Reader, I married him.

Yesterday at 4.05pm (I was late - I wanted to hear the cricket score) I walked down the aisle, in glorious sunshine (and almost gale force winds) to meet Mr Jones in my dream outside ceremony in front of our family and friends - and it was perfect.

We want to say thank you to everyone who helped to make our wedding so amazing. I still can't quite believe it, it was so beautiful. I am very excited to be Mrs Jones - and I love how excited Mr Jones seems about it all too.

I'd like to say a very special thank you to the Mother of the Bride - who was so desperate to make my day perfect that she hasn't slept or eaten more than a morsel in days. Mummy - I know I snapped and snorted and generally displayed bridezilla-ish tendancies, which you of course bore the brunt of - but I honestly, truly couldn't have had such a perfect day without your help. It was my dream come true - so thank you. (I'd also like to add that really you only have yourself to blame for my ingrained perfectionism and pickiness - because I take after you and you taught me to have big dreams).

Anyway - I've been desperate to share all of the little wedding bits of pieces with you all and I shall enjoy boring all of you who couldn't be there with every detail of the day when we get back from our honeymoon. We can't wait for the photos. Take care and thank you all again.

I'm getting married today!

Hurrah - it's finally here (hear sigh of relief from everyone involved). Today I am getting married to Mr Jones. Of course I became Mrs Jones legally yesterday - and I will admit that I found the old registry office bit more moving than I thought I would. We smiled a lot.

But today is our proper wedding - the one that will make Mr Jones and I truly husband and wife. The weather is still keeping me in a constant state of nervous tension - although the Beeb reckon that at 4pm Lyveden will be bathed in sun (well Corby anyway - and that's near enough - fingers crossed).

Yesterday I had a bridezilla moment about the wine glasses which I think shocked the Mother in Law. But honestly they looked like they would have felt more at home in a bowls club cheese and wine night circa 1985. Luckily the maid of honour was on the phone and remedied the situation professionally while I stalked about fuming and ranting - "See - this is what happens when you delegate - I should have just ordered them myself".

The mother in law left shortly afterwards clearly thinking that her son is marrying some kind of controlling harridan. To be fair I probably didn't help the situtaion because I got a bit obsessed about table cloths and the precise way to fold a napkin - oh well - it's my wedding and I want it done properly.

This morning we are making scones - I apologise to the mother of the bride and the maid of honour for my mood swings and for the fact that I just accused my mother of trying to damage the beloved Kitchenaid - when actually it turns out she was just trying to move it! I'm sure my mental stability will return at some point this morning.

Can't wait to see you all later!

Sick as a dog

Aside from the famed cough, when I get excited/nervous I get a frequent and uncontrollable urge to throw up. I have no idea why. So today I feel very, very sick.

I'm not nervous that Mr Jones won't turn up - oh no - after all we're going to the registry office today - together - to do the legal bit. So after signing all the paper work and making it official today, it would be pretty pointless if he didn't turn up tomorrow for our "proper" wedding.

However I am slightly nervous that everything that has been in my head for the past 18 months (29 years!) won't all come together at once, or that I've forgotten to do something vital, or that my sleep deprived face will show through even Mrs Green's most masterful make-up efforts. Or perhaps my worst fear - that the predicted scattered showers will decide to scatter themselves over lyveden at precisly 4pm tomorrow afternoon.

So a quick reminder to all our guests - I am determined to have this ceremony outside - so unless there is an utter downpour it will be in the glorious open. Bring wellies, big umbrellas and prepare to run for cover if the heavens open. Hopefully if we're thus prepared the sun will shine.

The Sweat Shop

If you were in the vacinity of Queens Street yesterday you may have heard the whirring of sewing machines, the odd burst of swearing, the puff of a steam iron and the chatter of women working. We sewed and steamed and tied and knotted to make pretty things for the wedding. The to-do list is almost ticked off. Not long now. A big thank you to the Mother of the Bride and the Maid of Honour for their help and humour.

The marquee goes up today and the wine is off to be chilled, the suits are to be picked up and Mr Jones is at home to be organised(!).Tomorrow the baking will start. The kitchen floor has just been cleaned in anticipation.

The only unknown is the weather. This morning the BBC says heavy rain showers, as do weather.com and GMTV - yes I've checked them all. The satelite maps don't look too bad - but lets keep our fingers crossed for stiff breeze on Thursday to blow it all away.

This morning Mr Jones and I had a lovely bacon sandwich - we heartily recommend Beans cafe in Stamford for breakfast. The promise of a bacon sarnie out is a very handy tool to get lazy men out of bed and moving on their first day off in months - he's even had his hair cut and it's only 10.26!

It's in the house

The dress is here and the spare room is strictly a no-go-zone for Mr Jones and cats with dirty paws or a penchant for scratching things.

It looks beautiful and all the sleepless nights, caused by a certain photograph taken by the Mother of the Bride in which the dress looked hideous, are well and truly over - and she promises never to come near me with a camera again.

Now I just have to get round to breaking in my shoes.

Busy, busy, busy

I completely forgot to take pictures of my baking efforts, but fear not there will be more this week. For the first time ever my ginger fudge went completely wrong - and I have neither the time nor the patience (nor the pennies) for make another batch. But never mind there will be plenty of other things to eat.

The charity fete went well - though it wasn't as busy as last year - perhaps the credit crunch is making people less generous? I'm not sure if I've made a grave error and tempted fate a little too much. You see there was a newspaper man there to take the obligatory picture for the local paper (for local people don't you know) and when he asked my name Mr Jones and I said "Rebecca Jones". Was that wrong - the paper comes out on Wednesday?

Today we have made table plans (no easy task especially when people keep changing their minds about whether they're coming or not!), we have filled bags, cut out fabric (I have a bruised index finger on my right hand) and ticked lots of things off the to-do list.

On thing that I managed to achieve that was most definitely not on the to-do list was to scrape the bumper of a rather nice BMW parked outside our house. (It was only a matter of time - and in my defence my parallel parking efforts were under pressure from a very impatient person sitting right up my proverbial). I cried a lot, shouted at Mr Jones (he was just there) and I've left an apologetic note to the owner, but as yet I haven't been hunted down. I do hope they won't be too cross - but you know what they say about BMW drivers.

I'm free!

Oh I forgot to say - the work is done and I'm free - for almost a month, hurrah.

Today will be filled with honeymoon shopping, facials and cake baking. FOr those of you in the Stamford area on Saturday do come and visit Mr Jones and I and the best man for that matter - at the Alms House Fete in Bourne (am) - we'll be doing the tea and cakes and raising money for charity.

I will of course fill you in on my baking efforts later on - the kitchen floor is licking it's lips.