This is a blog post written, not by me, but from the one I always talk about on here – Joe!
He wanted to have his say on the wedding day and share with you his favourite bits about the day, with a few tips for other grooms. It’s longer than my normal posts, but I hope you enjoy this really sweet and heartfelt post from my new hubby!

Hello. I haven’t done a blog post in a very long time but I feel I should now share my side of the wedding experience after Karen has posted so much.

Firstly, the 9 months of engagement since we booked the venue has been amazing.  Lots of celebrations along the way and the more people that got involved, the better it was for me and it became more real.

Every night when Karen came home from work, we settled down and discussed wedding things, from themes, to colours, venues, guest total, invites, etc.,This was all very hectic and a lot of effort had to be put in, but I thank Karen for doing the majority and she did an amazing job.

As a groom, all I had to do was show up, say “I do” and then be the protector of Karen and the man of the house. For life.

The lead up to the big day was very nerve-wracking, but I picked my Best Man well and at all times he made it smooth sailing for me and reassured me that everything was going to be okay.

I picked my cousin, Gary, best friend for 25 years! Gary was SO organised and took a huge weight off my back. He did wonders with organising the stag do, messaging around on Facebook and organising meet ups.

The Stag Do

We had a super secret agent training event with “Austin Speedloader” which entailed various tasks and quizzes to become a super secret agent – it  was wildly hilarious. This was followed by a cocktail lesson at The Liqorists HQ where we sampled the finest Rum, Gin and Whiskey around. Gary even managed to get a “beer wench” to be on red alert to take our orders when we required.

After lots of male nudity and mankinis, I had a special treat of a lap dance. Nope, not off the very attractive beer wench. But from Gary’s good (and voluptuous) friend Ben in a nurse’s outfit. I have to say, it made the whole night. What a legend.

The Wedding weekend

Gary came to my house on the Thursday morning before the wedding to help load the car with wedding decorations to take up to the venue. He was so excited for me and I didn’t feel nervous at all. When we got there, we went into the main hall where we were getting married where we found Karen, Amy (Karen’s sister and Maid of Honour) and Angela (Karen’s mum) setting up the room with chair covers and green coloured sashes. The room was breath-taking.

Gary and I decided to drink at the bar and move stuff from the cars to the hall. Later on that evening, we drove to the hotel we would be staying at to dump off our bags.  Gary very kindly brought his Xbox and a 12-year-old Bourbon whiskey to take the edge off. Gary had thought of everything. We played Soul Calibur on the Xbox and drank Elijah Craig Bourbon for hours and it totally put my mind at rest so I could sleep soundly and not have to be nervous about the morning.

On the morning of the wedding we went to the all-you-can-eat buffet, loaded up on greasy food and headed back to the room to shower, shave and drink some more! I took a fist full of Imodium so I wouldn’t get the bubble guts when Karen is about to walk down the aisle, because that would have been extremely embarrassing…

The groomsmen, photographer, uncle and my dad came to meet us in the room to put on our suits. My dad prepared a shopping list of wise words to give me which brought a tear to all of our eyes.

Several photographs later, we headed to the venue and greeted all the guests that were coming in. At this point is where it started to become very real! I then had to make my way over to the altar area at 13:30 for last minute checks and wait for everyone to come in. This is really where my heart started to pound!

I created a playlist for background noise as everyone entered and a lovely piece by Daniel Hope called “I giorni: Andante” came on and I started to get very teary.

I trained myself not to cry at the wedding by watching Forest Gump a week before to get all my tears out, but this did not work! I started to get very emotional.

The past 9 months planning are currently taking place and I hear the sweet piano music of “A Tree for my bed” by John Williams as the bridesmaids walked down the aisle, and this is where I really start to ball. A few moments later, I get a glimpse of Karen coming down the aisle, looking more beautiful than I could ever describe and I felt at home. It was truly a remarkable feeling of happiness and love, so why was I crying?

I was trying so hard to hold it together for Karen as she was putting on a brave face and I messed up some lines. I even had to repeat. “I Take, thy Karen”? DOH!

What seemed like 2 minutes later, I was asked to kiss the bride and we walked into the sunset, hand in hand and I felt so stupid for worrying so much before. Truly the moment of my life.

After that, it was shaking people’s hands, lots of photos being taken and more booze! I completely forgot I had to do a speech!

The speeches were hilarious. Everyone said such nice kind words to us. My dad, Peter, did a speech about both of us together as Angela and Nick did one about Karen, and Gary was about to do one about me. He never ceases to amaze me. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed every minute, although it was funny and we all laughed, it was also very emotional as he mentioned lots of great times we had together as family.

Before we knew it, it was time for the first dance; this day is going far too fast!

Karen and I danced to Hall and Oates – You make my dreams come true. It’s an upbeat piece which got everyone clapping and clicking their fingers. Well done to the wedding party for joining in after the one minute cue!

Tips for other grooms on their wedding day

It is hard to write the whole day down into small paragraphs, but tips I would like to share with any other grooms that may be out there:

1. Pick your best man wisely: someone who is more than capable, considerate and caring and you’ll be just fine.

2. Make sure you help out your future bride in as many things as possible, she is going through a lot and probably stressing more then she lets on.

3. Don’t forget to involve both of your parents. It’s very easy to be so involved with the project; you forget to include anyone else. And trust me, your mothers know best and have the best ideas, so take them on board!

4. Enjoy the day as it will go so fast – a lot faster than you expect so don’t worry about a thing (it’s so easy for me to say now) but you worry about the bride turning up and if everything will run smoothly and trust me, it will! But bourbon does help!

The photographs used in this post were taken by a guest of ours, and Joe’s awesome brother-in-law. You can see more of his photography here.