Catching up

First up, as I constantly have all things wedding in my mind these days, my second niece's wedding of the summer from the beginning of September. It was a gorgeous day and blessedly cooler than the first niece's wedding 5 weeks previous.

Mary looked lovely; they danced a careful but heartfelt beginners' foxtrot and her very quiet but underneath it all, quietly steely new husband gave a beautiful and touchingly old-fashioned speech showing everyone just how much he loves and appreciates our quietest girl.

A truly special day. My eldest niece sang Ave Maria which wouldn't have been her (or my)  choice but blumming 'eck she hit it and my younger niece Kat delivered a hilarious, punchy, jokey but sincere poem about her sister.

(They have a deal re the wedding poems - Liz did Kat's, Kat did Mary's and Mary will no doubt do Liz's one day. I think she was hoping for that day to be quite soon but she and Tall Scottish Craig split up between the 2 weddings. Maybe her sisters' marriages focussed their minds on their own relationship and they found it wanting; friendship and fondness yes but not that deep love and shared values you really need. I think they could see a lifetime of constant compromise ahead. A little compromise is necessary of course but not all the time!)

My cousin flew in overnight from Canada having attended another wedding there the day before but sadly missed the ceremony due to taking the wrong route from Heathrow. Still she made the reception and it was brilliant to catch up with her.

Here is Richard about to head into the pub for a pre-wedding snifter.

The nervous groom and best man. The best man had never been to a wedding before so did a great job with his speech which was very sweet and funny.

My lovely second niecelet.

My crazy third niecelet wearing one of the bridesmaids dresses from her wedding in July.

So, the last couple of days have been okay diet wise. A run yesterday morning but too much wine last night..... Today I have been baking for an apple themed bake-off in our local this evening. There have been a couple of tasters of my salted caramel and apple crumble bars!! I will make sure that they either get taken to the pub or Richard's work tomorrow!!