Day 10 of 365

Well I guess I need to apologise. As expected I did not get a chance to blog on my hellish long shift on Saturday, further apologies as I was so tired yesterday, Sunday I didn't blog either. Uhoh. Failed already, sucks.

So I guess I should tell you what I got up to. Early start to day and first thing I do, after hitting that oh so familiar 'snooze' button is look out of the window. The wedding today are having an outdoor ceremony, the brides originally from the Caribbean and she was really keen for an open event. Luckily the rain seems to have held up and it's a dry start to the day. I get into work and start setting up 200 and something chairs outside with reserved labels for close family and friends. 

Guests start arriving and after running 'round like a headless chicken for the past four hours I think it's all going to be a lot calmer once the guests arrive. How wrong I was. Guests arrived, caterers were still dressing tables, no wedding cake and no sign of the Gospel choir. To top it off, the groom comes in with jeans and a t-shirt looking like he's just woken up. 

They're meant to be getting married in just under an hour, what is going on. Things started to pick up and move a lot quicker than expected but then something catastrophic happened. The heavens opened and THE biggest downpour I have ever witnessed occured. Oh holy crap. The chairs. The ceremony. The Bride.

Tarpaulin goes on and we're okay, the choir arrive and the rain stops after a mad half hour. This means of course we're running a little behind schedule but half an hour later the bride walks down the aisle to a beautiful rendition of 'Ave Maria', friendly faces smitten with grins from ear to ear. As I look around, fighting back emotions (this is the first ceremony I've seen) I think to myself, I love my job.

If I blogged about the whole day, hour to hour I'd be here writing you a short story however I promise to fill you in with a little insight to my job.

It was a day of first times. It was the first time I'd seen a wedding, whilst working. It was the first outdoor ceremony I'd been present at. It was also to be the first time I walked a bride and groom into the room for their wedding breakfast. This is such a fun part. Basically I hold back the happy couple whilst we round up the few stragglers and allow everybody to find their seats. I then signal for the music and next thing you know all eyes are on me. Of course, they're really on the B & G but I lead them into the room, weaving amongst tables and chairs, through hundreds of cameras and flashing lights. When I get the to the top table I quickly squeeze through and pull out the chairs for the B & G. I then have the joyful task of tucking the wedding dress under. What! I hear you ask, basically I just let the bride take care of that, I help if it's a mahoosive dress but usually it's okay. 

So they walked into Nina Simone and then the speeches began. After this the wedding breakfast commenced. Luckily I got some food kept behind for me, always nice. Between the main meal and dessert they chose a short quiz, read by the father of the groom. This was a nice little touch, got everyone talking and laughing of course. Cutting the cake came next and then the dessert which was of course cake! It's not always but sometimes people provide two cakes, a (fake) big show cake for everyone to watch them cut and then a cake round the back! This cake gets cut and of course leaves everyone wandering confused as they see the big cake beautifully decorated with not a slice cut. The wonderful world of polystyrene covered in icing hey! A trick of the trade hey!

I'm actually thinking this maybe turning into a slightly boring blog entry so I'm going to end it by saying that it all went very well. A few hitches here and there but I got there, I did it. I'm still in the job! I didn't leave 'til 4am mind, no biggie just a long, hard 18 hour shift with about five minutes of alone time wolfing down some much needed food. 


Here's a few sneaky pictures I managed for you all. 

I've decided since this weekend has been all about weddings I shall dedicate my next blog to weddings also. Whether you be a bridezilla, a bride to be, a girl fantasising about her big day or an ordinary girl like me who likes all things wedding. Here goes. 

In the meantime, I hope you all had a great weekend

x