Our January Wedding, 2009

January 31st, 2012 at 4:12 pm . Posted in Life List .

I like January. So many people find it the most depressing month of the year, but January was the month I got married. So once the Christmas stilton has gone and the New Year hangover has subsided I have my wedding anniversary to look forward to.

We didn’t plan to get married in January, not at all. We planned to get married in August. But as we got engaged when I was literally still in my teens (19, so only just) we had a bit of an uphill battle to save up for the sort of lavish, over the top wedding that I was planning. Then life happened – moving to London, working on our careers and alcohol intolerance, and that big country wedding just never materialised.

So one night in late November 2008 after nearly 5 years of engagement I told Will I’d had enough. I didn’t care about a big expensive wedding but I did want to be married to him. I stamped my foot and cried in our teeny Shoreditch flat and he agreed. 8 weeks – wedding – GO.

Turns out you can totally pull together a London wedding in 8 weeks! We had a small ceremony for 15 in The Yellow Room at The Old Marylebone Town Hall and it was perfect, I wouldn’t have wanted any more people there as I cried through the whole thing. We went on to lunch at Shoreditch House and finally to a big reception at Fabric, Will’s work place at the time, where his colleagues had pulled out all the stops and turned the club into a winter wonderland for our big party. Our mums bought the flowers the day before at Columbia Road market and made the buttonholes and bouquet, the marvellous Katja Hentschel took photos for us and the cake from Choccywoccydoodah was a wedding gift from Fabric.

Our honeymoon in a beach hut in Kenya cost more than the wedding and could not have been more perfect.

Had I had weeks and weeks to plan our day there would definitely have been things I would have changed; for one I would have lost a bit of weight (I was the heaviest I’ve ever been on my wedding day) and grown out my hair. I wouldn’t have chosen my dress two days before and maybe picked a hairdressers that wasn’t forty-five minutes late opening on the day of my wedding. But the way it happened reflected us perfectly as a couple; slightly chaotic, homemade and a little haphazard but a great deal of fun. And more importantly I got myself the most wonderful marriage. That is so much more important than dresses, cake or champagne (which was actually Cristal, now you mention it. Mmm).

I would like to insert something cheesy and vomit-inducing about how much I love and value my husband here, but nothing sounds quite right and I think he knows anyway. Will – you’re the BOMB. I love you, happy anniversary xxxx

16 Comments ( Reply )

Bryony
Jan 31, 2012 @ 4:19 pm

This is the kind of wedding that makes me want to have a strop and demand marriage for Dean immediately! It looks beautiful and fun which is what a wedding should be :)

Happy anniversary to both of you x

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Helen
Jan 31, 2012 @ 4:42 pm

Aww Happy Anniversary! Your wedding photos always make me smile. My friend’s wedding was big and lavish BUT so many things went wrong. It didn’t matter though. It was perfect for them.

I want that cake! x

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PhotoPuddle
Jan 31, 2012 @ 4:44 pm

Happy Anniversary!! Great wedding photos and and by the looks them you really can’t tell whether it was a wedding that cost a fortune and took two years to plan or whether it was indeed thrown together in eight weeks.
I secretly can’t understand people who say they can’t afford to get married. It doesn’t actually cost a lot to get married after all. It’s all the fancy wedding stuff that can add up!

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Gail
Jan 31, 2012 @ 5:44 pm

We got married at Marylebone too! Totally agree on the ‘it’s not about the money’ thing – we did registry office and a pub reception and had a ball.

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@mummydaddyme
Jan 31, 2012 @ 5:46 pm

Aww lovely happy anniversary- your wedding sounds fab. X

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Corinne
Jan 31, 2012 @ 5:48 pm

Congratulations! You looked stunning and it seems like the perfect type of wedding x

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Julie
Jan 31, 2012 @ 5:53 pm

Sounds fabulous! Happy Anniversary!
X

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Toffeeapple
Jan 31, 2012 @ 6:29 pm

I got married in January too, Epiphany. All those years ago. Didn’t cost much either.

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Sara
Jan 31, 2012 @ 6:55 pm

Aw so lovely!
Definitely how a wedding should be! I hate weddings that cost so much money and just leave everyone massively out of pocket! (the big money should definitely go on the honeymoon!)

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Lauren.
Jan 31, 2012 @ 11:03 pm

Now is the time I think to tell you how much I admire you, your life and your family. I’ve lurked since the first blog, how I found you I do not know, but I think you are wonderful.

I’m 21, and everything you have I hope to one day find myself. Even through the shit, you manage and your wee girl is beautiful.

This is slightly soppy and crap, but keep writing ’cause it’s great and wine makes this aaall okay. (Y)x

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Janet
Feb 01, 2012 @ 9:37 am

Hooray for weddings that look do pretty and happy and full of life. Hooray for marriage meaning more than the wedding. Hooray for giant boobies.

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Primrose Hill
Feb 01, 2012 @ 9:46 am

What a lovely day! Looks fab, and I’m amazed you managed to organise it so quickly. We had a winter wedding too (December) and it was great. I thought we might as well have it when it was cold than try to rely on getting a rare hot day in the summer. Happy anniversary!

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Tanya (Bump2Basics)
Feb 01, 2012 @ 2:45 pm

Awwww. We also decided to fast forward our wedding and did the planning in about 3 months – it was fab. And LLC is born in January so I know just what you mean about having something to look forward to in that formerly dark month.

On another note, was sad you weren’t able to make it to Eat Drink Do last week – was hoping to stand bump to bump! Hope all well x

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Richmond Mummy
Feb 05, 2012 @ 5:17 pm

Really enjoyed reading this post, your wedding day sounded perfect and fun and like a great start to married life. We went on honeymoon to Kenya as well – loved it! Happy anniversary xx

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Peggy
Feb 15, 2012 @ 7:54 am

That sounds like a fabulous wedding to me! And you both looked gorgeous

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