Mr. & Mrs. Helen & Jon Aspey!

This time last weekened we were all still recovering from Helen & Jon's wedding the day before!  Already a week in to marriage, they're blissfully enjoying Crete, Greece, while the rest of us reminisce on what a fantastic day it was! 

So the basics go like this:
We got ready, Helen looked AMAZING! 

We laced her in to ther dress, which was no small fete as she's tiny and there was a lot of lacing to be done to keep the dress in place (no one wants to be "that" Bride in church ;-) )

After arriving at the church in the most lovely wedding bus ever, and hearing the bell's ring around the village for them, they had a beautiful, traditional Church of England ceremony:

Sidenote:  I know I do this for a living, but sometimes I forget that every culture, country, religion does things differently and this ceremony was no exception.  My favorite differences were that the Bridesmaids followed Helen & Uncle Freddie in to the church, which makes total sense, hence the "bride's maids" or maids in waiting.  Second, which I don't think I realized at Mike & I's wedding in the same church, they don't have a "you may now kiss the Bride" moment.  Kind of a shame, but being in the Church of England, not really surprising either.  I think I've watched "Four Weddings and a Funeral" one too many times and don't know what's reality and what's production anymore :-)  Call me a floozie, but that was my favorite bit at our wedding in Raleigh!  :-)

Anyway, after the ceremony (did I mention that Helen's AT LEAST the fourth generation of our family to be married in that church?!  Pretty amazing if you really think about it!), there were lots of pictures before heading to the reception at the DeVere Hotel at Reebok Stadium, Bolton Football Team's home stadium.  There was a drinks reception, followed by a delicious meal, and then an evening reception.  None of this "four our maximum timeframe for a reception" shenanigans, the reception started around 3:30p and ended around 1:00a ( I can't lie, Mike & I gave up around 12:00a, what can I say, Mike is married to an old lady these days!)!!  Everyone had a fabulous time partying the night away!

It was a beautiful, perfect wedding day (it didn't even rain!!) and we are so happy for Helen & Jon!  Our family is so excited to have Jon join our madness, and I'm sure his family feels the same way!  We can't wait to see professional pictures from the big day and to spend the next 50 years celebrating with the Aspey's! 

Congratulations, you two!! xx
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