I am sat writing this blog entry in our beautiful 'room' in the Zeavola resort on Phi Phi island during a tropical thunderstorm. My new husband is sat next to me and I could not feel more relaxed, happy or content. I thought it was a nice time to start my memories. So here is part one of my story on becoming a wife; Mrs Elliott.
I left work with a wonderful Champagne reception complete with truffle popcorn; it was all a bit strange, almost as if I was leaving for good! But in a good way and it was such a thoughtful and lovely send off. Left at 5:30 with my suitcase and caught the 18:10 train from Kings Cross to St Neots. Tony picked me up and we arrived at Tom’s house. Kaz, Ellie and Max were there and were pleased to see me. Finally I’d finished work and there was an extra space in my head to focus on the next few days.
We had a quiet evening really, I waited for Tom to arrive home from a busy day, he arrived around 10:30 and we went to bed. I didn’t sleep amazingly well but I was getting used to that. I woke with Tom at 6:30 – he had a packed day of meetings up north and my day was a full one too
I had my full leg and other bits waxed at 9am – the girl that did my treatments had only gotten married the year before so we talked weddings etc. It was lush to finally have smooth legs after growing them out like a yeti since January! I left there and headed home to wait for Rockie’s arrival. Bless her, she had driven the 2 hour drive by herself and I was really proud of her. We had some lunch and then set to work with the flowers and napkins. Ann had kindly bought the flowers for us from the wholesaler and they were perfect. So we had Kaz (and kind of Max...) in the kitchen baking our cupcakes, Ann off doing the flowers in the church and me and Rockie in the conservatory cutting and arranging the flowers and folding the napkins! We did have a little break around 5pm to take Ellie and Max in the hot tub – perhaps not the relaxing experience that Rockie would have expected but it was a real giggle and I think that the kids warmed a bit to Rockie which could only have helped on the day.
It’s hard to describe how I was feeling at this stage, it felt like I was in a little bubble, I didn’t feel too bad at all at this point and I remember going for my tan at 7pm and feeling a little subdued, that I should be feeling more nervous, excited or anything really. I felt quite numb to it all. Maybe that was my body and minds way of coping with it!
Tom, Rachie and I went for a few drinks at The George and The Vine after my tan and we then headed home to bed, me and R were in one room and Tom slept with Max in the other.
We woke early to drive to St Ives nail bar. Still feeling quite numb and separated from it a bit – I was getting married the following day after all. I had really nice pedicure and the manicure did look lovely but took forever! In hindsight I would have done this a little in advance as our rehearsal was at 1pm and we only just made it, that extra little bit of stress meant that I wasn’t as chilled as I’d have hoped for the rehearsal, meeting mum, dad, Vic, Joe, Freddy, Iain and Tom at the church and I think from then onwards it started to become much much more real for me!!
I was so pleased that we’d decided to decorate the venue itself but be prepared for it to be way more stressful than and not quite as exciting as it sounds, it looked gorgeous at the end of it all and we left feeling pretty pleased with ourselves – albeit a little bit highly strung and exhausted!
I therefore expected arriving back to our cottage to be another fairly stressful activity, but as I arrived home it was an oasis of calm. Mum and Vic had bought me a Yankee candle called Wedding Day and it just felt very special. I poured myself a large, much needed glass of wine and started to relax. We opened our present from Victoria and Joe, which was a beautiful framed image of Amos Bay – where Tom proposed to me (see entry one in this blog!) I thought it was the most thoughtful gift they could have given us – Vic even had to email a blogger from the bay to find out the coordinates as it’s such a remote spot!
Joey drove Tom home and then it was just us – the Amos family. I had a really relaxing evening. We bathed Freddy and I cleaned his teeth and washed his hair which was wonderful. Joey had already sorted out our Chinese order to save any Dad interference, and it was a veritable feast when it arrived. Having only had one sandwich all day, I ate a fair amount, my favourite being my duck pancakes – I’d always had that on my list as something that I would eat the night before!
I gave Vic and Rockie their presents and a little note that I had written them. She gave me this bracelet, which is one that my dad had given her early on in their relationship – it holds special memories for her, even has a little dent in it where she and dad fell off a motorbike on their first holiday together. She had told me to give it back to her when I was truly happy, so I thought it an apt time to give it back. I certainly didn’t need it anymore. Cue tears all round but it was a very emotionally charged evening.
Half a bottle of wine down and I was tired and ready for sleep (hmmm.... was that a realistic hope?) I went to my room, with my gorgeous wedding dress hanging up – MY wedding dress – wow!! I laid everything out that I would need for the next day and got into bed. I actually fell asleep pretty quickly but the cottage was really hot – seriously like Jamaica or something! So I woke up again around 1:30am and I don’t think I got back to sleep until around 4:30ish.... not actually too bad really, it could have been a whole lot worse. I got a text from Vic around 6am to ask if I was awake, she came in bed with me for a bit, Rockie joined her and so did Freddy. The Amos sisters sat on the bed and waited to see what would face them on my special wedding day!
Love
Helen Elliott
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