WEDDING!!!
Well Claire has posted a fantastic write-up of our wedding adventure so I thought I'd better do the grooms eye view version now.
Things kicked off for me on Friday afternoon when I went to meet mithrandir2k at the airport. As he had very kindly agreed to DJ at the disco for our evening reception he got the personalised Keith escort treatment into Southampton.
Once he was settled into his hotel we rolled into town for some food and drink and spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting about various things. At some point we will actually finish a conversation we start instead of continuously derailing ourselves by going off on tangents.
I then said my goodbyes to Will and headed back home to sort out various wedding related gubbage until my best man Bruce turned up later in the evening. We then gathered up all the wedding paraphernalia I needed to take with me and headed off to the Red Lion hotel in Basingstoke.
We checked into the hotel and dumped our junk in the very swish red lion suite, which had a bathroom bigger than most of the usual hotel rooms I normally stay in. We then retired to the bar to have a few drinks before calling it a night and heading to bed.
Compared to Claire I had quite the lie in on Saturday and was out of bed by 8.30am. Bruce and I headed downstairs for some breakfast where we met my grandparents and my great uncle and aunt who had also stayed in the hotel on the Friday night.
After our mighty breakfast we headed off to sort out what seemed like millions of final little details and other odds and sods that needed to be done in preparation for the big event.
I have to give a massive thank you to Bruce here, over the months leading up to the wedding Claire had always been the one who had been getting really nervous and panicky about things while I remained relatively calm. In the week leading up to the wedding it was a complete reversal of roles, Claire had become focused in laser like intensity while I ended up going all over the place. Had it not been for Bruce being the super efficient best man of doom I would probably have had some form of panic induced shit fit.
Having done all the prep in the ceremony and wedding breakfast rooms we headed back to the hotel suite to get changed into our fancy clothing. It was while I was getting changed that Claire turned up along with her sister and Lois and things started hitting high gear. I finished getting changed and made a speedy exit as the room was turned into bride preparation central.
I spent the next hour or so loitering either in the bar or outside the front entrance of the hotel with Bruce as we welcomed various family members as they turned up, and I tried to give the impression that I was a mature adult :)
At 12 the registrars turned up and gave us the pre ceremony interview to make sure we were who we said we were and confirm other family details. Claire then sped back upstairs to be laced into her corset and I went back to the bar area to mingle with family.
At 12.30 everyone was led into the ceremony room and I stood up at the front with the registrar trying not to look as nervous as I felt while receiving friendly jibes from both sides of the family (Both Claire's family and mine seem to share the same evil sense of humour). The registrar got everyone to settle down and they started the entrance music playing and then Claire entered the room...
Yeah, I was blown away, she looked absolutely wonderful. I could go on at great length but the pictures will speak for themselves :)
The ceremony went smoothly and those of you who know me may have been quite surprised that somehow I managed to drop the usual sarcastic tone of my voice and sound like a normal human being while reciting my vows. Claire actually gave me a mild scolding during the ceremony because she thought I was trying not to burst out laughing. In actuality the emotion of the day suddenly hit me quite hard (in a good way) and I was trying not cry while reading out the vows. Fortunately my manly visage held and my reputation as burly bastion of manliness was still secure.
Having been declared man and wife we posed for some photos signing the register and then exited the room to some rather excellent organ music from the closing credits of Tron :) It's only a short segment but for those who are interested I've uploaded it here.
The next hour and half was spent mostly having photos taken by our official wedding-con photographer Lois who didn't seem to stop moving for the whole day. Thank you so much for agreeing to do the photos Lois we're looking forward to seeing the final results :) (In you're own time though, I think you deserve a nice long break after all that rushing about).
At 2.30pm it was time to go through for the wedding breakfast (which I think is a very strange term for what is essentially lunch) so as is tradition we formed the reception line so we could say a proper hello to everyone. Then there was the oddly amusing process of exiting the room we were just in so that we could come in again after being presented as Mr and Mrs Copping.
The meal was lovely and afterwards the speeches by both myself and the best man seemed to go down very well. I must admit Bruce was unusually kind in his speech, he could have been a lot more more evil had he decided to do so (I know I would of, but then I'm a bit of a git).
During my speech I presented thank you gifts to our lovely bridesmaids Claire's sister Caron and cousin Katie. Bruce also got a gift for his services above and beyond the call of duty, both at the wedding and for all the years he's put up with me and Claire. And there was also a gift for my grandmother who had made our absolutely fantastic wedding cake, it had been a little while since she had last made one but her skills were as sharp as ever.
After the cake there was much mingling and chatting, I had to shoot of briefly with Bruce to pack all our stuff into his car so could head off ahead of us to drop things off at our house and then head over to the Novotel with the rest of the wedding cake and other bits and pieces.
At 6.00pm Claire and I said our goodbyes to our families as we piled into her Uncle Andy's ribbon bedecked car so we could be driven down to the Novotel for the evening reception.
We arrived in good time at 6.50pm which gave me enough time to dump all our luggage in our room and neaten myself up a bit (I was starting to get a bit disheveled at this point) before heading back downstairs to say hi to everyone.
Got to say everyone looked glorious, as Claire has mentioned in her write up the variety of outfits on display was fantastic (for those who don't know we had a steam punk theme going for the reception).
After everyone had piled into the main party room and had something to eat Bruce and I gave some more speeches, which were slightly more adult in content than the versions that we had read out earlier in the day. Will then stepped up to the decks to play the music for our first dance which was to "Twilight" by ELO, we even had a small routine planned which seemed to work quite well despite my complete lack of rhythm :)
With that done the main party kicked off and we rocked on till the early hours. I could go into more detail about the evening party but what can I really say? We were in a room entirely filled with some of our favourite people in the whole world, with Will laying down the tunes on an AMV disco. Seriously guys I don't have the words to express how happy I was on Saturday it was fantastic to see you all and I wouldn't change anything about the day. I feel dirty for using such a cliché but the day was perfect.
A big thank you to Anna for being our evening party organiser, you are an absolute star and the day would not have been the same without all your hard work.
Also thanks to everyone for the cards and gifts, we were just happy you guys could come and share the day with us so to get all that as well was lovely.
That said Claire and I haven't watched the video messages yet (will be watching them at some point today) so we don't know if we have to disown any of you for being horrible deviants yet. Well for being more deviant than normal anyway XD.
Things kicked off for me on Friday afternoon when I went to meet mithrandir2k at the airport. As he had very kindly agreed to DJ at the disco for our evening reception he got the personalised Keith escort treatment into Southampton.
Once he was settled into his hotel we rolled into town for some food and drink and spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting about various things. At some point we will actually finish a conversation we start instead of continuously derailing ourselves by going off on tangents.
I then said my goodbyes to Will and headed back home to sort out various wedding related gubbage until my best man Bruce turned up later in the evening. We then gathered up all the wedding paraphernalia I needed to take with me and headed off to the Red Lion hotel in Basingstoke.
We checked into the hotel and dumped our junk in the very swish red lion suite, which had a bathroom bigger than most of the usual hotel rooms I normally stay in. We then retired to the bar to have a few drinks before calling it a night and heading to bed.
Compared to Claire I had quite the lie in on Saturday and was out of bed by 8.30am. Bruce and I headed downstairs for some breakfast where we met my grandparents and my great uncle and aunt who had also stayed in the hotel on the Friday night.
After our mighty breakfast we headed off to sort out what seemed like millions of final little details and other odds and sods that needed to be done in preparation for the big event.
I have to give a massive thank you to Bruce here, over the months leading up to the wedding Claire had always been the one who had been getting really nervous and panicky about things while I remained relatively calm. In the week leading up to the wedding it was a complete reversal of roles, Claire had become focused in laser like intensity while I ended up going all over the place. Had it not been for Bruce being the super efficient best man of doom I would probably have had some form of panic induced shit fit.
Having done all the prep in the ceremony and wedding breakfast rooms we headed back to the hotel suite to get changed into our fancy clothing. It was while I was getting changed that Claire turned up along with her sister and Lois and things started hitting high gear. I finished getting changed and made a speedy exit as the room was turned into bride preparation central.
I spent the next hour or so loitering either in the bar or outside the front entrance of the hotel with Bruce as we welcomed various family members as they turned up, and I tried to give the impression that I was a mature adult :)
At 12 the registrars turned up and gave us the pre ceremony interview to make sure we were who we said we were and confirm other family details. Claire then sped back upstairs to be laced into her corset and I went back to the bar area to mingle with family.
At 12.30 everyone was led into the ceremony room and I stood up at the front with the registrar trying not to look as nervous as I felt while receiving friendly jibes from both sides of the family (Both Claire's family and mine seem to share the same evil sense of humour). The registrar got everyone to settle down and they started the entrance music playing and then Claire entered the room...
Yeah, I was blown away, she looked absolutely wonderful. I could go on at great length but the pictures will speak for themselves :)
The ceremony went smoothly and those of you who know me may have been quite surprised that somehow I managed to drop the usual sarcastic tone of my voice and sound like a normal human being while reciting my vows. Claire actually gave me a mild scolding during the ceremony because she thought I was trying not to burst out laughing. In actuality the emotion of the day suddenly hit me quite hard (in a good way) and I was trying not cry while reading out the vows. Fortunately my manly visage held and my reputation as burly bastion of manliness was still secure.
Having been declared man and wife we posed for some photos signing the register and then exited the room to some rather excellent organ music from the closing credits of Tron :) It's only a short segment but for those who are interested I've uploaded it here.
The next hour and half was spent mostly having photos taken by our official wedding-con photographer Lois who didn't seem to stop moving for the whole day. Thank you so much for agreeing to do the photos Lois we're looking forward to seeing the final results :) (In you're own time though, I think you deserve a nice long break after all that rushing about).
At 2.30pm it was time to go through for the wedding breakfast (which I think is a very strange term for what is essentially lunch) so as is tradition we formed the reception line so we could say a proper hello to everyone. Then there was the oddly amusing process of exiting the room we were just in so that we could come in again after being presented as Mr and Mrs Copping.
The meal was lovely and afterwards the speeches by both myself and the best man seemed to go down very well. I must admit Bruce was unusually kind in his speech, he could have been a lot more more evil had he decided to do so (I know I would of, but then I'm a bit of a git).
During my speech I presented thank you gifts to our lovely bridesmaids Claire's sister Caron and cousin Katie. Bruce also got a gift for his services above and beyond the call of duty, both at the wedding and for all the years he's put up with me and Claire. And there was also a gift for my grandmother who had made our absolutely fantastic wedding cake, it had been a little while since she had last made one but her skills were as sharp as ever.
After the cake there was much mingling and chatting, I had to shoot of briefly with Bruce to pack all our stuff into his car so could head off ahead of us to drop things off at our house and then head over to the Novotel with the rest of the wedding cake and other bits and pieces.
At 6.00pm Claire and I said our goodbyes to our families as we piled into her Uncle Andy's ribbon bedecked car so we could be driven down to the Novotel for the evening reception.
We arrived in good time at 6.50pm which gave me enough time to dump all our luggage in our room and neaten myself up a bit (I was starting to get a bit disheveled at this point) before heading back downstairs to say hi to everyone.
Got to say everyone looked glorious, as Claire has mentioned in her write up the variety of outfits on display was fantastic (for those who don't know we had a steam punk theme going for the reception).
After everyone had piled into the main party room and had something to eat Bruce and I gave some more speeches, which were slightly more adult in content than the versions that we had read out earlier in the day. Will then stepped up to the decks to play the music for our first dance which was to "Twilight" by ELO, we even had a small routine planned which seemed to work quite well despite my complete lack of rhythm :)
With that done the main party kicked off and we rocked on till the early hours. I could go into more detail about the evening party but what can I really say? We were in a room entirely filled with some of our favourite people in the whole world, with Will laying down the tunes on an AMV disco. Seriously guys I don't have the words to express how happy I was on Saturday it was fantastic to see you all and I wouldn't change anything about the day. I feel dirty for using such a cliché but the day was perfect.
A big thank you to Anna for being our evening party organiser, you are an absolute star and the day would not have been the same without all your hard work.
Also thanks to everyone for the cards and gifts, we were just happy you guys could come and share the day with us so to get all that as well was lovely.
That said Claire and I haven't watched the video messages yet (will be watching them at some point today) so we don't know if we have to disown any of you for being horrible deviants yet. Well for being more deviant than normal anyway XD.