Cavegirl Goes South: The day after the day before!

Wedding Day Report

Awake again at 4 am, and went down for qigong around 6 am. Fortunately the hotel has a small garden with a thatched pagoda just long enough for me to unroll my yoga mat. The thatched roof aspect was crucial as it turned out, as it was hammering stair-rods of rain. In fact it had been for hours with thunder rumbling all around.

At 7 am, just as I was sitting quietly on my mat watching the rain my phone beeped with a text from Ollie asking about whether he should water the flower arrangements that were stowed in his bridal suite. So I popped straight over and we spent a delightful hour together on our own and I ironed his shirt. This may seem like a trivial moment but it meant the world to me and seemed so 'right'.

The wedding service was held at 12:30 so it should have been a fairly relaxed pace getting ready. Ollie and the ushers had gathered all the requirements for the reception in the bridal suite so it just had to be shuttled over and by 10 am all was sorted so I headed for the shower, only to get another text, again from Ollie, 'could you come down'! To cut a long story short a message had come back from one of the ushers that the arrangement that was in the church porch had toppled over during the night and broken apart. This was already the second time I'd done this particular arrangement and I have no idea how it could have fallen as I'd taped it to the base.

Fortunately I had a bucket of spare flowers. I decided flower arranging in my wedding outfit wasn't a good idea (which actually later proved even more the case, more on that in a moment) so I thought the best action would be to throw everything I needed to wear, and flower arrange, back into Elly and head off immediately, having first dried my hair! That is one job I can't do in Elly without a power hookup!

So we arrived at 10:40 and I found the display was sufficiently destroyed as to need a complete 're-do'. By 11:30 I was trying to get ready in Elly, which was parked on a slope with cars beginning to arrive. Hardly ideal for the mother of the groom! My dress appears to have shrunk, I think it must have been the ironing because I'm actually smaller than I was when I bought it! Anyway it was rather more snug that I would have chosen but there we go. It is also impossible to sit or bend in it so climbing in and out of the motorhome (and driving it for that matter) was somewhat entertaining.

By 12:10 I was able to join the gathering guests.

At 12:30 there was no sign of the bride, Mel was definitely exercising her bridal prerogative! 10 minutes later the Vicar asked us to stand only to hastily to call out is Granddad in the church. This of course had at least a dozen 'granddads' calling out 'yes?', followed by a puzzled 'which one?'. The missing granddad was Mel's and he'd gone 'walkabout' on his mobility scooter! Some time later he was located and he finally took his place and the ceremony began at 12:45!

All went according to plan, I was happy with the way I read and just about managed to sit and kneel in the aforementioned dress! Clearly qipao are designed for simply posing (standing) and taking small steps.

The wedding rings were delivered by Mel's family's agility dog, and it did actually work OK, although I found it really surreal, as did most of my family. This Vicar really does deserve a medal for her willingness to customize the service.

The rain had held off long enough for Mel to arrive and for us to have pictures in the church grounds, the sun even shone out briefly.

We headed back to the reception. Unfortunately I missed seeing them arrive but I dare say the photographer will have covered that! He seemed to cover everything else.

The Wedding Breakfast went off without a hitch and probably the highlight for me was the entrance of the bride and groom to Fleetwood Mac's 'the Chain', and for those that don't know, that is the Formula One theme tune. Did I mention Mel's family are car mad? Well, they are, everything was themed around the 'roving' Granddad's life in racing cars, including the inclusion of his original 1969 Mini Cooper S rally car (being displayed in the grounds of the hotel - hats off to the venue for allowing this along with the wedding car, a 1939 Austin Goodwood - they were still there this morning to keep me company in my qigong!).

We retired about 9 pm as Ollie's father's family were becoming inebriated. I worked on quitting while I was still ahead to be honest as thus far any hostilities had been mostly suspended. Alcohol though has a way of loosening I wasn't prepared to risk! As a non-drinker there is also a moment in a social event like this where you are definitely on the 'outside' of all the action. There were many thick heads this morning!

So, my son is married. He looked splendid and acquit himself with aplomb, all day. He paid for it all himself and between them they delivered a very successful day which everyone enjoyed.

My hat, dress and particularly floral arrangements were much admired :-)