Wedding of the Year!
Well, I’m back from my weekend at the Wedding of the Year – that of my friends SNP councillors Jennifer Dunn and Craig MacKay. It was fantastic. There are some photos available but I think Jen would probably like to put them on her blog first so I’ll wait my turn. The weekend was just great, I loved every minute of it.
Friends
There is a big group of folk that I socialise with in the SNP. We used to go out every weekend – sometimes ALL weekend and although we don’t do that now we still see a lot of each other. Some of us have been away on holiday together and we always do stuff at Christmas and other important times. We’ve often joked that we should all get a huge apartment and live like we’re in Friends and at the weekend that’s exactly what it felt like!
The wedding was in a country mansion – Kildonan House in Barrhill near Girvan. We had a couple of wings to ourselves and so we shared eating areas and a huge lounge. It was a lot of fun to come down in the morning and bump into your mates in their PJs. We cooked together, ate together, drank together (!) and just had a lot of fun. It reminded me yet again how fortunate I am to have such good friends and so many of them.
The Wedding of the Year
I call it that because a week ago I was dancing around the kitchen to the radio when an ad came on – “this Saturday and Sunday, 25th and 26th August, it’s the wedding event of the year”. My excuse is that I was not listening closely but I really thought for a second they were talking about Craig and Jen’s wedding.
Anyway it was lovely. The ceremony was outside. Craig amazed me by being very relaxed the whole day and just looking so happy. Jennifer was absolutely beautiful in her cream and scarlet dress. The ceremony was relaxed – informal but serious of course. It was a nice day but there was a little bit of light drizzle during the ceremony at which point Kate, Jennifer’s teeny little niece decided to start singing “it’s raining” – as if we hadn’t noticed. But it really didn’t matter, nothing could dampen spirits that day.
Bible Reading
I was to do a bible reading – the story of turning the water into wine. I amused myself by telling everyone I was practising a cockney accent for one of the characters, a brummie accent for another and a Weegie accent for Jesus. It was funny watching people trying to find a polite way of telling me how inappropriate that would be. I asked Gordon did he really think I would do that and he answered that I was a little eccentric at times. Eccentric? I like that. That’s quite cool.
However, no matter how eccentric, I am always impeccably behaved on such occasions and did the reading without accents or actions (although Tartan Hero reckoned he could see my hands straining to start gesturing). The minister whose name was McLachlan made a joke as he introduced me, about my name being misspelt. I had to force myself not to retort. Julie Hepburn (of Bid for Freedom fame) apparently was silently willing me not to reply. It was a struggle but it was their day not mine so starting up a double act with the minister during the ceremony would have been a bit off. You see, I CAN behave sometimes.
Ceilidh Capers
I think it was about the best ceilidh I’ve been to. The Dashing White Sergeant was over too soon and my favourite the Orcadian Strip the Willow was such a laugh. The disco that followed was the exact playlist the couple had provided – what a good idea! Saves having to listen to music you don’t like and let’s face it, the standard playlist at weddings tends to be “music you won’t like”.
The meal was lovely, buffet style, loads of different choices and the wine flowed freely. I stopped drinking alcohol at 10pm partly because I knew I’d be driving at lunchtime the next day and partly because I was craving water for some reason – maybe it was that bible reading!
The Beach
We finished the weekend off by having a walk along the beach in Girvan on the way back. I came home with Jamie, Julie and Billy the Kidd – and some, who shall remain nameless, felt they would “benefit from fresh air” so we stopped off. Again, it was a nice day and I never need encouragement to walk along a beach – it always does it for me.
So that was the weekend. And that was the wedding. Craig and Jennifer are in Barcelona for a few days. No doubt it’ll be back to their council work on Friday!
