Thinking About: Weddings

Despite not exactly being the marrying kind and actually a person who struggles with the very concept of marriage I do actually like the events themselves. I’ve just literally come back from a friend’s wedding and enjoyed myself immensely. After a four hour train ride I dropped my bags in my hotel room, called a cab, and shot off to the pre-wedding BBQ at the bride’s mother’s very nice house – complete with a decent sized swimming pool and the obligatory bouncy castle for the kids. Much veggie food was consumed, old acquaintances renewed and new people introduced. Some people were there who I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years so it was really good to catch up with events in so many people’s lives. Afterwards ‘the guys’ retired to a nearby pub for ‘a few beers’ which I understand – having left at about 10:30pm – lasted until 2am. Needless to say the groom, my friend, was a little worse for wear on his wedding day – which didn’t help his nerves!

Although the day started out with blue skies and white fluffy clouds, by the time the wedding party began to assemble the sky had turned grey and threatened rain. Sure enough about 45 minutes before the classic coaches arrived to take us to the 11th Century church, the heavens opened in a mighty downpour. But by the time everyone was ready to go – including me inevitably on the wrong bus – the worst had passed and we managed to board in relative safety. By the time we arrived at the beautiful church, some 6 miles away, the rain had faded to nothing and we made it inside completely unscathed. After about 10 minutes the bride arrived in a stunning crème dress with flowers and jewels in her hair. Even I heard the groom take a sharp intake of breath half way down the church. The service itself was more religious that I expected, though both being modern people, neither said ‘love, honour and obey’. I did smile at that. As the service was coming to an end the rain started again clattering in the church roof and I think all of us accepted that the post-wedding photo-shoot was going to be a wash-out. It was not to be! As soon as the newly married couple – her now with a double barrelled name – began walking back down the aisle the rain once again stopped and, apart from a few drops here and there, did not return.

The photo-shoot itself was a fairly typical affair enlivened, for me at least, by the fact that one of the photographers was probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen in years. I tried to surreptitiously take a photograph of her but short of blatantly doing so – which thinking about it later I just should’ve done – I only managed to get a few distant shots which do not do her justice. I took about 30 photo’s myself and a few at least turned out to be half decent so I’ll drop them onto a CD over the weekend and pass them onto the happy couple.

Back at the reception the bride had obviously been working hard to couple up as many singles as possible – especially with the interesting idea of having gender specific starters and sweets to encourage sharing and, I guessing she hoped, other things too. It wasn’t quite strong enough magic to work for me, at least not with the women sitting on either side of me. I did, however, share some interesting conversations with the woman across from me who turned out to be a SF fan. Much discussion of various movies ensued over the music provided by a local DJ. Why we simply didn’t move to a quieter room never occurred to either of us. I for one cannot blame alcohol poisoning as, apart from the congratulatory champagne I stuck to my regular diet-coke (mainly to keep awake). Later as we departed to separate hotels we both said how lovely it was to meet each other. Of course I fully expected that this was the last I’d ever see of her. Fate, however, had other ideas.

The following day – I made my way (later than planned) to the very small local railway station for the journey back home via London to do a bit of book shopping (final haul only two books but I did pick up four T-shirts in compensation). I’d missed the train I was aiming for by 16 minutes so had a ¾ hour wait for the next one. Who should show up 20 minutes later but my lovely SF fan from the previous evening. We managed to continue our conversation – this time mainly on books and the dangers of travelling to unfamiliar destinations resulting in the familiar panic every time the train pulls into a station. I must admit to have been quite a smitten kitten at this point. She has a wonderfully deep smile that seems to well up from somewhere deep inside. I’d noticed it the night before when she was reading some of the comments left in a book of congratulations. She smiled and it just kept building and building. It was quite something. Anyway, I digress……

Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Weddings……. Fortunately I wasn’t directly involved in this one so was, in effect, along for the ride. As the stress levels were quite high at times I am truly grateful for that. I think everyone had a good time. I saw lots of laughter and a few tears but in the end everyone went away with something – if only a piece of individually wrapped wedding cake. I had a really good – if fairly exhausting - time and I was very glad to have been invited. Here’s to the next one [raises glass of champers….]