Ruth and Andrew's wedding: Getting to the church

Ruth and Dad arriving at the church

Last Sunday saw my sister, Ruth, and Andrew get married. After ten years of dating I had long gone past expecting to hear news of an engagement. I was pretty surprised, therefore, to receive and email last November letting me know they'd got engaged while on holiday in the Cotswolds.

I went home to the UK last Christmas which enabled me to get involved in some of the early planning. The initial ideas were for an unconventional wedding, the only problem was that we couldn't decide what 'unconventional' should be. We scratched our heads for an alternative wedding venue but couldn't come up with anything (Andrew ruled out the local curry house) which rather put paid to our quirky dreams.

The day ended up being quite a traditional wedding with a church service followed by a sit down wedding reception. There were a few quirks however. All the invites were sent out by email, Survey Monkey was used for menu choices and as you can see Ruth wore a purple dress.

Bridezilla Ruth certainly wasn't. Laissez faire is probably the right description for the wedding organisation. If unnecessary freippery could be cut out it was. Decisions didn't involve agonising over several options for weeks on end, they just got made. The wedding photographer was someone local from the phone book. There were no bridesmaids, flower girls, orders of service and hair and make-up appointments were dispensed with. If the day ever comes for me I hope I can be as laid back and as organised!

Wedding rehearsal

The day before the wedding there was a rehearsal in the church. Ruth was unbelievably relaxed, laughing through most of the rehearsal at one point David the vicar had to tell her to take it more seriously! Andrew's facial expressions were the exact opposite and he frankly looked petrified!

The night before the wedding we had a meal in the local pub for a few close friends and family. Walking down the road we passed this pair going past us on scooters. Jesus with a cross tied to his back and a provocatively dressed angel aren't regular sights in our village and we still quite aren't sure what they were doing!

Homemade bouquet

While Ruth was a picture of relaxation mum was bit more anxious during the wedding weekend, with the main concern getting to the reception venue to put out all the names cards, deliver the cake and add a few decorations to the room. What mum says goes, so it was an early start for all of us.

Before heading to the reception venue Ruth made her own bouquet with flowers from the garden supplemented by some white roses from the supermarket. I've no idea how much a wedding bouquet usually costs, but this one was assembled for under £5.50 and looked great.

Bouquet made, mum, dad and Ruth all headed to the reception venue while I stayed at home working on my special project (to be covered in another post). Despite mum's concerns they were back in just over an hour having done all the setting up and dropped off the cake.

I headed to the church pretty early to start my duties so missed out on the final preparations at home.