Last night I get a phone call from my friend S.
S: So, about the wedding. What time shall I come round and help you with your dress?
ME: I don't think I need any help with my dress. I was just planning to put it on over my head and stuff. Put my arms through the armholes and so on. I can probably do it on my own.
S: What about a bouquet?
ME: I haven't got a bouquet.
S: Do you want one?
ME: I don't think I do, thank you though.
S: What are we doing after the ceremony?
ME: We're going to have pasties on the beach.
S: Is that all?
ME: Yes. It's quite low-key.
S: What about the evening thing?
ME: There isn't an evening thing. It's just the ceremony, then pasties on the beach. That's essentially it.
S: I don't understand. What are you actually getting married for, then?
ME: Because we love each other. You know, we want to be married, we just aren't fussed about having an actual wedding.
A brief pause ensues.
S: Hmm, you know, all these years I think I've been getting it the wrong way round.
As someone who had to put her foot very firmly down in order to keep her mother-in-law from turning our wedding into a circus (we were actually legally married 2 days before our low-key, family-only quasi-religious ceremony in the local registry office: don't tell MIL), and as someone who is the sister of a wedding photographer, I say:
ReplyDeleteBRAVO!!!
Ours wasn't quite that low-key, and there was no parental interference at all (Gale's parents told me to my face that they hadn't been at her previous wedding, and they saw no reason to start now!), but we still had about 35 people, none of whom were invited because-we-have-to. A few showed up late because we were marrying (for sentimental reasons) on Hallowe'en, and they hadn't been able to make it past the parade.
ReplyDeleteGale described to me afterwards the dilemma of throwing the bouquet: "I thought, Donna doesn't want it, Leslie doesn't want it, ... I'll throw it to Terry." Terry caught it, was duly married some years later, and divorced some years after that. So it goes.
Ooh, I love it when you do an announcement post. Congratulations in advance and good for you!
ReplyDelete(Mind you, this isn't how your dad found out, is it?)
ReplyDeleteSounds fabulously perfect. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteSounds perfect... advance congratulations to you both
ReplyDeleteI have an image of a vast, five-tiered pasty, with little models of Patroclus and Blue Cat on top, each plonking away at their laptops.
ReplyDeleteMarvellous news. I'd say something banal like "I hope you'll both be very happy" but you clearly already are, so I'll just make one last, desperate attempt to get "net-loafing twazmuppet" into the public imagination.
So your Dad isn't just in this country to deliver strawberry plants.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations.
ooh - congratulations. And that sounds lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was so dreading turning down the invitation.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who hasn't got married yet because if we can't even organise our own living rooms (let alone organising some kind of shared living room) then how on earth are we going to pull a Mardi Gras extravaganza out of a hat, this all sounds fairly inspirational. Might print it off and leave it lying around.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations.
Thanks everyone, it all went brilliantly, and now we are going to have a bit of a kip.
ReplyDeleteWe got married at the registrar's on a Thursday, standing in the shrubbery behind their building on the San Diego Bay, with a witness borrowed from the office next door — then took ourselves out for a nice lunch. Couldn't be happier about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted for you guys, and that you did it your way. But I was already very happy that you'd found each other and were making a life together! This is just icing. (Then again, icing is awfully tasty.)
'a bit of a kip'. Euphemism? Like the pasty thing?
ReplyDeletePopping by to mark all your territories with joyfulness. xxxxxx
congratualtions - the ideal wedding.
ReplyDeleteAwww, good for you! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteHooray! Clotted cream didn't feature in any capacity did it?
ReplyDeleteHurray! Hurrah! Hurray! Glad it all went lovely-ly.
ReplyDeleteWheeee! congrats! Tiny Seekrit Weddings always make me very happy, representing as they do the definitive "up yours" of the couple to the whole weight of social expectation. Weddings should be exactly what you want, and Horrified Great-Aunt Whatsit can come to terms with the fact that it's none of her bloody business.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! That sounds absolutely perfect. I think a new tradition of pasties at weddings would be a Good Thing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Congrats.
ReplyDeleteWell, we nearly had the big(gish) wedding without actually getting legally married (because we were a bit stupid) but managed to get all the legalities done just in time in the end.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very important to make the day what you want it to be and it sounds like you did just that - wonderful. And congratulations again.
Congratulations to you both (in fact all three...)
ReplyDeleteRead the title of the post as Mr BC at first, makes more sense now.
Congratulations! See what that GW programme thingy started.All the best for the future.xx
ReplyDeleteWho'd have thought it, eh?! So happy for you both, how lovely xx
ReplyDeleteCongratulations both! Lovely!
ReplyDeleteCongratumalations. We ended up having a relatively small civil wedding - holding it on Christmas Eve helped. Not quite pasties on the beach 'though. That sounds cool.
ReplyDeleteAh, sadly it was too cold and windy for the beach, so we had the pasties at James's parents' house instead. They were still very good though.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you both and well-done for not letting it turn into a circus.
ReplyDeleteI have visions of your cake being a 3-tier Cornish cream tea made of scones, jam and clotted cream and the happy couple being toasted with tea :)
Oh man, that cake sounds brilliant. We didn't actually have a cake, an omission which I am now coming to see as a serious oversight.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you didn't liveblog your wedding!
ReplyDeleteStandards are slipping round here, I tell you..
PS Congratulations!
Yes, can you please now live-blog your marriage seems you didn't live-blog the wedding? I feel we've missed out. And congrats. xx
ReplyDeletePasties on the beach in Cornwall? Sounds perfect to me! With a glass of scrumpy to wash it down? Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations and best wishes to Mr and Mrs Cat!
ReplyDelete