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Vanya & Edmond

The Final Episode - Is there Life After the Wedding?

Well, we made it through the madness, and I am floating here on the far side in such peace and calm that the past few months of running around madly seem like a dream! The day itself was fantastic, everything went great (almost everything, but more about that in a moment), I felt fabulous, and I relaxed and had a brilliant day.

I wasn't expecting to relax and enjoy the day, up to midnight the night before I was a 'stressed-out wreck'. There were tears before bedtime! So many details to try and remember, and so little time to get them done. But when I woke up in the morning, after a good night's sleep (I was so worn out I just conked out for the night), I woke up to see the beautiful blue sky and sunshine streaming through the window, I knew it would all be fine. Nails and hair done (sitting around in tracksuit top and jeans with a headdress of roses and curls pinned around your face is an experience). Then a big brunch, complete with champagne, followed by make-up mania. All men banned from upstairs in the house as bride and bridesmaids scurried from bathroom mirror to bedroom and back in towels and dressing gowns, getting all the war paint on.

Having dispatched the cases and going-away outfit in the car with the usher, it was time to don the dress. When I arrived downstairs for photos in the garden (with, naturally, more champagne), a phone call arrived from the usher (my brother) asking for the Mass booklets. I knew they were in my car, but that's when I remembered that the keys to the car were in the case, which was in the boot of our friend's car, at the church! So my father, the next-door neighbor, and Trevor (the longtime friend of Ed's who was providing and chauffeuring the vintage car) had to break into the car with a clothes hanger to get the booklets out. Luckily they succeeded with no damage done, and the booklets were sent off to the church with the bridesmaids.

The rest of the day was hitch-free, apart from the big hitch itself of course! The Mass was beautiful, the music gorgeous and the sun kept shining. After the ceremony, we headed to Dollymount strand for some beach photographs, then to St Anne's park for the rest of the family shots. We also took a couple of photos of us with a wooden sailing boat at the club. The place looked great, all the hard work was worth it. Everyone ate, drank and became very merry!! The food was fantastic, and everyone appreciated the carvery-style hot buffet, which meant they could choose to have one or both main dishes, and as much or as little as they liked. The entertainment went with a swing, I think the singer only had to perform for half of the night as the guests, including Ed and I, almost all did a party piece!

The night ran away on us and all too soon it was time to change and then to leave. We spent our first night in Clontarf Castle Hotel, in a beautiful suite with four-poster bed and jacuzzi bath, and then it was away to Fuerteventura for a fortnight of chilling out in the sunshine. We really liked it; it was very laid back, no lager louts or in-your-face nightlife, just great restaurants and nice bars. There was plenty to see and do, and no hurry to do it, so we came back well rested and refreshed.

It has been a hectic ten months or so planning the big day, but well worth it. We both thoroughly enjoyed the day; it was very special for us, and all the photos show both of us beaming with happiness, which is how it should be...

Jillian & Niall

If I were asked to sum up our wedding day in one sentence I would say, "It was the most happy, wonderful and magical day in my life". However, one sentence just isn't enough!

Unfortunately I found the days leading up to our wedding quite stressful! I am such a worrier and I'll fret over the smallest thing when I'm stressed. Niall and I had so many things to do, people to see and places to go the week before our wedding that we found we hardly had any time to ourselves. Then things started to go wrong - the last few fittings for the bridesmaids seemed to go on forever and the dresses weren't ready until 2 days before the wedding, the priest became ill and had to pull out the day before the wedding (thankfully we were able to get my parish priest to step in), our singer for the church couldn't be found and she didn't contact me until the morning of the wedding. It felt like all of our careful planning and organising had "gone to pot"! Two days before the wedding I was ready to give up and run away but Niall being the wonderful guy he is stepped in and took over everything as he could see I was near breaking point. The day before the wedding I was quite calm - a completely different person! Niall was kicked out of my house before 12 midnight on the night before our wedding - as we stood at the door saying goodbye we realised that the next time we would see each other would be when I was walking up the aisle! I felt nervous and excited at the same time. I don't know how I managed to sleep that night but I did!

On the big day itself, I knew I had a very busy and long day ahead of me and that I should eat some breakfast. However, I couldn't eat anything at all which is very unusual for me as I can't go anywhere without having breakfast! Our first stop was the Guillotine Hair Studio and my sister and I arrived there at 9.30, half an hour late and full of apologies! We met Niall's sister (my other bridesmaid) there and she told me that Niall was spending a lot of time in the bathroom at home and he wasn't getting himself ready! I think he was a bit nervous! I was quite calm and I didn't show any signs of nerves to anyone - my hairdresser, Mark, commented that he couldn't believe how calm I was! When we left the Guillotine, it was raining - that awful heavy drizzly rain and it was a bit windy too. I was very worried as we made our way to the beauty salon and prayed that it would stop raining. However, the staff at the Bijou Beauty Salon was excited for me and they and my bridesmaids soon had me laughing and joking away - I forgot about the weather. I had a French manicure and my bridesmaids had one too and they also had a pedicure as they were wearing sandals. From there, it was back home to have our make-up done. I had arranged for a neighbour who is a beautician to call to our house as she could do a final touch-up before I left for the church, not to mention the fact that she's an excellent beautician! My make-up was done by about 1.30 - plenty of time for me to sit down and take it easy before getting dressed (the wedding ceremony was at 3.00). I started to get nervous when I was changing into my dress with my bridesmaids - it was great fun though, lots of fussing and checking (and double-checking) and laughing! I was upstairs on my own for a few minutes - all dressed and ready to go when reality hit - I was getting married! After all of our planning and organising for the last year and a half, our big day had finally arrived. I took a deep breath and went down the stairs and out the front door to the waiting car. When I stepped outside, the sun came out - my prayers had been answered!

My dad was in the car with me and he had a few words of wisdom for me. I was clinging onto his hand really tight and trying not to cry. I found it to be a very emotional moment but I managed to keep calm - well it wouldn't do for the bride to walk up the aisle with red eyes!! I will never forget how nervous I was walking up that aisle - I was afraid to look at any of our guests so I kept looking straight ahead focussing on just reaching the top of the aisle to where Niall was waiting for me. Niall didn't turn around to watch me walk up the aisle; he had decided that he wanted to wait until I arrived at the top of the aisle (to keep the suspense going!). Although I was still nervous, I felt so much better with Niall beside me. The ceremony just flew past so quickly, the only hiccup being that the priest stood on my floor length veil as I was signing the register! I really can't describe the feeling I had as I walked down the aisle with Niall - a mixture of relief and sheer happiness. We greeted all of our guests and had a few photos taken at the church. The drive from the church to the Limerick Inn Hotel was great fun - everyone we passed smiled and waved and car horns beeped and beeped! It was our first moment together alone and it gave us a chance to catch our breath! We had a few more photos taken at the hotel and then it was time for dinner.

We had the speeches before dinner, an unusual but very welcome idea as the speakers were quite nervous and wanted to get the whole ordeal done and over with (and be able to enjoy their meal)! It worked very well and everyone thought it was a great idea! The meal I am told was only delicious - Niall and I found that we couldn't eat very much at all; I think it was due to the excitement! After dinner, some cards and telegrams were read out and of course, we had the toast!

Our 'band' was The News and they started playing at around 9.30. They were excellent and they soon had everyone up dancing! Niall and I had been practising our secret dance - the Tango and we performed it for everyone! Our guests enjoyed it so much; there was a call for an encore! After the band, we had a DJ who ensured that the dancing never stopped except for the throwing of the bouquet, which I had nearly forgotten about in all the excitement!

LOUISE & ED

Well we did it, we said "I DO", tied the knot and all that!! I have to say it was the best day of my life!!! The day came and went and thankfully everything went according to plan.

The preparations were a mad few days before the wedding. I had flown in from Germany and had a few days to get all the bits and pieces together before the big day. I wasn't nervous at all and was just following through on my list of things to do. Everything was going according to plan. Then on thursday (the day before) I could have cried. The weather was terrible, wild rain, gust of wind - the worst. The one thing you can't control or plan for is the weather!!I refused to listen to the weather forecasts for Friday 22nd as I really didn't want to hear the worst. As I went to bed on thursday night I prayed one last time that God would be kind and give me a glimmer of sunshine, even just a dry spot so I could get to the church without being blasted out of it.

Well it worked, He must have heard my pleas because when we got up on friday morning the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the day was off to a perfect start. Thank you God!!

So off we went to the hairdresser which turned out fine and back to the house where a good neighbour did our make-up. Party atmosphere at home as neighbours came around to offer good wishes and see all the glamour!! It was really exciting getting all dressed up with my bridesmaids. We opened a bottle of champagne and toasted each other for the day.

When my bright yellow vintage rolls royce turned up outside the door, I felt like cinderella going to the ball. On the 15 mintue drive to Malahide, the number of people who waved and hooted their car horns was great. I felt like a movie star!!!

In my well established German style - I arrived at the church at 2pm right on the dot! I wanted to be a littel late but the traffic actually worked with us for a change. However once we did the obligatory photo's outside the church it was 2:15pm before I walked down the aisle!! At this stage poor Ed was on his last nerves!!

We had a beautiful ceremony, which myself and Ed put alot of thought and effort into. We wanted it traditional and I was fortunate to have a wonderful vocalist who brought tears to the eyes of many in the congregation.

Afterwards we took our photographs at Malahide Castle where the weather continued to be kind to us. After that it was onto the reception in the Grand Hotel where a beautiful meal was served to us and our guests!! The speeches was one of the highlights of our day. Tiarnan, our best man stole the day with his 23 minute speech where he dutifully slagged off Ed and me and generally entertained out 95 guests. In total our speeches lasted one hour and 10 minutes!! This did eat into our dancing time so beware future brides!! However we really enjoyed this part and we have it on video and will be able to relive it again and again.

I think after the first dance I finally relaxed. We had a super ban the "Jazz Freaks" to entertain our guests and then "Celtic Rythm" (version of Riverdance) as a surprise interlude especially for our overseas guests. The one thing I remarked about the day was the amount of 'demands' on you as the bride. Everyone wants to take your picture, talk to you, cut the cake, make a speech, etc etc.. You really are running around making sure everyone is happy and that you get a chance to meet everyone. However I really enjoyed every minute of it. I can safely say that I know what film stars feel like!! If you had to do that every day you would be exhausted!!