The Wedding!

Leading up to the wedding everything had progressed smoothly and calmly until the company who were supposed to be supplying the tablecloths didn’t. These were ordered on the Monday and extra postage paid for next day delivery by Friday Jill was frantic and there were ‘words’! Luckily Darren had a friend who had a friend who came to the rescue, phew thought there was going to be an end to married life before it had started.

Jill had masses of lists for all the small jobs yet to be done, plus several lots of clothes packing to organise to cover Friday through to Sunday; the boys were going to spend Friday with Darren and his parents and overnight there, then the boys were overnighting with us Saturday whilst Jill and Darren were spending the night at a hotel then there was the clothes for a fortnight’s holiday after the wedding! Jill spent Thursday evening baking 200 cupcakes and I raided our flower beds for the church flowers.

Friday dawned bright and Jill arrived with her cupcakes, bowls for the flowers and what seemed to be the kitchen sink! The first job was to attach her sugar paste flowers to the large wedding cake with icing and while that was setting we cracked on with the flower arrangements with Rod supplying beverages. The flowers were being arranged in oasis which sat in terracotta bowls and included roses, pinks, godetia and anything else the garden could offer.

Flower arrangements for the church

 Here they are almost finished! They needed a few extra additions and tweaking once put into place in the church later on Friday.

And so onto those 200 cupcakes, half were to be iced with fudge icing and the other half with vanilla flavoured icing and these together with the fruit cake would be taken to the venue where the reception was going to be held on Saturday morning and stored in their cold storage area. What a mess we got into! Both my decrepit and aged icing bags decided to split down their seams, there was more icing on Jill’s hands and the work surfaces than on the cakes but they did look good.

Jill's handmade roses and leaves

The front space was deliberately left for the special topper

cakes

 The decorated table in the marquee. The wedding cake topper was especially made to represent Darren and Jill in their racing gear.

Cake topper

Isn’t it clever? It is made from clay so will be a lovely keepsake and you can just see one of the handmade roses Jill made peeping out!

After all this feverish activity we then drove down to the church with the flowers and popped those into place before the Curate arrived to do a rehearsal with us.

Saturday morning was as hectic as Friday! Putting up road signs for the guests who were strangers to the area, decorating the marquee, hair done, changed and get the boys into their finery and finally off to the church!

Waiting for the bride!

Liam and I waiting for the bride to appear, doesn’t he look dapper? In the background is the lady Curate (light blue jacket), she was only ordained at the beginning of July and this was her first wedding so she was as nervous as the bride and groom! Talking of the groom, Darren showed his very romantic side; first he sent a beautiful card to Jill with the most loving words (my first tears of the day!), he also left her a goody bag for Friday night containing her favourite sweeties (candy), he bought various colouring and reading books for the boys in case they got bored in church and then he ordered and had delivered a beautiful bouquet of flowers! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

At the altar

The transport

The wedding transport driven by Teena and her daughter, Kelly, with Ozzy the pony.  Isn’t it lovely? Teena, Kelly and their husbands together with Sally worked so hard to decorate the phaeton and Ozzy and helped to make Jill and Darren’s day such a happy one.

 

with the boys and parents

We even had the resident black cat put his seal of approval on things!

black cat

presented with champagne prior to leaving the churchyard en route to the next church!

They left the small church where they were married and were going to stop at the village church as Jill wanted to put flowers on her grandparents grave.

sharing a joke

After putting the flowers onto the grave Rod realised that Jill and Darren were still clutching their glasses of champagne! Hence the merriment, Rod’s father would have thought that a good laugh.

Back into the carriage

next stop the reception

arriving at the venue for the reception

 Everyone was waiting to welcome them at the venue where the staff did an excellent job. The Royal Oak is a very old and established village watering hole. After Jill and Darren had vacated the carriage Teena offered to give some children a little drive around; Kim and Liam were two of the lucky ones. Rod had an apple ready for Ozzy as his reward!

Cutting the cake or trying to until they realised they had the knife upside down!

Ruth, Brian and Kim

Ruth, Jill’s twin sister, with her husband and daughter, Kim. Not sure where little Joe had disappeared to. Doesn’t Kim look pretty in party frock? Ruth looked beautiful and there were one or two people who didn’t recognise her, even her own dad didn’t at first!

It was a lovely, happy day and I hope you all enjoy seeing the pictures and reading my waffle 🙂

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