The evening reception

The Yorkist in the camp!

We then went down to the Undercroft, I had a quick look in the room whilst no one was in there and was blown away! The room looked amazing, I hadn’t imagined what they would do to it and it was far better than the normal evening banquets. As I left the room I saw that our coordinator had made us some lovely table plans up on Warwick Castle background paper (like the signs you see around the castle) and by the time the guests arrived the staff had a copy each and were helping people to their seats like they’d read it a million times, someone else presented us with the guest book and pens that the hotel had brought to the turnstiles for us. I checked out the toilets – including the gents, much to my nephew’s horror! Obviously I knew where the men were though so it was safe, my nephew was funny because he was so excited to see the basket and asked me if I’d seen it! I sat down for a little bit whilst we waited for the guests to come out of the exhibition. We greeted everyone in, then the MC “Lord Talbot” was announced in and he announced us in with a fanfare and asked us for permission for the guests to sit down, we discussed it for a second before agreeing!

It was nice for the first time that day to be able to sit down and not worry about anything. My youngest was getting a little stressed as she’d been away from me now for the best part of 24 hours (I forgot to say earlier, I found out her grandparents had taken her to their room, when I asked where she was I was told they’d taken her to bed so I left them) so hadn’t had a feed in that time. I’d given her quick cuddles through the day but not been able to do much as I was needed in pictures so quickly afterwards each time. I asked the staff if they could find her something (we had less people than we’d paid for so plenty of food) and then took her for a feed. My dress wasn’t accessible easily accessible, so I had to undo my zip and feed her over the top (my tog was disappointed she missed it, she likes shots like that) she was a lot more settled after that.

It was a brilliant night; everyone had a lot of fun.

We cut the cake with a sword

then had a handfasting.

One of my stepsons was employed as a magician’s assistant and paid £1 for it!

We had a fire show, which I didn’t expect and I always love Monty’s fire shows! During the periods when we weren’t eating Monty took the kids into the corridor and made them balloons which went down really well.

We had some brilliant musicians who were disappointed at the end when we told them that the group consisted of people who were into LARP etc. As we were getting close to the end of the night Lord Talbot asked us to choose three couples to join us in our first dance. Having spent the day with these people there were some very obvious choices! I’m sure we were slightly set up because the instructions were slightly confusing and the caller played a wind instrument so couldn’t call! But it was a laugh!

I had planned for us to get a taxi back so we could beat the guests but the taxi arrived half an hour after people had left and when we got back the hotel was empty apart from people staying over and my brother’s family. So we had the chocolate fountain to ourselves! Mark was a little worried about the cost, although hadn't said so but I knew him well enough, so I called him over and said “I’d like to introduce you to the Warwick Arms deposit” he looked blankly at me so I said “this is the £300 deposit on the Warwick Arms I’ve been reminding Mum about” and I could see the relief on his face as he laughed at another set up!