I’m back from Neil’s wedding, which was absolutely great.
My journey up to Sheffield was fairly uneventful, apart from when my bags got stuck in the ticket barrier at Elephant & Castle tube station. Upon arrival, I sauntered off into the city centre, only to find that Sheffield doesn’t seem to have a city centre as such, more a random collection of streets. I was quite impressed by the city’s trams though — they ring little bells when they set off, which adds to their quaint, nostalgic feel — although I’m sure trams are a much more modern, far-sighted solution than the buses, tubes and trains we have to contend with in London. I (eventually) managed to find a shop to stock up on film and batteries for my camera, and lazily got a cab up to Neil and Nichie’s. Once there, Neil, Nichie, Paul and I chatted and had a few beers, before heading over to The Maynard Arms hotel, the venue for the wedding and reception. Quite a few guests had already arrived — some I knew already, most I didn’t. The ones I did know included Richard Darwent, whom I hadn’t seen for years, and so it was great to meet up with him, his wife Sharon and their 3-week-old baby Gwynedd. The rest of the evening was spent in the bar, catching up and getting to know people over drinks. Neil and Paul were staying at the hotel that night, but Nicola and I went back to their house, and ended up chatting, smoking and knocking back G&Ts until 2.30am.
Unfortunately I had to get up at 8am, and, frankly, had the hangover from Hell. Nichie went off to prepare, and I got a lift back to the hotel with Alison & Phil, friends of Nichie, who had come up from London. Neil, Paul and I spent some time setting up things for the ceremony, then tarted ourselves up in our swanky clothes. As I had the responsibility of taking the ‘official’ photographs of the wedding, it was at this point that my nerves started to kick in. The ceremony took place in the hotel’s ornate function room, but I can’t really remember much about it as I was busy trying to take photos. I’m sure it was lovely though… Afterwards we all made our way into the garden, which was beautifully sunny, and all the guests started knocking back the bucks fizz. Well, all the guests except me, as I was running around trying to get photographs of Neil & Nichie, on their own and with a million different groups of friends and relatives.
In an amazingly bad bit of planning, Neil & Nickie had arranged to get married at 2.30pm, which coincided with the Wales v England rugby international. As about 50% of the wedding guests were Welsh, and the rest English, every few minutes someone would come out with an update on the score (”England 29, Wales 10 with 20 minutes to go!”). It turned out to be a very happy day indeed!
After an exhausting hour of taking photos, I was finally able to swap my camera for a drink. At times it felt like a mini school reunion, catching up with a few people I hadn’t seen for years — as well as people I knew from the stag night. Next we went back into the function room, which had been made up for the meal. I was seated at the ‘ex-Stanwell School’ table with Richard, Sharon and Gwynedd, Kath Lee and her husband, Diana Youde and her husband, and Brendan and his wife. I felt very single and very childless!
Of course, I kept having to interupt my meal in order to get photos of Neil & Nichie cutting the cake, making speeches etc., but I was rewarded by an embarrassing round of applause and presentation of a gift. Once the formal photography was finally out of the way, I was able to get on with some serious socialising and boozing, first in the bar, and then in the disco. The next few hours are a bit of a drunken blur (odd moments of clarity include dancing badly to the Teardrop Explodes, and intentionally getting Tory-boy Paul into a heated discussion with Socialist Worker girl!), and the next thing I remember is everyone going back to their respective hotels, B&Bs and rooms. Of course, Paul, Richard and I decided that we clearly hadn’t had enough to drink, and joined the members of staff for a few drinks in the bar.
I felt surprisingly okay on Sunday morning, especially after a hearty traditional English breakfast (with double portion of black pudding). Quite a few of the guests, plus Neil & Nichie, assembled in the hotel bar, and I was persuaded to get stuck into a few restorative pints of Boddingtons. By mid afternoon, most people had said their goodbyes, and it was time for me to head off home too.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and (please God) I’ll soon have the high-quality photographs to prove it.
I’ve now got the first part of the Stag Night photos uploaded (the disposable camera ones — haven’t got copies of the 150 pics Seymour took with his digital camera yet).
