Read Part One- The Day We Met- here.

Read Part Two- Getting To Know Each Other- here.

Read Part Three- Moving In- here.

Read Part Four- Just Friends?- here.

Read Part Five- My New Life Without You- here.

Read Part Six- Secrets- here.

Read Part Seven- I Love You- here.

Read Part Eight- When You Realise- here.

Read Part Nine- Our New Little Home- here.

Read Part Ten- Our Big Day- here.

Read Part Eleven- OMG We Are Having A Baby- here.

Read Part Twelve- Two Become Three- here.

Over the last couple of months I have been writing posts all about 'My Little Love Story.'  It has been quite long, but I have enjoyed writing it and reliving the memories of mine and Mr E's story of how we met.  

When I woke up that morning in April 2005 I didn't realise that particular day would change the whole course of my life.  It was just a normal day in my university year, and when I met that smiling manager at the bar and asked him for a part time job I didn't get a jolt of electricity or the feeling of love at first sight.  I sure as hell didn't realise he was going to be my future husband.  

But our friendship grew, and I started to get little insights into his mind, how kind he was, how thoughtful and above all how much he cared for me.  That friendship grew into a relationship, that relationship grew into a marriage, and in December 2010 two became three when our little girl was born.

For the past eight years my life has been entwined with his.  Even in the early days when we were just friends, we were inseparable and we had the most fun.  There isn't a day when I haven't spoken to him.  I sometimes think about what it would have been like if we hadn't actually been brave enough to risk our friendship and kiss that day.  Sure, I wouldn't have been a lonely spinster.  I would have gone on to love someone else, marry someone else and maybe even have a baby with someone else.  But that someone else wouldn't be Mr E- my kind, gentle hearted, selfless partner who I have loved with all my heart the past eight years.  And we wouldn't have Mads- the most wonderful little girl in the world.

I know I am soppy and my love story may make you want to gag.  But it's the truth.  Don't get me wrong- our relationship isn't perfect.  We have had huge fights, especially in the early days where we have thrown things and shouted and cried.  We have had times where we have stormed out the house, said things we didn't mean and been so sad with one another.  

Life isn't a fairytale or something out of a romantic chick flick.  

But the one thing we have never done is say we want out.  We have never been one of these couple's to question our relationship or say is it worth it?  We have stuck together through thick and thin, through good and bad, and like our vows said, for better or worse.  There have been bad days, some semi rough patches, and some very stressful times.

 But for all those bad days?

There have been a thousand good ones.

We have been so drunk that we can't speak and fallen over.  There have certainly been plenty of those when we were younger.  We have stayed up all night, drinking, laughing and joking.  We have danced in clubs, on bars (literally), at friends weddings and at our own wedding.  We have danced in a circle holding hands with our daughter.  

We have laughed till we cried and cried till we laughed.  We have mopped away each others tears, been there for each other, been a shoulder to cry on and the rock in each others lives.  We have told each other our deepest darkest thoughts, our hopes and dreams, and our fears.  We have got to know each other inside and out.

We have been to some amazing places and seen some amazing things.  We have been swimming with Dolphins in Cuba, gone deep sea diving in Barbados, and passed out in a hotel room in Miami after drinking far too many jagermeisters.  We have been lucky enough to travel all over the world and have forged some amazing memories.

We have lived in Leeds, we have lived in London and we have finally settled in our first little home together in Cambridgeshire (for now!)  We have made the most amazing friends together, had some fabulous parties, been on some incredible adventures and made the most of our child free, no responsibility years.

In December 2010 our little girl was born.  Our daughter.  She has my eyes, her Daddy's nose and her Daddy's laid back temprament.  She can be feisty (stroppy!) like her Mummy but has the most gentle and affectionate side like her Daddy.  

She is a part of both of us and I look at her and I am amazed we created something so perfect.

I am so thankful to have walked into that bar that day.

 If I hadn't my life would have been very different.  

Who knows what will happen in the future?  Who knows where we will end up?  What jobs we will have?  We would like a little brother or sister for Mads in the not so distant future, and then after that who knows?

You can't say anything will last forever, life isn't a fairy tale, but I would like to think that Mr E and I will always be together.  I didn't say our vows for nothing.  I will continue to work at our relationship and I hope he will do the same.  It isn't always going to be easy, but I like to think that we will always try our hardest.  As long as we carry on the way we are, my our life together will be a happy one.

So my little love story draws to a close, on here at least, but every day I live my life surrounded by the happiness that this one man has bought me.  I want to thank my husband for being quite simply the best.   

Here's too many more chapters of our life together.

Mr E I love you.   

Read Part One- The Day We Met- here.

Read Part Two- Getting To Know Each Other- here.

Read Part Three- Moving In- here.

Read Part Four- Just Friends?- here.

Read Part Five- My New Life Without You- here.

Read Part Six- Secrets- here.

Read Part Seven- I Love You- here.

Read Part Eight- When You Realise- here.

Read Part Nine- Our New Little Home- here.

When I went to sleep on the 19th December 2009, I went to sleep as a Miss for the last time.  The next morning, I awoke with the most incredible mix of nerves and excitement.  At one point I thought I was going to be sick with the anticipation of the days events.  Looking out the window I feared the weather was going to be bad as it had been snowing the past few days, but I need not have worried- there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining and the ground was covered in a blanket of white snow.

I had a wonderful breakfast in bed with my bridesmaids and I opened some presents from Mr E and a card that made me cry.  He had made me a wonderful photo book of 'Our Lives So Far' and on the last page he said 'In a few hours time I will be waiting for you at the end of the aisle to start our lives together.'  There wasn't a dry eye in the bedroom after we read that.

Soon we began to get ready, my Mum and her friend also came and the hotel was so busy with people running in and out of rooms.  My last morning as a Miss was perfect.  We drank bucks fizz, chatted and everything went well- there were no makeup disasters and my hair went up perfectly first time!

My Dad arrived and set me off crying again and we had some photos.  Soon it was time to walk downstairs so we could start the ceremony.  My heart was literally in my mouth as I heard the harpist begin to play 'Fields of Gold,' and myself and my Daddy took a deep breath and walked into the room.

The ceremony room looked beautiful.  We only had thirty guests to the ceremony as I wanted it to be intimate- there were candles all down the aisle and it just looked lovely.  Exactly how I had pictured it.  The setting for our wedding was a beautiful boutique hotel near where we lived.  We hired the whole place out so we could truly take it over for the day.

As I walked down the aisle I glanced at my fiancee, my companion and my best friend, and he had tears in his eyes.  When I reached the end of the aisle he took my hand in his and my nerves just evaporated.  The ceremony was lovely and the vows we had chosen really relected us as a couple, they were very personal indeed.  It passed by quickly and we had a big kiss to celebrate being husband and wife.  We then signed the registrar while our harpist played 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin ' and 'Walking In The Air' from the Snowman.  After posing for a few photos we walked down the aisle to start our new lives together to 'She' by Elvis Costello.

We had a champagne reception before all sitting down to have a meal together.  It was wonderful-nearly all of my closest family and friends were there and we laughed, cried and reminisced.  After all how often do you get all your family and friends together in one room?

My Dad did the most amazing speech that was one of the highlights of my day.  As we were just having an intimate wedding day, he had asked if he could just do a toast rather than a speech, the reason being is that he is quite a shy man.  It is funny because he owns a successful chain of estate agents but at personal things like that he can be a little shy.  My parents split up many years before and although they are on friendly speaking terms, I know my Dad was a little apprehensive about spending the whole day with my Mum's side of the family so rather than make him even more nervous we agreed to no speech.  At the start of the meal he toasted us as promised and that I thought was it.  Fast forward to the end of the meal and my Dad got up, pulled a letter out of his pocket and read me the most beautiful letter. He addressed it 'To my darling Katie,' and I can honestly say there was not a dry eye in the house when he had finished- he had everyone laughing till they cried and crying till they laughed.  As he had written it as a letter, he presented it to me in an envelope afterwards- I will treasure it for the rest of my life.

After the meal, around 5pm our evening guests began arriving- in total we had 100 friends and family to our evening do and as it was only four days until Christmas we had a fabulous big party.  We had hired a swing/jazz singer who sang lots of Michael Buble type songs and some lovely Christmas classics, we had a lovely buffet and everyone drank copius amounts of alcohol and had a great time.  We had two speeches in the evening, Mr E's who made everyone cry when he spoke about our love for each other, and his best man who made everyone laugh.  Afterwards we had a disco where we danced the night away and of course had our first dance.

I had said that I wasn't going to get too drunk as I wanted to remember the day, but while I only sipped on champagne during the day, in the evening I couldn't help myself and ended up drinking a fair bit with my friends.  Just enough to help me dance the night away and have the best time.  Our last two songs were 'Never Forget' by Take That and 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues.  My favourite moment of our entire wedding was when the Take That song came on- almost every single person got up to dance and we were all singing- it is probably one of my favourite ever memories.  Just thinking about it makes me get tears in my eyes.

 I am so proud of our wedding day.  It was exactly how we wanted it.  Intimate and romantic, yet in the evening just a really good fun night.  The venue was beautiful, very classic with hints of modernity and our subtle decorations just added to the whole atmosphere of the place.  Everyone got on so well and I will treasure the memories forever.  Although we got help in certain aspects especially from my Mum who brought my dress etc, we also paid for most of our wedding on our own, and I am proud of the fact we managed to save up the money to make it a day to remember.

You can't really sum up one of the best day's of your life in a blog post.  The emotions of it all, the little touches, the finer details.  That day I married my best friend in the world, and since then he has been nothing but a rock to me.  He is truly a wonderful man and I am so lucky that he chose me to be his.  He makes me a better person and he is so kind and caring- I aspire to be like him.  He would do anything for anyone and what he does for me and Mads is incredible- I don't know anyone else like him.  

Our wedding day was the best day of my life so far.  Until one year and four days later when two became three....

Read Part One- The Day We Met- here.

Read Part Two- Getting To Know Each Other- here.

Read Part Three- Moving In- here.

Read Part Four- Just Friends?- here.

Read Part Five- My New Life Without You- here.

Read Part Six- Secrets- here.

Read Part Seven- I Love You- here.

Read Part Eight- When You Realise- here.

Mr E had proposed and we decided to set a date for our wedding for December 20th 2009.  Having originally thought we would do it in 2010 and in the summer, I suddenly decided that I would love a winter wedding.  I hadn't been to one before and therefore thought it would be nice to be a little different to the weddings I had been to previously.  The date was set and that was that.

We were frantically saving for our wedding but on the back of our minds was our house situation.  We were living in a little rented flat in a pretty village but we desperately wanted a home of our own.  However we were in the middle of a recession and therefore the chances of us getting our own home were so slim.  We accepted defeat and decided to concentrate on saving for our big day, so when our rent was up on our flat my Mum suggested we move back in with her for a bit to save.

I had my reservations about moving back in with my Mum, having not lived at home since I left for university when I was 18.  But ultimately we wanted to save and this was the best way so myself, Mr E and Mitty the cat moved back in to the village that I went to school.  Living with my Mum and sister was good, and it was nice to have home cooked food on the table and our washing doing!  I am so close to my Mum so it was lovely to spend time with her.  

After about eight months my Mum decided to move in with her now husband.  As she was selling her home she offered us the most amazing and generous gift in the world and one that I would never have dreamt in a million years that we would ever get- money towards the deposit of our home.  I still have to pinch myself that it happened but soon we were viewing houses of our own.  

Had it been six months later or earlier we wouldn't have been so fortunate as circumstances would have been very different but we were just so lucky that it was at the same time my Mum was moving.  We soon put on an offer on a little house but unfortunately it fell through just before we were due to exchange.  I was so upset but soon we found another house that was even better.

As soon as I walked into the little three bedroom house on the outskirts of the town near us I just had a good feeling about it.  It needed work but was just lovely and had a great little garden that wasn't overlooked by anyone.  We put an offer on and were delighted to find it was accepted.  Fast forward a couple of months and we got a call from the estate agent to say that the sale was complete and we could come and pick up the keys.  I have never been so excited in my whole life.

We hurried after work to get the keys and both myself and Mr E had butterflies when we pulled up on the drive of our very first home.  I will never ever forget the feeling of putting the key in our front door for the first time, anticipation, nerves, excitement and the fact that we were starting a new chapter of our lives together.

Below are some photos of our first few hours in our home- my Mum, her partner, and my Grandparents came over to toast our new house with some champagne and then myself and Mr E had Dominoes pizza as of course we had no furniture or cutlery!

The house needed lots of work and both myself and Mr E took the week off to completely decorate everything.  We put down new carpets everywhere, cleaned and painted everything in site and spent ages choosing new furniture as we didn't really have anything apart from a few basics.  The end result was good and we soon settled into our new home.  Two and a half years on and I adore our little home- its cosy, full of love and is just a happy place to be.  Its by no means my dream home but its perfect for us right now and we have so many happy memories here.

I don't know how we will ever be able to repay my Mum for the gift she gave us- I mean how can you?  She has given us a place to forge memories, a place that is our own and a nest egg that will secure our future.  She has provided a place for us to bring up Mads in the early years and because of her we will always have that equity in all our houses to come.  She has basically set us up for life.  We are so incredibly lucky and grateful to her for what she did for us.

So now we were in our own little home the next exciting thing on the agenda was of course our big day...

Read Part One- The Day We Met- here.

Read Part Two- Getting To Know Each Other- here.

Read Part Three- Moving In- here.

Read Part Four- Just Friends?- here.

Read Part Five- My New Life Without You- here.

Read Part Six- Secrets- here.

Read Part Seven- I Love You- here.

Mr E finally bought his new house a few weeks later and pretty much straight away I moved in.  No one told us we were moving in too quickly- after all we had already lived together for six months before we were even together- not many people can say that.  We settled into being together well and I loved him with my whole heart.  Mushy but true.

After about a year it was time for a change and we rented his house out and made the move to the Big Smoke.  We lived in a flat above a bar in Islington North London, and enjoyed many happy moments.  It was most certainly our honeymoon period, and all our money was spent on going out, nice restaurants and some wonderful holidays. Ultimately though, while I loved London, Mr E wasn't so keen as he missed living in his own home, so after about ten months we moved to Cambridgeshire and rented a little flat in a quiet and pretty village.  I grew up in Cambridgeshire, and although none of my friends still lived there, my family did, and it was a very pretty county that was still near enough to London. I still commuted into the city for work which actually took me less time than when we lived there, and we loved the village life, although it was strange after living in big cities for five years.  

Ultimately we wanted to buy our own home together but unfortunately we had hit the recession and after Mr E's house in Leeds got sold we made a small loss.  However we didn't hold out hope that we would buy one some day and after a few months we moved back in with my Mum to start saving for a deposit.

One morning in August 2008 I was awoken quite early in the morning by a very restless and fidgety Mr E.  I went to the toilet and then came back and asked him what on earth was wrong with him.  We had been out the night before for an early 30th birthday celebration with my Mum's boyfriend, Mr E was turning 30 the next week but her partner was going to be away at the time, and so I thought that he was just feeling a bit hungover from too much champagne.

'Look under your pillow,' he said.  I thought he had gone a bit mad but looked under there just as he had asked.  I pulled out a tiny blue box.  'I think the ring fairy has been,' he exclaimed.  I opened up the box to find the most beautiful platinum diamond solitaire ring.  'Will you marry me?'  I didn't actually ever say yes because I was jumping around the room screaming and crying with happiness.  He then produced a little bag.  I opened up a few different little presents before opening a guide book to Edinburgh.  'We are flying to Edinburgh for the weekend just after lunch,' my new fiancee told me 'but not before we go for a champagne breakfast with your family and you get your nails manicured to show off your new ring.'  See, I did mention my husband is incredibly romantic.  

After a lovely morning we were off to the airport to fly to Edinburgh.  We had a wonderful weekend and I have so many memories I will treasure forever.  Think being spoilt rotten, fireworks, drinking too many shots and lots of shopping and you will be halfway there.

The day we got engaged my fiancee gave me a card.  It was a simple card and on the front there was a quote...

Both of us fell in love with that quote and it has featured a lot throughout our lives together so far- so much so that Mr E made me a beautiful photo collage of our engagement weekend with those words printed on to it.  To this day it is one of my most treasured gifts.  

The best man also mentioned it in his speech on our wedding day as it is the one quote that sums us up completely.  But our wedding day is a whole other story...