Postcard Wedding by Theo

It was, as Dom commented the following day, a postcard wedding. The bride looked lovely, pulling off the traditional white lace look with aplomb, the groom dashing and surprisingly sober, and the weather absolutely superb. Warm and sunny, with the Cotswolds looking and smelling incredibly fresh and lush after April's rain, it was the perfect day for a wedding. And we so nearly didn't make it.

 The wedding was on a Friday and due to my timetable there was never any way we were going to make the afternoon ceremony, but we planned to try and get to the evening do for 7.30pm after leaving Rosie with my parents for the night. However, as we madly packed the car in Bristol we realised that the wedding invitation with the directions for the reception had been accidentally recycled. No need to worry though: I knew it was in Northleach, which is pretty much a one street town. We'd find it.

 Upon getting to Northleach and asking in a couple of pubs and some passers by, it became increasingly obvious that if the wedding was in Northleach then is was a stealth wedding and an extremely well kept secret. I'd been calling and texting old school friends I thought might be at the wedding all afternoon to try to find out exactly where it was, to no avail. All dolled up, no place to go, it looked like Kate and I might have to turn the car around.

 Then Thom suddenly called (and not long after Dom and Beans): the wedding was just up the road in the picturesque and fabulously named Lower Slaughter. Heartened we cruised up the road, followed the signs, crossed the little mill stream, pulled into the 'car park' (the father of the bride's paddock) and were met by Beans, Vicki and Ian bearing an as yet uncorked bottle of bubbly. Perfect!

The reception was incredibly stylish, with a gorgeous teepee that I'm sure was a stage at Glastonbury in 2007 set up in the bride's family's back garden. We made it just in time for the cutting of the cake and the first dance, and well before the buffet and piles of charming cupcakes. As Kate remarked, it was incredibly tasteful, and a lot of fun. Phil - the groom - and I went to school together, and a dozen of so of our former classmates and their partners were there. It was fab to see them all, and it naturally made us all wonder why the hell we don't get together more often. It was an excellent evening, especially as being, being a Friday, we had two days to get ourselves together again afterwards!

Three years ago today

..and what a wonderful day it was! 3 years on we still can't believe our luck, especially now we've got this little one...

HRH's wedding - by Theo

So, just over 2 years after Kate and I tied the knot, my little sister Hermione and her boyfriend Richard (who have been together the same amount of time as Kate and I) followed suit in style.

As my sister works in the wedding trade, as a jewellery designer specialising in bridal wear, they know all the ins-and-outs of organising a wedding. They also realised that one of the worst things about weddings, from the point of view of the happy couple, is having all your friends there but no time to talk to them! Their solution: hire a wedding venue that can double as self-catering accommodation and invite people for three days rather than an afternoon. Genius!

So Friday afternoon we arrived as Eastington Hall in Gloucestershire to find red carpet being rolled out (they had scavenged it from a wedding fair) and the bar being stocked. We made ourselves comfortable in our lovely en suite room over-looking the courtyard and pitched in. Most of the work had been done (though I did a stint of washing up after dinner) so we were largely able to hang out chatting with friends from near and far - Stu and Sam from Bristol, and Marit, Alf and Solfrid from Norway. I also managed to get in a game of cricket, which was fun, even though Richard's sister Jo gave the boys' bowling some serious punishment and I was out caught for 14 - by a tree! Dinner - a small, intimate affair for 50 - came courtesy of the Thali Cafe, Hermione's long-term part-time employer, and was absolutely delicious. Somehow Rosie slept through all the hubbub in a borrowed pram - we stuck her in another room and left the door open so we could see her. (We repeated the trick the next day - by parking her on the grass outside the dining room window!) Most people headed off to bed early, aware that there was a full programme the next day.

It began with breakfast. Orchestrated by my Dad it was mammoth, heroic affair of scrambled eggs, mushrooms, sausages, haloumi, bacon, beans, toast and 4 helpers, including myself. Delicious! More friends and relatives began to arrive, some in sumptuous clothes - Marit's traditional Norwegian garb, Jim's Kilt and Audrey's sari were particularly awesome.When spent a lot of time catching up with Tom and Claire sipping champagne under a shady tree, somewhere we seemed to gravitate to constantly over the weekend.It was perfect weather, only in the 20s but thanks to the cloudless skies and humidity, seemingly a lot hotter. Thank goodness for all the shade! We also got to show off Rosie to various relatives, including her little second-cousin Phoebe (with whom she got to practice her Spanish.)Then, suddenly, it was ceremony time! I was technically an usher, but I was viewing it as more a courtesy title than an expectation that I actually do anything, though I found myself having to step in and seat some of Hermione's old class mates who were standing at the back giggling like school-girls and too shy to take the spare seats. Then, after some suitably lame attempts by those on the front bench to make Richard nervous, Hermione arrived on my Dad's arm.Jewellery: model's own. It was a civil service, but nonetheless extremely moving, with my Aunty Monica the first to go, followed swiftly by my mother and I. Before we knew it, they were man and wife, signed, sealed and delivered.Champers, photo, strawberries in chocolate, a delicious buffet dinner, speeches, the arrival of Kate's sister/Rosie's babysitter Becky, and a Berry/Garrity football team getting a real beating all passed in a blur as Rosie slept happily in her pram.The speeches were particularly good - my Dad just about made it through his BAFTA award to Richard for Best Supporting Role, while the best man's speech had Richard reaching for the booze. Example:

A couple of weeks after the first Hollyoaks episode featuring Richard had aired we were walking along when I said to Richard " I think those people are looking at you." To which he replied "To be fair, people always look at me."

Quality embarrassment.Our friend Natasha turned up to DJ, only to discover she had forgotten the adapter to plug her headphones in with and, after her assistant Lucy made a round trip to Bristol to get one, it turned out it was broken. Still she soldiered on!In the end she did a good job of getting people on the dancefloor anyway - who needs beat-matching! In fact she did too good a job, as when she finally knocked off at 1am, a hardcore (including the bride and groom - you'd have thought they would have other things on their mind!) wanted to carry on, so they plugged in an ipod and danced til 5am! Great! Except for the fact that, due to the gorgeous weather they had moved the PA from the ballroom to the small lounge that opened onto the patio. A wise decision, except that the PA was now directly below our bedroom. Between Rosie and the thudding bass Kate got exactly 2 hours sleep, and Becky and I didn't fare much better.So the following day we were pretty much zombified and thus I eschewed the rather too energetic games of badminton being held. Instead I stuck to croquet, which was won quite emphatically by Marit's boyfriend Andreas. The Norwegians were also looking resplendent in their vintage gear, the garden party having a vintage theme. My effort was to wear the same shirt as the night before - kind of vintage!
All things come to an end though, even mammoth weddings like this one, especially when you are constrained by Easyjet's schedule. So after another delicious buffet, this time held on the lawn, we headed off with Becky to Bristol airport extremely pleased with the new addition to our family. And Richard.

Congratulations H & R!

Two years ago today....

and now...

2 years - a blog top ten

It suddenly struck us that it's been more than two years now since we started this blog - the first post was on January 1st 2008 - to document the preparations for our wedding for friends and family. A lot has changed; back then we were living in Bristol, working for the BBC (Kate) and REMIX (Theo). Now, 20 countries and 2 years later here we are, married, living in Madrid, working as English teachers and expecting our first child in a matter of weeks. Wow!

Anyway, we thought we'd be ridiculously self-indulgent and mark our blog's second anniversary with that evergreen journalistic conceit, a list. A top ten of our favourite blog posts, ideal for new and occasional readers, allowing them to skip the filler and get to the standouts. So, in no particular order, here are our top ten blog posts...

1. The Wedding report - pretty self-explanatory. Nothing written could ever really do justice to the emotions we felt and the amount of love our friends and family put in to making our day so special, but Kate's effort comes close.

2. Kate's CELTA blog - summing up our feelings about our CELTA course in Barcelona as we commenced our career as English teachers.

3. Grape-picking - what better way to celebrate your 27th birthday the day after a 12 hour road-trip than to get up at 7 and go grape-picking?

4. Berlin - we had an amazing few days, filled with culture, history, cheap wine, old friends and a DIY near-castration.

5. Arriving in Madrid - 36 hours on the road, tired, cold, grouchy and nervous about having nowhere to stay in a city where we didn't speak the language. Then a guardian angel called Cesar called...

6. Were we romantic or what!? - the first day of our honeymoon. Straight out of a Disney movie. Yeah, maybe one scripted by Judd Apatow...

7. San Isidro celebrations - going native in our new city.

8. The first of many - Kate begins getting to grips with Spanish pre-natal care. Or perhaps it's the other way around...

9. Sunday, Slovakian style - the beautiful villages of rural Slovakia and the... er.... colourful folk who live there...

and finally...

10. The random meetings - any self-respecting end-of-year/best-of list has to have the cop-out entry that includes references to items that didn't quite make it and thus manages to get more than 10 things on the list. This is it. If anything really made out travels special - and this blog worth reading - it was the random people we met. In Seville, Porto, Florence, Rocket, Estepona, Switzerland, Trieste, Nancy and so many other places, often leading us to stumble upon local celebrations and festivities we had no idea were taking place - Bianco Notti, graduation parades, flamenco, free opera and so on. Our trip, and our blog, wouldn't have been half as interesting without them, so this entry is for them.

Sam and Stu´s wedding

The modern world is quite amazing. Friday evening we set off on this crazy metal tube 20 metres underground, that hurtled across Madrid and deposited us at Barajas airport. Then, with Kate clutching her little bottle of Valium, we climbed into another metal tube thing which whisked us up into the sky at 500 miles per hour back to Bristol for the weekend and the wedding of our good friends Samantha and Stuart. It's amazing what you can do these days!!

As the soon to be wed couple had met and befriended my sister Hermione and her betrothed Richard at Kate and I's stag and hen dos, we were going to have company at the wedding and the comforts of their hospitality over the weekend. Richard was meant to be chauffeuring the bride to the ceremony and the freshly married couple afterwards in his newly valetted BMW (Valerie). However, Stu had managed to flood the engine the night before and the AA went to the wrong address, so Sam was slightly surprised to have a hired Merecedes and driver turn up instead.

Still all was more than well. It was a lovely wedding, full of tears and laughter. A civil ceremony at the Bristol registry office, which brought back floods of memories for Kate and I, and then a short bus ride to the beautiful Circomedia building in St Paul´s square. (We felt slightly sheepish at this – Kate and I had just left people to make their own way to the reception!) My sister Hermione´s fingerprints where everywhere, from the bridal jewellery to the floral arrangements, and she and Richard got a special, tearful thankyou from the bride and groom. We ate, danced, chatted, blew bubbles, drank absolutely nothing (Kate´s pregnant and I was on antibiotics) and, best of all, played air guitar! A lovely weekend!

Today, one year ago

We got married one year ago today.


What an amazing year it's been.

Thanks to everyone who has helped and supported us along the way.

Lots of love,

Kate and Theo x

Two Weddings and a Festival

Forgive us the hiatus. We've just spent the best part of a month back home in the UK and have been too busy catching up with friends and family, partying or plain lethargic to update the travel blog. And to be fair, we haven't been on our travels as such, unless you count Cornwall, Bristol and Gloucestershire.

To summarise: we stayed with the fabulous Joe and S (the things that woman can do with a fresh, plump zucchini...) for a few days in Bristol before joining in the celebrations for our friends, Dan and Helen (aka The Rargs) as they joined the swelling ranks of The Marrieds. It was a lovely do, with a tear-jerkingly ecstatic eulogy to the bride by the extravagantly moustachioed groom and possibly the least inappropriate live wedding music ever. Needless to say, we loved it and joined in the chorus of Men Diamler's "Life Is Such A Terrible Thing" with great gusto.

We were just about to fall into bed after the Rargs' nuptials when Joe and S tumbled home from my ex's wedding, which had taken place nearby, along with my sister and brother-in-law and pals, Emma and Pete and Liz and Al. We watched a glorious sunrise before we finally passed out.

The next few days was spent in Cirencester at Berry mansions as we were royally pampered by Theo's parents while Sheena had her innards removed, cleaned up and replaced at a nearby garage. Late night Champagne and chocolates (plus occasionally truculent games of Scrabble, Bananagrams and Rummikub) kept us entertained, along with trips into Cirencester and visits to Grandma.

Then, along came WOMAD. The weather forecast predicted lots of heavy showers, but thankfully, the Met Office had messed up and we had a hot and sunny festival weekend at Charlton Park, full of great music and colour, with plenty of time to hang out with our respective sisters and friends. Nortech Collective, Shantel and the Bocovino Club Orkester, Babylon Circus and Bassoukou Kouyate were our highlights. We all came away somewhat tanned as well, most gratifying.

We stayed in Bristol for another few days - this time with Liz and Al - before setting off for Cornwall. Our arrival in Friday coincided with my Dad's birthday so we spent the evening with him, my brother and his girlfriend in the Star And Garter (after calling on Matt and Sarah for a cuppa at their place). The next day we had lunch with Wigs at The Chain Locker, then met Neil and Vicki (the latter very damp from a stint of gig racing) for evening drinks in The Oddfellows.

Next, it was down to my sister and the Rainbow Tribe in St Hilary where I spent part of the week helping sort out Bex's bathroom; odd-sock sack; clean washing mountain and old shoe pile, while battling a severe streptococcus sore throat. Ouch.

On the Friday we all trooped over to Black Torrington in Devon, home of the Page/Presswell collective, ready for Ann-Marie and Alex's wedding. The rain was virtually unrelenting all day, but with the help of various tents and the village hall, most of the planned activities went ahead, spirits remained high and everything, including the barn dance and Am's moving rendition of "Amazed", went smoothly, if not a little damply.

Next morning we set off for London, via a farewell lunch with the Berry clan in Bristol, eventually arriving at Ayesha's house in Dulwich. We had enjoyed a bit of friendship-renewal over pink wine, (we met Ayesha at the Rocket Festival in Spain) before settling down for our last night's kip in the UK for - well, we don't really know when we'll be back again.

As I write, we are in the queue for the P&O ferry at Dover, somewhat relieved at having narrowly escaped disaster after realising Theo had accidentally booked us on the Calais-Dover crossing, rather than the other way round.
"Do you want me to transfer the ticket?" asked the man at the P&O desk, "The next sailing from Dover is at 12.40 and it'll cost you...five pounds."

I hope any other problems we encounter on the next leg of the trip will solved as swiftly, cheaply and easily as that one. Shame the cash machine on Dover High Street ate my bank card just before we set off for the ferry. You would not believe the saga we've experienced trying to open an account with The Nationwide. I won't go into the details, it's not very interesting. Suffice to say, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Hey ho, next stop Calais, then on to Bruges.

Everbody here loves you twice...

Getting married, moving house and leaving the country are three of the most stressful things you can do in your life, though also the most rewarding. Take it from us - we've done it. Twice!!

As several French friends - most importantly Jean - were unable to attend our first wedding in England, Kate's mum Cathy determined to hold a second wedding celebration for us in France. We were a little apprehensive, particularly after our experience at the Spring Fete when we realised that our sitting, drinking and eating skills were no match for the French and we risked not making it through the day. Plus as the 27th April approached stress levels inevitably rose, as Cathy planned and re-planned her five course feast for 45 people and we were despatched to various markets and shops to buy ingredients.

Still the day arose - a beautiful one - and it felt lovely to put on our glad rags again; Kate looked gorgeous wearing her dress and one young guest felt she had to ask Cathy "who the princess was?" Driving down in Sheena, proudly wearing her new "kate & theo" sunstrip, we did feel very much the newly weds and, this being France, were thus bombarded with questions over aperitifs about the arrival timetable for tiny feet plus incredulousness over Sheena's petiteness.

The feast - and what a feast it was - duly arrived, slightly delayed as the guest seemed non-plussed at first by the presence of of steaming bowls of freshly made italian soup on the table, and carried on chatting and drinking. Jean was manning the barbecue - aubergines for us - and served up great platters of fragrant meat after the artichoke has been nibbled. Our carefully laid up and arranged tables were clinically assessed by the French ladies, found wanting, and duly rearranged much to our amusement. As Cathy and Jean were constantly on the move, despite many requests that they sit down and eat something, we were kept entertained by the lovely Pascale and Christian, while the irrepressible Norbert started firing champagne corks across the room during desert. A deserved round of applause for the chefs was followed by the briefest of speeches (in french) by us, and then it was our turn to be stumped by the amazing generosity of all present as we opened our cards and gifts. Our wedding guests in England had been equally generous, but here it seemed even more over-whelming as some of the guest we'd only met that day!

After the clearing up was done, almost by magic by the ladies present, Kate was moved to comment that if Cathy had been catering for Napoleon's army they would have either made it to Moscow or been too full to leave France. There was so much delicious food and wine left over half the guests resolved to stick around to help finish it off that evening. Several voracious card games later and we were laying up the tables yet again for another "small selection of left overs" that wouldn't have embarrassed royalty, and the Party finally finished around 11pm, just before the storm broke.

It was a fabulous day and we both really, really enjoyed ourselves and feel so warmly welcomed to Montcuq and St Croix. Hence it was a shame that we have had to move house yet again - for Cathy & Jean's felt very much like a second home - as we head down to Biarritz for a couple of days laden with what seems like a gallon or soup and a kilo of cheese. We'll be even sadder to say goodbye to France, though it is of course only temporary.

We'll be back.

Wedding photos

The wedding photos are now up; you can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuhfeld/

Jemimah, who earns her living taking photos, did the whole day for free, hence there is a small charge for prints so she can cover the cost of her travel and the time she spent editting them. Prices (which include p&p) and her contact details are up there.

We're very pleased with them - she's actually managed to get photos with us both a) smiling b) with our eyes open and c) not looking awful. Impressive!

THE WEDDING DAY

I guess everyone thinks their wedding is extraordinary, but ours really was. Mainly because it involved so many people's time, energy and talents and it was all done with such unstinting goodwill.

Theo had hired one of his young singer-songwriter proteges, Harry Penny to help with the get-in at Manor Hall on Friday. Liz and Al came over with enough fairy lights to rival the Blackpool illuminations and stayed to give us a hand. Later my mum, my godmother Tish, Theo's parents and sister and Poppy, Theo's best man all turned up to help and apart from a few last minute whoopsies, it all went reasonably smoothly. (The linen tablecloths we thought we'd organised didn't materialise, but the students let us use their rolls of paper table cloths, gawbless'em. Never again will I whinge about the lack of parking in Clifton during term-time. Also, the order of service wasn't printed because the print shop had closed for the Easter holidays, but the one round the corner did the whole run as a last minute emergency before they closed for the weekend at a cost of less than 20 quid). Our celebrant, Susan Osman, arrived and we did a run-through, then went home to await the arrival of the hoards.

The eve-of-wedding family warm-up as Pizza Express was lovely, albeit marred for me by the disappearance of my voice. I'd felt the beginnings of a chest infection coming on the night before and by Friday evening it had got a grip of my larynx. Knowing the signs, I realised with a sinking heart I was going to struggle to be heard during my wedding. I spent the dinner talking by text message in a vain effort to preserve what was left of my voice. I knew it wouldn't work.

Theo spent the night at Poppy and Diccon's flat in deference to tradition, so I woke up alone at five thirty am, mind already getting geared up for the day ahead. I gave up trying to sleep at seven and went for a run the quiet of early morning. I'd hoped it might help unclog my chest, but no. Still, it was a wonderful lift to the spirits to see the Avon Gorge and Clifton Suspension Bridge outlined in the sleepy Spring sunshine. I got back refreshed to eat breakfast with my sister, brother-in-law and four niblings.

The morning was punctuated with people coming and going bearing clothes, shoes, tiara and ironing board; (Liz - she ironed my dress and stole too, bless her); flowers (my Hot Flush co-singer Laura - she and her mum had grown flowers especially for my bouquet and it looked magnificent); more flowers (Tish and Dan dispatched to get tulips for bridesmaids and button-holes); food (for the wedding buffet) and photography (Theo's ex, Jemimah came to take pictures of me getting ready). I did feel a bit like a princess as Tish painted my toenails, people brought me tea and Mum did my hair (it started badly but luckily Jemimah's experience with long hair and her words of advice helped save the day there). I didn't actually feel at all nervous or even excited. I was pre-occupied by the devastation of my vocal chords and really, just wanted to get all the preparation out the way so I could be with Theo again.

A flurry of Salisbury relatives and taxis and we were off to the registry office. My efforts to make a big entrance in all my finery for Theo were slightly dashed by the necessity of filling out forms together prior to the ceremony, but I was so pleased to see Theo (who looked utterly gorgeous in his suit) and anyway, I kept on my coat to preserve some semblance of surprise.

The registry office ceremony was short but sweet. It was a busy day for weddings, with two coming out as we went in and two more waiting their turn as we emerged. But the slight conveyor-belt aspect of it all didn't detact from the significance of what was happening for us and as we said the legal vows I could hear sniffing from our assembled families behind us. We were signed and sealed.

Theo and I elected to fill the hour and a half until we had to go to Manor Hall with a sojourn in our hotel room. I will draw a discreet veil over it. Some things should remain personal.

AT MANOR HALL

When we entered the dining room at Manor Hall with our entourage of twelve bridesmaids and pageboys and ring-bearer behind us, that was the moment when emotion almost got the better of me. All these people we knew gathered together for US and the sound of my lovely friend Ali Orbaum applying her incredible voice to our chosen song, Feeling Good accompanied by another friend, Toby Field on the keyboard. It really was beautiful.

The ceremony itself was sublime. Susan excelled herself with her moving choice of words and immaculate delivery. My singing group, Hot Flush gave us rousing renditions of I'm A Believer and I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and Joe Volk's solo song was just gorgeous. As Poppy and Becky passed us the rings which Theo's sister Hermione had made us as her wedding gift (she'd also dressed the stage and made my engagement ring...I wonder if we'd have actually managed to get married without her...) I thought, this is it..we are joined together forever and felt overwhelmed again.

The food...the incredible food...it really was a sumptuous feast, our guests had excelled themselves with their offerings. Meats, fish and cheeses, pates, quiches, salads, sandwiches...and topped off with the most incredible cake, made by our friend S. It was three wonderfully tilting tiers of chocolate, sponge and ginger respectively, decorated in an array of harlequin colours (including the Bristol Rovers blue and white quartiles, heh!) and topped off with a bright pink feather and crystal arrangement. The whole thing was a gift from Joe and S and Liz and Al. We felt so thoroughly spoiled.

And the wine...! Loads of it, red, white and pink and lots of fizz. Tim, my former stepdad, my dad, my godparents, my friends Jon and Sarah and I suspect various others had all brought bottles and bottles of the stuff. So much, our guests couldn't get through it all, even when we gave a few cartons to our bands for their riders. A veritable cellar's-worth has been laid down for us by Theo's dad and we've taken several bottles of leftover Champagne with us to enjoy on our honeymoon.

The open-mic nature of the speeches lent itself to a slightly unconventional round-up of speakers, all completely different and all highly enjoyable. Poppy as best man took the first turn ("Theo said Kate was way out of his league and when we met her, we realised he was right...")
Theo went next ("I've got this two-word phrase I say when something is so supremely wonderful there are no words left to express it...I use it now as my toast...Kate Salisbury!!")
My Dad ("what a fabulous itinerary for your honeymoon travels and I'm deeply touched and grateful to be going with you...")
Me (I had written a song called Do You Know My Man? to perform...as the voice wasn't up to it, Hot Flush stepped in with their excellent harmonies and I simply played the guitar and mimed...it worked a treat)
Theo's Mum ("with all that intelligence, my brilliant son could be pompous and arrogant...but he chooses to work with underprivileged children with kindness...and as a husband I know he will be as endlessly giving and selfless as his own father..")
My Mum (who quoted us a beautiful French hymn about love)
And - slightly unexpectedly - my Aunty Frances (who got her own back on me by singing the On Top Of Spaghetti version of On Top Of Old Smokey as I had done at her wedding thirty years earlier)
Then a hugely funny and touching video-taped speech sent online from Argentina by Beans, Theo's original best man. The film was edited to perfection and Beans delivered it with aplomb.

In all the rush to get downstairs and start partying, we almost forgot to cut our magnificent cake, but cut it we did and after a brief photo session with Jemimah, we went downstairs and opened proceedings on the dance floor with Feist's My Man, My Moon then left DJ Pete and DJ Tasch to do us proud with non-stop floor-fillers (apart from the reggae numbers...Tasch decided quite quickly to abandon those).

Next door in the band room, SJ Esau's quirky one-man pop machine was fantastic, Angel Tech were extraordinary and Babel just superb. We danced until my feet felt like they were being cut to pieces in their unaccustomed diamante high heels. It was worth it. Miles The Munter DJ'd between bands, James Statick mixed the sound and Tony "The Voice" Hutton stage managed. And despite our efforts to at least cover their expenses, none of the bands would accept a bean. They drank plenty of wine, though and polished of the Weapons Strength ginger beer (our gift from Matt and Sarah...ahem, sorry the barrel went missing...)

By eleven we were exhausted, but the whole thing had been utterly fantastic and everyone entered into the spirit of the occasion and WHAT an occasion. If this is a rather long blog entry, apologies. But it's something we want to have fixed on the page and in our memories for the rest of our lives. Wedding of the century. Admittedly, I may be biased. But we couldn't have done it without so many people getting involved and that fact, plus the momentous and joyous commitment we have made to one another has added up to the most incredible end to one journey and the most gloriously auspicious beginning to another.

play it again Sam...

So, obviously, given the importance of music to both Kate and myself, not least as the catalyst which brought us together in the first place, music is going to play a big part not only in the ceremony (see previous post) but in the celebration of our wedding. (see right - my mother complained that the flyer was "a bit rude")

All three bands have featured on Kate's 'Fine Tuned' slot, while both Angel Tech and SJ Esau have played live sessions on my Word of Mouth show - I would have loved to have had Babel in but sadly the studio just wasn't up to holding a seven piece folk-rock outfit. More's the pity. We're really thrilled to have these three ace bands and three awesome DJs playing at our wedding, many of whom would have been invited as guests anyway, and we're sure it's going to help make the day even more special for us. It's a shame that Bucky and 3Hostwomexicansandatinofspanners couldn't make it, but then we would probably have struggled to fit five bands in!

See you down the front...

Joe & Volk

Yesterday was a very, very exciting day for us and our wedding/honeymoon plans on two counts.

Firstly, at 10:51am, Kate and I won a Purple Passion Wagon on ebay. Hurrah! We managed to bag the left-hand drive, diesel T25 Volkswagon for the bargain price of £1,120.00 in what was, in the end, a rather uneventful auction. There was one other bidder who never came anywhere near meeting our maximum bid and so there was no frantic bidding and counter-bidding at the close. Nonetheless Kate watched it home to be doubly sure. I was at work and, frustratingly, on my mobile at the time; I heard the beep as Kate's text arrived and, guessing what it was about, I broke all speed records for ending phone conversations! We're both thrilled if slightly apprehensive - the back is a bit of a blank slate so we'll need to put a bed and kitchen in ourselves - but I'm actually really looking forward to the challenge of attempting to show that I am in fact my father's son and can do DIY! We're picking it up from Yeovil on Sunday on the way back from a Salisbury/Page family gathering in Cornwall.

The second wonderful thing that happened yesterday was that the lovely and brilliant Joe Volk came over to our flat to play a private gig in our sitting room. As you do. Here's how it came about: Joe has played several gigs I've put on in the past (I've also booked a tour for him) and his superb debut solo album Derwent Waters Saint is one of our favourites. When Joe asked how he might contribute to our wedding Kate and I were quick to ask him to play during the ceremony in place of having a reading. However, as much as we love his first album and many of the songs on it (a lot), none of them are particularly appropriate for the occassion. So we asked Joe if he had any new material, at which point he offered to come over and play some stuff to us and let us record him so that we could choose something. I guess I haven't quite kicked the promotion bug yet as this offer was used an an opportunity to invite some friends round for food and wine for what turned out to be a magical and intimate little gig in our sitting room. We all sat spellbound as Joe, surrounded by an array of microphones and lit by lamps and candles, wove his mesmeric melodies over fingerpicked guitar. The recordings sound awesome. We didn't think it possible, but now we are even more excited than before at the prospect of having him play at our ceremony....

We may even have to name our van after him.

What I learned on my stag weekend...

So I survived my stag do - hair somewhat amazingly unshaved - and Kate coasted through her hen weekend, dignity intact despite a circumsized penis cake and flashing nipples. After a wonderful weekend in the Devon in the company of 21 of my friends (20 on the second night after my sister defected to the Hens) I have learnt the following things:

1. Swimming pool volleyball is the best game in the world. Fact.
2. Having girls at a stag weekend will make it more decorous, but it won't make it any less decadent.
3. There is NEVER a time when strippers are a good idea. True fact.

However, on the drive back, severely hung-over and slightly unnerved by Beans's assault on motorway driving conventions, I felt a warm glow brought on not by nausea or even fondness for my friends, who had made the effort to travel all the way down for the weekend. Instead, my sense of wellbeing was due to the knowledge that I was coming back home to Kate, having completed my last act as a singleton. Well not as a singleton, but at least by myself; for, from now on, everything I do will be with Kate.

I can't wait!