1st weekend away with Emmy – Mr & Mrs Hardy’s wedding

What a fantastic weekend we have had. Emmy’s godmother (Paul’s cousin) Joanna was getting married, so we booked to stay in the hotel where the reception would be in Canvey Island for 2 nights.

We arrived on Friday along with lots of other family members to make a weekend of it after sending Barney off to a friend for his holiday. On arriving, Emmy was clearly excited and started running around and having lots of fun, feeding the ducks and the Koi carp in the beer garden, running around the decking of the bandstand, and generally entertaining everyone.

Our room was room was lovely and big, meaning Emmy had lots of space to play with the numerous toys we had taken to amuse her but never actually needed! We did have to mover her travel cot, which had been placed right next to our bed (Emmy has been in her own room since 4 weeks old!!) to next to the door. This also acted as a doorstop, as we discovered as soon as we entered the room that Emmy could unlock and open the door and run down the corridor.

Emmy did amazingly well, as we ate all meals this weekend later than she normally does; this didn’t faze her at all, and she behaved brilliantly. She even made some lovely friends this weekend, as children tend to do. On Friday night, Emmy found a 4-year-old to play with outside, and the 2 of them ran around for hours together, Emmy bossing around the bigger girl and telling her where to sit, stand, and play. (I have no idea where she gets her bossiness from.)

The wedding was on Saturday, and after having breakfast together, the bride and bridesmaids all headed upstairs to get ready. We went into town to kill a few hours, then came back for lunch and a play of Emmy’s new toy, Create a World. I had won this in a competition on Mummy News and put it away for such occasions. This kept Emmy amused for quite a while; it’s a giant felt mat with fuzzy felt characters/houses/roads, etc. You can create so many different scenes and pictures that the fun is endless.

Then it came time to get ready. Paul took Emmy while I started to get ready (as it takes me the longest). I was nearly ready when they came back to the room. I put on my dress and the zip broke. We had half an hour until we had to leave for the wedding, and I had nothing to wear. I was not happy, so leaving Paul to get him and Emmy ready, I raced to the local shopping centre and grabbed 3 dresses from the rail in the first shop I went into and tried them on; 1 fitted, so I bought it and raced back. We made the church in plenty of time!

Joanna looked amazing, and Matt scrubbed up well too!!  The service was lovely, with readings done by family members and our cousin Abigail singing while they signed the register—she was brilliant!!  The service itself was long as it was a Catholic wedding, and Emmy sat really well throughout most of it—with the lifesaving Ben & Holly on YouTube on my phone, I only had to take her out for the last 20 minutes or so.

After a few pictures, we all headed back to the hotel for more pictures. Emmy kept trying to get into all the pictures—she’s not camera-shy, that’s for sure!!

Emmy was so funny after the confetti had been thrown for the pictures; she decided that she didn’t like that and all must be tidied up; she kept saying “Oh no” and pointing to the confetti on the ground, then trying super hard to clean it all up.