The Wedding.

We're home after a truly wonderful wedding, so many memories to treasure. We drove up on Saturday morning, a journey of 4 and a half hours including a couple of breaks to stretch our legs. We still don't have a sat nav as we would only need to use one 1 or 2 times a year but the route instructions I printed off were perfectly adequate. We only went wrong once when as I was saying "Take the 2nd exit." Peter decided to take the 1st exit off a roundabout. That was easily sorted and we and most importantly the cake arrived safely at the 17thC hotel on the edge of a country park. We had only met Sally's parents before but her family made us feel very welcome. I set up the cake and we put the cupcakes in their fancy wrappers before joining the gathering throng. Then up to our characterful room to change into our wedding finery.

The wedding ceremony was held in this room. The overall style of the hotel was shabby chic and even this newer  annex was in the same style. Before the ceremony could start the bride and groom had to be interviewed separately by the registrar (presumably to make sure they know what they are doing but possibly also to rule out forced or fake marriages). We had to wait a while but eventually Sally arrived looking beautiful in an ivory coloured dress with a bouquet of red silk roses. 

The mirrors on the walls gave me the chance to take some photos during the ceremony though we weren't allowed to take photos during the signing bit. That's Sally's parents in shot and if you look closely I'm reflected in the left hand corner of the mirror. Vytas had written his own vows and very romantic they were. Sally's ring is a slim band of diamonds while Vytas' ring is black bog oak over antler ivory. They are both strong individualists with their own style.

 Romas (Best Man), Vytas, Sally, Tracy (Sally's sister/Bridesmaid) and Zac (Tracy's son).

Then it was time for the wedding meal. Sally had decorated the tables with red candles, red butterflies as place markers, red crackers, pine cones and holly. The food was absolutely delicious; tomato soup with a variety of breads to start followed by succulent beef on creamed potatoes with a selection of vegetables and cheese cake with raspberry coulis and honeycomb toffee. After Sally's dad made his speech it was Romas' turn to make the Best Man speech. We may be slightly biased it was a very good speech which had us all laughing without embarrassing his big brother.

After the formalities more photos were taken by the official photographer as well as everyone else. In the end I had decided not to wear the bright costume necklace but put flowers in my plait instead. Peter and all the men of the bridal party were given dark red ties, pocket handkerchiefs and matching cuff-links. A lovely touch. Sally and Vytas also gave us a silver photo frame engraved with their names and the date of the wedding as well as a wooden plaque with a Tolkien map burnt on it and a message from Vytas and Sally on the back.

I did get lots of lovely comments about the cakes and people seemed to enjoy them. It made all that baking worthwhile and made me feel that I had had a part in the wedding.

For the first dance Sally wore a dramatic red cloak. It was to Sleeping Sun by Nightwish. I hadn't heard it before but it is so romantic. Once everyone else got called to the dance floor I even had a dance with Peter in spite of his poor knees.

More photos and then the ceilidh. It wasn't a big room to dance in but it was a lot of fun. Peter couldn't join in but I put on my red trainers and had a couple of dances with Vytas and Romas. It was very energetic so a couple of dances was enough for me. It was a great way to warm the party up. By the time the ceilidh ended Peter and some of the others retired to bed but I stayed to watch the youngsters dance wildly to heavy metal music. I knew parts of some of the songs but the dancers knew all the words and sang along enthusiastically including to Tribute. Sally hitched up the train of her dress and gave a stunning performance just like somebody in a music video. Romas had provided the sound system and they had hired disco lights which sent multicoloured sparkly lights across the room. When Vytas danced in the path of the lights it looked as if his long hair was full of green and red sparkles. The music had to stop at midnight and the for the last song, Bohemian Rhapsody everybody including myself danced in a linked circle (for the slower bits) and we all sang along.

A wonderful, wonderful day that we will always remember.

***********

Breakfast this morning was excellent and after many farewells we left at 11.00 arriving home at 3.00. It had been sunny as we set off but got greyer, wetter and wilder as we headed south-west. The wind was so strong that at times the car shook. Right now it is blowing a hooley but unlike Friday it is a mild wind and it isn't raining. 

More hotel photos tomorrow.