Greetings blog friends around the world! Here I am sitting at 35000 feet somewhere over the United States on our way back home from England. I promised you all that I would write while I was on the plane, and after a 4 hour nap here I am! There will be a number of updates, so please keep up!
You saw the blog for Friday night when we had our second event at the Wheatsheaf pub. We had such a great time! Throughout the course of the evening almost everyone came to the pub with us. At one point we had 34 people there! As they had reserved a whole section for us that seated about 20 people, some ate, while others drank at the bar and then we all switched out. It turned out to be a great evening and a super opportunity for people to meet and get to know each other before the big day. Most notable event of the evening was when the landlady of the pub insisted that James and I come behind the bar and start pulling pints. She snapped a photo of us which I’ll scan and upload at some future point! It was so good to see so many of our friends having such a good time together and we hoped that it would set the tone for the weekend to come! James and I left the pub around 11.30pm to head back to the Winder Hall.
Saturday morning came quickly. I am not sure whether it was nerves or excitement, but I woke up at 5am on the dot! Unable to sleep it wasn’t long before James was awake too. We busied ourselves finishing up the few odds and ends of administration and ceremony bits and were down for breakfast at 8am. This was to be the first of many meals…..many many many meals it seems. Shortly all of our guests who were staying at the Winder Hall with us came down and a good time was had by all as usual!
Breakfast finished, James and I headed off to Cockermouth for haircuts and shaves. We had found a great barber shop where they do full face and neck massages, together with wet shaves with old fashioned cut-throat razors. You may recall, dear readers, that we have a passion for these things, with the last one being at the oldest barber shop in Lisbon, Portugal back in 2008. For those who need a recap head back through archives to either April or May 2008….. We had our haircuts and then the shaving process started. Gents, if you have never experienced one of these then I urge you to give it a whirl. They start off with moisturizers, and pre-shave conditioners, and hot towels, then you are tipped back in the chair, and the wet shave begins. It is a little worrying to start with as you are lying there and you see the blade advance toward your neck, but once you relax into the process it is amazing. Next there is more conditioner, balsams, and toners, followed by hot and cold towel massages. Simply amazing!
With that done, it was time to head back to the Winder Hall to start to get ready. We arrived back around 10.45am and nervously headed towards our suits. We had not tried them on since we had taken delivery from the tailors, and that was 7 weeks ago. Seeing as we had spent the last 3.5 weeks stuffing our faces in various pubs and bakeries, this was a moment of nerves. I (David) have put on quite a bit of weight through the trip as I had already moved up 2 notches on my belt! The trousers went on, and although exceptionally snug, they did in fact fasten up. The new concern was then not bursting out of them as we had planned a 6 course meal for us and our guests that afternoon! We continued the getting ready process, received a lovely phone call from my friend Simon in the US wishing us good luck, and then the photographers arrived. Steven and Josh spent time with our guests and with us and it was a real pleasure to have them there. Suzanne, the wedding planner at Winder Hall for us then appeared to start the final count down.
It was at this point that I started to get nervous. Now, dear reader, despite what you may all think, I am usually the un-flappable one. When everyone goes to pieces, I am usually quite calm and collected. This time I was a nervous wreck! Still, the hallway downstairs was cleared and we were ushered down to meet the registrar/justice who was to perform the ceremony. Suzanne quickly ushered us into the room where the ceremony was to occur and we had our final interview. Still a bag of nerves, I started to cry….which was a signal of things to come. I had already warned everyone that I would likely cry throughout the whole ceremony. The warning was to be true!
1.30pm crept closer and as the interview ended we were led outside by Suzanne to the outside. We had planned the whole ceremony and had a few surprises for our guests! We had kept everything quiet up till now, but the time was upon us. At 1.30pm precisely, with our guests all assemblend in the hallway, looking toward the ceremony room, and James and I behind a curtain at the other end of Winder Hall the music started……
The first piece was “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, sung by Lea Michelle who plays Rachael in Glee. As the song got to “one shot, one gun shot, and BAM” James and I fired some party poppers (that were more lack luster than they should have been) through the curtains and stepped into the hallway. Everybody turned around and saw us and the event was under way? Camp much? It was going to get much camper dear readers……we have a reputation to uphold! As the music progressed we walked down the hallway hugging and shaking hands. It was all a bit of a blur to be honest but I do remember thinking how totally gorgeous everyone looked. I of course started to cry….. We made our way to the entrance of the ceremony room just as “Don’t Rain On My Parade” reached its climax! Waiting at the entrance was our wedding party of “Lisa, Sonia (Daughters), Margaret, Shirley (Ladies of Honour), and Ilona (Best Man). We kissed, hugged, and then the next piece of music started. Yes, dear readers, the next piece was the David O Selznik fanfare that prefaces Gone With The Wind. With bells chiming and trumpets blaring, we moved aside the velvet rope that was guarding the entrance and walked into the room. James and I walked up to stand by the registrar (Sandra) and I picked up the microphone just as the Selznick fanfare ended. James and I then called out for the wedding party to join us and in they marched to stand next to us! I handed the microphone to Sonia, and the next phase of the entrance began!
The music, I hear you all ask? Yes, you have guessed correctly….the overture to Gone with the Wind started to play. With the first bars underway, Sonia started to announce our guests couple by couple into the room. We had wanted everyone to have their grand entrance, and we did! As Sonia called names out, everyone processed very grandly into the room to the music, taking their seats. It was like an award show! Everyone looked just fabulous in hats, dresses, suits, and fascinators. As everyone came into the room and the music swelled louder it was also as camp as row of pink chiffon tents…..perfect! I of course was crying my eyes out already! As Sonia announced the last guests and everyone had taken their seats the music gently finished and we were faced with a room of 34 of our dear friends. What an amazing sight. For those of you who were there, you all looked gorgeous! We took our seats at the front of the room, and our wedding party sat in the front row and the ceremony began. And then I had a terrible thought. I had left an important part of the ceremony sitting upstairs on the bed! No, not the rings, but some special cards that were to be given out to our guests during the ceremony. I stood up, said to the registrar “I’ll be right back” and bolted out of the room! Sandra thought I needed to go to the toilet apparently, but I retrieved the cards, galloped back down the stairs and was back in my seat within about 1 minute. It was hilarious, and although totally unplanned, added to the hilarity of the whole affair!
I won’t bore you all with the minutia of the ceremony, but there are a few points to call out. First point was the first reading, Shakespeare’s sonnet #29, chosen by James and read magnificently by the family actor, Sonia. She walked to the front and gave such an impassioned reading, I was mesmerized (and balling my eyes out still). Next up was our first piece of music. After all the campiness and hilarity of the opening, we had wanted to reset the tone of the ceremony to be a little more serious. We had also wanted some drama too! The Shakespeare was to be the first.
Next up was our first ceremony piece of music. As the opening chords started up, I rose from my seat and walked toward all of our guests. James and I had prepared signed cards for our guests with the lyrics to our two main songs on. These were the cards that I had left upstairs! The first piece was “Love Never Dies” the main song from the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name. As I completed handing out the cards the introduction ended and the main piece began, sang beautifully by Sierra Boggess, currently playing the lead role of Christine Daae on the London stage. If you haven’t heard this piece, head on over to YouTube and check it out. This was my music choice for the ceremony and as soon as the song started I began to cry again. The lyrics are desperately romantic and a total tear jerker. At this point a significant portion of our guests were also now crying their eyes out too! The piece concluded with much sniffing and nose blowing, and all around me I could see beautiful women with running mascara. Objective achieved!
The ceremony continued with our second reading, beautifully ready by Louise. This was my chosen reading, and it is “I Will Be Here” by Stephen Chapman. This is also a tear jerker, and by the end we had more who had joined the crying brigade. Dear readers, we know how to do drama…… After this we moved onto the central point of the ceremony, where we read our vows, and exchanged rings. It was absolutely beautiful. As the registrar moved through the ceremony, James and I repeated our vows as instructed and I continued to cry (had I ever really stopped?) Seeing James look at me as he said his vows was THE most amazing part of my life so far. The second song then began, Everything Possible, sung by Tim Seelig, conductor of the Turtle Creek Men’s Chorus. Another tear jerker! Dramarama was complete! At this point, Sandra called us forward, asked for our witnesses, Margaret and Shirley to step forward and we all signed the civil partnership register. With that, Sandra uttered her final words “I know pronounce you Civil Partners in Law” and it was done. Everyone cheered, people stood up, I cried more, and the final song, “Over The Rainbow” sung by the cast of Glee played us out.
We are now officially and legally together, and it is the most amazing feeling ever.
To be continued……
