Pre-wedding celebrations...

Our wedding was getting closer and closer and everything was ready for our big day!  When we first started looking into weddings, we knew that neither of us wanted a classic big white wedding...so I told Kev about my childhood dream wedding!  When I used to sit and day dream, I loved the idea of getting married on a Californian Beach...the sun shining down, paddling in the sea and walking hand and hand down the beach to start a new life!  What a lovely dream that was :)  Not such a bad idea, we couldn't believe it when we realised that my dream wedding was a lot more feasible than I thought it would be! ;)

With our wedding now being only 6 weeks away, it was time to start the pre-wedding celebrations starting with our Wedding Shower.  Thrown by Maid of Honour Zoe and Best Man Gareth, it was a great party day for the whole wedding party!  Lots of games, food, wedding advice and throwing the bouquet!  A great day for our small wedding party to get to know each other.

The following weekend was my hen weekend!!!  I had been looking forward to it for so long, again I used to day dream as a kid about having a fantastic hen weekend surrounded by lots of lovely friends....I never thought for a minute it would come true!  But it did.  On the first day, Kev and I (he wanted to be involved for this bit), the bridesmaids (Zoe, Beth and Yvonne) and Sarah all went to London to see "Dirty Dancing".  Oh how wonderful!  Such a wonderful show and every bit as good as I hoped it would be!  Nice meal and back home to Bury for us all including Sarah who was staying for the weekend :)

Saturday morning, we were all (Zoe, Beth, Sarah, Becky, Teresa, Sam, Tina, Melissa, Diane, Vicki and I) up bright and early to make our way to Cambridge in our 'Angie's Hen Day' T-shirts for a Champagne picnic and Punting Treasure Hunt!  The Champagne was flowing well.  Surprisingly, it is actually quite difficult to steer a punt at the same time as drinking Champagne from the bottle, but I managed it!  That was great fun especially when our punt got stuck blocking everyone else's path....it was OK, I still had the Champagne LOL!  Then we headed back to Menzies Hotel Golf Club to get into our 1920's outfits ready to hit the town!  I was so pleased, everyone had really made an effort with their costumes and I was so touched by everything that had been planned for me!  We had a lovely meal in Bella Italia and I felt the need to make a speech...I seem to remember rambling on a bit but I think I got across what I wanted to say!  I was so grateful for all of my friends...being surrounded by friends who all made the effort to celebrate my up and coming marriage with me made me feel so special, and incredibly loved!!!  They all knew and understood how far Kevin and I had come together!

We visited a few clubs after that but I have never been a great drinker/clubber...not to that type of music anyway!  We had some rather exotic drinks, a bit of a dance and headed back to the hotel...exhausted!  It wasn't till I got into bed I realised I had had more to drink than I thought, as the room started spinning and I started crying, feeling too touched and content for words! LOL.

Luckily no hangover the next day though!  After a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Zoe, Beth, Sarah and I had a relaxing morning in the pool, jacuzzi and sauna! Mmmm bliss!  We ended a lovely weekend by heading back to Bury and meeting the boys - Kev and Gareth and all going for a Sunday pub lunch!  Delicious!  Yawns all round as Kevin, his Dad and Gareth had been paint balling the day before for Kev's Stag Do too!

Then we chilled and looked at our photos until Sarah had to make her way home.  What a great weekend!!  Now Kev and I were more excited than ever for our wedding and flight to San Diego, California!!!! :D

The countdown was on...!