So what makes a wedding perfect? We all have different ideas, likes and dislikes but Katie, co-owner of Elizabeth Aprilis events planning and management, reminds us what really matters in her thought provoking guest blog…
We all know ‘every little girl’s dream’, the big white wedding, the age old story of the Prince sweeping the Princes off her feet and living happily ever after. We learn the fairy tales from the first book our parents read to us and we hold on to this throughout our childhood years. As we grow older and head into our teenage years we realise that maybe the fairy tales we read don’t quite fit who we are. We widen the thought of the perfect wedding, allowing for different ideas depending on different people.
The perfect wedding is suggested to come in many forms whether it be fairytale and lavish, small and intimate or unusual and unique. Many companies, magazines and wedding suppliers state that they can create the perfect wedding. They want you to let them create the perfect wedding for you. So is this the key? Have we cracked the secret to the perfect wedding? Let someone create this for us? Do we follow the magazines, the people in the industry, the trends at the time and the people claiming they know what the perfect wedding is? Some people say that they have planned their wedding from being a young girl, they knew what flowers they would have, what dress and what venue. Maybe this is the key, the way to have a perfect wedding is in spending half your childhood planning for it?
Fairy tale wedding reception at Ashover Parish Hall Events Centre
I don’t think the key is in following the trends or planning the wedding before you meet the groom. This is the biggest day of our lives and it is easy to get engrossed in the planning in order to prove that we can have the perfect wedding, in doing so we may forget what ‘the perfect wedding’ may be to us. I don’t suggest that I have the answer and I don’t want to tempt you into thinking I could tell you what your perfect wedding would be. I just want to share my experience with you and hope that you will carry it with you and you too can experience all that you hope for.
My story…
The girls were over and we were watching those wedding films that you can’t help but love. I was getting married in the morning.
I had always been a dreamer, lost in films and theatre. Romanticising of the moment shown in every good wedding film, the moment of looking down the aisle and having that feeling of knowing the person standing at the other end, is the right one. Your best friend, your soul mate, your husband to be.
This thought wouldn’t leave my mind and I knew that if I didn’t have that ‘film moment’ I wouldn’t be able to marry him.
What makes a wedding perfect?
The morning passed quickly, excitement buzzing in the air. I arrived (a little late) at the church and knew this was the moment of truth. I stepped into the church and built up the courage to look down the aisle. Would he be the only one for me? Would I know? Would I have that ‘film moment’?
As I looked up, an unexplainable thing happened, something you can only understand when experienced. The church seemed empty, the music a dull background sound, the hundreds of hours planning and organising, forgotten…..
He was there, waiting for me, my best friend, my soul mate, my husband to be. That was my ‘film moment’, when my heart was completed. Something to hold onto forever, through sickness and in health. Unbreakable.
The day passed quickly, as if in a dream. I was like a child, lost in the atmosphere of the theatre. I wanted it to go on forever.
It wasn’t a wedding matching the trends, reflecting the magazine of the moment. It wasn’t a passing suggestion, lost in history, overtaken by new ideas. It was our day, perfect to us, just the way we wanted.
In the end you realise all that matters is the person waiting for you at the end of the aisle.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us Katie. Too many of us get caught up in details, influenced by others (overbearing mothers and in-laws, yes I mean you) or overwhelmed by the vast array of choices, when we plan our big day. After all, as fabulous and exciting as your wedding day may be, it is only the first day of married life. What comes after is what really makes your wedding perfect.
If you are in the Derbyshire area don’t forget to come along to the Elizabeth Aprilis Wedding Fayre on Sunday 27 April at Ashover Parish Hall Events Centre from 11am till 2pm. Not only will you see how the centre makes a fabulous wedding venue, you will meet the girls from Elizabeth Aprilis and find all the local suppliers you could ever need all under one roof! Register your attendance on the Elizabeth Aprilis website to be in with the chance of winning a hamper of goodies.
Until next time….