T minus 8

With only just over a week to go until we get married, and less than 48 hours until we’re on our way to Scotland, I’m getting really excited. Yesterday was very emotional as I was able to finally complete the definite versions of the last pieces of stationery and I booked hotels in Oxfordshire and Kent, for the leg of our honeymoon trip which takes in the south of England. Yesterday was also the day on which we were down into single figures for the number of days remaining until our wedding, and that really brought it home to me. The weeks and months of working on our wedding plans have nearly reached an end. Next Friday – next Friday – I will be married! Even listening to a couple of perhaps slightly schmaltzy songs on the train last night, which we’ll have played during our wedding reception, were enough to top off a day of heightened emotion to bring tears of happiness to my eyes. I won’t spoil the surprise for those who are going to be with us next Friday night, nor will I embarrass myself before the wider, internet-reading public, by saying openly which cheesiness has set me off! This morning, I wrote an article for the company intranet and sent emails to over 50 clients, explaining contingency plans during my upcoming absence. I’ve already received good wishes from several of those with whom I’m in regular contact, which has only served to make me more excited.

Tonight and tomorrow night are the final stages of preparation for us here, before we head up to Angus in Scotland. We have to pack clothes for three weeks’ travelling, as well as a big box full of technical and photographic kit, gifts, and all the paraphernalia we’ve accumulated for our wedding day. Four days of long driving are ahead, which I’m really looking forward to. Infinitely changing landscape, with stops in Reims, Cambridge, Skeeby, Dalkeith and Edinburgh – the latter two to collect our marriage schedule, check suits and buy a couple of bits – precede arrival at Jo’s parents’ house, where Swiss godparents and their relatives will also be descending on Tuesday. I totally expect Jo’s parents Roy and Pat to be massively excited on our arrival, as they’ll be going from a house containing just the two of them, a pigeon, a parrot and two dogs, to having an additional five people arriving from abroad. Once we’re there and rested for a day – whilst making final preparations for the festivities – then it’ll be time to head back to the Edinburgh area and into our future.