Phillip and Vicky's Wedding

Where on earth do I start with a family wedding? I guess as we are in the UK the weather! Friday it poured down all day, Sunday we are almost flooded out but Saturday was glorious. How lucky is that? The bride even got a little sunburned on her shoulders whilst the photographs were being taken!

The whole family managed, by some means, to be all present at the Registry Office. The group photograph was taken as we all arrived. In front are Phillip and Vicky. Left to right behind are Clemence & Andy (Andy is Phillip’s twin brother) Helen, Neil & Jay, Carol & Harold.

The wedding service there was lovely, so much better than it was when we got married, though that was a very long time ago. It was happy, warm and friendly with the words tailored to fit their situation. It was all a bit too much for their young son Woody who pretty much refused to be photographed all day :-) He has been talking none stop of the wedding for weeks but once he set eyes on us all together he went very shy and quiet and stayed like that most of the afternoon.

From the registry office we went to where Phillip and Vicky are living and as Phillip is a gamekeeper that is on a big country estate. The official photographs were taken around the lake there, it was a very beautiful spot with waterfalls a bridge and lovely scenery providing the setting. Once all of the group photographs were taken the two families minus the bride and groom went back up to the house for lunch whilst more shots were taken of the bride and groom. Apparently as they moved around the lake for different shots a pair of swans with five cygnets followed them and will appear in some of the photographs when we get them.

A few of the informal photographs are on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/24572238@N02/sets/72157621688712322/

Once the formality of the actual wedding was over it was party time. We ate and drank very well, chatted to Vicky’s family whom we have known for a long time but do not often see, chatted to their friends and the people they work with, chatted to our own family who are rarely altogether outside Christmas day and generally just had a very good time.

Clemence never knew what she let herself in for – poor lass :-) She offered to be the driver for the brothers Rainbow that did not get married as they did not all want to be tied to coming back in the taxi with us when we were ready to leave. I will not repeat what she told me about them this morning. Suffice to say we “found” all of Andrew’s clothes folded beautifully in an unused bedroom this morning and Clem “found” Andrew wandering naked at some point after he had woken up in the car and managed to find his way into the house. She guided him to their bed and threw a cover over him before abandoning him and sleeping in a spare bed! I am so glad it was not me waking with that headache to go to work at 10.30 this morning!

… and I am still struggling to get the port stain off Andy’s brand new white, posh shirt… it could not have been a cheapy could it? Sod’s law has a lot to answer for.

A wonderful, happy day was had by all. The one slight downer on the day was the twenty people who did not risk coming either because they or their children have or are recovering from swine flu, that seemed very sad for the bride and groom who were missing a lot of their friends and the friends that missed the wedding.

Half way through the day Helen and Vicky realised that they have a sister in each other where they have both only had brothers up until now and Liz, Vicky's mum, reminded me that we are both mother-in-laws. How wicked a mother-in-law can I managed to be:-) I would rather celebrate having a new daughter-in-law :-)