The Wedding (Or London: Part IV) in which the secret project is revealed!

That night (Thursday) we were awoken by drunks prank calling our room.  First they made fun of DH's accent, then when I answered the second time they were silent.  So I unplugged the phone.  So much for an early night for us.  Luckily the kids never even stirred!

The next few days were all part of the wedding of my sister- so I think I will put those days together :)

On the Friday, I was supposed to go to Mum and Dad's while we had “Pampers and Champers”- pampering and champagne. I never did see the champagne!!

While I helped my Mum and sisters sew dresses for the big day, DH and the kids were taken by my Dad and the boyfriend of my oldest sister (OK there are 3 of them- all younger than me. The middle one was the one getting married) to Ducksford.

I got a quick haircut (maybe too quick, my fringe ended up a bit shorter than I prefer), and my sisters, mum and I had pedicures and manicures.

There are, alas, very few photos from this day.  We stayed long enough to eat Chinese with the family, and I got to meet my brother-in-laws.  Technically only one is, but for ease of a name I call the other one too ;)

We headed back to our hotel for the night, getting up early the following morning for the wedding.  Being a Saturday, the trains and tubes were being rather well behaved (except for the closure of some lines for work).

So we managed to arrive in a decent time at my parent's house (also thanks to the loan of Dad's phone allowing us to call just before our stop).

It was a hectic morning.  DH and one of the brothers-in-law (they are both Darren, so calling them by name is not helpful LOL) had to transport cakes and stuff to the wedding reception site.

Meanwhile, we bridesmaids were trying to finish our dresses and get dressed... the usual pre-wedding fuss.

Then the cars came- these were beautiful!

we arrive- that is the bridesmaids and Mum arrive.

Beside the car with our chauffeur.

My sister's car, the one bringing her and Dad, had bubbles blowing out of it!!

See the bubbles...

Greeted by the registrar.

Dad and sister in the bubble car.

Then it was time for the wedding itself.  

we wait to go in

Dad is happy it is finally happening so he can clean the house!!

The kids and I had readings to read.

The kids read (very fast) the poem below.

To Keep Your Marriage Brimming

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong admit it;
Whenever you're right shut up.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

I read, "A Good Wedding Cake" (below)

A GOOD WEDDING CAKE

4lb of love

1lb butter of youth
1/2 lb of good looks
1lb of sweet temper
1lb blindness of faults
1lb of self forgetfulness
1lb of pounded wit
1lb of good humour
2 tablespoons of sweet argument
1 pint rippling laughter
1 wine glass of common sense
1oz of modesty

Put the love, good looks and sweet temper into a well furnished house. Beat the butter of youth to a cream and mix well with the blindness of faults. Stir the pounded wit and good humour into the sweet argument, then add the rippling laughter and common sense.
Work the whole together until everything is well mixed and then bake gently for ever.

the rings...

signing the register

the wedding party (I'm the glowing one ;))

handing over the marriage certificate

The end of the ceremony

After which it was time for photos.  This took a while, and involved the kids getting in the way, finding a secret passage, and a deer chasing a cat.  I thought it was a fox at first, but everyone assured me it really was a deer (they have tiny Muntjac or 'Barking' deer which is what we saw).

The happy couple

They go for a drive in the bubble car.

Bride and her attendants (bridesmaids, flowergirl and pageboy)

My family.  I think this is all of us, who were there.  There was some family absent though.

Formal photo of Mum and Dad

Family Portrait

My brother, his fiancee and her kids.

And drinks.  We were allowed to go into the bar to warm up while we waited.  I managed to cuddle my nephew to sleep at one point- but I forget if it was before or after the dinner...

we warm up inside.

Then dinner- a 3 course meal provided by the fantastic hotel.  I highly recommend the hotel by the way!  It provided a very affordable wedding AND was a great place to stay!

There were too many family members to all be at the high table- so it was the bride, groom, best man and parents (oh and the baby LOL)

We were sitting at this table.  They were all named after rock groups ;)  You can see the kids have laser finger lights- the wedding favours were fun.  Fans for the ladies, bubbles for everyone and laser finger lights for kids.  Oh and truffles.  Mine were mysteriously absent- in my place you can see my son's to the left and my husband's to the right.  I never did get any 'pout'.

Cutting the cake.

After the meal, we had to wait while they transformed the marquee into a dance hall- and we had a disco.

DD blows bubbles.  For some reason DH had to coach her- she knows this!!

This was later in the evening- I just love the lights in this picture ;)

The bride probably danced the most.  That is not precisely an unusual thing- we have photos of her dancing the macarena at many different ages ;)

First dance of the married couple.  Brother in law (now BIL) only suddenly realised it was a long song after they started!

First dance with the tired baby.  he actually fell asleep in all the noise!

The bride doing her dances.  There was a whole bunch in a row- the Macarena, Saturday Night... a few more I forget and then YMCA.

Brother in the middle- I am not sure if this is before or after her proposed to the lovely lady on the right ;)  The gent on the left is my sister's (oldest) boyfriend.

The family dance.  I think that is DD's head on the left there- that is certainly grumpy DS on the right ;)

 
At one point, our marquee lost power- DH had to help try and get the lights back ;)  I meanwhile, chatted to my parent's neighbour, who is an artist.  In fact, he has a book he illustrated that just came out!
  The Amulet of Samarkand, Graphic Novel.  I don't think he wants to do it again though ;)

By late evening, we were getting very tired- luckily for us, Mum and Dad had paid for a room in the hotel.  It was a very lovely room- HUGE.  King size bed and two pull out beds- although we only used one of the pull outs, since DD had plenty of room in our King bed ;)  Huge bathroom too.
Next morning I was rather disturbed to find that DD and I had our clothes left at my Mum and Dad's house!  I had not had time to put them IN my bag, so they had accidentally been left behind.  We went downstairs in our wedding finery to breakfast.  It was quite the spread- a full English breakfast on offer, and a complete continental breakfast too.  Wait staff brought hot tea and coffee for us all.

I was able to get Mum to bring our clothes to the hotel, and since she had to pick us up anyway, it worked just fine :)  I showed her our room while DD and I changed, then we all headed back to their house for a barbecue lunch.  One of my school friends was there, and we chatted for a bit before she and her kids left to go home.
In the excitement, we also discovered that my brother, had gotten engaged the night before to his longtime girlfriend.  Exciting news- that we heard via Facebook!!  Not that I think anyone was surprised :)  I had spoken to her at the party- she is a lovely person and I know they will be happy!

The couple who got engaged at the party :)

Then it was time for my sister to unwrap her presents.  This consisted of a LOT of gift vouchers and checques- and my secret project.
My secret project, was to compile my Mum's recipes we love, with a few extras, into a cookbook that my sister could use.  Originally I had wanted to bind it in a proper book format, but I chose instead to use a binder so any dirty pages could be replaced, and new recipes could be added.

The Cover. 

One of the recipes inside.

You can see I have tabs dividing the different sections- heavy on soups since I know my BIL likes them and cakes- which are my Mum's speciality :)
Eventually I will manage to upload the whole file so she can download the recipes again as she needs them!
We spent the day there before heading back to our hotel room in London again.
The following morning, Monday, was the day we planned to go visiting 'Great-Great'.  Great-Great is my Nan- she was Christened Great-Great by the eldest of her great-grandchildren, and has been G-G ever since ;)  DH charmed her, and DS told her he was going to buy her Lego!

Alas, here is another time my camera was absent.  It was a shame because it was the first time my kids had ever met her!
The trip back was nice- we took the back roads and passed by my old school (it has changed a bit!).
When we got back to Mum and Dad's, we sat around talking for a while before heading back to London.
This time, we had to make a HUGE detour, because Kings Cross had been closed because someone was 'under a train' as they put it.  This meant a hugely stressful trek through London crowds in the dark to the next station along, rerouting our lines because half of them were closed, before getting back to the hotel room.
DH did take some photos, but London at night, in traffic, doesn't always come out clearly!
Tomorrow (the Tuesday of our visit) is the Safari park!