Summer Wedding in Essex

I got about halfway through yesterday, when long-suffering sister e-mailed me to wish me happy anniversary. I nearly jumped off my seat; we had both forgotten again (we do so every year). It was too late to plan anything because we had a wedding to go to (who has a wedding at 4pm on a Wednesday?) so I picked up a gift of attar (scent) on the way home and got the kids ready for the wedding.

Hubby loved his present, so that put me in a good mood as did our drive through Essex (it was still bright when we left home at 6.30 so we got beautiful views. We got there for seven (4pm by Asian Mean Time as opposed to GMT). The meal was planned for 7pm and was served at 9pm, so they too were obviously running by AMT.

The wedding was at Quendon Parklands, a beautiful old mansion set in a deer park. The evening was a perfect English summer evening, warm with a fresh breeze. The food was plentiful, delicious and varied (plus we were joking with the waiters, so they kept coming back and piling on more). My parents, sisters and cousins were also invited as were many family friends, so we had an absolutely terrific time. We stuck our fingers in the chocolate fountain, we ate too much, we explored the house. It seems that when we go somewhere this posh (they had Molton Brown handwash and lotion in the loos), it brings out the hick in us (unpretentious I say). My sisters kept sticking cutlery in my clutch to wind me up, and Fashionista Sister kept pointing out old bald men for Long-Suffering Sister to marry.



We told the little kids drinking juice at the fountain that it was beer (“Daaaad, a lady told us we’re drinking beer” “What!? Where? That’s pineapple juice, she’s lying”), we wandered around in the grounds with the kids interrupting people’s romantic moments, hubby managed to stop the (horrendous) live music and get the kids on the mic singing “Mountain’s of Mecca” (me and my aunty nearly died of embarrassment).

We nicked the box of mutant, fist-sized strawberries from the chocolate fountain and ate the lot and also managed to lose Gorgeous in the mansion (the waiters were baby-sitting him). The kids found a secret garden and we ended the night gazing up at the stars.

I was a bit annoyed about the timing of the wedding, how far away it was and that it fell on our anniversary. However, when I got there, it was one of the loveliest evenings I have had in a long time. When I got home (at 11.30) to change the woozy kids for bed, a spoon fell out of Little Man’s jacket and Little Lady announced: “That was a horrible wedding, it made my legs tired” – no pleasing some people.

I’m sitting her now with my herbal tea and aching body and wondering how the bags under my eyes got so big, but also with some lovely memories.