A Matter of Choice

On our wedding day Aaron gave an awesome speech , one we can both remember pretty much word for word even now.  It was written in rhyme and definitely one of the highlights of the day.   Since then he has written several other rhymes over the years, usually writing them on facebook for me to wake up to, including this one on our 10th anniversar y and this one on our 14th .  On our 13th anniversary Aaron wrote this.. It's that time of year again when I break into into a poem in honour of my wedding speech so here goes.... So it's now 13 years that you've been my wife and that is exactly one third of your life. But I'm going to be a little bit naughty and remind you again that your nearly 40. We were married in England which was colder and wetter, then we packed up to Cyprus where things got better and better. 2 great kids, our house and our job and a life in the sun away from the mob What more could you ask for i know your thinking, as we sit on the balcony and carry...

Time for a flashback post.  It was a weekend that wasn't all that long ago yet seems like a lifetime in many ways,  a weekend that had been planned for many months before hand that was supposed the be the start of a series of events.   Unfortunately that weekend was back at the start of March and no-one expected how the year was going to play out after that.    Last November you may have read my post on the fact that two of our best friends were getting married and I was to be a bridesmaid . The wedding was due to be on 23rd May this year and I had arranged several Hen celebrations leading up to it.  Of course the wedding had to be postponed due to the pandemic, which I am gutted about and it's not even my wedding so I can't even imagine how they feel.  We had our weekend away just before the world as we knew it changed, something that I am very grateful for at least.  Once we were in lock down I actually couldn't look at the photos at first ...

Last November I had an early morning text from my friend Sam,   I can't remember it word for word but it was short, to the point and something like " Can you come round straight from school this morning as I need you to help me with something?" I replied straight away saying yes I'd be there about 8am. In the mean time I wondered vaguely what she wanted but didn't think that much of it. I amused myself by thinking it was funny that I didn't even question what she might want! I arrived she put the kettle on, we chatted about random stuff and I still didn't question why I was there.   I assumed she wanted my help moving some stuff, or clearing out her shed as that had been talked about not long before and she was just putting it off a bit longer. It was quite warm and Sam was wearing a jumper, but I didn't really register that - she feels the cold and once we hit November she usually goes into winter wardrobe regardless of the temperature.  I d...

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved anything and everything to do with weddings.  My earliest wedding memories would be from THE royal wedding of the decade,  Prince Charles and Lady Di,  I'm not sure I remember much from the day (I have photos of my Mum and I at a street party but don't actually remember it!)  but we videoed the wedding and I watched it several times afterwards. I remember seeing a wedding car in the road behind my house and I sat at my bedroom window peeking through the net curtains for ages hoping for a glimpse of the Bride leaving! There were very few weddings that I got to go to, at least that I was old enough to remember, by the time I got married myself in 2003 I think I'd been to a grand total of 5. So how impressed would my younger self have been if I could tell her what we would end up doing one day and the fact that I am lucky to be a small part of so many special days. Since we started our photo booth business in Cyprus I'v...

We don't usually 'do' cards in this house, so this morning I posted this to Aaron's facebook page.  I was however surprised (and  hugely outdone!)  by his lovely offering...... not just a photo but he'd gone much further than 'googling' a quote, he's written his own poem to mirror his wedding speech from 10 years ago.... It’s been 10 years now that you have been my wife and that is about a quarter of my life that we have spent together in wedded bliss even if at times it’s been hit and miss So 10 years ago I did my speech in rhyme and it seemed appropriate at this time that I should do another to honour an era in which some of our dreams have got nearer and nearer We've had 2 great kids and moved far away although we have done these things in our own special way  are we as happy today as the day we were wed the answer is yes if the truth be said So even after 10 long years  of sharing all our hopes and fears...

This week's Gallery theme is old. When my Mother in law got married she spent £5 on her bridal veil........   Five WHOLE pounds.  Her Mum was not happy and thought it was far too much to spend on something she would just wear once. It's a good job then that my sister in law borrowed it from her Mum for her own wedding and then..... I think it was money well spent, don't you?

Today Aaron and I celebrate our 8th Wedding anniversary! I've written about the day many times before here on my blog,  from my story of the day ,  to the moment where I realised 'today was the day'  so this year I'm celebrating here with some of my favourite photos along with the verse my Dad read out during the ceremony... SOMETHING  TO  REMEMBER  ON  YOUR WEDDING  DAY  AND  FOREVER   WE ARE NOT MEANT TO GO THROUGH LIFE ALONE. WE NEED A PARTNER WHO WILL FOREVER REMAIN BY OUR SIDE – SOMEONE TO LEAN ON AT TIMES, REMEMBERING, AS WELL, THAT WE WILL BE LEANED ON, TOO; SOMEONE TO SHARE OUR JOY AND HOLD US IN SORROW. UNDERSTAND THAT THERE WILL BE DIFFICULT TIMES AND DOUBT MAY CLOUD YOUR LIVES. IT IS THEN THAT YOU MUST TRUST EACH OTHER THE MOST AND BELIEVE THAT LOVE WILL SUSTAIN YOU. DO NOT GIVE UP EASILY; FIGHT FOR WHAT IS MOST PRECIOUS – YOUR MARRIAGE. HELP IT SURVIVE BY NURTURIN...

There is a great prompt for this weeks Gallery, one designed to make us all think a bit more, although immediately several photos popped into my head , it wasn't a hard choice though as I'd already used the one  of the best inflatable in the world   on here last year! One evening not long after Aaron and I had got together we were sat in the pub and 'Father Figure'  by George Michael was played, it's a really random moment that sticks in my mind but I remember we were both just sitting there singing to ourselves and happened to look up just as the lyric 'I will be your Father figure, put your tiny hand in mine '  was sung,   Aaron reached over and I placed my hand on his, it was a moment of great timing..... either that or he was reaching for his drink and I misread it of course! Eight years ago Aaron took my hand and lovingly slipped a gold wedding ring onto my finger. (well, he tried to but it didn't really 'slip' and involved me...

They say you can tell a lot from looking at someone's face but I've never been very good at reading people myself, Aaron is a good 'reader', especially when it comes to me, I suppose the 16 years we have been together help quite a bit there! This photo was taken on my wedding day just before I left my parents house, and I wonder what he would have thought had he been there at that point.  This is one of my Mum's favourite photos of me from the day. The process of getting ready had not gone entirely to plan, the hairdresser was late and I although I'd imagine getting dressed in a leisurely fashion with my bridesmaids helping me and then making my 'entrance' as I came down the stairs, it ended up that I jumped into my dress and ran downstairs hoisting it up and asking someone, anyone to zip me up! The photos felt rushed and I didn't feel entirely comfortable but I do remember this one being taken. The photographer asked me to look into the ga...

This time seven years ago I was preparing excitedly for my wedding tomorrow, I have blogged about my wedding day before so for this week's Flashback Friday I'm just sharing a different aspect... Me in my wedding dress In the run up to the wedding I was trying to think of an unusual thank you gift for my Mum. Flowers are lovely but I really wanted something that would last. As Mum is the worlds biggest teddy bear fan  my plan was to go to the Build a bear shop and get her a bride teddy.  Great idea in theory, but have you seen the price of those bears, and the accessories!  The wedding dress wasn't even floor length! My Mother in law was making my dress so I went to her and asked if she could make a little dress for a bear and maybe just add a touch of red somewhere on it to link it to mine... Look what she came up with, an exact replica of my dress. Isn't this the best dressed teddy bear you've ever seen! We presented the bear to Mum after the ...

Love it or hate it you can't have not noticed there was a rather important wedding today. I love a good wedding and I also love the British pomp and circumstance so today was always going to be a winner for me. BBC Entertainment for once, didn't let us down and showed the same coverage of the wedding as BBC One. Many pubs in Cyprus were showing it and providing free champagne cocktails or BBQs or buffets but I decided chasing Leo around a pub wouldn't enable me to see much so was pleased I could watch from home. Leo holding his flag and probably wondering why they were not waving them in the Abbey! Dad fired up his first BBQ (I intended to get a photo but was distracted by all the pretty wedding guests arriving!) and we managed to keep Leo happy to watch in relative peace.  He enjoyed naming the colours of peoples hats and watching all the flags waving, He found a toy flag from his Megablocks set and waved it each time they showed the crowd! I enjoyed reading Fa...

Flicking through my Mum's old photo albums I came across the perfect photo for this weeks Flashback Friday... Can you guess when this was? As you can probably guess, this was taken on 29th July 1981 at a street party celebrating the marriage of  Charles and Di. I don't really remember much about the day as I was only 3 years old! I think this may have been where my love of weddings started although it would have been 1986 when Prince Andrew married Sarah that really did it.  From then I brought every newspaper and cut out all the articles about them making I think 4 scrapbooks in the end!  After the wedding I still collected newspaper cutting but I was more of a Fergie fan than a Di fan to be honest - I think it may have been the fact I wanted red hair though! If I could have done I would have loved to arranged or attended a street party today to celebrate William and Kate's wedding, many pubs here in Cyprus are showing it and celebrating in various ways ...

I've not joined in with Kate's Listography for a while but this week I absolutely had to. In tribute to the Royal Wedding this week she has asked what 5 things we would change about our wedding day .  Although I had an amazing wedding day and loved every second of it I have been saying for a few years now that I would love to go back and do it all again but change bits. 1. The dress, this is the main thing I would change. It was a lovely dress but I'd have a different style now and in some ways a lot less of it. It didn't occur to me to even try to lose some weight for the wedding and I'd love to get a wedding dress now being a size 12 rather than a size 20. I do feel a little envious when I see such lovely extravagant dresses and wish I could do it all again with something out of this world - bigger skirt, longer train etc! 2. The photos - you may have recently read how I would love to change my photos . I'd spend more as it is these that last forever. I...

When you are planning your wedding there are so many things to think about, the dress the catering, the venue, the flowers... it goes on and on. But looking back the photos are the most long lasting thing of the big day (well, the Groom obviously but I'm talking about the actual wedding not the marriage!) I had the most amazing time on my wedding day , I would like to say that I wouldn't change a thing and although your ideas change over the years and I would do a few things differently now I do look back at my photos and wish they were better. We had a family friend as our photographer and although it saved us a fortune with hindsight I'd rather have cut back on something else to get the gorgeous shots that so many people have. I am lucky though that our photos were not terrible, and we do have some nice mementos of the day, for those who haven't though help is at hand.... Lorraine Deakins Photography has the answer - Wedding SOS (Save Our Shots) She explains al...

At the moment this photo was taken I thought to myself "Oh my god, I'm getting married... in a minute" I loved every single second of the run-up to the wedding and all the planning (which actually wasn't hard at all) I never had any doubts, although at one point I tried to think if I was doing the 'right' thing just because I felt I hadn't thought enough about it -   he asked, I said yes , sorted! I then realised it wasn't something I had to debate, of course it was the right thing to do. I think at that moment I may have remembered as child, standing at my bedroom window watching a bridal party leave the house, I saw the bridesmaids come out and I stood for ages waiting to see the bride. I loved weddings but only vaguely remember going to one as a child. I played 'Weddings' walking up and down in my room with a net curtain over my face (Did anyone else? surely can't just have been me?) and always wanted the 'big white (and red a...

This week's prompt over at Tara Cain's Gallery  is White , a good choice as lots of people have had an abundance of white stuff around recently. I'm sure there are going to be some gorgeous photos come up this week. But I did roll my eyes when I saw it, ( yes, I am aware I do this every week, I have no idea why as I love the Gallery!)    as I'm sure you can imagine snow is the first thing to come to mind for this prompt and snow is not much of a possibility here. We haven't even had the first snowfall in the Troodos mountains yet. I will always choose sandcastles not snowmen, swimming not ice skating and sunbathing not skiing, I'd much rather be buried in sand than make snow angels. Snow does look incredibly pretty, but I don't like the cold and the chaos it brings with it. For that reason I'll choose white sand instead of snow every time! Nope, it's not Cyprus, Cyprus may have lovely beaches but they are ...