We Got
Married
We always said
we wouldn’t get married, so perhaps we were more surprised than others
that on Monday February 16th we found ourselves at Weybridge
Registry Office with friends Dave & Gill and David & Judy at the
centre of one of the smaller weddings I have been at. Several people have
asked us if it was a ‘spur of the moment’ thing. Clearly they
haven’t got married recently! We booked the whole thing back in
November aiming to fit in with Gill’s school holidays. The first
problem was that Guildford Registry Office was being redecorated this week,
but by going to Weybridge I was returning to my Surrey roots – my first
teaching job was in a school barely 100 yards away. Booking a wedding these
days is like an episode of Mr & Mrs
– I answer questions about Amanda, she answers questions about me. We
then repeated this process immediately before the ceremony, so ensuring we
really did know each other! We also had an issue with paperwork when they
needed to see not Amanda’s divorce certificate but her wedding
certificate – it’s all to do with names, you see. Our guests
were very old friends indeed. In fact Dave was my Best Man first time around –
though when I asked him last week, he claimed to remember nothing about it!
Judy worked with Amanda many years ago and is probably her oldest friend.
Amanda made her own wedding outfit, but to stay true to my hippy youth the
dress code for the men (all three of us) was flowery shirts and no tie. We
also had some really lovely button holes from a local florist. Weybridge
registry office was actually really nice as were the people. Everyone was
fascinated by our rings – wooden ones from Scotland. We also had a comedy
moment when Amanda was asked to take me as her lawful wedded wife – clearly Weybridge is
doing well with same sex marriages! With only six of us, it was clearly very
informal event. Dave had the biggest camera and so became default photographer.
The drizzle
had become something of a deluge as we headed down to the village of
Chiddingfold and The Swan, an old
pub which has been modernised very well. We had a couple of bottles of
champagne on arrival and later on a seriously good meal. (http://theswaninnchiddingfold.com)
The following morning the sun had arrived and we had a leisurely stroll round
the village, a pint in the ancient Crown
and headed home. I am loathed
to claim anything is ever perfect, but frankly it is hard to see that
anything on the day was other than perfect. It was exactly the day we wanted
and we are so grateful to everyone who made it so successful, the staff at
the registry office, The Swan and of course the two Davids, Gill and Judy. |
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Blog #24 |
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you would like to comment on any of these Blog pieces please email me on: bjc@briancreese.co.uk