Bro's Wedding

You want to know about the Wedding Day. Well, you're gonna have to read about the stressful build-up too.

Our first port of call was a saxophone repair place near Reading for Alison to get her sax sorted - this was for a dent it picked up at Christmas time.

Then we were meeting my bro and his bride-to-be at the suit hire place. As we got to the suit hire place a little before the other two, we spent some time in Waterstones. Bad idea. Though I was saved from spending 30 quid on Volumes 4 and 5 of the Transformers UK omnibuses by the fact that I don't yet own Volume 3, I did end up buying Time by Stephen Baxter (which apparently comes before Space in the Manifold series, but since they are all standalone books set in parallel universes, it's not too much of a problem), and Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card. Alison took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer but I'm not entirely sure what she bought.

When Bro showed up we went and got the suits. Well, we tried to go and get the suits. They weren't entirely ready to be collected, so he and BTB (you work out what it stands for) muttered a few choice words to the effect that we would be back later and expect them to be ready.

So, ye-essss.

Later on we had to drop one of the suits off to the Usher who wasn't staying over the night before the Wedding. As me and Bro were driving back from that, we got a call from said Usher to say that he'd checked his suit and there was a massive grease stain on the lapel.

Cue Bro muttering more choice words. A full inventory of the other suits when we got back to his place showed that his waistcoat had a red wine stain on it. His waistcoat! The Groom's waistcoat! One of the other cravats had a mark on too.

Happily, there was a helium canister around for my brother to play with in order to lighten his mood.

The other main event on Thursday was the rehearsal. I'd not met the Minister before but had heard lots of good things about her. She was a great laugh. She was quite amused by the toy rings I'd bought for the occasion. I must've said something to Bro because he wasn't that surprised.

Friday was a hectic rush from place to place as everything got moved from Hertfordshire to Royal Holloway College for the Wedding (where Bro and BTB met). For me, it was weird shit. My previous girlfriend I met the first time I visited Bro there, and I figure I visited her more than I visited him, so even though I visited him there a number of times after I split up with her, it was still very weird being there again. So in amongst all this rushing around, unloading cars and franticly transfering information, I was in a weird daze of unwanted reminiscing.

Alison and I went for a curry with Bro and the Ushers (except for the guy who wasn't staying over) and one of the Usher's partners. Another Usher's partner was a bridesmaid so was spending the evening with the bride, and a third hadn't managed to get as far as London yet. It was a fairly raucous affair, with comments made the likes of which I shall not repeat here.

The hotel had no air-con.

Saturday, which for those who haven't been paying attention, was the big day, was hot. To start with I was having immense difficulties waking up, which is never good. Eventually I headed down for a quick breakfast being going off to get changed into my threads.

I looked good. I know this, because enough people told me so that I believed them, and because the photographic evidence seemed to corroborate this. In fact, everyone looked good. Alison looked really good, with her Chinesey feathery head-dress which everyone found fascinating.

There were hiccups, of course there were hiccups. The main one was that half the corsages(sp?) which were sent from the Hotel to the College Chapel in the posh taxi carrying the two grandmothers (my Mum's Mum and BTB's Nan, not sure which side) were not dropped off and had to be called back in a frantic rush.

The service started a bit late, but not by too much.

I remembered the rings. Well, duh. It's me.

And then my Brother was married, and BTB became SiL.

My speech was fantastic. I say that not out of arrogance, but out of the fact that I was dreading it and then it went fine. I would even say that I enjoyed it. It was rather amusing seeing the look on Bro's face each time I told a story about him as he realised what I was leading up to.

And the day went on. It was fantastic. Although at the time it was unbearably hot repeatedly throughout the day, looking back Bro and SiL will just remember that it was beautiful weather. There were lots of photos taken, both official and unofficial. The Wedding Photographer was obviously not a great believer in automation, as he was using manual focus, etc. While this may produce a better end result, he didn't half keep us standing around while he faffed about.

Alison and I spent most of the evening chatting to one of Stuart's old housemates and her husband. Turns out said housemate was a kindred spirit of sorts in having a substantial Buffy obsession. Not sure quite where to place it in relation to mine, but that's by-the-by.

And yours truly chaffeured the happy couple to their hotel at the end of the night. Yay.

Bro and SiL : 9th August 2003