family – lifewithlynette

Wow, it’s been such a long time since I last posted on the blog! I’m sure you know why (and if you don’t, you can guess by the content of this post)…WE GOT MARRIED! Welcome back/hi lovely readers. After THE MOST INCREDIBLE DAY OF OUR LIVES last month, our photos came back earlier this week. Sugarbird managed to capture our day perfectly, and we’re over the moon with every single photo!

Whether it’s a cliche to say or not, it really was the most magical day of our lives, and we’re so incredibly grateful to every single person who celebrated with us or sent messages of congrats and well wishes – the love we’ve experienced in the last month is extraordinary and we feel so lucky. I could waffle on for multiple paragraphs about how out of this world the whole experience has been, but that’s not why you’re here…you’re here for a photographic timeline of the day! So here we go:

7:00am – Alarm (may or may not have already been awake)

7:30am – Bridesmaids arrive, bridal party start getting ready

8:00am – Groom gets ready

9:00am – Sugarbird arrives and starts snapping away

9:30am – Flowers arrive

10:00am – Groomsmen are ready and preparing to meet guests

10:15am – Guests start to arrive

10:20am – Last minute hair tidying

10:30am – The dress goes on

10:40am – Dad arrives in Bridal Suite

10:50am – Guests seated, Groom trying to remain as calm as possible

10:59am – Show time

11:00am – Ceremony

11:30am – Mr & Mrs

11:40am – Slip away from guests for ‘us’ time

11:50am – Return to drinks reception and mingle

12:00pm – Confetti and formal photos outside

12:20pm – Get the bloomin’ sixpence out of the shoe, because after 2 hours, it hurts

12:25pm – Couple shots

12:40pm – Breathe. The adrenalin’s wearing off and exhaustion setting in…

1:00pm – Second wind! Call in to wedding breakfast

1:15pm – Speeches

1:45pm – Food!

3:45pm – Quiz

5:00pm – The Great Bishy Bake Off

5:45pm – Guests mingle, photo time for us

7:00pm – Evening guests arrive

7:30pm – Cut cake

7:35pm – First dance

7:40pm – Parent’s dance

7:45pm – Buffet, sweet cart, PARTY!

8:30pm – Outside for sunset shots and a walk around the grounds together

10:00pm – Sparklers and Fireworks

10:30pm – Hot dogs and more dancing!

12:00am – Home time. Thankyou to everyone who shared in our special day ❤️

Games have always been a big part of our family, so naturally, they’re a big part of Christmas too. The games changed as Todd and I got older, but now we have a few good go-tos that come out every year! Christmas is different this year for us because #adulting, so a lot’s changed, but these games are traditions now – hopefully we’ll keep a few of them going!

Monopoly

This was our little sibling tradition. We’d have a late lunch whilst watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, then out the Monopoly board would come, along with the Pringles, Baileys and Christmas music channels. Todd always wins, because I let him have Park Lane and Mayfair 🙄 But we always have a laugh, and it was such a lovely tradition for so many years…this’ll be the first year without it!

Buzz

On most evenings around Christmas, we get out Buzz! We’ve loved Buzz for YEARS, and it wasn’t set as ‘Christmas only’ game, but that’s the only time of year when we’re all together in the same place these days! It’s a quiz show (either Music or General Knowledge, there’s a few discs you can get) with various rounds, of varying length, all controlled with a buzz pad each. You can take it as seriously (or not!) as you want, and I really would recommend it! This’ll give you an idea…
(You can probably skip through the first 45 seconds though)

Scattergories

Get into teams, pick a list of questions, role the lettered dice, start the timer, and fill in the list with words that start with that letter – again, you can take it as seriously (or not!) as you want – though sometimes, taking it less seriously, being more creative (and enjoying a drink or two at the same time) makes it even more fun! I LOVE this game and can’t wait for our fam to introduce it to Ed and Verity this year!

Headbanz

If you don’t know what Headbanz is, WHERE have you been living?! It can be frustrating if you can’t get your card, but if you’ve had a couple of drinks, it doesn’t matter as much 😉 There’s plenty of embarrassing stories attached to this game, but I’ll save them for another time…

Kazoos

Definitely best under the influence of alcohol (that seems to have turned into a bit of a theme doesn’t it? Oops 😜) It’s not a particularly challenging game, it’s got simple rules – get into teams, pick a card, pick one of the songs on it (of varying degrees of difficulty), and start kazooing! If they guess the song, you get the points! As I say, not particularly special, (I don’t think you need a video for this one!) but at 10:30pm on Christmas Day, after a few drinks, with certain family members (DAD) who are rubbish at kazooing, it’s hilarious 😂 It’s the perfect light hearted game if you need some daft-ness in your day!

Our Christmas will be different this year to any other, we’ll have 6 of us for our games evening on Christmas Day rather than just 4 – if you have any fun game recommendations, let me know in the comments below! Not Cards Against Humanity though! Ed and I played it a couple of times recently with friends to see if we could introduce it to my parents at Christmas… NOPE. A big fat NO. Definitely not 😂

Tag: family

Our Wedding Timeline

Best Family Games at Christmas

Monopoly

Buzz

Scattergories

Headbanz

Kazoos