2nd Anniversary of our wedding ceremony.

It is raining and crappy and my MIL is here for the week so I am not feeling very romantic!! Joey was feverish on saturday so I didn`t want to leave him with Jenn in case he got worse so we didn`t even get to have our date. Although he fell asleep early so I managed to get some much-deserved (or so I think anyway!) shut-eye as I have been SO tired lately!!! Anyway.. As I am not in a very romantic mood (although D did get heart-shaped rice balls and a note in his bento today) I thought I would post an e-mail I wrote after we got married and maybe some pictures too...It is weird to read the e-mail and transport back to life pre-motherhood!! March 6th 2004... The week before the wedding was crazy. I was about ten minutes away from a nervous breakdown at various points!!! Thanks to my friend Jenn (Chief Bridesmaid and MC-extraordinaire!) I got through it all and everyone arrived safely and at the right time! We had some problems with flight delays but thanks to the wonderful staff at ANA who held the hands of both my Dad and cousin on two separate days, they both made their connecting flight from tokyo and got here without any problems. My other cousin and two of my best friends also navigated buying tickets etc.. by themselves at Fukuoka station and I was so relieved when they were all here safely and I didn`t have to worry about them!!! The night before the wedding we had a big dinner in the local Capriciosa. There were 15 of us in total- Daisuke`s parents, his brother and fiancee, (now wife) the Best Man, Jenn, Caroline and Annie (the other two bridesmaids), Caroline`s boyfriend Pal-Erik, my cousin Jacqui, my friend Cat from Uni and Eleanor( one of the girls I studied Japanese with.) I was really stressed about this meal because I was worried that people wouldn`t be able to communicate etc.. Daisuke and his family were complete stars though. Without my knowledge, he had given them all english conversation tapes and they had all been practising various phrases so they could say things to my Dad and all the other guests!! I couldn`t have been more touched. The meal was a HUGE success and I have my lovely husband to thank for it. I was so proud and full of love for him as I watched him acting as translator for his parents and my Dad. I was SO surprised by how good his english has become since we were in the UK in August. Everyone kept saying "Wow Midori, you are a great teacher!" at which point I had to admit that actually, we almost never speak english to each other. Daisuke got this good at english all on his own. I had to leave dinner half way through to go to the airport and pick up my cousin Mel and a friend who was coming in from Tokyo. I was very verry worried about what would happen after I had gone so you can imagine my surprise when Daisuke called to say that everyone was getting on like a house on fire (alcohol is a WONDERFUL thing!!! ) and that they were in a bar having more drinks!!!! I made it to the bar right as everyone was ready to get home but was so happy to see all the men at the bar and all the women in a corner, rather than the English/ Japanese spilt that I had expected! Everyone was the best of friends by the time they met again at the wedding the following day, which gave me one less thing to worry about. The wedding day dawned and I was slightly disappointed that despite the lovely weather the week before, it was fairly cold and not sunny at all. BUT I overcame my disappoint by bouncing around, waking everyone up singing "It`s my wedding day.. la la la!!"" I had three friends staying with me and had to go and pick up the hairdresser and my other two bridesmaids. The morning of the wedding was almost as much fun as the wedding itself. We had Mr Donuts for breakfast and then started getting ready. Eleanor was an absolute star and ran around making tea, ironing dresses and even doing the washing up!! I don`t know what we would have done without her. (we definitely would not all have been ready on time!) My hair and make-up was first and then I did a Mos Burger run wearing jeans and a shirt with my hair up and tiara in!! I got alot of funny looks but no more than usual!!! (one advantage of being in Japan is that people just expect you to do strange things when you are foreign!!) We were all ready on time (just) and the cars arrived to take us to the church. We live on a very busy road so you can imagine the surprise of all the people passing when they saw a random foreigner all dolled up as a bride getting into a car. Suffice to say, we caused a bit of a traffic jam!!! The ceremony was beautiful. I shed a few tears during my vows but more during Daisuke`s!!! We did them in both English and Japanese and I was do overwhelmed by the emotion of it all. I had seen films of weddings and dreamed about my own so I could hardly believe that it was really happening! The priest did the whole ceremony in both English and Japanese and I was so happy because it meant that everyone was able to understand what was going on! The sun even came out long enough to take some pictures outside the church (but then it started hailing and we had to head to the reception place!!!) The reception was great. Daisuke indulged me by not insisting on anything Japanese and as a result we had a first dance, dances with the parents and lots of time to eat and drink and talk to people. We ended up doing the rounds of the tables separately which everyone thought was absolutely hilarious!!! At this point I have to say a HUGE thank you to Jenn for doing all the MC-ing and translating the speeches of the Best Man and my Dad. She was an absolute star and again, I don`t know what we would have done without her. The reception was so much fun. I didn`t really get to eat very much but I hear the food was lovely! I also didn`t get any wedding cake but I hear that was extra yummy as well!!! The second party was packed!! (In Japan it is a tradition to have a second party for the people you couldn`t invite to the reception) I have been to second parties since that made me realise exactly how rare ours was. It was a great party!! Half the people from the reception came, even though we had booked the place for 40!!! It was a bit of a squish but everyone seemed to enjoy the "all you can drink" aspect!!! For the third party we headed towards the local Karaoke place and took over the whole 3rd floor and then everyone split up into smaller groups for the 4th party!! apparently lots of people were drinking until 8am! We finally gave in at about 3am because my hair was really starting to hurt!!! It seems like everyone had a fabulous time and in traditional wedding fashion, there were several potential couples by the end of the night!!! Daisuke keeps joking that at this rate, he is going to get to be best man at LOTS of weddings!!