After a 4-month engagement, iVillage member tiggernumber1 (Michelle) married her fiance Martin. Here's what she had to say about the big day
I arrived at my mum's on Friday morning and the marquee was already up and looking fantastic. The walls and ceiling were cream, the swags around the top of the walls were dark green and there were two chandeliers. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that it was for Martin and I!
Around lunchtime we picked up the flowers for the church. One of my mum's friends had offered to decorate the church so we left the flowers with her. I went and had a long soak in the bath and spent about two hours shaving and preening, reading and relaxing.
Later I went up to the church with my cousin Sarah, my chief bridesmaid, to put the ribbons on the ends of the pews. The church looked beautiful. As we got home, Martin's sister and her fiance arrived so I showed them round the village and church. They loved it and said they could see why we wanted to move back there one day.
Around 5pm Martin appeared on his way to his best man's house. His workmates had decorated his motorbike. They tied balloons and an L-plate along with two signs saying, 'Honk, I'm getting married'. He stayed for an hour or so.
After supper my mum, dad, two brothers, Martin's mum and her fiance, Martin's sister and her fiance and I all sat and chatted for several hours. I then decided at 9.50pm to go to bed. I went upstairs to lay everything out to discover my mum hadn't taken my dress out of my bag to hang. So I had to press the skirt. I finally got to bed at about 11pm.
Everyone was up by 7.30am and after they had all asked me, individually, whether I was nervous and not really believing me when I said no, it was time to go to the hairdressers. I wasn't nervous - not even a tiny bit. I was very excited though.
After the hairdressers we all had lunch, then I did my make-up. Shortly after lunch my bosses dropped the little girl I look after over to get dressed into her bridesmaid dress.
Just after I had got her into her dress, the two girls I used to look after arrived in their dresses. They looked beautiful. I put a video on for them and then Sarah, the chief bridesmaid and Sam, Martin's sister and bridesmaid, and I went to get dressed.
I saw myself in the mirror and from that second on I did not stop grinning all day. When we were all ready we went downstairs. Everyone said I looked beautiful and I have to say I agree.
The photographer arrived to do photos and said he had just seen Martin in the square and couldn't believe how relaxed we both were. Everyone was saying how relaxed we were and at one point Sarah commented that it didn't seem real because no one was rushing around!
After some photos everyone left for the church, leaving just my step-dad, who was giving me away, my uncle, who was driving us to the church, and I at the house.
When we got to the church there were people from the village standing outside. Whenever there is a wedding villagers stand outside the church to see the bride. I have done it many times too and used to imagine myself as the bride. The photographer took some more photos and then, my veil fell out. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't lift my arm to put the veil back on because of the straps on my dress - a band of roses going across the top of each arm. My step-dad and uncle tried and failed. It was a near disaster. Luckily the photographer came to the rescue. His wife is a hairdresser so he had a rough idea of what to do.
Then that was it, all the planning, stress and fussing was over. We got to the door of the church and the vicar greeted us.
As we were walking up the aisle Martin smiled at me. When we got to the top he told me I looked beautiful and my grin got even wider. All through the service we just kept smiling at each other.
During the hymns the little girl I look after who is only 2 was singing Bob the Builder. At one point she decided to take her shoes off so she just sat down in the aisle and removed them. She and Martin play this game where they argue over whose Michelle I am. One of them says 'My 'chelle' and the other one says 'No, she's my my-chelle'. During our vows she was shouting 'Martin, no, she's my 'chelle. Martin no!' I think everyone found this rather amusing.
When we had signed the register I thought the vicar must have missed some of the ceremony out, because it didn't seem like five minutes since we had started. But it really was over.
We had agreed with the photographer that he would take 80 photos for us to choose 50 for the album. Before the service had even started he had taken more than 50. He got completely carried away with how picturesque the church and village are and we figure he took at least 250 photos. We had an hour and a half of photos afterwards. Everyone got a bit fed up and slowly trickled indoors. When we were doing some photos by the river two of the ducks of the river started mating, which was amusing!
Finally we all went in and had something to eat. At this point Martin admitted he wasn't very hungry because he felt hungover! Men! He and the best man and the best man's girlfriend and her sister had drunk five bottles of red wine between them the night before. This I found very funny, partly because Martin and his best man kept blaming each other.
The speeches were really nice. My little brother had decided he wanted to make a speech so he thanked everyone for coming and said he hoped they had a nice time. Martin's speech was lovely. He started by toasting me, which nearly set me off, but not quite.
At about 7.30pm we left for our hotel and that is where I will leave it.
Talk to Michelle, known as tiggernumber1 on the message boards, and other iVillage brides-to-be on the