I first met Paul in September 1998 at a local nightclub. I knew a friend of Paul’s and as we were chatting, Paul approached me and started talking. His charm didn’t work on me however! Initially I didn’t like him at all but as our best man said during his wedding speech…love finally found a way!
One weekend, we went to Lakeside Shopping Centre for one of our regular clothes shopping expeditions. Paul was acting quite suspiciously… he kept disappearing into jewellery shops! Of course I had a feeling that he was up to something but could never have anticipated what happened next! When we got back to our car Paul dropped onto one knee and proposed in the middle of the multi storey car park in front of crowds of shoppers! He told me later that he’d had a really romantic night planned but he was just too excited and couldn’t wait to give me the ring!
Organising our home and work lives took priority however, and so our engagement turned out to be four years long, with a nine month period of active planning before the decided date. Everything went really smoothly (except my wedding dress, as the shop ordered it two sizes too big! but we finally managed to get it adjusted perfectly in time for the big day).
We had a traditional church wedding ceremony at St. Andrews Church in Romford with a ten seater stretch limo for the eight bridesmaids! and a beautiful ivory and gold horse drawn carriage for Paul and I. It was fantastic travelling in such style and we certainly attracted a lot of attention!
Our reception was held at City Limits in Romford which has a beautiful function room. We had 101 guests for dinner, and a table top magician and caricaturist entertained the guests during the meal. My favourite touch was harpist, who played beautifully throughout the meal.
For the evening entertainment we hired a specialist 70s and 80s soul DJ as a tribute to our joint hen/stag weekend, which was at a soul weekender! Some friends made a memory table for us at the reception with all of the goodies from the weekender… a great touch!
Our first dance was ‘I Found Loving’ by the Fatback Band…no mushy stuff for us! Looking back there was no need to worry about a thing as the day was fabulous. All our friends and family were there to support us. It was just a perfect day.
