It was my big brother’s wedding on Saturday! It was a lovely lovely day, they were really lucky with the weather and it was all fantastic. The bride looked stunning! We had some concerns before the wedding as the ceremony was due to start at 2pm, right at nap time! We debated doing a few different things, including trying to get him to sleep in the morning, or just going with it, hoping he slept during the ceremony and seeing how we got on. After quite a bit of discussion, we decided to do the latter, and it went really well.
Daddy kept him busy all morning, which gave me the time to go to the hairdressers and to do my make up and generally make a bit more of an effort with my appearance than I get time to do (or have the energy to do) on a normal day. It was really nice being able to spend a bit of time pampering myself! We then headed off to the venue a bit early, to catch up with my family, and to tire monkey out a bit and to ensure he would sleep in the ceremony. There was a lot of stones to play with and, well, Monkey is always happy when there are stones to play with! He found that the holes in the fancy garden furniture were great to push them through so he had lots of fun with that.
The time came for the ceremony and the plan was that I would go up to the front with my family, while hubby would sit at the back with Monkey wither asleep in his buggy or on daddy’s shoulder. What we hadn’t anticipated was the string quartet at the back of the wrong. They were fantastic but not really conducive to getting him to sleep. Trying to get him to sleep in his buggy definitely failed so daddy had him on his shoulder but I could hear him crying from the front. I went back to offer some help/support but of course Monkey saw me and wanted mummy cuddles. Daddy got very cross with me for intervening but when we went back to the front and sat down Monkey soon zonked out on my shoulder.
He then snored throughout the ceremony! I’d been so worried about him potentially wailing through the ceremony that I didn’t think about him snoring! It was very cute, and apparently the bride and groom didn’t hear him, but there was a lot of giggling going on from the people around us! Better than him screaming I suppose.
We were also concerned that he wouldn’t sleep for very long. He can sleep from an hour and a half to 3 hours most days for his afternoon nap, and we knew he wouldn’t get that much and thought he may be pretty cranky for the rest of the day. He woke up after the ceremony and then daddy took him for a walk in the grounds but he didn’t want to sleep anymore. Our fears were unfounded though and he was a very happy little monkey for the whole day. We basically just kept feeding him as we decided hey, it’s only one day! and, well, it worked pretty well for us.
My new sister in law was really thoughtful and got him a lovely present for him to play with at the dinner table, which went down a storm! A friend’s little girl was also at our table and the two of them got on really well. We were also sat next to the doors of the conservatory, so we could easily take him outside for a run and play during the meal and speeches, which was really needed.
Hubby had care of him during the speeches so I could stay and hear them, and it was at this point that Monkey did a poo poo and needed a nappy change. Bless hubby, there wasn’t really anywhere to go so he did it outside and there was this moment during the best man’s speech where I turned around and saw the Monkey running around with no nappy on! Eek! I turned to my new sister in law and our eyes met, she had seen the same thing! I just had to mouth ‘sorry’ but she saw the funny side thankfully, and I don’t think many other people saw because of the angle! It will be something funny to tell him when he’s 18 anyway!
After the meal and speeches it was time for Monkey to say goodbye, so hubby took him home and put him to bed where grandma and granddad then looked after him. We had a really lovely time in the evening, dancing and having fun with my family and just generally feeling like a couple again rather than mummy and daddy! At other weddings we have been to we have stayed over so Monkey would have somewhere there to sleep, but it always meant that one of us was in the hotel room with him, and the other was on their own. Thankfully this wedding was nice and close so we could enjoy the day together as a family, then take monkey home and have the evening together as a couple.
