Great wedding!

Pics from my friend Angela's wedding. It was a beautiful day and very traditional "English Country Wedding" but not in any way staid or snobby. Classic, I think.


St Oswalds in Collingham. V pretty and the lady vicar was hilarious. Cracked everyone up but sincere and good value too. Top notch singing although we were all a bit worried about the slightly happy clappy hymn at the end - when it started and none of us knew it, it could have been a bit weak but Ange's family produced tambourines to surprise her and then everyone just let go and bellowed it out "Shine, Jesus, Shine". Very funny and heart-warming.

Ange and Richard....obviously!

Nice hotel - most of us were staying there so no faffing around with taxis and residents bar - top marks! Lovely lovely grounds and views, weather not wonderful but it didn't rain so can't complain.

I went with dress number 2 and managed to stretch it over my head swollen with all the compliments. Thank you for your views. It was the right choice for both the weather and the venue although nearly very wrong- one of the women on my table who I spent a lot of time with over the day said that she had been dithering between this dress and the one she eventually chose. It could have been one of those really awkward "2 identical dresses in the same wedding" moments....close call. I will in future take my spare dress just in case. I felt fab in it and didn't even mind that I had forgotten my "pull in your tummy" big pants!!

Ange and our friend Nadine who introduced us. Nadine is one of those people who pulls people together and creates new groups of friends so loads of the people at the wedding who I think of as my friends, I now realise I met through her.

I think think they were getting bored of the endless photo-taking!

All the tables were themed around pop groups. Our table (Take That) was the clearly the best. We were robbed of the quiz crown by Snow Patrol but we destroyed them on the dance floor and in the late drinking stakes (they had an average age of 60 plus though so maybe not something to brag about!).

The bride's brother took this - I can't wait to see his proper photos as he did a pretty good job with my point and shoot with a dodgy battery!!

I know it sounds a bit soppy but there's something about a really good wedding to make you appreciate life. As you can see from the photos I was at my friend Angela's wedding yesterday up near Wetherby and it was a lovely lovely day and now I feel (despite a slow burning hangover) really full of the joys of life.

I've never met Angela's husband but he seemed like a decent chap and it was great to see her so happy. She is one of those people who is always vibrant, funny and full of energy and never more so than on her wedding day. The planning and painstaking work she and Rchard must have put into the day was so obvious, every little detail perfect but it didn't feel stilted or stage-managed despite being, well, stage-managed to the nth degree. It felt like she had done it because she really cared about all their friends and family and wanted everyone to have a wonderful time and share in her joy, not to show off or anything like that.

I would NOT have had the patience but the little extras really were amazing. As a flavour - on the tables each person had a small box of 6 chocolates, each one with a different photo of themselves and Angela and Richard on the front! That's 6x120 chocs - all those photos to be copied, cut out, stuck on, boxes assembled and labelled and then placed with your name place on each table. It exhausts me just thinking about it!

The food gorgeous and the dancing brilliant. Ange changed into trainers (still in her wedding dress) and I don't think I saw her off the dance floor. I did not change into trainers and probably danced nearly as much as Ange so consequently my poor feet feel very hard done by this morning. After the dancing came the drinking and chatting and I'm pleased to report that for the 4th wedding in a row I have been the last (wo)man standing - this time at a respectable 4.30am Left chatting with Ike, an architect from London and a 60 year old brazilian barman from Sao Paulo who was just fantastic. I really hope that his stories about Pele were true but, if he was making them up, then he did a great job!!

So, not quite sure what the point of this post is other than to mark what a great weekend Angela and her family gave us. I think it's also that, as I get older and a little more contemplative, I want to make sure that I really notice and appreciate the good things that happen and the lovely people you meet. And there are so many of both out there. It's so easy to get stuck in your normal routine and not see the fantastic characters and whole-hearted fun surrounding us and I wanted to make sure that I did not do that today. A bit gushy but you know what I mean....

Anyway, all this mushy stuff is not going to get my lawns mowed, floors cleaned or dogs walked so I had better get my hangover moving .....!