To the Austins!

Well, my Sister is no longer a Taylor and is now an Austin. How exciting! The day went very well indeed, the weather held out (despite a slight scare with a downpour at lunchtime) and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves. It started for us when Chloe’s Mum and Taryn & Chris arrived at ours shortly after 11. Lots of rushing round getting ready followed before we headed to my parent’s at half 12. Once there everyone seemed surprisingly calm and Chloe, Bee and I all got dressed quickly, eager to be ready in good time. Soon after I was dressed I had to head off to the church ready for my ushering duties where we waited for the bridal party to arrive….

Just after 2 my Sister arrived at the church with my Dad on the back of a tractor and trailer wearing silver wellies! Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of this as I was ushering, although in hindsight I could easily have got a few before they headed into the church. Bah. Bee was part of the bridal procession in her duty as bridesmaid which she didn’t quite grasp how to do so wandered into the church 10 steps behind everyone else. Still it made the church chuckle so no harm done!

After the wonderful ceremony conducted by the brilliant Conal we posed for photos and set off for Hales Hall (a truly fantastic looking old barn in the middle of nowhere). Drinks and canapés came round and lots of chat was had along with the sun coming out and some more photos in the beautiful gardens. Attempts to get Bee off to sleep in the afternoon came to naught but she seemed happy enough so we didn’t worry about that!

The evening part of the reception rolled around with the usual speeches, desert canapés followed a short while later by a hog roast and barbecue and the arrival of the evening guests. The band began to play and the first dance was had followed by many more dances. Cake was served (mmmm, cake) and people mingled and drank as the sun went down. Bee danced to the band and played with the bubble machine and ran around eating bits and pieces here and there – because she’d been ill she barely ate anything at all last week so we figured it best to let her eat when she wanted to. She finally succumbed to being up for 11 hours straight at 10 and went to sleep in her pushchair tired and happy. We stuck around for a little while longer but a week of a poorly child and being ill myself meant that by 11 I was flagging so we said our goodbyes and headed for home. Our journey was impeded shortly after leaving the hall by the presence of a small herd of cows standing  on the road refusing to move. This left me no recourse but to get out in all my finery and shoo them away from the car to riotous laughter from Chloe’s family in the car behind.

It was a fantastic day.