We are married! Part 4 - The Ceremony

And so it was time to get into the car and travel to the church. The villa that we had rented was about 20 minutes from the church so there was enough time for the nerves to kick in on the way.  My Dad did a good job at keeping me calm, although I did panic as we only arrived and the church dead on 4 pm and all I could think of was that Lisa our wedding planner had always said we couldn't be late at all, I took this literally to mean I couldn't even be a minute late!

Once we arrived and got out of the car we waited in the plaza outside of the church while the bridesmaids queued up to enter the church before me.  As we were waiting lots of people gathered in the plaza to watch and lots of cameras were going of, what a weird feeling!

The music struck up and the flower girls and bridesmaid made their way in.

The it was my turn, with one reassuring squeeze from my dad off we set up the aisle.  I can't tell you if the music that I had spent hours choosing sounded good or not as I was just focusing on calming myself and getting to the top of the aisle.

I was doing everything to try and not look at my soon to be husband too soon as I had been told that he had been crying already and I knew I wouldn't cope if I looked too soon.  As we were nearing the top of the aisle I looked up and his top lip was going, that's all it took for me to well up.

People have told me that my dad who never cries had a tear in his eye as he passed my hand to my soon to be husbands.  I can't wait to see the video!

At this point we were both so nervous but so happy, its a kind of nerves that I have never felt before, this felt so right and I couldn't believe that we were finally standing there in front of all the people that we love and were just about to commit ourselves to each other for live, I suppose its nervous excitement that hits you once you finally get to hold each others hands.

Our readers did an amazing job despite some nerves and the full service went really well, I had some worries about the service as the priest was obviously going to be foreign but he followed the mass booklet that we (rephrase that I!!) had spent hours preparing and making sure that we made the ceremony as much about us as what we could do and I really feel that we managed to achieve that.  We had lots of non catholics at the wedding who came up to us after and told us how much they enjoyed the ceremony so we must have gotten it right.

We had a few wobbles in our voices when saying our vows and a few tears in our eyes, it was so emotional to finally be standing in front of each other declaring our undying love for each other and becoming husband and wife

And finally we emerged as the new Mr & Mrs and what an utterly amazing day we both had!!

All photos by Kris:

Our amazing photographer:

We are married - Part 3 - Getting Ready

Once the makeup artist and our amazing wedding planner arrived at our rental villa the place was buzzing, we got the champagne out and had a toast to the day.

Our photographer arrived soon after and quickly got to work.  We had chosen him for the style he shoots in which is reportage, I really didn't want anything that I felt was in your face or too posed so his style was perfect.  He took lots of shots of the build up to the day and I think that I will let them tell the story.

Soon it was time to get into my dress, as everyone else was very busy getting ready at this point and my chief bridesmaid was running around sorting out all the little girls I slipped upstairs to get into it myself, thankfully my guardian angel in the form of my wedding planner Lisa appeared to help zip me into it and give me the biggest best hug I could have wanted :-)

I was getting a little nervous but hugely excited at this point so the hug was just what I wanted and needed before putting the final touches to my make up and getting that elusive first glimpse of myself in the mirror.

That's when the tears started to come, I just couldn't believe that it was me that was staring back, seeing everything coming together, all the months of planning, all the ideas that you have about your hair, your dress and your jewellery and suddenly you are looking at it all in the mirror and it was such an amazing, overwhelming and exciting range of emotions, I will never forget how it felt and am so pleased that our photographer managed to capture that moment.

Once I had gotten over the shock of the moment, I was excited to come down the stairs to see everyone else and for them to see me for the first time.  I knew my Mum and Dad were waiting for me at the bottom and I was so excited to see their reaction when they seen me!  My poor Mum was trying so hard to hold back the tears, it was the best feeling ever, knowing that I had made them so proud and they were finally seeing their daughter getting married.

And so it was time to head to the church to finally see my soon to be husband.

All photos by Kris McGuirk:

Our Amazing Photographer 

Coming soon: Part 4 - The ceremony.

We are married! Part 2 - The morning of the wedding

I had been worrying all week that `I wouldn't sleep well the night before the wedding, what with being in a strange bed and not having my soon to be husband there, however I need not have worried, I slept like a baby!
When I did wake up the house was still quiet, I opened the curtains to check the weather (yes even having your wedding in Spain does not make you immune to this!) the sun was just starting to come up and with a spring in my step I got into a gorgeous bubble bath.  I brought my iPod in with me and played some of the music that we had chosen for the day and I just lay there singing and smiling, I really could not have been calmer and happier, finally I was marrying the man I love more than anything, the sun was out and everyone I loved where there to share it with us.

When I finally got out of the bath - the joy of not having the wedding until 4pm meant we were not overly rushed in the morning - my Chief Bridesmaid was just about to knock on the door as she thought that I hadn't got up yet!  I had made the girls all T-shirts to wear on the morning of the wedding and everyone loved them.

 Me and my flowergirls posing in our Tshirts

Can you guess who these two lovely ladies may be?

Our plan was to just relax in the morning whilst waiting on my hairdresser and makeup artist to arrive, I had made a playlist up on my iPod to listen to so we plugged that in and generally just relaxed.  My hair and make up artist where due to arrive around 11.30ish so we had plenty of time to just chill and chat with each other, I really valued that time with my Mum and my sister.  My poor Chief Bridesmaid though had agreed to curl all the little girls hairs so she was stuck up stairs for a good bit of the morning with chatting going on between the two floors with her. lol  (By the way she did an amazing job!)

We had planned to have a little glass of cava or two whilst getting ready, sure it would be rude not too :-) I had mentioned this to my lovely wedding planner Lisa during the week and that we were looking to try and get some pretend cava for the little girls to make them feel included and she told me you can get kids champagne in Spain.......cool!  Lisa being Lisa, off she went and got us a bottle and I can tell you she made the little girls morning!

 Alcohol free champagne

 Our oldest flowergirl popping the cork!

 Cheers! 

Soon it was time for the house to become busier, my dad arrived then the hair and makeup artist closely followed by the lovely Lisa and it was time to get ready!!

We are married! Part 1 - The Build up.

Well finally after nearly 6 weeks of marriage I am back to update you all on what happened.

My plan is to break it down into a few posts so that I don't bore you all completely.

Firstly I just want to say that our wedding day was all we ever wanted and more, I will never ever regret the decision to take the wedding abroad and even though there were some people that couldn't make it out to the wedding we enjoyed the company of each and every person who did come out and we appreciate all the effort that everyone went to to be with us on the most special day of our lives so far.

We arrived over on the Sunday with our Chief Bridesmaid, Best man and their little girl.  Hubbies other brother also flew over with his three kids. We went our separate ways for a while to check into our rental villas.  On the Monday, we met up with our lovely wedding planner and headed up to check out the reception venue and go over a few final details.  Everything was already sorted so it was more a case of just checking where tables were going to go and running through a few things with the wedding planner to make sure that she knew exactly what it was we wanted.  However I had no doubt that she would and she made everything so much easier (but more about that in another post!)

We then went up to spend the day with his brother at their very exclusive villa! His other brother and parents were not arriving until the Tuesday so we had a good bit of time to chill out up there.

My in-laws amazing villa

It was amazing, and we ended up spending quite a lot of time up there as the kids where able to have a great time playing around and we all just felt like we were on holiday.  It was a great way to relax and ensure that we didn't have a stressful week in the run up to the wedding.

 The lovely private pool which the kids could not get enough of.

The nearest villa to them! 

On the Monday evening, my parents, sister, aunts and uncles all arrived so we made our way back into town to meet them for dinner.  It was very surreal to suddenly be sitting in Spain but surrounded by your nearest and dearest and know that they had all made the effort just for us.  It was great to be able to spend time with them before the wedding and before all the other family and guests arrived and I was really pleased that we had made sure that we made time to do this.

We spent the first few days lounging around the pool and the posh villa, then on the Wednesday I went and spent the day with my family to make sure I was getting into wedding mood. I did love chilling out at the villa but I really began to think that we weren't actually there to get married! It kind of felt like we were all just there for a holiday and I was needing some mum & sister wedding chat time. Seeing my Mum and sister put an end to forgetting why we were there and the wedding excitement really began to kick in....... everyone was parading their outfits and all last minute decisions and discussions were taking place, it was all very exciting and a great start to our evening of entertaining all our guests and our welcome party.

We had a welcome party at our villa on the Wednesday night, I had really wanted to make sure that we managed to see everyone that had come over and as most people were actually there from the Wednesday it made sense to hold a welcome party then. We had most of our guests there at one point or another over the course of the night.

The Terrace at our villa overlooking the Golf Course

A few of our guest mingling!

It was a great way to relax with everyone and chat and it really helped on the day as I didn't feel like we had to spend all our time speaking to everyone rather than being able to enjoy the wedding and the reception.  I would recommend this to anyone who can manage to fit it in.

Part 2 - The day/night before the wedding will be coming up soon.

C xx 

Right about now!

I decided right at the very start of our wedding planning that I really wanted to do a Dad/Daughter dance.  I am very close to my Dad and getting married and now having my own family to be part of and look after has a huge significance to me. Luckily my Dad agreed.

When researching songs to dance to I came across quite a few with very meaningful lyrics but nothing beat this one!

Right at this very moment, me and my amazing Dad will be shuffling away to this.

All I can hope is that I can hold back my tears.

Our first dance

By the time this post publishes we will have been man and wife for all of 5 hours!

Dinner will be over and hopefully everyone is relaxed and ready to hit the dance floor.  But first it's our turn :-)

We have never really had an 'our' song so coming up with something for our first dance was difficult at first, we sat down with a bottle of wine and our ipods out trying to find something that we both liked and that had some meaning to us.  This is what we came up with!

Christy Moore - The Voyage 

I am a sailor, you're my first mate

We signed on together, we coupled our fate

Hauled up our anchor, determined not to fail

For the hearts treasure, together we set sail

With no maps to guide us we steered our own course

Rode out the storms when the winds were gale force

Sat out the doldrums in patience and hope

Working together we learned how to cope

Chorus:

Life is an ocean and love is a boat

In troubled water that keeps us afloat

When we started the voyage, there was just me and you

Now gathered round us, we have our own crew

Together we're in this relationship

We built it with care to last the whole trip

Our true destination's not marked on any charts

We're navigating to the shores of the heart

Chorus 2x

When we first heard the lyrics we just fell in love with song, we have been on a very long journey to get to where we are today with lots of ups and downs but we have and always will be there for each other. 

We think this song just sums up our lives together and we are both looking forward to our future as Mr and Mrs Spillane!!

Today is the day!!

Well this is it , it is finally here! Its our wedding day!!

Obviously I am not blogging on the morning of my wedding from Spain, I have written this post and another few that will appear later today T-8 days before our wedding and boy is it making me very excited doing so!

At this very moment I will be arriving here:

Santo Cristo Church - Marbella

Hopefully the sun will be shining like in this picture, all our friends and family will be gathered with us to celebrate and the love of my life will be waiting for me at the altar.

Thanks for everything Maurice, I love you with all my heart and soul and can't wait to grow old with you. xx 

Just over two weeks to go :)

Well the excitement is well and truly growing in this house, in 16 days we will have tied the knot! Eeeep! And in 11 days we will be flying out to Spain.

My dress is home with me and my chiefy and me will be packing it into it's travel box the night before we fly.
We have sourced plastic glasses for our welcome BBQ and the lovely owner at our after party bar is providing finger food on the house.
Our bag for Spain is partially packed and the honeymoon one is shaping up well.
The men's outfits are getting collected next Tuesday and the flower girls dresses have been altered.
I have been prancing around the house breaking in my wedding shoes much to the amusement of those witnessing it.
Our 'out of town' booklets have been posted and everyone knows what's happening when.
The last minute presents have been ordered and packed.

And most importantly me and the hubbie to be are totally in love and 100% ready to become husband & wife!!


C xx

Photo of the week

If you have been following my blog you will know that I love my DIY stationary. I can't wait to see everything come together on the big day!



C xx

Today my dress arrived home with me!

Well with 3 weeks to go, today was my last fitting for my dress. We let it out slightly around the bodice so I can eat! Lol, and put a few hidden bustles on it for the train at night time. It fits perfectly.

I totally LOVE it!

I can't wait to be able to share it all with you, now though my hard part begins.....not opening the bag!!!


C xx

My favourite photo this week.

With only 3 weeks to go! Yes you read that right, only 3 weeks to go! My Favourite photo this week needs to go to my venue.

In a few shorts weeks we will all be sitting on this terrace looking at the mountain views and listening to the noise of the river in the distance.

I can't wait!!

Amazing offer

My amazing wedding planner, Lisa from Bella weddings in Spain has come up with this Amazing offer

I think that having a wedding in Spain during our normally very unpredictable winter months would be a great idea and for this price I think it would be amazing!

If you are even thinking about a wedding abroad I would recommend you really do look into it and for this price jump at it!

**I am not being paid to recommend Lisa but without her the wedding of my dreams would not be happening and my stress levels would be through the roof!

C x


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 Month

Words can't express how happy I am to see this picture on my blog!!

Images from google images.

We have reached the one month mark - how did that happen so quickly?  We haven't had an extremely long engagement (only 10 months) but this has flown past! In 3 weeks time we will be getting ready to fly over to Spain to begin our week long wedding celebrations and I can't wait.

Finally I am marrying the love of my life and this is all that matters.

C xx

My favourite photo this week

This is my favourite photo this week, see my little church just appearing at the top?

Only 38 days until we will be arriving here!

I'm a bride to be!

If you've been following my blog then you will know that already, so what is she going on about you might think?

Well the lovely Laura from this amazing site! has featured me as her Bride to be on her blog today, thanks Laura! You can See me here

I first 'met' Laura on twitter, her and her lovely Hubby to be are getting married 2 weeks after us. You can follow Laura on twitter here

Thanks Laura and good luck on your big day xx

I joined Blook club!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to read a good book and now I have ventured into the realms of a blook club (bloggers and books = blooks getit!)

The lovely Zoe from  This lovely site! came up with the great idea and even designed the lovely button that you can see down the left hand side of my page.

I missed the first one which was held yesterday due to having to do to work and by the looks of it I may have to miss the next one as it will probably be planned around our wedding date but I am going to make a point of going to the next one and am still reading the suggested books and really enjoying it so far.

Thanks Zoe and here's to Blook club!

The box is packed!

Well we have reached another milestone.  The box is packed with all our wedding bits and pieces and is ready to make it's way to our lovely wedding planner, Lisa in Spain.

This is I suppose another down side to having your wedding abroad - trying to figure out how to get it all there and having to limit what you want to bring with you as well.  You do of course have the option of hiring a decorator over to Spain to do all your bits and pieces for you but after spending so long making things I really wanted to carry the diy theme on to the decor of the reception also so ours is all getting packed up and posted over!

We weighed up bringing it all in a suitcase but when you priced extra luggage allowance on the lovely orange airline it is a lot cheaper to box it up and send it by DHL or some other courier company.  We are very lucky to have a lovely wedding planner who appreciates my diy approach and is allowing us to post our items to her (not to mind the stuff I already left there in April)

On another note, my dress is currently being altered.  I loved loved loved it when I tried it on again and it just needs some slight alterations to the bodice and a bustle hoop put on it and we are dandy.  I am back again on the 30th September for the final fitting and then back to collect it on the 14th October all ready to fly to Spain.

I can't quite believe how close we are now, only 5 weeks on Friday until the actual wedding and 4 weeks until we head out to Spain.  I keep having to remind myself to take that week of when I am calculating anything as we really won't be able to do that much planning that week!

This weekend

Yay it's Friday!

Well this weekend, starts some of the madness of the wedding planning.  H2b is off on his stag weekend tomorrow to Liverpool (God love Liverpool)  My Hen night is in 23 days :-) and we are both really excited.

My plan whilst H2b is hopefully not damaging his liver to much, is to get the menus and another batch of the mass booklets finished.  I really need to start thinking ahead about sending some things over to Spain soon, so anything requiring DIY will need to be finished sooner rather than later.

My other really exciting thing is that I am finally going to try my dress on! It has been in the shop for a while but my Chief Bridesmaid really wanted to see it with me as she didn't mange to make it to our shopping trip so we are off to see it on Sunday. I am really excited about seeing it again and have lost the few extra pounds that I gained since finding it so am keeping everything crossed that it fits and that I still like it.

I think that I have reached the start of the exciting part, it really is not long now until the wedding - 49 days or 7 weeks today.  There really is not that much more to do (once I finish my DIY projects) Wedding presents are starting to be bought/arrive and it feels really nice.  I keep thinking of how things will be once we are married and how it will feel to finally call him my Husband and to be honest, I can't wait.  Yes there has been some stressors along the way and I am sure we will have some more in the run up to the wedding but overall I have enjoyed it and I looking forward to married life so much.

Pinch Punch

Images:Google Images

Pinch punch, we get married NEXT month. We have also hit the 50 day mark, can you tell there is excitement in our house.

2 months to go!

Wow, time is ticking on.

The great 'to do' list

Never underestimate the amount of work you still have to do, I think that it only becomes clear when you take it all out of your head and write it down or certanily that has been the case for me.

I still think that I am totally on top of things, but there is a lot that I had in my head so hadn't really thought that much about them. Well this all changed last week and it is now all down on paper. I am lucky that most things are small in the grand scheme of things and really just require me to order bits and pieces and put the the finishing touches to the diy items.

So since my last post I have managed to add to and tick of my list!

With two months to go this is what I still have outstanding.

Make remainder of order of services - still have about another 15 to fully make up but they have all been printed at least.

Print inserts for the menus - I have designed them so just need to cut them out and put them together.

Get flower girl shoes - I have been advised by those in the know to wait as long as I can with these so they don't outgrow them.

Get alterations done on my dress - all booked!

Finish table plan - basics are done, just waiting on final numbers

Chase the final RSVP's - we are still waiting on the final few to yay or nay, rsvp date is tomorrow.

Make thank you sign for the photo for our thank you cards.

We are getting there!!

Last piece of the paperwork Jigsaw is done!

So we are finally done with all the paperwork! Yesterday we collected our Certificates of No Impediment from our local council so we are ready to roll.

In Scotland if you are getting married abroad you need to still register your intent to marry with your local register office and get the excitment of seeing your names displayed for all to see on the notice board. You don't however need a schedule of marriage.

You can get all the details you need from here Click me

We found it really easy, just fill out the form with the details of your wedding abroad and bring it into the local register office with the fee of £30 per person. You need to wait 15 days to collect it and it is only valid for 3 months from the date of issue so make sure that you factor this in when you are working out your dates for the wedding.

Hitting the gym

Jumping for joy!!

After 8 months of being engaged I have finally found my mojo and have restarted weight watchers and have also signed up to the gym. I have realised that I am not going to be one of those brides that loses weight in the run up to her wedding without even trying, much to my dismay. I seem to fall into the category of eating too much in the run up!

I don't want to lose a huge amount of weight, but I really don't want to regret what I didn't do and look back at my wedding photos only seeing what I could have changed if I had really put my mind to it.
To be honest I can't believe that it has taken me so long to come to this understanding as many of you that know me, know that I have had long standing battles with my weight. You would think that by now I know the principles and could just get on with it, this is not how it works though, lol. You need to wait on that something clicking in your brain that stops you reaching for the chocolate at every given opportunity. Thankfully I am pleased to say with just over 12 weeks to go that this has finally happened.

My induction at my new gym was on Thursday, it is a council run gym and I can use any of their 8 sites which should work really well for me as some days I finish in one part of the county and the opposite side to where I work. I didn't want to be tied into just one location as me being me I would make excuses to not travel over to it.

My aim is to complete the couch to 5k programme which is a 9 week programme which gently breaks you into running. My legs to me are one of my biggest problem areas, and although they will be covered up by my dress on the day, due to the wedding being in Spain, they will be on show a little too much for my liking!

I am also going to be working on toning my arms, as I really don't want the dreaded 'bingo wings' on the big day if I can help it. I know that some people may say that you should be happy with how you are but I know that I will just be annoyed with myself if I am not how I think I should be and having gained some weight since the beginning of our engagement I really want to go back to how I looked before.

I managed to lose 3lbs this week, lets just keep it going now!

C xx

You can find the couch to 5k programme here:
Couch to 5k

The dress has arrived!!

I am so excited!

The wedding dress has arrived into the shop, now all I have to do is make arrangements to go back in and see it.

I have been looking at pictures of it this morning and thankfully I do still really like it so I am keeping everything crossed that I feel that way when I try it on. I am actually looking forward to seeing it on me properly as the sample I tried on was too small so looking at myself in the mirror required a lot of vision.
My Matron of honour has not seen it either so we are planning on going through to the dress shop for a look.

It will not be fitted until 4 weeks before the wedding (thankfully) so time to hit the gym I think.

C xx

3 Months today!

Wow, in 3 months from today we will be getting married! I can't believe how quickly the time is flying past. I know that people said it would but you are not really prepared for it. I have really been enjoying this part of our engagement and actually feel I have time to enjoy it now as everything is mostly organised.

I have been really looking forward to being able to count down in weeks (don't worry I won't be posting that each week!) so as of tomorrow we have 13 weeks (blooming calendars!) to go - eeeep!

Images from Google Images