Last month was the coldest December across the UK since records began in 1910 according to Met Office figures issued yesterday. I can believe it because my wedding on December 18th almost didn’t happen because of the snow!

The mean temperature for the UK in December was -1°C, well below the long term average of 4.2 °C. It was also the coldest month since February 1986.

Although it was very cold and snowy it was also apparently dry – precipitation (rain and snow) was well below average, recording just 38% of what is normally expected in December, say the Met Office..... A little hard to believe given all the snow last month!

The night before my wedding I stayed with friends at Upper Upham near Aldbourne, one of the highest settlements in Wiltshire. The wonderful Upham residents were standing by with 4x4s to get myself, bridesmaids, “Father of the Bride" and an usher down the long, snowy narrow lane to the main road in the morning if necessary and one local person even gritted the lane for us the night before.

In the morning, already late as we were driving through a heavy snow storm, a lorry jackknifed on a dual carriageway trapping us in a traffic jam about 6 miles from the venue. The vicar was snowed in 14 miles from the church and “no-one could get in or out”, the registrars hadn’t been heard from, so I assumed that even if we did get married we would have to walk 6 miles to get there and there would only be about 10 guests as people were travelling from all over the country.

Things took a turn for the better when my now brother in law, who runs a removals business Knight Movers in Mid Wales, became our Knight in shining armour (sorry), moving everyone to where they needed to be. When I ran forward to see what our options were we discovered he was in the car in front of us in the traffic jam.

I was bundled in to the boot of his 4x4 along with my dress and he drove off-road to pick up my fiancée who was further back in the queue and transported us to the venue by trying little back roads, before heading off help the vicar and numerous guests get to the wedding.

The Welsh male voice choir cancelled, I did my own hair and make-up, we started late and 3 people had accidents on the way- one poor couple wrote their car off. However noone was seriously injured, 96 out of 100 guests made it (my bridesmaids, “Father” and usher eventually got out of the traffic jam), and it was an amazing wedding in the end. Thank goodness we had booked to fly from Gatwick and not Heathrow for our Honeymoon!

Precipitation in December just 38% of the average? It all must have fallen on the same day then!

We’re due to get some snow tomorrow too, but nowhere near on the same scale.

Does anyone else have any dramatic snow stories from last month?

Picture by Joshua Archer. Flowers by Anna Littler.