Fairy Tale Wedding

So you haven't heard from me since Monday...we are still alive.  We spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready for the wedding, finalizing details and packing.  We got up bright and early Thursday morning and started to get ready for the big day.  Michalea came to pick all of us girls up to go to her granny's house so that her cousin, Reuben, could do her hair.  From there, Gordon, Jess and I hopped in the car with Michaela and left for the wedding venue...Darver Castle in Ireland!  Of course we got lost on the way and took a HUGE detour through the Irish countryside.  Our friend Emilie (not me) was totally clueless and actually thought that we were in the correct route and kept commenting on how scenic the drive was:).  We ended up driving an extra hour because of that wee little detour:(.  Thanks to Michaela's iPhone, we used google maps and got back on track.  We were supposed to have been at the castle before 12, but didn't arrive until AFTER 1...you can imagine the panic!

This castle has been here since the 15th century!  See the tiny window at the very top?...that's where Nick and I stayed!  It was a tiny room with slanted in walls, so I named it Cinderella's Tower:)

The wedding ceremony started at 2pm, with about 5 worship songs, then a message and finally the marriage vows.  It was interesting because it was similar in some ways to Josef and Gunhild's wedding that we attended in the Faroe Islands.  No rehearsal, no rehearsal dinner, an early wedding, party until after midnight...the big difference was that the Faroese weddings have every guest bring a cake, so there were about 70 cakes!!!  But Michaela and Jonny's wedding only had 3 cakes:).  Also, during the wedding the bride, the groom and the wedding party get to sit down!  I guess it's because the weddings are so long!

Once the wedding was over the guests were served tea, coffee, biscuits (cookies) and wine.  Everyone sat around and hung out in the castle rooms while the wedding party took photos.  All throughout the castle there were small and large sitting rooms, so everyone had a comfy chair or couch to relax.

I introduced Michaela to Pinterest about a year ago, so this was basically a Pinterest wedding:).  Sorry Jonny!  You're forever welcome Michaela!  All of the groomsmen and bridesmaids wore dresses and suits that we each chose for ourselves...we only had to follow a color scheme.  Look at how well it turned out!

You wouldn't believe how cold it was while we were taking these photos...we were all shaking uncontrollably and trying to get body warmth from each other!  We were glad that the photographers, Sam and Danielle Kwan, were quick!

Once it was getting close to dinner time, all of the bridal party and family lined up at the entrance to the reception and greeted each person.  We sat down and dinner began to be served around 6.

Look at how beautiful a castle wedding is!  I couldn't get over the stone walls and draped curtains!

Our starter was caramelized red onion and Bellingham cheese tartlet drizzled with herb oil.  So gooooooood!  The red onions were so sweet!

The soup was cream of chicken and vegetable.  I was already full at this point!

The main course had three options, but I chose roast fillet of salmon with strawberry and apricot salsa served with a light bcurre blanc.  And at this point I was sickly full!

Then we had a dessert plate with coffee:). And at this point, I couldn't move!

Once dinner was over, the tables were moved out of the center (it was hard to stand because I had created an Irish food baby over the past two hours) and the real party began!  We had a Ceili!!!  It is so much like square dancing, but with Irish/Scottish music.  We had to learn new steps before each song and most every dance was in a circle, where you spin, walk backwards and forwards, switch partners, etc...it was hilarious because so many of us were getting the steps mixed up and running into each other.  I seriously almost wet my pants over and over again for the entire hour that we danced.  I don't think I've ever jumped up and down and spun around so many times in my life!  The best dance was the last one, called Strip the Willow.  Nick and I started by spinning round and round for sixteen counts at the top of the two lines.  Then we break off and I skipped over to the men's line to link arms and spin around, while Nick skipped over to the womens line to link arms and spin around.  Then we meet back in the center, link arms and spin and then go back to the men and womens lines on the sides again...you do that over and over until you've linked and spun down the whole line to the other side of the room.  It was SO fun!!!  Look it up on YouTube.

Once the Ceili was over, the "Disco" began:)  This is the part of the evening when Nick and I sit back and watch other people and laugh!  They had the smoke, the lights and all of the popular music.  Most people were shy to get started so I basically forced Emilie (again, not me) to start a train.  Emilie didn't even struggle...she just took it like a champ and started marching around to the beat of the music.  As soon as we started going we got a huge line behind us and ran our train through the room...once we got back to the dance floor, we all broke off and the dancing resumed!  It was so crazy how many of our OM Ships friends were there...we all gathered together for a photo and there must have been close to 20 of us!

Around 11pm (9 hours into the wedding), we had Fish and Chips and another round of tea and coffee:).  So much good food!  Finally around 1am, the wedding was over...we said goodbyes to many of our friends and crashed into bed in Cinderella's Tower around 2!!!  That was almost a full 12 hours of wedding celebration!  

So this morning, we had breakfast, said more goodbyes and took off to the Dublin airport...next stop...Edinburgh, Scotland!!!

Maddy is sitting here with us, getting ready to head home to Manchester...so one more goodbye...then we're leavin on a jet plane:)