Wow, loads has happened!
So much has happened in the last couple of months, some of it good, some of it bad, but I've been meaning to post about the wedding for ages (actually wrote it weeks ago, but for some strange reason didn't post it, so here it is:)
The weekend before was spa day, a sort of hen night, but the night before that was the stag night and boy, did Chris ever get drunk. He was apparently carried home by two friends and then proceeded to spend the entire night vacillating between saying "I loooove you" to Caroline and vomiting all over their bed. So she was really refreshed and well-rested for the spa day...
So, mostly it involved sitting around in rooms of varying temperatures while bizarre scents were wafted at you through vents and whales moaned in the background. Any of you who know me well, probably realise that it's not exactly my cup of tea but (and here's the magic phrase) it's what the bride wants. There is no phrase more powerful in the entire English language, capable of making you shut up and grin and bear it because the bride wants it.
Afterwards, we went for tea in the Museum of Childhood (which was amazing and transported me right back!) and then went for an italian meal.
Much better than vomiting all over the bed all night xD
Chris' family started arriving from America around about then and I had to go and fetch various siblings off the Eurostar, before going back to Bucks myself and generally spending a few days chopping vegetables and mixing custard and making photoboards to stick up inside the marquee.
The day before, I had a rehearsal with the organist and it all went fine. And then, the big day: about the only person not running around in a blind panic was Caroline, which was fine except there was a lot to do and as far as she was concerned, it wasn't her problem. So she was ready and dressed and waiting to leave almost an hour before we were due to leave and us three bridesmaids were running around like headless chickens and managed to get ready in...about fifteen minutes O.o (Actually, everyone else was just standing around watching us do stuff, already dressed and ready to go and not one of them thought to offer a hand >.< The only major problem was apparently on the boys' side where all the Americans (who apparently, wear a different type of suit in America) realised that none of them had shirts to go under the suits...so my uncle had to make a quick trip to M&S.)
Anyway, we were away in time and off to the church, ribbons billowing on the cars and causing minor vision hazards and people honked us and smiled at us as we passed and it was all very lovely. We arrived at the church, had a few pictures outside and then went in.
Now, the last wedding I went to was about fifteen years ago, so I had this idea that the ceremony would take forever and was incredibly boring and lots of different, boring people droned on endlessly about God.
Nope. Enter. Sing hymn number one (Praise to the Lord, the Almighty). Be seated. Bam! They're married.
[ETA. Really bad singing btw--Caroline and Chris were hooked up with mics for the camera crew, Chris was recovering from swine flu and the both of them were super nervous, so the singing on the wedding video is really something spectacular! Add in a tone deaf congregation, Rosie the vicar who used to be a professional opera singer and Chris and Caroline's bleating becomes humour of truly epic proportions :D]
And Charlie (Chris' stepbrother) is up to read Reading Number One (Corinthians something). Which Chris chose the text for...from the seventeenth century version. With 's' written as 'f' and every other word ending in 'eth'.
So, the whole congregation as one prayed for a Vicar of Dibley moment which was, unfortunately, absent. He did it very nicely, even if his American accent sounded a bit out of place (the reason, he did that reading was because we all thought an English accent needed to read the Shakespeare sonnet...)
And then...it was me.
And I was suddenly very aware of the cameras which had been hired to film the day, zooming in on my face (which, remember, has only had fifteen minutes to be made to look pretty...). The organ started the intro, the congregation stared like sheep and I sang.
And I wasn't at all nervous. Which was strange, because I was incredibly nervous in the rehearsal the day before so wtf? But it all just came together. The acoustics of the church were perfect--I was singing without a microphone and yet more than managed to fill the space right to the back, the german tripped off my tongue easily (let's forget the one, minor hitch in verse three where I forgot the ending of one of the words and thought "Ah, 'gen' sounds germanic, let's end it in 'gen'" and just moved on to the next word--it's actually 'ger'. Near enough.)
I have honestly never sung that song better in my life. Or possibly any other song. The congregation gave me spontaneous applause at the end. Which is just not done at a wedding, or indeed in a church at all. And afterwards, throughout the whole day, everyone who talked to me started out by saying I had sung beautifully.
So. Yeah. Success :D [ETA. The wedding video distorts it slightly apparently, because the echo in the church is lost in the audio from the camera, but even so, I think it sounds pretty nice, really. And thankfully the cameras weren't actually zooming in on me (they were zooming in on mum crooning away ;) )]
Anyway, moving on. Cousin Tom then went on to read the Shakespeare (Sonnet number...uh...the one that goes "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"). The vicar gave some sort of preachy sermon, two more hymns were sung ('Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' and 'Jerusalem'--the latter of which was sung with great gusto, since it was the only one the Americans knew and hey, it's Jerusalem. What English person doesn't love singing it?) And it was over.
Except, oh no. Since they are both fencers and they met at a fencing club, they wanted a sabre arch made by the club's fencers. Which was awesome. I couldn't see it at first because the swords sort of blended into the sky when they were being held at salute, but then they clicked on cue and there it was and it was very cool to walk underneath (although I did hear them talking about it later and it apparently went on for much longer than they'd thought it would and their arms were hurting like crazy. One poor guy had even been lumped with a cavalry sabre, which are damn heavy. None of them dropped it though xD)
More photos outside in the, thankfully, dry weather which was unfortunately overcast but you can't have everything. And then off to home for the reception. Oh, and did I mention that the bridesmaids were running around like headless chickens earlier? Because the reason was that the seating plan had been left until that morning. So we ran back like headless chickens, enlisted the gluing and cutting aid of a few relatives and then sneakily put it up. Phew.
There was Pimms and champagne and lots of wine XD And Chris' stepmom Kim and dad Doug had made truly lovely food and mum made yummy puddings and there was very little left over. The speeches went mostly without trouble, the cutting of the cake had to be done twice (because the film crew missed it the first time), Harrison (my seven year old cousin-once-removed) was enamoured of the sabre used to cut the cake and tried to pretend he was Zorro until we confiscated the sword, the DJ managed to blow all the power to the house and good fun was had by all.
Oh and I got asked out xD And said yes.
That pretty much wraps up my wedding report. Which has got so long, I'll save the other stuff I was going to say for another time. There will be photos and maybe even some video in a few weeks so stay tuned.
The weekend before was spa day, a sort of hen night, but the night before that was the stag night and boy, did Chris ever get drunk. He was apparently carried home by two friends and then proceeded to spend the entire night vacillating between saying "I loooove you" to Caroline and vomiting all over their bed. So she was really refreshed and well-rested for the spa day...
So, mostly it involved sitting around in rooms of varying temperatures while bizarre scents were wafted at you through vents and whales moaned in the background. Any of you who know me well, probably realise that it's not exactly my cup of tea but (and here's the magic phrase) it's what the bride wants. There is no phrase more powerful in the entire English language, capable of making you shut up and grin and bear it because the bride wants it.
Afterwards, we went for tea in the Museum of Childhood (which was amazing and transported me right back!) and then went for an italian meal.
Much better than vomiting all over the bed all night xD
Chris' family started arriving from America around about then and I had to go and fetch various siblings off the Eurostar, before going back to Bucks myself and generally spending a few days chopping vegetables and mixing custard and making photoboards to stick up inside the marquee.
The day before, I had a rehearsal with the organist and it all went fine. And then, the big day: about the only person not running around in a blind panic was Caroline, which was fine except there was a lot to do and as far as she was concerned, it wasn't her problem. So she was ready and dressed and waiting to leave almost an hour before we were due to leave and us three bridesmaids were running around like headless chickens and managed to get ready in...about fifteen minutes O.o (Actually, everyone else was just standing around watching us do stuff, already dressed and ready to go and not one of them thought to offer a hand >.< The only major problem was apparently on the boys' side where all the Americans (who apparently, wear a different type of suit in America) realised that none of them had shirts to go under the suits...so my uncle had to make a quick trip to M&S.)
Anyway, we were away in time and off to the church, ribbons billowing on the cars and causing minor vision hazards and people honked us and smiled at us as we passed and it was all very lovely. We arrived at the church, had a few pictures outside and then went in.
Now, the last wedding I went to was about fifteen years ago, so I had this idea that the ceremony would take forever and was incredibly boring and lots of different, boring people droned on endlessly about God.
Nope. Enter. Sing hymn number one (Praise to the Lord, the Almighty). Be seated. Bam! They're married.
[ETA. Really bad singing btw--Caroline and Chris were hooked up with mics for the camera crew, Chris was recovering from swine flu and the both of them were super nervous, so the singing on the wedding video is really something spectacular! Add in a tone deaf congregation, Rosie the vicar who used to be a professional opera singer and Chris and Caroline's bleating becomes humour of truly epic proportions :D]
And Charlie (Chris' stepbrother) is up to read Reading Number One (Corinthians something). Which Chris chose the text for...from the seventeenth century version. With 's' written as 'f' and every other word ending in 'eth'.
So, the whole congregation as one prayed for a Vicar of Dibley moment which was, unfortunately, absent. He did it very nicely, even if his American accent sounded a bit out of place (the reason, he did that reading was because we all thought an English accent needed to read the Shakespeare sonnet...)
And then...it was me.
And I was suddenly very aware of the cameras which had been hired to film the day, zooming in on my face (which, remember, has only had fifteen minutes to be made to look pretty...). The organ started the intro, the congregation stared like sheep and I sang.
And I wasn't at all nervous. Which was strange, because I was incredibly nervous in the rehearsal the day before so wtf? But it all just came together. The acoustics of the church were perfect--I was singing without a microphone and yet more than managed to fill the space right to the back, the german tripped off my tongue easily (let's forget the one, minor hitch in verse three where I forgot the ending of one of the words and thought "Ah, 'gen' sounds germanic, let's end it in 'gen'" and just moved on to the next word--it's actually 'ger'. Near enough.)
I have honestly never sung that song better in my life. Or possibly any other song. The congregation gave me spontaneous applause at the end. Which is just not done at a wedding, or indeed in a church at all. And afterwards, throughout the whole day, everyone who talked to me started out by saying I had sung beautifully.
So. Yeah. Success :D [ETA. The wedding video distorts it slightly apparently, because the echo in the church is lost in the audio from the camera, but even so, I think it sounds pretty nice, really. And thankfully the cameras weren't actually zooming in on me (they were zooming in on mum crooning away ;) )]
Anyway, moving on. Cousin Tom then went on to read the Shakespeare (Sonnet number...uh...the one that goes "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"). The vicar gave some sort of preachy sermon, two more hymns were sung ('Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' and 'Jerusalem'--the latter of which was sung with great gusto, since it was the only one the Americans knew and hey, it's Jerusalem. What English person doesn't love singing it?) And it was over.
Except, oh no. Since they are both fencers and they met at a fencing club, they wanted a sabre arch made by the club's fencers. Which was awesome. I couldn't see it at first because the swords sort of blended into the sky when they were being held at salute, but then they clicked on cue and there it was and it was very cool to walk underneath (although I did hear them talking about it later and it apparently went on for much longer than they'd thought it would and their arms were hurting like crazy. One poor guy had even been lumped with a cavalry sabre, which are damn heavy. None of them dropped it though xD)
More photos outside in the, thankfully, dry weather which was unfortunately overcast but you can't have everything. And then off to home for the reception. Oh, and did I mention that the bridesmaids were running around like headless chickens earlier? Because the reason was that the seating plan had been left until that morning. So we ran back like headless chickens, enlisted the gluing and cutting aid of a few relatives and then sneakily put it up. Phew.
There was Pimms and champagne and lots of wine XD And Chris' stepmom Kim and dad Doug had made truly lovely food and mum made yummy puddings and there was very little left over. The speeches went mostly without trouble, the cutting of the cake had to be done twice (because the film crew missed it the first time), Harrison (my seven year old cousin-once-removed) was enamoured of the sabre used to cut the cake and tried to pretend he was Zorro until we confiscated the sword, the DJ managed to blow all the power to the house and good fun was had by all.
Oh and I got asked out xD And said yes.
That pretty much wraps up my wedding report. Which has got so long, I'll save the other stuff I was going to say for another time. There will be photos and maybe even some video in a few weeks so stay tuned.