was now 1.15.... we got everyone into the mini bus and Granny, Lea and my nephew headed off in the limo, except TJ who was now best buddies with the photographer and went with her. I helped my sister into the car and got in beside her..

I gave her hand a squeeze, "Happy?" I asked her, 'Really happy," she replied simply, "really happy"... we pulled out of the drive and headed to the church...