The first week in August ushered in the big social event of the year, and saw the first of the sons and daughters of our extended family of friends get married. Simon, the oldest son of Deb and Carlos proposed to his girlfriend Katie in December, and the wedding was scheduled for Saturday August 9th. Nikki was home for the wedding, but sadly on her own, Kevin was unable to travel. Tricia had been spending weeks gradually working on the wedding cake. I finished work for my summer break on the Thursday evening. On the morning of Friday the 8th we all packed our finest. Tricia and Nikki set off first as they had to get down to Bath … well, Katie’s parents house near Bath… to set the cake up. Robbie, Ellie and myself set off later, and we met up with Tricia and Nikki at the hotel in Bristol late afternoon. The trip down seemed to take forever, I followed the sat nav and got snarled up in traffic. Anyhow, we all checked in, and gradually people started to arrive, Wendy & Rob, Jan and Trevor … all with offspring in tow. There were some issues with the gas, and it looked for a while as if we wouldn’t be able to eat! But this was eventually sorted out. Deb, Carlos, Simon, Matthew, and ‘the oldies’ joined us for the evening dinner…. as always I couldn’t resist saying a few words, congratulating Deb and Carlos on their fine parenting :-).

Saturday morning, after breakfast Nikki went off to do testing at Bath… she would be tight on time so took her dress to change into.  Originally the testing was supposed to be on the Sunday, but as always with British Bobsleigh, they moved it to complicate matters. Tricia and Robbie went off to the house where the reception would be held in order to finalise the set up of the cake. So, with time on our hands Ellie and myself walked into town, and mooched around the shops. Then back at the hotel we all got prepared and we were on our way to the wedding. We had a bit of trouble finding the church, but it was a lovely church inside. The service was formal but relaxed, which pretty much set the tone for the day.

After the wedding Matthew organised everyone into all the various photographs that needed to be taken, before we all went off to the reception. The reception was held in a marquee in the gardens of Katie’s parents. There was a quartet playing when we turned up, mainly easy listening numbers and very entertaining. The food was excellent, the speeches good, and then we danced the evening away. One highlight was seating a suspicious Simon and Katie down to watch the ‘happy’ video Carlos put together … they loved it. At the end of the evening Nikki drove us all back to the hotel. We had had a great time, but were tired..

Sunday morning saw a slow start, a slow breakfast , and slowly packing… then we sat in the lounge before it was time to go over for the ‘post wedding picnic’… seemed like a strange idea, but it was a very pleasant way to see everyone in a quieter atmosphere.

After sandwiches and cake we headed back home, Nikki, Robbie and Ellie in the Mondeo, Tricia and me in the Mazda. We were tired, but for me it was ok… I was off on annual leave, no work for me on the Monday :-). Rob was working till Thursday, but I had a nice few relaxing days planned before we went to Malta.