Il nostro matrimonio - the big day

Having stayed at Griffins just the two of us for three days and doing all of our last bits and pieces – meeting the registrar, organising the gifts for the rooms, table plans, transport (or so we thought) – we were really pleased to welcome the first of our guests on Thursday – mum and dad, one of my besties and bridesmaids, Tuesday, and her family and one ofMr M’s best men, Stuart.

I must just mention here how amazing the staff at Griffins were. So sweet, friendly, professional and literally nothing was to much to ask them. I will never ever forget them.

And then the rest of our 30 gorgeous guests began to arrive on the Friday, and everyone was amazed by the venue. It was at this point I think, that Mr M and I began our emotional roller coaster! Lots of people we loved most in the world were with us to celebrate, and I must have experienced nearly every emotion – nerves, elation, worry, excitement, panic and everything in between.

Once everyone had arrived, eaten and taken part in a Mr and Mrs quiz, they started to filter off to bed and finally, Mr M walked me to the bridal suite to say goodnight. I hadn’t realised how hard this would hit me and I sobbed my heart out for a good hour and a half!

As the sun rose on our big day, all other emotions had passed me by and I just felt calm, excited and happy. I had all my favourite ladies to get ready with. My lovely friend Claire did my hair, my four bridesmaids included my three lovely friends, and my big sister and my mum popped in and out when she could control the tears, bless her.

Although the sun rose, there wasn’t much of it to be seen that day. But there is a saying in Italy, which I was told rather a lot that day – Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata. Which means a wet bride is a lucky bride. And do you know what – I reckon they are right. It poured with rain, it hailed, the sun shone, all we didn’t have was snow.

There were a few hitches (what wedding runs smoothly?) The wedding planner turned out not to have planned much at all, and arrived hours late, not having been seen since the previous Tuesday and it turned out he hadn’t booked the minibuses, so we were 20 minutes drive from the town hall with no way of getting all our guests there. Having said that, our amazing best men kept this from us entirely (despite the ‘planner’ trying to ask Mr M to sort it out when he finally arrived!!!) and sorted it out for us.

Having been stuck behind a fire engine in the pouring rain on the cobbled streets of Orvieto, with my bridesmaids being escorted by the lovely photographer and the hotel’s waiter, Mauro, we finally arrived a little late to the town hall. The ceremony was gorgeous. I’ll never forget walking up the aisle with my dad and the only person I noticed on my way down was my mum (still sobbing), because I had seen Mr M and everything in my being wanted to get to him and marry him right then.

Our registrar was just adorable and we found out later that ours was the first wedding he had conducted – pretty special, huh?

Then we had photos with our amazing photographers, Martina Cipolli, before heading back to Griffins for the most amazing buffet. Seriously – look at this!