At a wedding in Hertfordshire - 7 June 2008

 

 

 

 

It always amazes me that I can live 12,000 miles away from England and yet manage to be there when some momentous event occurs.  This year, unfortunately, two momentous events coincided and I had to miss one.  While the rest of the family went to a lovely family reunion with my cousin in Lincolnshire to coincide with the visit of his son and family from Adelaide, I went to a wedding.  And what a wedding it was!  The son of one of my oldest friends was getting married to the love of his life.  Di is Adam’s godmother and I was matron of honour at her wedding to Mal.  They now live in Busselton, south of Perth.

 

The wedding was held at St Edmund’s College, an independent college located on a beautiful 400 acre site in the East Hertfordshire countryside.  The proud parents of the groom took their places, surrounded by their family.

 

 

It’s England’s oldest Catholic School, founded in 1568, and provided a stunning venue.  Many of the guests were staying at a hotel at Welwyn, further west, and we travelled to the service in a big red double-decker bus with white ribbons on it!  Unfortunately it was a pretty cold day and we were all wearing fairly flimsy outfits so became quite cold – otherwise the journey would have been even more delightful.

 

It was great to be reunited with old friends and their family, James’ new wife, Jo, his twin sister, Jemma and their elder sister, Krista

 

 

but also Di’s two sisters and their families and Di’s lovely father who’s now over 90 but has just the same twinkle in his eye that he had back in the early 70’s when Di and Mal were married.

 

 

The wedding was really wonderful and so was the reception which was held at Jo’s parents home in Knebworth under a huge marquee. 

 

Every possible thing had been thought of.  Jo’s bouquet was a riot of colour.

 

 

Two little flower girls handed round bags of petals to all of us and then set the ball rolling as the couple arrived at the reception, passing through a bower of roses.

 

 

The three-tier cake was made of chocolate and cut at the beginning of the evening.  The caterers took it away and served it up for dessert with beautiful soft fruits and raspberry coulis.  Yum!

 

 

and it was obvious that both families (and possibly an army of friends too) had been hard at work for weeks beforehand.  I felt so privileged to be in the right place at the right time and will remember the occasion with great happiness.

 

But it wasn’t quite over.  The following day I was invited to a fabulous BBQ brunch with James’ extended family and we gathered together in the garden in glorious sunshine and reminisced about old times – all those years ago!