We booked upgraded flights—it was our wedding after all—and five-star luxury in a suite. Again, it was our wedding and probably our honeymoon, as I couldn’t see us going on one of those anytime soon.
The next thing was to tell the family. I called my mum and dad and they were actually over the moon, really pleased. My sister and brothers were excited too. Next thing was to tell Edward’s parents; this was what I was dreading the most as since we had cancelled the previous wedding, they would keep asking about what was going on. But Edward just came straight out and told them and they were overjoyed. I think looking back they just wanted us to get married for us; they were not pressurizing us. I finally felt I could get excited. Everyone close knew, friends would be fine, bridesmaids maybe not but you can’t please everyone, now we could start planning wedding number two. So, all systems go, go, go.
Why do people just assume that if you get married in Vegas Elvis is going to be involved in some way shape or form? Actually, going back to before we booked anything many months ago, that was my exact image. Too funny how you just associate certain things with certain places.
With only seven weeks to go. I decided I needed to start bridal preparations. First things first, start eating better and hopefully lose a few pounds, a course of sunbeds as I wanted to look healthy. I don’t do fake tan after an incident where I ended up streaky and orange, and looking like an oompa loompa. Plus, I didn’t want to stain the dress with it on the day, as I have had a few mishaps with tan sweating onto my clothes before and according to the forecast the weather was in the upper twenties in April. I was a bit concerned about the sunbeds, though, as I’d had a bad experience when I was seventeen.
I worked as a retail assistant in a fashion clothes store and every couple of days my colleagues would go for a sunbed; it was something that they all did. Stand up sunbeds were very popular, so I started going to fit in, although I am quite tanned as I naturally had olive skin. Everything was going great until one day I went, decided to go on for nine minutes instead of my usual six. I remember feeling so hot in there that day, I know it’s supposed to be hot but a lot hotter. An intense warm sensation came over me quickly spreading from my face to my body I felt like my insides were cooking or on fire. This is what it must have felt like to be cooked in a microwave. I had to get out of there. I was sweating way more than I should have been and couldn’t catch my breath. As soon as I got out into the fresh air I collapsed on the floor and my vision had gone blurry and I couldn’t hear again. It brought me back to the time I had my tattoo as I had exactly the same reaction. Luckily a passer-by stopped to check if I was all right, bought me a bottle of water and sat on the floor with me until I felt better. It didn’t take long, thank god. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. So, as you can imagine I hadn’t stepped foot in a sunbed shop since, so I was a bit dubious. But beauty is pain, wedding pictures would be around forever. I would just make sure that I didn’t go alone and maybe start with six minutes and work my way up gradually, and avoid stand-ups; lay-downs would be the way forward.
March Hen Do
So originally, when we had a year to go, I wanted to go to Benidorm in Spain: sun, sea, and sand, over a hundred disco bars the last time I checked, and a vibrant nightlife, the perfect place for a hen do. Somewhere there were karaoke bars as I did love a bit of a sing song. The weather was usually hot enough to get a tan most months of the year and we would be looking to go summer time. Not a long flight, about two hours forty-five minutes from London and pretty cheap, but obviously this was not going to happen now. At the girlie meal we had in October, nothing ended up getting sorted out in the end due to what happened with Debbie we just ended up getting drunk. My bridesmaids had arranged a couple of other dates since for us to get together have a few drinks and discuss hen do options and get plans in motion, but on both occasions on arranging this I had to cancel due to my endometriosis pain flaring and leaving me bed bound. We did set up a group chat and had even decided on a date for when we would do it. We thought a month before the big day, as it left a long time to get over a hangover and start detoxing before the big day and also, if we did go abroad, dodgy tan lines would fade.
I couldn’t expect friends and family to pay to go abroad when we only had seven weeks until the wedding, so decided to have a lower key one instead. I have always celebrated St Patrick’s Day. I am not Irish at all, and I hate the taste of Guinness, although I did have it once with champagne which was good, black velvet, I think it’s called. But I love it, leprechauns and Guinness hats. I have always had a good night, so when better to have my hen do and this
