Wedding Part 2

Wedding Part 1 in sunny Perth, Australia. 

It's a good job that I write notes to remind me of things we have done or I have read during the week, otherwise I would forget, especially this week. It has been rather a hectic week that started out in sunny Perth, Australia and now ending in a wet and windy England. Door to door it was 25 hours of travelling and it was so nice to roll into bed at the hotel at the airport, at least that way we were in a fit state to travel on to our friends the next day.

Wedding Part 2 England. Notice the difference? The shawl
was needed for this one.

We were impressed with the Emirates flights as the food is certainly not bad as airplane meals go, sometimes a little too spicy, but not bad. The service is good too with plenty of entertainment to while away the hours. It is amazing how much difference pleasant staff and reasonable food can make to a plane journey - something the American airlines as a whole could learn from. The ambience on the emirates planes is intriguing, as they play bird song near the end of each flight, not sure if it is to wake passengers up or relax them but it is nice, along with the changing colours of the dimmed lights as we are coming into land finishing with lights reduced to what looks like star light at the end. All very pretty. Getting off the plane in England though, I was shocked by the filthy state that passengers left the seating area. Does it really hurt that much to pick up sweet papers and lids off the meals? I know people are paid to keep the planes tidy but there is no need to leave that much mess. Our journey was good, 40 minutes early in Dubai, an hour late in Manchester which didn't bother us, but I guess inconvenienced many others, but our daughter's journey a couple of days before was rather worse as they had to divert to another airport due to fog and ended up sitting on a stationary plane for 7 hours while they waited for fuel and crew to be delivered to an airport not geared up for the larger planes. Not ever so helpful for their preparations for the second part of their wedding.

Shawl detail. I appliqued and
embroidered poinsettia's onto the shawl
along with lots of stars to hold the fabric
and base layer together

Well wedding part 2 was good, the shawl/stole/pashmina whatever you want to call it was completed the day before the wedding, thank goodness and we managed to get into the hall and decorate. It was really weird to be working with our friends, Graham and Steph again, who we have worked with for many years in children's ministry setting up in the very same building where our daughter was getting married. We still seemed to have the knack of working together each doing our separate things and yet working together to a harmonious whole, we were pleased with the result, this was despite me getting up at 5:30am to be ready to get some flowers for the arrangements.

Love this photo as they look like they are having
so much fun

The wedding itself was a little different as our daughter and her new husband were legally married in Australia and so it was a chance for them to decide exactly what they wanted to do and arrange it the way they wanted as they did not have to go through any of the formalities. I was proud of the way they rejected the rampant commercialism and tried to do everything as well as they could and yet not spend a fortune. I was also proud of the fact that people were invited to all of the wedding and not just parts of it. I never understood the way many invite people to the wedding service and then expect them to go away until the evening do, while the selected few ate a sit down meal. I know part of it is due to costs but why go to the expense of a posh meal if you can't have everyone there? Why not do something simpler and share it with everyone or wait until later to have the sit down meal after the main body of guests have gone? Each to their own I guess! We did enjoy the chance though to join our daughter and her new husband the next morning for breakfast, after the busyness of taking down all the decorations the night before and to give them a big hug before they set off on their honeymoon. We then spent a lovely afternoon with our oldest son and his new wife (the ones who were married in October remember) looking at all the photos from the day before and laughing so much over many happy memories which spilled over into the Sunday lunch with our friends who had done so much to make our daughter's wedding special. A very tiring but thoroughly enjoyable weekend, not bad for a wedding really!

The decorated hall. White material down the poles with
ivy and red bows. Fairy lights and fabric around the cross
plus two carnations in a glass vase. One large flower
arrangement

I was rather pleased with this
arrangement, it didn't take me nearly
as long as I thought it might after such a
long period of time since I last
did arrangements.

It has been a privilege to see our daughter married in Australia and England but also a privilege to see so many willing helpers prepared to make both days special. Rather than impersonal services provided at great cost by a company, the wedding was prepared with love and care by those who demonstrate the love of Christ through their actions. So if you are reading this, thanks very much to all who helped, you made the days very special and a precious time to remember.