Catholic and Loving it!

Sitting a large dining room, Susan and Wayne's wedding reception going on around me, I tried to keep Leona entertained by pointing out items in a book of nursery rhymes Susan and Wayne had thoughtfully left by her place at the table. Leona is a bit young for books but it was, apparently, quite good for chewing on (it being a book made entirely of cloth). Anyways... As I pointed things out in said book I said to Leona "that's a cow, but you've seen cows before... have you?" and I realised. No. Leona will be six months old on Wednesday but she has yet to see a cow. I am a bad parent.

[note: Leona has seen Sheeps and Frogs and Fishes and Llamas and the moon (which we like) that you may recall the cow jumped over]

Sidetracked again. What was my point. Oh yes:

Leona seen more weddings than cows.

[Not many people can say that]

The point is, we've been to a lot of weddings lately. In the anteleonian period we went to the weddings of Matt and Steph, Kirsty and Mark, then Liz and Chris, not to mention our own. Since Leona joined us we've been to the weddings of Alex and Giselle, Ben and Hannah and now, this weekend, Susan and Wayne.

This all got me thinking, you might suppose we would be all weddinged out by now. Once you've seen one wedding you've seen them all... wrong again. Actually we never cease to be impressed at the love people can have for one another - and I don't mean just the couple, I mean the family and friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, best men, bridesmaids... ...

So, where to begin. I got a slightly different angle at this wedding than usual being the husband of a bridesmaid. Firstly, I was in the same building as Susan's Hen Party the other week which was frightening. Ella made lots of new friends including Brandi who was kind enough to invite us to stay at her house the night before the wedding. We drove down to Loughborough and dumped our stuff at Brandi's before going to the wedding rehearsal. Wedding rehearsals are a funny thing because it's never the same as the actual wedding and nobody knows what's going on anyway so I sat at the back with Leona and her new friend Toni and we played with Leona's cuddly Lion.

Usually when you are going to a wedding you roll out of bed late and get to the church for 2ish. This morning of the wedding Ella had to be at Susan's house in her bridesmaid capacity so it was up early, Brandi had croissants and made real coffee which was great. I had to design and style Ella's hair in a hurry and I think I did an excellent job - these are the unsung skills husbands require.

Leona, Toni and I didn't have to be there quite so early so we watched Ed, Edd and Eddy and then went to Tesco's to buy Toni some shoes. When we arrived at Susan's I experienced for the first time what it is like to be at the Bride's house the morning of a wedding. There were bridesmaids all over the place and lots of tension but little panic. Everything seemed to work out okay and before I knew it I was in the front garden taking photos of beautiful girls.

We drove to the Church ahead of the bride and took more bridesmaid photos outside the Church complete with 'lunge' (where the photographer says '1, 2, 3, lunge' and the girls all lunge forward as he takes the picture). Then we were hustled inside the church by Wayne's burly friends and after a short wait the bride arrived. Susan looked great and entered to the tune of 'Susan Marie' a wedding march composed by her husband to be.

I always feel a strange mixture of depression and amusement in a Church full of the unchurched. I overheard a woman in a very long trailing dress announce to her husband that if she had known it was a Catholic church she would have worn tights. Nobody knew when to sit/stand and the priest didn't give any clues. However the service was, as the old ladies say, lovely. I saw some teary eyes and no surprise. Leona was well behaved throughout (apart from a little crying near the end) and much better than that screeching baby I could hear but couldn't see.

Yes, the wall behind the altar really is a ghastly shade of purple. No, the priest didn't look quite that sinister on the day. At the end Susan and Wayne skipped out of the church to "you shall go out with joy" and received a generous dose of confetti and wooden spoons (and a teddy).

So, the wedding over we began the epic journey to the reception. Loughborough University Campus is like Fort Knox and Imago have not made Burleigh Court easy to find. The security guard told us the wrong car park but fortunately Susan's brother (we formed a convoy) asked a passing student and got clues. We made it in time for, well, we made it on time actually. I had a beer while Ella breast fed Leona and I tried to recover from the price of the beer - £3.15 for a pint of Carling is shocking. Still, that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to wedding venues. The important thing is Leona now had a belly full of milk and we enjoyed watching Susan and Wayne's jaws grow ever more painful as the photography wore on.

Susan's appeared to seize up at one point:

Time for food.

The meal of course is the main event and the moment where this blog entry comes full circle. Susan and Wayne left a book of nursery rhymes at Leona's place and we entertained her with them while and learned the secret identity of the shrieking baby from the ceremony. A moment of panic came and went when we thought the meal was sandwiches but then it turned out there was lots of other food and we heaved a sigh of relief. The speeches were excellent, Wayne's brother put together a a fantastic speech which ranks as the best best man speech we have ever heard.

Then they cut the cake. The cake, the cake, the cake. What can I say? Ella and I wanted a castle with dragons and a princess but Ella's mum said no (cue pantomime boooooing). Susan and Wayne's cake was amazing:

...and then, of course, the party...

It's impossible not to feel a slight pang of guilt as all the families with babies gradually drift away leaving only the irresponsible parents of Leona. I feel, however, perfectly justified in keeping her up. For a start, it's not like she doesn't keep up up and secondly, she was loving it. Music. Flashing Lights. People Dancing. Baby heaven indeed. We sat away from the speakers to keep the decibels reasonable and Leona went on as she always does - playing and sleeping.

Wayne and friends are quite musical and so there was live music which was excellent. Susan threw the bouquet which her sister caught and then Wayne did the whole garter thing (the photos are not suitable for a family blog) and Susan's sister's boyfriend caught it. It's a fix.

Then, at 11pm a work of genius occured.

Now I have heard of many great wedding ideas in my time. I've seen little bags of sugared almonds before, I've seen little cards with peoples names on. Today they even had CDs recorded by the groom with his 1978 guitar at every table but now I am about to reveal the secret to the perfect wedding. James' top wedding tip as stolen from Susan and Wayne is this: at 11pm, provide your guests with bacon/sausage sarnies. Genius.

Like so many good nights before it, this one drew to a close long before anybody wanted it too but not until. We tired ourselves out and unlike Leona we couldn't have a quick nap in the car seat and then get going again. Bed called at 2ish, a great time, as they say, having being had by all.

We got up for breakfast at 8am the next morning and were impressed to find the bride and groom managed it also. We wish Susan and Wayne best for the future and look forward to seeing them at the baptism.