My (Our) Wedding Week (Part 2)

I think Tuesday is when things got real. I didn't really have much to do in the morning (oh you know...other than mani pedi and a lil' ole' visit to le dentist - he hearts my teeth!). Then began the series of trips to the airport, beginning with picking up sister just after lunch. Ric drove me to get her, she landed in good time and had me waiting for her like the good girl I am, holding a coffee to get her over the jet lag. Standard.

Sister brought us a present!!

I couldn't tell you what I spent the afternoon doing, because I don't remember! There was plenty of time spent prepping sandwiches, cheese plates, etc, and I'm pretty sure I went swimming (nothing abnormal there). But somehow before I knew it our house was inundated with guests who wanted to come and wish us well before the wedding. We had a delightful time, and it really did turn into a party that night, which is of course my favourite thing. I cannot count the number of times that my family has congregated in mum's dining room and the number of times we've had the same conversations over and over. Wouldn't change it for the world!

Actually one thing I would have changed that night is boyfriend's (not husband yet!) flight arrival at 1am. Sister and I had to go pick him up (two airport trips in one day!!!) and we were super sleepy after all that cheese and wine for dinner. We couldn't reaaaally let him get a taxi though - he was about to become family!!!

Four days before the wedding...

Wednesday was a good day. I took boyfriend for his very first haircut at a real hairdresser (none of that barber nonsense). He looked so dashing after Dean Gera were finished with him I could have married him! Ha! On the extra positive side, I always get a cheeky glass of bubbles there so that was a nice 10am breakfast!

After we were done, we met up with George (boyfriend's usher), who had come down from Preston to be there for the wedding and all the pre-wedding celebrations. We then got on the bus to Valletta, where we were planning to meet up with the in-laws, who had also arrived the night before. Everything went swimmingly, and we soon found ourselves at Upper Barakka Gardens, just in time for the noon cannon blast from the Saluting Battery. I tend to go see that a couple of times a year (took the godson at Christmas and he loved it!) and I never tire of seeing that smoke erupt over the Grand Harbour. The in-laws had a little bit of a fright (it was very sudden and loud), which was tres amusing for me and then it was done. So we moseyed over to the lift at the edge of Upper Barakka, which takes you straight down to sea level. I'd never taken that lift before, although I have heard rumours of a certain godson and his twin riding it up and down non-stop. It was fab! And it took us all the way down to the ferry that we were planning to take across to the Three Cities (Cottonera).

Time for today's history lesson. The Three Cities are Cospicua, Senglea and Birgu. They sit on the other side of the Grand Harbour, and can be viewed quite nicely from Valletta and especially the Upper Barakka Gardens. They have a grand history: Birgu (also known as Vittoriosa, 'the Victory City', so named after the Knights won the Great Siege of Malta against the Ottoman Turks) was once capital of Malta for a brief period after the Knights of St John settled in the country round about 1530.  Senglea was founded shortly afterwards by Grandmaster Claude de la Sengle (they had this crazy habit of naming their cities after themselves - total showoffs!). Senglea is also known as Isla to the Maltese, and is a lovely little place. Cospicua (or Bormla) sits in between Senglea and Birgu, and is where we took the ferry to, with the intention of walking over to Birgu. As a visitor, Birgu is probably the most interesting place to visit due to the Fort Saint Angelo, the Inquisitor's Palace and the Maritime Museum (my grandfather's old boat is in there!!!).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we caught the ferry over to Cospicua, and then had a little walk towards Birgu where we found an outdoor restaurant by the sea to have a spot of lunch. Think fresh pasta and fish - absolutely delicious. I can't remember the restaurant's name, but to be honest they're all pretty similar around there (good spot to try octopus). Then after maybe one cisk too many [impossible], we wandered through the lovely windy streets of Birgu to the Inquisitor's Palace and I sent the group to do some sight seeing while I read my book in the sun. I think they enjoyed it - I've been there before and if you're a history buff it's a great place to visit!

Top notch lunch!

We had to trek back on the ferry shortly afterwards for key wedmin. In other words, all the boys had to go try on their suits and my mum, sister and I got to have a few giggles while they did this. Actually, I think they looked pretty good. Boyfriend and I had selected a dark grey morning suit as the grooms party's outfit, and they definitely looked less like penguins and more like dashing young men. Always a good look I think!

Sounds like a long day huh? And we felt it - chat wasn't the best at the pub afterwards, but we still managed to put a few cocktails away at the Tex Mex restaurant we all went to for dinner. Well, at least George and I were on the cocktails - I think the rest were drinking beer. But it wasn't long before we peaked, and that was Day 4 before the wedding done!

Three days before the wedding...

After one day of entertaining foreigners, I was selfishly soooo over entertaining foreigners. Hahaha. So I let boyfriend have a bit of a lie-in and then we got a lift down to Exiles beach to drink a few beers and check out the sea. My Aunty Brigitte had arrived from Holland the day before, and she joined us for a shandy, a chat and crucially, daring to dive into the rocky sea with me. It was so cold but so exhilarating! My sister came to join us for lunch, and friends Shaz and Jon, who were down for the wedding, also came along. So we had some good chat in the sun (Shaz had just returned from travelling and was full of wordly advice), some tasty lunch and a few cisks.

That afternoon my mum and I had to go meet the wedding organiser. Her role was to take care of all the admin on the day and shortly beforehand, including setting up decor, working with the caterer and the band, making sure things ran smoothly, etc. After this we had the wedding rehearsal, a crucial part of the wedding planning. All of the bridal and groom's parties congregated at the church, with the priest, the wedding organiser and a few curious onlookers. Practising walking down the aisle was pretty hilarious, especially convincing the twins to walk straight and convincing my dad not to walk at 100 miles an hour! We also had to go through the key parts of the ceremony, so that we'd know what to expect. The bridesmaids had to be told their duties; the groomsmen had to be talked through who to sit where, and even the mothers of the bride and groom had their instructions. Picture chaos. Pure chaos.

Thankfully we got to relax afterwards. Boyfriend and I were treating my family to dinner as a thank you for the wedding, so we went to a new favourite: Da Nino. It's an Italian trattoria about five minutes from home in Gharghur, and the food is astonishingly good. And big. Very important to remember that each dish could feed an army. Unfortunately the service was quite slow that night, but we still enjoyed a few bottles of their top notch wine, and fed ourselves senseless with ribs, veal and salmon. Absolutely amazing - I would definitely recommend this place to anyone and everyone. And it gave everyone a chance to relax for a bit and not concern themselves too much with thoughts of the wedding.

My veal with kapunata and cheese

This is just one portion of ribs!

Oh, and in case anyone sees all this mention of food and thinks....but Nicky, you were getting married in four days. Surely you weren't eating??!!

Ha! Of course I was. Life is too short.

Two days before the wedding...

Friday was my favourite day of the entire wedding week. All our British friends (and some Australian ones too!) had made it to the island. It was a day of no wedding. It was a day for friends and I couldn't wait.

I invited everyone to congregate at Mellieha Bay, my favourite beach. Mum and I made three loaves of bread (hobza!) with traditional hobz biz-zejt (or bread with oil and tomato). We took limes and gin and prosecco and everything else you could possibly imagine. And then there everyone was, all our friends from around the world were suddenly there, in the sunshine and in their swimsuits, piling on the sun cream (it was a hot day!) and being happy.

What can I say? We laughed and frolicked in the sun and the sea. There was gossip shared, and friends were made. Someone came without a swimsuit and had to buy a dodgy one on the side of the beach. There was a lot of drinking in the sea. Mild nudity may have occurred. It was quite simply, a fantastic day, and I have never appreciated my small, but brilliant group of friends as much as I did that day. Hurrah!!

Friends saying hi!

That evening we were all pretty exhausted (and a touch tipsy). Still, kudos to us for making it to Surfside beach club for a few hours, sharing some pizza, chips, rum & coke (wedding diet still going swimmingly). We had a few more friends on a late flight so hung around until they could get there, and some other friends were enjoying the shisha (can't stand the stuff). I love going to Surfside - it's so relaxed, sitting on the cushions outside, with background music playing and lots going on. I think some people were jumping into the sea (not something I'm keen to do on a fairly chilly May night, when you have to climb over the rocks simply to make your way to the sea edge) which was pretty fun to watch! 

Day before the wedding...

I must admit that I hadn't spent much time thinking about the day before the wedding, because I had been preoccupied with planning the beach day and the wedding itself. So this final day of being girlfriend and boyfriend approached without much thought, and then it was there, so we got on with it.

First thing in the morning we had to head up to our reception venue to drop off all the process for the wedding and a few decorative items. We took boyfriend along (and friend's, slightly awkward to admit this) as he hadn't yet been to the venue. I know - how is that even possible? Well it stems from the venue being refurbished last time he was in Malta and boyfriend not coming to Malta very often. So that's on him really. But luckily what he saw that morning resonated with the pictures of the venue that I had sent him, and he fell in love with it immediately. Phew!

After spending far longer than we would have liked at the venue, we headed back home to pack up our belongings and have a spot of lunch by the pool. Then we wandered over to my Aunty Anne Marie's house. Anne Marie lives a few minutes up the road with Justin and the twins, and she wanted us to come over for some pink fizz and pre-wedding chat. She was my witness for the wedding and very excited about all the fun that was coming the next day. The twins were also running around all excited (I kept making them practice their best walking down the aisle faces).

Rose petals everywherrrrrre!

Yummm

We had to say goodbye all too soon, and then we were off to the Intercontinental in Paceville to drop husband off, as we were obviously sticking to the tradition of not seeing each other on the day before the wedding. This was quite funny - we took boyfriend to his room and found out that my mother had called in to say we were getting married. So boyfriend got a room all to himself, covered in rose petals and a bottle of bubbly to enjoy. My mother immediately had a panic and ran downstairs to tell the concierge to do it all again tomorrow, which was pretty hilarious. And then boyfriend and I said goodbye as boyfriend and girlfriend, and I toddled off to the hairdressers.

Yes, the hairdressers again. The bridal party were all congregating there to get our pre-wedding day blowdries. And I don't care how many times I go to Dean Gera, I will never sicken of their incredible head massages and glasses of prosecco. Mmmmmm.

And then we were back to rushing around, as Dad and his wife were coming for dinner, Sister had her boyfriend and best friend over also and we had to cook. I think this was the point where the grump hit me. I wasn't allowed to do two of my favourite things in the world: cook dinner or drink. I needed to sit prettily and make conversation, which is not exactly my cup of tea. So I got through dinner and scooted off pretty rapidly to watch the Eurovision and not drink a bottle of prosecco. And that, friends, is how I spent my last night as a single woman. Lame huh?

Last minute nerves?