Mon
16-Jul-2007

stobhall wedding

We all gathered in Stobhall near Perth at the weekend for Mary and Hugo's wedding. We were all there, in the splendid surroundings of Stobhall, overlooking the River Tay. They had a quiet humanist ceremony, in the open air under a white pavilion. It was all wonderfully natural and serene. Everything was green and white, which worked beautifully outside, little micro-Hugos and mini-Marys scampered around underfoot and there was a lovely performance of Mendelssohn's I Would That My Love while the married couple were signing the register.

Then we ate marvellous canapes, including some delicious oysters, and roamed the grounds before dinner. I think the key to really good weddings may well be having it all in one big place so that you can break off in little groups to wander around, as well as gathering together for the big collective moments. Much like Montacute House, where we were for the last wedding we attended, Stobhall provided lovely grounds and buildings to explore.

Dinner was exciting, as they had broken up all the groups and couples, so we were forced to mingle with all ages and types over our food, which worked very well on our table. After dinner, Josh and Jamie and the band rocked the procedings, playing what Jamie described self-deprecatingly as "the funk and rock classics you've heard a thousand times before", but really giving it lots of energy for one of the most fun performances I've enjoyed from them all. They even rounded off with an epic Suspicious Minds which Josh dragged out into an ecstatic blues wailing finale. Fireworks exploded in the starry sky, the beer and food kept on coming late into the night, and finally we made it back to our hotel and got the night porter to open the bar and put up with us until the morning, till it ended up being me, Jim, Kal and Jamie down by the River Tay, and Jamie deciding in his own special way to go for a swim in the freezing river. Yes, we did try to stop him. Anyway, he survived, and all's well that end's well!

Sun
10-Jun-2007

charles and miranda's awesome wedding

Matt and I have returned from three lovely days in Somerset at Charles and Miranda's wedding. We stayed with Steve C in the Mason's Arms pub in Odcombe for three nights around the wedding itself, so it was like a holiday with a massive party in the middle of it, very relaxing and fun. The Mason's Arms had just been refurbished, so our rooms were plush and new, with really well designed bathrooms, normal doors that don't automatically lock, and a generally more family feel than the usual hotel. They also brew their own beer - we strongly recommend the Odcombe Spring.

Odcombe is in the picturesque heartlands of Somerset, with its well tended fields and stone walls, and the houses all built like miniature mansions, both grand and homely, in intense yellow hamstone, the particular limestone that characterises the older houses from this part of the world.

The wedding was in the charming church of St Peter and St Paul in Odcombe, and they were married by Miranda's sister. Then we all walked or drove to Montacute, where the wedding reception was held in the grounds of the stunning Elizabethan pile Montacute House. We all got very pissed on the copious quantities of champagne that flowed around the grounds of Montacute House, spent some time wandering around the house itself, and through the formal gardens, before heading into a marquee for dinner, speeches and country dancing with our old friends Lucy Lastic!

Next day, we all wound down together at the Crown and Victoria Inn in Yeovil, with a magnificant whole roast lamb and a keg of Butcombe Bitter. It was all rather glorious...

Wed
29-Nov-2006

charles and miranda

Charles asked Miranda to marry him on Saturday evening, in the Yew Tree Inn somewhere in Berkshire!

What fabulous news!

Mon
13-Nov-2006

mary and hugo

Hugo proposed to Mary on Saturday night in an Egyptian jacuzzi! How glorious!

Goin' to the chapel, and we're gonna get ma-a-arried!

Fri
18-Jun-2004

dan's wedding

Lots of us headed down to Brighton today for Dan N's crazy wedding to Donatella! Very amusing! And in the same venue as Adam and Kayla's wedding. Same women officiating who look like men in drag. Afterwards we went down to the beach to get pissed, then ate cheap Indian food at Bombay Aloo, then played frisbee back on the beach...

Mon
11-Aug-2003

beckie's wedding

Images

Off to Shropshire yesterday for Beckie's wedding! Charles gave me and Kate W a lift from London to Kate's house in the pleasant Shropshire countryside. From there we went to Munslow for the ceremony, at a little church, where Steve read out a lovely Raymond Carver poem, 'For Tess'. In it the narrator goes fishing and is so happy he lies down by the river and imagines he was dead, before the meaning of the word sinks in.

As I was lying there with my eyes closed,
just after I'd imagined what it might be like
if in fact I never got up again, I thought of you.
I opened my eyes then and got right up
and went back to being happy again.
I'm grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you.