Practice makes........hopefully not a blubbering mess!

Our wedding is now just 17 days away, and we are both very excited, but very nervous too, we both hate being the centre of attention, and detest public speaking.

On Sunday during our practice run with our celebrant I got a bit teary and emotional when we were standing at our ceremony spot, and going through a reading.

To most people who know me I'm pretty much tough as teak, I'm quite reserved, and the one who seems to get asked for advice a bit (why, is beyond me most times!).  But my girly/emotional side don't hide too far below that teak exterior.

Mr Mel often laughs (in a good way) when I tear up, or flat out cry, during movies, tv shows, songs, even ads for gods sake!  I too easily put myself in the position of the person having the emotional experience, and the tears soon flow.

So I have decided, so that I don't end up a blubbering mess during our ceremony, I am going to read through our ceremony, maybe every day or 2nd day.  To hopefully take the emotional edge off it to a point.

(photo source)

Some might think it's a bit weird, that you want to be full of emotions on your big day, and I definitely do. But let me give a bit of an eg of where I'm coming from.

About 10 years ago I was asked to do a reading at the funeral of a family member, my first response was no, as 1 - I wasn't the biggest fan of this person, 2 - I hate public speaking.  But I gave into the pestering (in the churchyard just before the funeral was to start!).

So we get to the reading, I walk up to the altar (the Church was one we had grown up attending, and next door to my primary school), put my paper on the lectern, I looked up to the gathering, looked down at the paper to start. And nothing. Yes NOTHING. I couldn't say anything.  I cleared my throat, went to start again, and nothing. I stood there for what seemed an eternity (in reality maybe 2-3 minutes), before my sister (aka Bride Slave), came to my rescue and did the reading for me.

Now I'm not sure if I put that instance down to an intense fear of public speaking, or not wanting to give a loving glowing reading for a person I didn't get along with, or what. But to say it has put the fear of god into me when it comes to public speaking, is a massive understatement!

What has prompted this post? Well I just read through our vows, as I had to email a reading to my sister.  And tears were flowing by the end of line 2, there are 10 lines in our vows, plus the 4 lines of the ring exchange.

(photo source)

I can clearly see myself in a veil of tears not being able to talk, with makeup sliding off my face, in front of our friends & family.  Yes I'm probably psyching myself out, but I assure you it won't take much!

So I have printed out the 5 pages of our ceremony, with the bits I have to say in bold, and I am planning on keeping the soon to be tattered, tear stained copy a souveneir, hopefully it all goes well, and this will be a funny story/post to share with friends and family, post wedding! We shall see!

Practice run with celebrant

It was 3 weeks last Saturday till the big day, and everything is coming together, Mr Mel & I have to-do list each that we are getting through.

Saturday saw me buzzing around Maitland search for and finding some bargains for crockery, cutlery, and bowls/vases/decorations.  A good haul was gotten :)

On Sunday, Mr Mel & I had a practice run at the Hall with our Celebrant, Victoria from Beautiful Days.

Victoria is lovely, we would highly recommend her, she has a really relaxed vibe, and is very excited about our surprise wedding. She helped us come up with our plan of how we'll tell our parents and arrive at the hall.

We met at the hall, Mr Mel & I were a bit early so we did some last minute measurements for the fairy lights around the verandah etc.

Victoria arrived and we signed the last bit of pre-ceremony paperwork. She then gave us some options re how the ceremony will run and where we will stand etc.

We are going to stand on the 2nd top step of the hall, with Victoria on the top step, our Maid of Honour (aka Brides Slave) and Best Man will stand on the 3rd, maybe 4th top step, depending on how we fit. And our guests will stand on the grass surrounding the steps.

The Hall, we'll stand on the steps in the middle

Brides Slave will drive our parents to the Hall, after we tell our parents about 1/2 hour before kick-off, at our house.

Then Mr Mel & I will follow together, with Mr Mel driving.

As we pull off the road, a friend (who is in on the secret) will hit play on the CD, and Bruno Mars 'Marry You' song will start, that song along with the ribbon on our car will be the 'announcement' so to speak, of the surprise.

When we pull up, our celebrant Victoria will bring my Dad and Sister (Brides Slave) to the car, Mr Mel will go and ask his Best Man to be his Best Man!!  Then Mr Mel & Best Man will stand on the right of the steps.

My sister will walk in front and my Dad will walk me across the verandah from the car, stopping about 3m from the steps, when Mr Mel will come and shake Dad's hand, then walk me to the steps.

View from verandah

Then Mr Mel and I will stand on the steps, and the ceremony will begin.

Now up until this point of the practice Mr Mel and I were fine, lots of excited smiles and winks, and hand squeezes.

Then Victoria said that my Sister (Brides Slave/Matron), will say a reading from the 3rd step, looking at us.

Well that was that, tears flowed from me.  Imagining my sister standing there reading the beautiful reading we had picked, got me.  Victoria, Mr Mel & I had a laugh, and after a few minutes of wiping eyes, punching Mr Mel in the stomach for laughing at me, and then laughing at myself, I was ok!

View from the verandah

Once the ceremony part is done, Mr Mel and I will sign the registry, which will be set up on the left side of the verandah, then Victoria will announce us, and we will go down the steps and no doubt get mobbed by friends and family.

We are both so excited, it's 20 days until we have a fantastic day at our surprise wedding, and we can't wait. Sure we have alot to do still (bunting you are my nemesis), but we know that no matter what happens, we will have one of the best days of our lives so far!

How We'll Do It!

Since we first started thinking about having a surprise wedding, we had been tossing around different ways to do "it", to let everyone in on the surprise.

We had been thinking that we would tell both sets of parents on the morning of the wedding, then Mr Mel would go to the hall with everyone, saying that my sister (brides slave) & I were running late at the hairdresser, then about 1/2 hour later, then while we're on the way Mr Mel would announce what was happening. My Dad would then meet me at the car for walking down the aisle.

However that would mean I would miss out on most of the surprise, so we weren't 100% convinced.

On Friday night we met with our Celebrant (Victoria from A Beautiful Day), who we are very happy to say, is just lovely, phew, as neither of us had met her (I had been emailing her), and on the drive there we thought what happens if there's a personality clash, we'd left it a bit late to find a replacement, but very happy with Victoria, she's going to make our day even more special.

Victoria asked us how we were going to do the surprise, and we kind of looked at each other, saying Ummmmmm for a bit, then she said she'd been thinking about it, and after meeting us, and discussing what sort of a wedding we wanted, relaxed, informal, that she had an idea.

Everyone will go to the Hall for the 2.30pm start, Victoria will be there (with table/microphone hidden), she won't stick out as most of our family & friends haven't met so they'll just think she's a friend/family from the other side!

My sister will apologise to everyone, saying that Mel as usual is late, stuck at hairdresser, Mr Mel just rang to update or similar. Drinks and nibbles will be available, music on, to help with distraction.

Then at around 3pm, Mr Mel and I will drive to the Hall, together, in our wedding gear, and us getting out of the car will be the announcement! (bit of goosebumps happening thinking about it!)

This way both of us will get to experience the surprise of the day.

When we arrive, Mr Mel will head to the ceremony spot, and my sister will go get my Dad, and bring him over to walk me down the aisle (along with tissues, as Dad will cry!).  Mr Mel will ask his best mate to stand with us as witness and Best Man (we can't ask beforehand as his wife, Mr Mel's sister will give the game away!).

Then we'll have the ceremony from say 3-4pm, then myself, Mr Mel, Sister & Best Man will go for photos, around the Hall, and closeby, for about an hour, then we'll come back and it's party time! Mr Mel & Best Man won't be wearing same suit, but really does it matter?  They'll both look smart, but won't match, no big deal.

Yay, am so happy with the arrangement, and Mr Mel loves it too.

Celebrant Meeting Tonight!

We're meeting with our Celebrant tonight for the first time!

Victoria Langham from Beautiful Days is our celebrant, I've only spoken to her via phone & email so far, but she seems lovely, laid back and has done surprise weddings before, so seems a perfect fit!

Our celebrant - Victoria Langham

She sent us a folder full, I mean full to the brim, of versions of vows, readings, ceremony 'stuff' to read through, and on the weekend Mr Mel & I finally sat down (separately) and went through it all, noting down which ones we liked.

Mr Mel was very decisive, just selecting 1 of 6-10 options for each section, while I 'narrowed' mine down to 2-4 per section, happily Mr Mel's 1 was in my 2-4, so we're on the same page at least!

So tonight we'll meet with Victoria and find out how the day will run, as we're both a tad clueless!  It will be good to pin down the timing etc, so we can let the caterer/decorator know how the day will run, also will help me to get it all straight in my mind!

Shall report back after tonight's meeting!