I've decided that despite making a total hash of my speech yesterday I'd give myself another chance to make a better job of it online so although I may not be speaking these words on the day, they are what I MEANT to say before my brain refused to take on the task properly!

So, here goes, close your eyes and picture me in my red suit, barefoot, standing with David, my Dad and Iain in front of our hen house (see mesh behind our heads).......and in front of our guests.

Hello everyone. Welcome to our home. Thank you all for joining us to celebrate our wedding day.

It's becoming more common for brides to participate in the speech making part of a wedding and as I've always got something to say, I decided I'd join the growing band of women who choose to speak at their own event.

What I'd like to say breaks down into three broad areas:

Thanks

We have so many people to thank for the success of today, in no particular order;

* David's parents have kindly bought us the cake which we'll be cutting later today, along with the champagne we're all drinking. Margaret also helped out in the kitchen yesterday for several hours, tidying stuff up and washing the potatoes that Patti dug up from our vegetable garden. David's Dad helped with setting up of the beer tent!
* David's sister and her family have spent the morning here, helping to set up the garden, the fire pits and the drinks tent.
* Annie and Chris escorted us to the registry office and have spent several days doing dashes out to shops for us when I've realised I need something that's not been bought!
* Janet, along with John, has made a wonderful job of our wedding flowers and decorations. She came down here about six weeks ago to discuss what I wanted and to source her equipment. I wanted things from my own garden and from the local hedgerows and despite our weather preventing many of the things she'd planned being available, what she arrived here with was so spectacularly lovely that she made me cry this morning. I'm pleased to report that I've got lavendar and bamboo in my bouquet that were, until yesterday, growing right here in this garden. That's such a special achievement.
* Patti helped me in the kitchen yesterday, in fact she also spent a lot of time out in the rain digging up the potatoes we'll be eating later on today and cleaning the mud off them - a really nasty job but well done. She's been helping with the setting up of everything in the garden this morning. Dave helped David with lugging of furniture and beer!
* Colin and Anthea also helped with setting things up this morning, as well as humping furniture around yesterday.
* Jan (my little sister) made all of the flags that lined our front pathway for today and she has looked after me this morning by helping me with my hair and nails.
* Gayle, Emily and Corrie (our waitresses and general helpers today) are the nieces of two of our friends and guests, Adele and Paul.
** My Mum did the grottiest job - cleaning of just about the whole house, not to mention just getting on with whatever else needed doing, including ironing my nearly-husband's shirt this morning! Not only has she helped this week, but she was also here with my Dad three weeks ago, when they both worked hard all weekend towards today's event. They've been wonderful.
** Claire has worked really hard since she arrived yesterday - and with the benefit of hindsight as I'm writing this after the event she also masterminded getting all of the food we've consumed all day from the kitchen into our tummies - by orchestrating the cooking and serving, with the help of Gayle, Emily and Corrie, along with Becky and Toni who also spent hours helping out. Most of all though, in much the same way as we wouldn't be here without our parents, it's also true to say we wouldn't be standing here today at all without Claire. She introduced us and nudged us towards each other at the right moment....more of that later.
** Becky and Iain have been our dear friends for what seems like a lifetime, although it's only five years since we met. Becky organised my lovely hen party, helped me choose my wedding dress and again with that hindsight has worked hard today to make sure all goes well. Iain organised David's stag party and David was thrilled he accepted the role as best man. One which I'm sure he regrets since our hopeless disorganisation in terms of the logistics of today. They also contributed to the wine we'll be drinking later.

Many of our guests have helped me through the darkest hours of my illness (clinical depression for anyone who doesn't know) by offering me shelter in their homes, when I was still in denial about being ill and later by supporting me while I was ill and recovering. I thank all of you specially and hope that I can return your generosity today by giving you food and shelter in return.

Finally in the thanks queue is mother nature. We have been on pins for weeks about whether we'd get away with it in terms of weather. Not only has it been dry, but for the most part it's been lovely. I think the sun shines on us in more ways than one!


The wedding and food

We've tried really hard to stick to our ecological and environmental ideals with what we've done. I've prepared and cooked all of the food. The potatoes, peas, broad beans eggs and herbs are all from our own garden. The beef that you will eat later on was reared organically and humanely three miles away by friends of ours. The fish was line caught in day boats from Pengellys of Looe. The types of fish are all sustainable - pollock, ling and gurnard, along with Cornish smoked haddock. The vegetarian pie is made with Cornish Blue cheese, made less than a mile from our home. I've used local milk, butter, strawberries, raspberries and cream. I've (along with my Mum) picked wild bilberries and strawberries to use in the jam. The flours I've used to make the pastries, scones and bread are all old-fashioned varieties, many of them in very limited use today.

Everything is home made, from the scones, bread, jams, dips, pies, puddings. The champagne is Camel Valley Vineyards sparkling wine, made 10 miles from here and even the tea was grown in Cornwall at the Tregothnan estate. Not only that but I've achieved this with a budget of less than half what some close friends spent on their (not extravagent) food alone 17 years ago.

After all the effort, I so hope our guests both appreciate the ethics of our food choices and enjoy eating them with us. I believe completely that breaking bread with friends is one of the most fundamental emotional needs of us as humans.

Our rings were made by Cornish silversmith, Kate Laity who sourced us recycled silver and shares our ideals and my earrings are also her creations, made from old glass, tossed into the sea and washed up on the beach. Not only that but the recycled silver she found for us contained silver waste from the photographic industry - how cool is that?

You'll notice that none of the crockery matches! This is because I have been and bought it in charity shops. I've been picking up half a dozen cups and saucers in the Oxfam shop, a dozen plates in Barnardos, a dozen bowls in St Luke's Hospice shop for months now. Next week, I'll be taking it all back so effectively I've hired the crockery by paying donations to good causes.

I wish I could say my dress was a vintage dress but although I tried, I couldn't find something I liked in my size.

The nice thing is that all of our guests who've travelled down here from up-country have also helped to boost the Cornish economy by spending money on accomodation, meals and other things while here. Thank you all for that, we need it!

Please share our home by taking time to look at some of the work we've done, both in the house, in the garden and in our field. Please also help us to reduce the pressure on our bathrooms, along with minimising our use of water today by gentlemen using our straw toilet in the garden, rather than the toilets in the house.

David

I love David. I think everyone knows that already. I have always worn my heart on my sleeve. It's taken us twenty years to get here. My buddy Claire introduced us after she met David at a beetle club do.

Early on in those twenty years since Claire introduced us, we'd often have conversations in my car that went "come in for coffee"...."I can't I'm married". I often wonder what would have happened if I'd have accepted one of those offers. Would our great love have started sooner? Would we now be celebrating 15 years of marriage to one another instead of being here as newly weds? Would we have our own family? None of these questions can be answered because fate kept us apart for many years.

Somehow, we both found ourselves single at the same time. Somehow we got chatting and exchanged email addresses. We found ourselves emailing each other every day then starting out tentatively to date. Claire was watching us and waiting. We moved in together. We moved out together (of London that is).

David helped me over my illness with quiet patience and gentle kindness. He felt unable to ask me to marry him either when I was a corporate whore or later when I was ill. When he was sure I'd found my way out of the black hole, he popped the question and made me the happiest woman alive.

Now none of the years that we spent apart matter. They're just history. What matters is that we finally made it into each other's arms. We finally found real happiness. David has helped me to extend my horizons beyond being a workaholic and now, finally, I feel as though I am going to realise my potential to be more than a "corporate whore".

I intend to spend the rest of my days loving this man. David, thank you for asking me to be your wife. I won't ever let you down.

NOTE: David has set up a gallery of photos of the day, taken by our friends, including pbasers Gail, Ray and Claire, who also have photos on their pages.

Gail took this shot.