This weekend my tiny little niece Elsie turned one. Crazy.

So Saturday morning was spent icing fairy cakes, chopping salad and blowing up the ball pit for the party.

It was Tinkerbell themed so Elsie had a little fairy outfit on and there was a big Tinkerbell cake.

Then the families arrived, which meant lots of tiny children running around and playing with all of Elsie’s awesome presents. I think her favourite was a pink pick-up truck (like those Little Tikes red and yellow ones we used to have that you push along with your feet). Although she’s a bit little at the moment to actually push it along with her feet, she spent about an hour just climbing in and out of it!

She looked like she was having lots of fun and was certainly exhausted by the end of the day!

I can’t believe it was only a year ago that she looked like this! Look at her tiny little head!

It’s all been a bit quiet on the blog front recently but I have a good excuse. We’ve had a huge family wedding! I was having so much fun with everyone that I even forgot all about my 5 Friday Favourites – oops!

Saturday was the wedding of my sister-in-law, Neile and all the family from up north came down for the occasion. It was amazing! It started with Nick’s cousin Roxie, her fiance & two children arriving on Thursday night and we spent the evening building the table favours and trying out bridesmaid hairstyles.

(Just in case you get confused, Nick is my husband, Neile is his little sister and Luke is the groom!)

Friday was totally manic with so many last minute bits to get done, everyone was popping in and out of the house and every time I came back, more and more family had turned up. Then we had a rehearsal at the church in the afternoon so that all the bridesmaids knew where to stand, the ushers knew what they had to do and Neile and Luke had a quick run through of the service.

The next morning was also manic as you can imagine with everyone running about trying to squeeze in showers and get their hair done. Once Neile was ready and we all walked down the stairs to meet Nick’s dad and get in the car it was getting pretty emotional and we started the (slightly crazed) drive to the church as we were running about 15 minutes late.

The most surreal part was the last few minutes just before we had to walk down the aisle as we were all stood outside, giggling nervously and trying not to look anyone in the eye so we didn’t burst into tears. I quite enjoyed the next bit as you walk in and everyone stands and turns to look at you because I felt I could take it all in a bit better than when I’d got married as when you’re the bride you’re focusing on a hundred things at once.

The service seemed to whizz past, but there were some laughs as Luke had tried to write ‘help me’ on the bottom of his shoes and had got it a bit wrong…

This is my favourite photo from inside the church. Look at Nick’s dad’s proud, holding-in-the-tears face. Bless him.

Then we all shuffled outside for the monster photo-taking session. Neile was so incredibly lucky with the weather. It had been dull, grey and freezing everyday last week and she got the one slightly warm day of beautiful sunshine!

(L-R: Mandy, Charlene, Daniel, Neile, Luke, Megan, Me)

(L-R: Daniel, Luke, Neile, Nick, Ant)

(L-R: Aunty Di, Ruby, Luke, Neile, Livvy, Nick)

(L-R: Tom, Aunty Tat, Luke, Neile, Uncle Skudder & Talia)

Keep your eye on Talia, she’s going to be a big star one day, trust me!

(Nick & his Dad)

(L-R: Nick’s mum, grandma, Aunty Di & Aunty Taryn)

(Luke & Neile)

After all the photos were finished, we drove to the reception which was at Merley House. It was a beautiful venue but unfortunately, this is where it all went downhill for me. I’d somehow managed to pick up a sickness bug and spent most of the rest of the day hanging out in the toilets. So glam. I didn’t touch the food but heard it was very nice and I did manage to make it through the speeches. This picture sums up the speeches for me.

For some reason I don’t have a picture of little Elsie in her adorable dress (which she had to change out of mid-dinner due to a rather horrendous toilet issue which didn’t help my sickness issue!) But I do have this lovely picture of Neile and her beautiful little family which makes me smile.

After the speeches Nick drove me home so we could have a little sleep as we were both feeling dreadful and by the time we returned, the party was in full swing. All the evening guests had turned up and our friends were there with little baby Lexi so we found a quiet corner to sit and have a chat in. I managed to hold it together long enough to make it into the Smiley Booth!

All in all it was an amazing day, despite being ill, and now I’m sat at home on the sofa in the quiet missing all the family and wishing we didn’t all live so far away from each other!

(And for those wondering, yes, Neile’s new surname is pronounced ‘whore’. Very unfortunate and trust me, jokes have been made….)