This time exactly three years ago, I awoke to a freezing yet beautifully sunny day. You know the ones, where the air is cold and crisp, but the sunny is shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky.  There was also a thick white blanket of snow covering the ground.

It was my last morning waking up as a Miss, and I celebrated it in style with breakfast in bed and bucks fizz with three of my closest friends.

Later that day I became a Mrs, and a wife to my wonderful partner.

Today we have been married three years and I love him even more than the day I said I do.

Our life has changed dramatically.  We have gone from a couple who spent all our money on drinking and eating out, living in Leeds and London, to home owners with a mortgage and other outgoings.  We have matured and grown up with one another.

A year and four days after our wedding we got the best Christmas present ever in the form of Mads who was born on Christmas Eve 2010.  Soon our twosome became a three.

Being parents has changed us again- we don't have the money to treat ourselves like we used to, and we don't have the time together doing what we used to.  Instead we have quality time as a family, learning new things and creating memories as a three.  We bicker about silly things more, but at the same time we have created a person who is a part of both of us and that is an incredible thing.

In February we will become a four- I still can't quite believe that the same man I used to go out and down jagermeisters with is now the father to my children.  The same man whose hand I shook that day I went for the part time bar interview- little did I know then that I would hold those hands pretty much every day for the rest of my life.  Life has changed, but it most certainly has changed for the better.  And we still get to down jagermeisters, just very rarely nowadays.

Mr E has been a part of my life for eight years now, from when we were friends living together in our little flat together in Leeds, and there is not a single day that has gone by where I haven't spoken to him.

I know everyone says their husbands are the best, but I truly believe mine is, for me at least.  He doesn't have a selfish bone in his body and is the most selfless person I know. He would do anything for anyone, and especially for me and Mads.  He supports us, looks after us, gets Mads ready every morning, gets her to bed at night most evenings, cooks for us, helps me with the cleaning, and works so hard to provide for our future.  I am so incredibly proud of him, and so proud to call him my husband.  He always treats me, not necessarily with presents as much nowadays, but with hot baths filled with bubbles and candles, and a little card with meaningful words to show he cares.  The way he is with our little girl melts my heart, he would do anything for her and is so hands on with her.  Even when I was breastfeeding her, he would wake up on the night feeds just so I didn't feel lonely.

He can be grumpy, he uses the last of the toilet roll and instead of putting it in the bin he chucks it on the bathroom floor, and he seems to think our bedroom floor is his wardrobe, but he is one of a kind, incredibly thoughtful and I thank god every day I went into that bar on that sunny lunchtime all those years ago.

Happy 3rd wedding anniversary to my Mr E, I love you.  Thank you for being the best.

On Saturday morning our little family got up bright and early and made the two and a half hour journey down to Herefordshire to attend the wedding of one of my oldest school friends and her future husband to be.

The bride is my oldest school friend, we were best friends ever since we were 10 at school, when we bonded over the fact we both ate far too much chocolate and hated playing hockey.  We were inseparable from that moment on, aquiring new friends to our group along the way.  After school we both went to separate Uni's, me to Leeds and her to Nottingham, but we have always kept in touch.

Despite slightly grey and damp surroundings, we were lucky enough to watch her and her new husband seal the deal in a beautiful church on top of a hill.  The reception was then held in a gorgeous stately home where the rain held off long enough for us to drink lots of champagne and Pimms, and eat canapes on the lawn outside.

As often is the way as you get older, a lot of my old school friends live in London and as the bride now lives in Australia and was the glue that held us together, I don't see them all as much as I should.  We had a lovely day catching up with a few of my school friends who I hadn't seen in ages, and some I see more often, like my lovely friend Becky.

Mads was as good as gold all day, although she didn't have a sleep so got a bit ratty during the wedding breakfast.  However she was a dirty stop out and stayed out until nearly 10pm- she upstaged the bride at one point by dancing non stop on the dance floor.  It was adorable and soon the whole dance floor moved so she was dancing in the middle with everyone around her in a circle. She made us very proud and at one point I looked over at Mr E and he had a little tear in his eye when he was looking at her.  I am sure he would blame it on all the free booze but I know secretly he was thinking how amazing our little person is.

I didn't take many photos but here are a few of our day.  As is always the way, weddings make me feel totally nostalgic and super emotional, and I spent the Saturday night cuddling up to Mr E and thinking how lucky I am to have found the one I wanted to marry.  They really do turn me to mush- being able to be a part of two peoples special day is very heart warming indeed.

On Saturday my lovely Dad got married.  Having been together with his partner for ten years, they decided that they didn't want much fuss and instead have a low key celebration with family and friends.  There was about thirty of us altogether but I haven't put others on the photos just in case they don't want to be on the internet!

The weather wasn't the best but luckily the rain held out and it was just a bit overcast.  They had a small ceremony with family and close friends before going to a lovely boutique hotel nearby for a few drinks.  We then went home and had a lovely buffet style meal at their house and had lots of drinks and fun.  I took Mads home and my Mum babysat for us, meaning that Mr E and I could have a few drinks together- it was a great day.

I also got a chance to try my new camera out properly for the first time, although I must admit to not taking it off the auto setting!

Here are some photos of the 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.

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....