The Wedding of Sophie and James

I’ve been telling people I’m going to post this “tomorrow” since last Wednesday. And now I finally have.

On Saturday 19th September 2015 my sister Sophie married her partner James at Lains Barn in Oxfordshire.  I was a bridesmaid along with my sister in law and two of Sophie’s friends.  It was a lovely occasion and after a terrible week of weather the day of the wedding was hot, bright and sunny.  As was the next day when we had a brunch to continue celebrating at my parents house.  It’s not been as nice since.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to see friends and family – some of whom I hadn’t seen since my brother’s wedding nearly two and a half years ago.  As we went out separate ways at the end of the day we said we’d make plans to meet again soon.  So often that’s one of those things we say but don’t follow through on but I hope we do in this case.  It was also nice to meet James’ family who I hadn’t met before.

I’ll put captions under each of the photos but in terms of visual description I’ll post some basics here first.  The bridesmaid dresses were fuschia which was a much darker purpley pink than I had been anticipating when I was told they were fuschia – I’d imagined a much hotter pink.  Some of these photos don’t do them justice colourwise. The dresses were floor length but I had mine taken up substantially to stop it catching in my wheels. James, his dad, the ushers/best man and my dad all wore three piece suits with a white waistcoast and a fuschia cravat.  My brother was an usher.  My mum wore gray/lilac with a purple fascinator.

I don’t have any photos of the ceremony or immediately after as I didn’t have my phone with me at that point.  A lot of the photos didn’t come out very well but here are the best of them.  One or two of these were shamelessly stolen from Facebook.  The photos aren’t really in order and if you click on them you can view larger (although for some reason some of the larger ones aren’t the right way up)

Bridesmaid prep from the day before the wedding – my hand holding a glass of prosecco and showing off my nails.  They were gel nails with gems along the bottom of each and they lasted chip free until yesterday (so about 10 days) when they just started peeling off. Most of them came off in one piece.

wedding favour – sunflower seeds in a little brown envelope/packet. The top one has the front – a picture of a tree and says Sophie and James and the date and Let Love Blossom. A small piece of paper with my name on is attached with a mini wooden clothes peg. The second picture shows the back and reads: Sow these seeds and watch them bloom to remember us the bride and groom. On the bottom seam of the packet it says “Sow with love”

Bridesmaid bouquet (with my wedding favour tucked in the top so when we came back at the end of the day we’d know which was which). Lots of pinks, mostly roses in this. It’s resting in a large jar on a table.

Flowered centrepiece for the table

Me and my brother after the meal. I think this is one of the best pictures of me I’ve seen from the wedding and have made this my twitter and facebook avatar.

Sophie and James just as a bunch of people were about to through confetti over them. You can see a friend of the family, Pat, in the background getting ready to throw.

Cutting the cake (which was made by James’s sister)

Bridesmaids and ushers with the bride and groom

My immediate family – Geri (and bump!) Ben, James, Sophie, Dad, Mum, Me.

Me with my cousin’s son Charlie who is 9 months old. Someone told me this photo looks like we’re communicating telepathically.

Hog roast. Perfect evening eats. (The wedding breakfast was a barbecue). I’m a Crees, I had to take a picture of it.

I wheeled through the bar and one point and spotted my mum’s shoes, handbag and another of her bags hanging off a row of coat pegs. It’s fair to say she made herself at home.

This is a silly one. It’s the photographer, from the back. Because everytime I saw him with his camera straps across his back like that it made me think of some sort of “going into battle” harness.

Atmospheric lights, glitter ball, beams of the barn shot.

Me holding my flowers, taken at the end of the night when I suddenly realised I’d not got anyone to take a shot of me as bridesmaid for me.

One from the next day, because it made me laugh. We had a brunch for family, bridesmaids, ushers etc the next day at my parents house. The various flowers from the wedding were dotted around and some people took some home after the brunch. I spotted this wreath of flowers hanging from the outside tap. Because where else are you going to hang the flowers the day after the wedding but from the outside tap?!