Wedding Success

I had mentioned in earlier posts that I would be supporting Dom at his Mum’s wedding. It was on Friday and Dom exceeded everyone’s expectations.

When I went to pick Dom up from his Dad’s house on Friday morning he was so excited about the wedding. He couldn’t wait to get changed into his suit and to wait at his Mum’s for the wedding cars. When I first saw Dom in his suit I got a lump in my throat. He has real sensory sensitivities with clothes; he hates wearing jeans and shoes with laces. Yet he managed to wear a bow tie all day, his morning suit jacket until the wedding breakfast and his shoes until the start of the evening part of the wedding. 

Dom loved talking to all his family and friends of his Mum when he arrived at the church. He was incredibly sociable for most of the day. I could tell when he was getting tired as he frequently asked me if I would sit outside the venue with him and didn’t really have the energy to talk to anyone. He was able to tell me that he was tired and wanted to go back to his Dad’s. I love how self aware he is becoming. 

During the months leading up to the wedding, Dom insisted that he would not be sitting in church for the wedding ceremony. The plan was for Dom to walk down the aisle with his niece (flower girl) and nephew (page boy) and he would then wait outside with me during the ceremony.

Dom sat in the church for the entire service and saw his Mum get married! I had a Mary Poppins-esque bag full of things to help Dom remain calm and address his sensory needs. Favourites of the day included a bendy man and a small kaleidoscope 🙂 When Dom saw his Mum outside the church before walking down the aisle he told her that she looked beautiful. He also whispered to me, “this is the best day ever!” when we were in church. 

With any wedding there is a lot of waiting round; especially when you are part of the wedding party. Dom coped so well with this. I was able to distract him with humour or talking about Katy Perry (yep, Dom is back into her music in a big way!) Dom loves his food and becomes quite irritable when hungry. My bag of tricks proved useful when waiting for the food to be brought out when we were sat down during the wedding party. My small tin of magnetic beads were a big hit!

Another thing Dom repeatedly told me during the build up to the wedding was that he would not be dancing. Well, he danced and he loved it. His Mum and Step Dad had one of those light up dance floors and Dom absolutely loved it! Combine this with him asking the DJ to play Katy Perry and it was a truly winning combination for him!

Before Dom’s Mum and Step Dad had their first dance, they got up to say thank you to particular individuals. One of them was me. Dom’s Mum told the entire room that they don’t thank me enough, that they don’t know what they would have done as a family without me and that they love me loads. I was also given this lovely bunch of flowers:

  
I was understandably emotional over this thoughtful gesture. Throughout the day a number of people came over to tell me how much progress Dom had made since I had become his personal assistant. According to his family, Dom is now more sociable, talkative and generally much more settled. I was told how much of a good job I am doing and hugged. 

Of course it is nice to be given recognition for doing something well. But I don’t work with Dom for the praise. I am his personal assistant to help him and it is a privilege.