A New Job and A Wedding

A lot of you now know that this past year has been a bit busy for me. Firstly, I moved jobs. I am still a teacher but I’m in a different school now with year 6. Year 6 is the last year of primary school and so my role is to get them through their end of Key Stage Tests (SATs) and prepare them for secondary school. This last part was made for me as I started work in a secondary school working with year 7’s where part of my role was to help students transition.

 I feel confident and love the work that I am doing - mostly. Of course, as many teachers are aware, the constant paperwork, the marking (and in year 6 they write a lot!), the planning and everything else can be a huge strain on a work life balance. I am so incredibly lucky to have a great partner in life as he also teaches and so understands when work crosses into our evenings, weekends and holidays. He is also doing his work!
 
Outside of work, I got married! Saturday 10th February 2018 was the day I married the man of my dreams. Getting ready for it took up a lot of my spare time so when I wasn’t planning, marking, doing assessments, paperwork, you name it, I was doing all things wedding. My mum was an absolute godsend. She was the one that trailed to my numerous dress fittings, to the shops to look at pretty girly things, round my house to help me make stuff and, of course, she made my cake. My mum used to own her own cake business where she made wedding cakes (this was before she went into teaching herself - secondary school though) and so made our cake as part of her gift to us. It was beautiful. I wanted to keep it so it was a four tier cake dummy decorated with objects that meant something to my new husband and me. I saw a cake idea on Pintrest that I liked and basically asked Mum if I could do my own version! So we had the Death Star from Star Wars, the Golden Snitch from Harry Potter, the Stark Logo from Game of Thrones, Simba from Lion King, the red rose from Beauty and the Beast, the Chelsea Lion, Captian America’s shield, Thor’s hammer, baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy and I’m not even sure if I’ve listed everything! (I will post pics with this!).
 
Considering how many months of planning it took, the day itself went by in a blur. In fact, if wasn’t for our wedding video and photos, I’m not sure I’d believe we’d got married! They say the day goes quick which I fully believed but not sure I was prepared for. Our Bailey boy was there, causing chaos as usual. We’d hired someone to be his ‘chaperone’ so that we knew he was taken care of, we know our boy and we know he’s not the easiest of dogs and so didn’t want to be worried about a guest (most likely my brother) missing out by taking care of him. We hired someone who walks dogs and boards them so she came really early to look after him, could give him cuddles and treats while we were at the church and then was hand to help with photos and after, drove him to the kennels where he stayed inside the owners home with my husband’s family’s dogs Alfie and Mollie.
 
Normally, Bailey is pretty photogenic as he likes the attention, but there was so much going on that day it was nice he had a constant with him to get him through the meets and greets (he lapped it right up!). Apparently, he totally freaked out though going over floor boundaries such as going from the carpet to the tiled flooring and vice versa - who knew we had a weird dog? My family dog Chester was also there but being a senior boy, he was easily looked after by my dad or brother, Chester was just happy to bimble along with guests, getting strokes where he could. Due to his back legs, he isn’t one for jumping or pulling so was a very relaxed, quieter version of my two year old! Chalk and cheese you might say!
 
So the day started with my bridesmaids and me getting ready; hair and makeup arrived at 7am to get us all done. We had stayed the previous night at the place we were getting married: Stoke Rochford Hall - it is an absolutely beautiful place. We got married at 12.30pm although I have been reliably told I was about 15/20 minutes late. Whoops. To be fair, I had no concept of time and isn’t the Bride supposed to be late? It was apparently freezing in the church. On our wedding video you can see the air we breathe as we speak! The service went smoothly (from what I remember!) and then we went back to the Hall for our welcome drinks. Again, this flew by! We hired musicians, a string duet called Chapel Hill Duo, who played absolutely beautiful music. We asked for their twists on modern songs and we even had them play the theme for Game of Thrones! We had some photos, got cuddles with Bailey, had a drink and then it was time for our meal. My main was a gorgeous mushroom risotto and my husband (it still feels weird saying that) had beef fillet with some fancy potato. I won dessert though as my choice was a raspberry and white chocolate brûlée and the other option was strawberry trio - see? Mine was bellissimo! The party after was brilliant, my friends stayed dancing with me throughout the night and I had a really great time. Can’t believe months and planning and it was over in 24 hours. Every moment was worth it though when I look back at photos and see how happy I was.
 
I’m going to leave it there for now but feel free to have a look at a collage of our wedding day! Let me know what you think of the amazing cake and how cute do my boys Bailey and Chester look?!