Should Probably Mention ...

... I got married at the beginning of the month.
Twas fully awesome and the best day of my life to date. Its well documented in pictures over at Facebook, but I haven't really spoken to anyone about how it felt - my internal ramblings etc.

Thanks to Rach, I was rocking a be-awesome blue suit and Union Jack All Stars.
We'd had rain forecast all week and it pissed down hard all night leading up to it - but 2 hours before the ceremony the skies cleared and it was the most amazing beautiful day.

Dan had been whisked away to his mate David's, so that we wouldn't see each other before the ceremony. I arrived with about 20 minutes to go and hid round the side of the building with Rich, Shane & Mark. Upon entering City Hall, a not un-attractive man asked where I was going. 'I'm getting married' I explained - 'Oh Hi Paul' he said - he knew who I was - small detail but really impressed me! I had to go off into a separate room first and talk legal shit with the registrar, then had my Mum walk me in. I hadn't told her - so it was a nice surprise for her on the day. We had chosen that I make an entrance to one version of the Bridal Dancing Queen from Muriel's Wedding.

I wasn't really nervous to speak of, but did feel incredibly self conscious at first. But as soon as you see how amazingly happy everyone looks for you, that dissipates rapidly. As we faced the front and went through the ceremony, I was vaguely aware that a person was kind of off to my side and in front, taking pictures, but it was only about halfway through I realised it was our friend Emma!

We had rings to exchange and had chosen from the sets of vows they give you. Ours did have a line about faithful after all the love and cherishy stuff - and you could almost hear the silent giggle from our friends who know we have an open affair, but it was all good. Until I had a fit of laughter during one set of my vows. It was seriously taking every last bit of concentration to not howl aloud. And then I had to just look into Dan's eyes while he said his version. Which is when I lost the plot and started shaking violently with suppressed laughter. Suppose it was kind of nerves, kind of just so immensely overjoyed and relieved and happy to be there, doing this mad thing.
Which is what put Dan off .... causing him to get my name wrong. If you watch the video, I slap his arm for it. I am not overfond of my middle name at the best of times, so him putting it first and calling me Charles Paul Robinson -well that just made me want to laugh even more.

Our dear friends Nick & Robb did a brilliant reading from Tales of the City for us, and then while we and our witnesses signed the legal stuff, we had an edited version of For Good from Wicked playing, and we left to the other version of Bridal Dancing Queen.

It was fucking ace.

And if you follow Torchwood Children of Earth - there is a bit .. in day 4 .... where as they evacuate Thames House, You see Jack in a corridor shouting while lights flash and sirens wail - he is stood outside the room we got married in!!!

The sun held for us as we posed for photos with everyone outside in the gardens. Awesome.
We went down to Cardiff Bay for a Chinese buffet. Be-awesome
Then went to Terra Nova to kill time until the evening - stupidly hot. I thought I was going to melt.
The evening was then a private room in a pub in Cardiff. We did a cutting of cake thing but generally mingled and chatted to all our came along. Twas fantastic.

Its also massively humbling, having so many people just be there, for you. All day my mind was racing with a mix of 'why the hell are they all dressing up and coming out just for us?' & feeling like I had just stepped off five consecutive rides on Nemesis at Alton Towers. It was a 10 hour massive adrenalin rush.

But it was brilliant.

Ceremony part 1
Ceremony part 2