Here Comes the Bride

On the actual day of the wedding, Jon and I had a Greggs in town. Didn't want to overdo things with the reception in mind. We got to the church in good time to be greeted by well-dressed relatives and friends. I was resolutely calm throughout, but made sure I was facing the front of the church as much as possible to avoid seeing Altaa before she made her procession into the church.

Then it began. As the traditional wedding music flowed from the organ, my heart was beating faster and faster until Altaa drew up alongside me, with the welcome but curious anticipation of the personally unknown - marriage. Susanne did her opening pronouncements as priest-in-charge, then we went through it like a tangible dream, even better than the rehearsal earlier in the week (which kind of felt like geting hitched anyway). The hymns were wonderful, the readings were lovely and well-delivered by Lynsey and Susanne, the sermon was a little embarassing as we were the centre of attention regarding it, but touching all the same.

Once it was done, I was a little confused as to whether we were going straight to the reception and having pictures outside the pub or doing the mass shoot next to the church. I was persuaded that it was the latter. The call for pictures came form all directions in front of us and quite a few of the photos have some of a collection of bridal couple, best man, parents and bridesmaids (in various arrangements) looking left, others right and yet others centrally. Then Altaa and I strolled off to the reception at the head of a grand trail of people.

It was held at the Ship restaurant and pub. They had decorated it superbly. Once everyone was suitably gathered (and one of my aunts had enthusiastically banged two spoons together to successfully gain attention to us), I did my speech, Jon his and Keith, my dad's friend who was standing in for Altaa's absent father (who couldn't afford the trip), read of the sheet he had. The buffet that I had ordered was a pared down version of the basic one, but it was still a cornucopia of delicious food - more than enough for the crowd and that wasn't small.

As the time to cut the cake approached, I decided to open the complimentary bottle of champagne. Planning to make an announcement as I did this, the whizzing up of the cork right before my face did that for me quite unintentionally. We had a double-layered cake, one storey balanced over another on steel balustrades, with the top sponge and the bottom fruit to give people a choice in case they weren't keen on fruit cake.

After plenty of conversation a space was cleared and the dancing began. Altaa and I went off to leave at around 8.30pm under an arch of people's hands. We didn't want to get too drunk on our wedding night.