A family wedding is always a special occasion, but when the bride is your Mum at the grand age of 74¾ there is an air of even greater festivity - not to mention urgency (!) in the proceedings.
The ceremony was held at St Nicholas Church in Sunderland, followed by a reception at The Rosedene just down the road who did a superb job of looking after us all. There was a good mix of people, with ages ranging from two-year old Eliana up to people of more senior years. Even so, there were no tantrums or nappy wetting – and the kids behaved themselves too.
Once again I was reprising my father-of-the-bride role and giving Mam away in church. The service was conducted by the close family friend Malcolm Peach, who in his time has married Mam twice; officiated at the funeral of my stepfather; confirmed myself and little bruv, Brian – and various family members have sung in the St Nicholas choir, acted as crucifer and server and played the trumpet at Remembrance Day Services - so we’re well acquainted. The weather for the occasion was bright sunny skies with balmy temperatures in the 70’s – so clearly, having a family friend on the inside has its advantages.
Champagne toast outside St Nicholas
Long established friends on my Mam’s side met new friends and family of Michael’s side, and the result was a pleasing and informal mix. Many of Michael’s side came from Ireland, so there was always going to be good atmosphere at the reception.
I’m delighted to say that several people were kind enough to stay awake during my speech, which was written entirely in my usual Grumpy Git style that regular readers will be accustomed to. Fate lent a hand here, because when I researched the wedding date (10 April) that Mam and Michael had chosen to start their journey in life on together, I discovered that on the same day in 1912, another journey had begun on board the RMS Titanic. I advised Michael to avoid answering questions such as ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ should he wish to avoid an iceberg of his own. And so it continued, with references and tributes to Ryanair, the Cheeky Girls, Countdown, Cupid, Homepride flour, Anya the stripper at The Rampant Rhino and football amongst others – with a healthy tip of the hat to the perils of romance amongst the elderly. The crowd took it all in the tongue-firmly-in-dentures spirit in which it was intended and got the speeches off to a good start (always a relief). After that I could relax and start on the G&T’s I had lined up, but barely touched lest it affect my delivery!
Preparing for departure to church
Michael and Keith both gave cracking speeches, again hitting all the right notes, and proving that we’d found the right level – by not raising the bar particularly high, we all managed to clear it successfully.
So, I’ve survived another family wedding, and very enjoyable it was too. Not that the celebrations stop here, as 2010 has a few more events that family and friends are participating in over the coming months – and I’ll be pleased to report on those too, unless the Gordon’s and tonic gets to me first, of course.
Congrats to yer Mum! Sounds like it was a great day. I have only been "wedding photographer" once and it was a very stressful thing to do...it was pre-digital, so there were some anxious hours waiting for the results. Never again! High blood pressure inducing. Well done for the speech as well, not easy.
ReplyDeleteLike the new header title as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Iain - Mam didn't want a pro photographer, and just asked everyone to take informal pictures, which I'll collate into a collection later on. There were some great fly-on-the-wall shots! As for the speech, I was very apprehensive in the build up - so much so that I couldn't eat my raspberry cheesecake until afterwards. But once I got going and the crowd laughed in the right places - and at the throwaway asides too, it was good fun.
ReplyDeleteI decided to re-brand the blog as I seem to have been less grumpy than usual lately, and the focus of the stories has moved away from that side of things somewhat!