Wedding Bells

Well, actually, there were no bells.

It was a register office do, you see.

My baby brother had arranged his wedding for October this year. The plan was always that they were going to run off to the nearest town to get married and they weren't going to tell anyone except their two witnesses - one of whom was me. (Initially they were going to grab two strangers off the street, but apparently nowadays you have to provide the names and addresses to the registrar well in advance).

He decided though that he couldn't wait. His business being predominantly seasonal, the other bookings he could have picked before October were all in midsummer, which is just not possible for him. So, he went for the nearest date available that was at a time of year he could manage.

Hence the phone call I received on April 11th to ask me what was I doing on April 28th? Well, basically I was due back at work on Monday 24th after a week and a half off for CtOR's operation, so I reckoned I would be at work. I was soon made aware this was not acceptable, and so found myself having to throw myself on the mercy of the office manager. When she heard the reason for my wanting a further two days' off, she was more than happy to say yes.

CtOR couldn't risk travelling so far from the specialist so soon after the operation, so I went up on my own. Thanks to the wonders of our railway system, or more particularly the lorry hitting a bridge on our local line and blocking it, I left at the ungodly hour of 4.45 am to be sure of getting a bus into town to get a train to Leeds on a different line and thence to York to make the train I was booked on. I think we got into the house at the other end some time around 8 pm, after a stagger round the shops, a further stagger round Tesco and a trip to the Chinese. I popped up to the nursing home to see dad for half an hour, as I'd not been up since August last year.

I ended up getting to bed far later than planned, having burnt a CD of two songs for the bride's arrival and the departure of the happy couple. (Two Shania Twain songs - From this Moment and Still the One).

The wedding day itself dawned overcast with us, but was sunny on the other side of the country as we hit Inverness. My brother drove the two of us in, the bride travelling with her witness. He wanted to hear the music the bride had chosen. I cried. We had a serious conversation about Important Things. I cried. I gave him the speech I think our Mum would have given him if she'd been with us. I cried.

He was so nervous - I cried. I pretty much cried all the way till the registrar pronounced them man and wife. Which meant my brother turning to me and hissing 'For goodness' sake, quit blubbering and give me the ring!' which made everyone laugh, including me. Although not as much as when the registrar instructed him to place the ring on my finger, resulting in us swapping a look of sheer and total panic till she corrected herself.

The rest of the day is a blur of champagne and good food. And more champagne. Much, much more champagne. I could quite fancy some more champagne now actually.

There was even a surprise party arranged by one of the bride's friends for after the evening meal. There were 6 other guests at the wedding in the end, but my brother had me take a photo of them on his mobile phone to text to their friends. One of whom was actually 32 miles offshore at the time on his fishing boat, having decided to go out for the first time that week at 5 am that day. He thought it was a wind-up at first and accused his partner of keeping secrets from him when he heard it was true.

All in all, a really fantastic day.

What came next was not so good, but has no place in this post.