The Wedding, the US and Life!!!
Right, well where to begin? The past few months have been so busy, organising the wedding was mad, so many things to remember and so many things kept going wrong. Thankfully mum was a star and helped me hugely with all the little things I couldn’t do from the states.
The hard work all paid off though because the wedding day was absolutely amazing! Everything turned out perfectly, well except the cake, but we rescued that one last minute! The whole thing went brilliantly, everyone had a good time, Jasper and I were both happier than ever and it was such a special day, I just wish it could have lasted longer.
The day started early, I was up at 6.30 writing a revised seating plan and sorting all the things I needed to take with me. Lianne, Caroline and I headed off to the hairdressers at 8.30, Nicci was possibly more excited than any of us, and did a fantastic job of mine and Lianne’s hair. Caroline’s hair looked stunning and Dawn used some fantastic tricks to make me look a bit more like a bird! Caroline headed off to meet Ian and get ready. Lianne and I were then given bucks fizz and strawberries by Nicci and Dawn and headed off from there looking beautiful at about 11.30am. We went home picked up everything we needed, dresses, shoes, place cards etc. James was taking Clive, Ian and Caroline to Birkin House, so they headed off about 12 noon. Lianne and I left shortly afterwards and I drove us to Birkin House. We called Tom just before we arrived, so he could make sure Jasper was out of the way, as everyone else seemed to be determined not to let us see each other. As we drove up to the House, Elaine and Ken were just getting out of their car, so it was nice to say hi to them before heading up to the room with the dresses and bags of bits. Debbi (the photographer) was already there waiting for us to start getting ready. Lianne and I spent the next half an hour folding place cards and chatting on the bed. Debbi took some lovely shots of the wedding dress hanging up and things. We were all looking out of the window checking on the weather as it was a little cloudy, but dry and the sun was popping out every now and then. Debbi and I noticed a deer running across the garden but weren’t quick enough to take a picture before it disappeared behind a tree. I helped Lianne into her dress, then it was my turn, felt so bizarre looking in the mirror, with my hair curled, my make up on, wearing a dress, don’t think I have ever felt so girly in all my life, it was odd, but kind of felt good!
The registrar came in and asked me for some info on dads name and occupation etc, then Justine arrived, with only a few minutes to spare, finally I could stop panicking about only having one bridesmaid and I could start panicking about the actual ceremony! Dad came up and said that it was time to go downstairs, I was actually really calm about it all, didn’t feel nervous, well untill we were half way down the stairs and Lianne almost tripped me up, thankfully though I managed to keep myself upright and made it to the door. Dad and I walked in, and I remember thinking, God we invited lots of people, I am soooooo embarrassed, I’m wearing a dress!! But then I looked to the end of the aisle and saw Jasper. I just grinned like a trooper. That was probably the best moment of the day for me to be honest, because as soon as I saw Jasper grinning back at me I knew that this was going to be the first day of a million more wonderful days together as husband and wife.
I walked pretty quickly and got there before James Blunt had even got going. Dad stood next to mum and Jasper and I just couldn’t stop smiling at each other. The ceremony was all very quick, but to be honest thats what we wanted, we just wanted it to be over with and to get on with relaxing and enjoying the day with all the people that matter. Ian read a poem W.H. Auden’s Carry Her Over the Water, and sounded like such a teacher doing it, it made me laugh, I love him! We signed the register and then that was that. We went through to the other room and got a drink, and finally I got to see everyone, it had been very strange being locked in a room upstairs knowing that all my mates and family who I hadn’t seen for so long are all downstairs and I am not allowed to go down and say hi. Got to have a quick chat with George and with Dee, Sharon and Rachel, which was geat. And saw all the family, as soon as G&G and Auntie H came in, I started crying, I was just so happy that they had all been able to be there! Met new people too like Annie (Jaspers cousin) and Alistair, Grainne, Rory and Tara, who are the nicest family I have ever met! Tara’s first words to me were “Fiona, you’re dress is so pretty”, how cute!! 
We then had photos and I managed to get mud all over the bottom of my dress walking around the garden, got some amazing pictures and you can really tell how in love Jas and I are, it’s great!
Then it was time to sit down for speeches and food, Dads speech was amazing, made me cry, which I never expected to happen, he said how proud him and mum were of me, and that was it, tears galore, the 2nd time of the day that I had cried. Then Jasper did his speech, think he was a little nervous, but he did amazingly well, and said some fab things. Then Toms speech was funny, and he produced some cans of Irn Bru and a triple pack of Jaffa Cakes to keep Jasper going!
The food was interesting, the starter, which was meant to be bruschetta, was basically some salad leaves on a small plate with a bit of stale bread, not quite sure the caterers got the idea right! The main course, again was not quite as we had imagined, but the chicken was lovely. None of that mattered though by the time it got to the dessert, the most amazing, rich chocolate mousse, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm All in all not a bad job and all served up quickly, the wine was good too! 
As soon as I finished my desert I headed upstairs to take out my contacts as they were doing my head in a bit, having had them in since 7am. I put my specs on and felt much more like me. Had also taken my veil off by that point too, so other than the tiara and the bloody huge wedding dress, I was almost normal Fi again.
The rest of the night was just spent chatting to everyone, catching up and getting to know new people, Tara and I had a nice little chat again, and Euan and Jessica were so cute, running around like troopers.
All in all, it was a wonderful day, everyone had fun, relaxed and enjoyed. Jasper and I were very happy and are so in love it’s ridiculous!!!!
So……… that was the wedding, we spent the following day opening presents at mum and dads and chatting with James, Lianne, Clive, Ian and Caroline. Had to have an early night cos we were so knackered from the day before. Got up early ish on Monday morning and headed off to London. Got to the hotel at about 3pm and were told that our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we went off to the passport office and I got myself my new passport in the name of Fiona Potts!!!!!
We went back to the hotel at about 6pm and were told that there had been a problem with our room so they had booked us in at another hotel down the road. We were decidedly pissed off, but went to the new hotel and dumped our bags in the room. We headed out to dinner at Zizzi’s in Marleybone, our usual! The following morning we had a bit of a panic trying to get our visa application forms filled out online, but got them sorted in the end. Then we walked to the American Embassy, possibly the most horrendously ugly building I have ever seen! We queued up for about an hour and a half and then spent 4 hours waiting inside, once we were eventually seen, it took all of 3 minutes to confirm our visas had been approved. All that waiting for that!!!!!
We then walked back to the car and headed off towards Oxford. Jasper drove out of London, and we swapped driving at the Oxford services. We bought ourselves a local map, so we could find our way around for our honeymoon week. I drove us to the barn, and it was just getting dark when we arrived. We were let in by the owners who live in the nearest property in the road. The barn was lovely, I imagine you will have looked at the photos already.
We spent the week going to all different parts of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and even Gloucestershire. We had an amazing week, it was so nice just to relax and spend some time together, having had such a hectic week once Jasper was back in the UK.
Once the honeymoon was over we headed back to Bournemouth, we spent Tuesday night with James, we cooked dinner together and then went in to town and played pool, I managed to beat both Jasper and James, which was either cos they were playing badly or they let me win, cos I am not sure it could happen otherwise. We spent that night at mum and dads. Wednesday we popped in to see Nana and then dropped off the rental car, Jay picked us up and we went back to Wendy and Jays for dinner, roast chicken, it was yummy! Then had a relatively early night and got up early to head off to the airport. Jay dropped us off at Heathrow and we boarded our flight at 10.40am.
I spent the whole time on the plane watching films that made me more and more angry and unhappy about the way the world is. I watched An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, a 2 hour documentary called Ghosts about the cockle pickers who died in 2004 at Morecombe Bay and a 1 hour documentary about the American military and the Iraq war. As any of you who know me will know, I am the worlds biggest thinker. And each film made me gradually more and more angry about the state of the world and made me more and more passionate about the fact I want to do something about it. I have for the past couple of weeks now been in a very bizarre mood, contemplating where life will take me next, what path to follow, and what skills I have to try and make a difference to this messed up world that we live in.
I want my children, and theirs to live in a world that cares more, a world where people actually stand up to governments and say no, a world where we challenge authority in order to better our society. If we think something is wrong, we should stand up and say so.
Since we got back to the states, I have been studying like a trooper trying to get assignments in. I had an assignment for each course due in within a week of each other and due to the nature of my courses have had even more of a thinking head on. My Social Sciences assignment was about the ‘golden age’ of the welfare state, in which I had to write my views on benefits from the government etc, which made me think about the cockle pickers film and also made me think about my teenage years, and about how many people I knew from school and work who only survived because of the welfare state. My philosophy assignment was on freedom of speech and John Stuart Mills arguments for freedom of expression. I wrote about the BNP, Global Warming, the Iraq war and some other random bits. I had to try hard to not make it into another one of my rants about the world! Both assignments set me off on another thinking mode. I have certainly decided that when we come back to the UK, I am going to have to work for a charity, would like to be involved in some kind of marketing maybe, so that I can make people more aware of the problems there are and hopefully inspire others to do something more to save this beautiful planet and make it a happier safer place for everyone.
I have just realised I have been writing for far too bloody long now, so I should probably shut up. But I will write again soon, and I promise not to leave it too long next time, mum!!
Take care everyone, love y’all!!
xxx