wedding of the weekend

This post is a little slow in coming as I have had a busy start to the week. On Monday I spent nearly 6 hours sorting out my very own classroom! What an exciting and scary prospect. In just a couple of weeks time I am going to have a class full of tiny little wonderful people to teach. I then spent the evening baking the first few layers of a wedding cake. Yesterday was spent childminding, then more baking in the evening, so I am sure you can see that finding time to blog in-between has been a little tricky!

At the weekend we travelled across the country to Kent for a wedding in the very beautiful Canterbury Cathedral. (Apologies in advance - the photo quality is not brilliant - I was using my little point & shoot camera on this occasion.) It was lovely to have a wedding (of one of John's old university friends) happening so close to my parent's home, so we had the bonus of spending a little bit of time with them over the weekend.

The wedding was quite a small affair, and when thinking about how to describe the wedding, the phrase, musically & lyrically rich comes to mind. The hymns and music during the wedding ceremony & champagne reception were sung by the King's College Choir from Cambridge University. Do you ever have moments of hearing music so wonderful that it causes you to wonder at just how glorious the singing in heaven must be? I had one of those moments listening to the choir.

The wedding ceremony was held in the crypt of the Cathedral, and while that might sound a little morbid, it really wasn't. It was beautiful.

The bridesmaids' dresses were a beautiful shade of blue that I am going to call midnight because it feels right.

There was a bit of a spotty trousers theme going on at this wedding, and it just so happened that these two spotted ladies stood next to each other - perfect for an inconspicious photo! I ended up seated next to Miss Spotty legs-with-the-wedges at the reception, who goes by the name Archie, because she was born in New Zealand & her middle name is Aotearoa, which means land of the long white cloud. So poetic.

A small selection of the hundreds of different family shields on display on the ceilings of the Cathedral Cloisters.

The beautiful Cake + beautiful walls

Personalised Love Hearts! I ate about 3 packets of these, and don't tell anyone, but I totally saw the choristers sneaking some into their pockets...

The Bride & Groom left the Cathedral in a shiny Land Rover Defender - travelling in great country style. They had the brilliant idea of having a two-hour break in the afternoon to catch their breath & arrive at the evening reception feeling refreshed. We took the opportunity to go & visit my wonderful Nanny, who has just moved into a care home nearby, before driving to the reception in a beautiful little Kentish village. I'm sorry to say that I totally failed to get a photo of the Bride & Groom! 

I adored the character of this barn where the evening reception was held, with its brilliant leaning walls & low, low entry ways - even I had to duck as I walked through, and I'm only 5'5" tall!

 Happy Happy Hollyhocks

I fell in love with this garden & its trickling stream and strong hammock - who wouldn't want to while away hours lazing in that hammock?

'Glass up or down, or on the ground for the picture?' Hannah wonders - too late - John's taken the photo.

 Hello, Mr. King!

 Hello, sun flare!

 Hello, pretty, pretty cottage

 The barn where the reception was held, with a slight dolls' house feel to it, with its miniature proportions that somehow felt huge.

 I got laughed at quite a lot by one of the other guests on our table for taking this photo - he didn't see the value in it - but I loved the bubbly strawberry so I ignored his teasing & took the photo anyway.

Three seriously delicious desserts, baked by the lady of the cottage - I had to fight hard to get to eat my brownie - two boys kept trying to steal it from my plate having eaten their own!

We had such a lovely day, celebrating the marriage of Megan & Jethro.