I haven’t blogged for so long, I have a bit of a pile-up of subjects to address. Blogstipation, I think it’s called. Well, I’m going to put all that right and get everything out of my system, if that isn’t too revolting a metaphor.
I’ll start with the obvious – our wedding. One friend very sweetly said she couldn’t, sadly, now invite me to her own forthcoming nuptials – as she was planning to rip off every detail of our day shamelessly. Obviously I took this as a huge compliment.
As you know, I am not much of a planner, tending, really, to bumble along in a more or less goodnatured fashion, simply trying to get my own way most, if not all, of the time. I was hoping to apply this strategy to wedding planning but, after several increasingly surreal conversations with friends about filigree cake knives, chair covers and gazebos, I realised that it was useless to fight everyone’s inner Bridezilla. After poring over loads of internet wedding sites, I sourced lots of green foil-wrapped chocolate hearts, organza gift bags and bubbles for the kids in the shape of tiny champagne bottles. So cute! Needless to say we forgot completely to distribute any of this stuff on the day and it’s currently falling out of cupboards in an annoying way, and probably will be for many years.
Having been there, done it and decided not to wear the veil, I would now say to any prospective bride, sod the cake knife and all that kit. We forgot to cut the fairy cakes anyway – and no one died.
The things that did work really well were:
The church: we were lucky here as the church round the corner from us is absolutely beautiful inside and the lovely Rector, the Rev Canon Dr Race, proved not to be put off by a divorcee whose first marriage had also been in church. Phew.
Hiring our lovely harpist Rebecca McGrath. I was a bit daunted about this as I know nothing about the harps, but I plunged into www.harpist-directory.com and found Rebecca McGrath, who trained at the Royal College of Music, is absolutely brilliant and on the day was very patient with her young fanbase (Child 4).
The gospel choir. This was supposed to be a big surprise for TL who loves Mahalia Jackson but, in fact, he met them on the stairs as they were on their way in and they gave the game away completely. Sigh. Anyway, they were really good.
The caterers: the wonderful Hand Made Food from Blackheath Village. Their cafe is one of our favourite places to eat and they managed to cook and serve a delicious three course meal dodging in and out of the rain, and keep everyone plied with drink.
Lovely friends and family: a huge thank you to those who heroically made most of the 84 cupcakes, organised my hen do, flew over from far-flung parts, made speeches, listened to my rants about cake knives and tied bows all over the garden. We couldn’t have done it without you.
