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Wedding |
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Wedding Day |
After a brief introduction from Steve - thanking people coming along and such - we started
the first hymn: Guide me oh my great Redeemer. A good rousing Welsh anthem. Lots of singing.Katherine and I couldn't stop looking and smiling at each other. It all seemed rather surreal that we were stood at the front of the church with so many family and friends stood behind us. We just couldn't believe the day was finally here!
The rest of the congregation were invited to sit down after the hymn, while we remained
standing. The next bit was the marriage ceremony. After some introductary preamble, we got to
say the "I will"s (into the microphone, which was quite scary! We didn't know how loud to speak
into them. In the end, Katherine came out loud and clear, and I didn't - I think she was closer
to the mic than I was!) and then Steve took Katherine's hand from her dad's, and passed it to
mine.The vows were next.
It was amazing saying the vows, staring into each others' eyes and hearing your voice over the speakers. Percy, stood behind me, was trying to keep out of Katherine's line-of-sight as he made her laugh during the rehersal at this point.
Percy hadn't lost the rings, which was handy (no pun intended) for the next part - exchanging
them. I nearly picked up *my* ring to start with, and then there was a chuckle from the
congregation as I struggled to get Katherine's ring over her knuckle and whispered "*phew*",
which I think came over the speakers. After my piece, Katherine slipped my ring on my finger
and said her part.We knelt for a brief prayer (I had to help Katherine kneel and get back up again) and then we were pronounced Husband and Wife! I was invited to kiss my wife, and the congregation were invited to clap. :)
Then it was straight into the next song: The Lord's my Shepherd (the modern version). We were
ushered away to our seats (to the side) and stood there, singing and smiling at each other.
Alison, one of the bridesmaids, and Kara, one of Katherine's Canadian friends read some
passages from the Bible for us (Ruth 1:16-17, and Colossians 3:12-17). Steve's address was
next.I'm not sure how long he spoke for (15-20 miutes? I wasn't really counting) but it was amazing. Steve knows us quite well, and so it was very personal - in fact, we had quite a few comments later on that people wondered if we'd given him permission to be so personal. We didn't mind at all.....and speaking to him a few weeks later, he said it was the toned down version! It certainly got people talking about things, which is more than we could have asked for.
The song following Steve's address - From the squalor of a borrowed stable - was the song that we knew was going to be the quietest as it is quite modern. We sang as loud as we could, as did the people in the congregation who knew it. Luckily we had a vocalist with a microphone making up for those who didn't know it!
Poppy and Martin made their way to the front and led us in prayer. It was really nice to hear friends of our being so sincere. We hope that the rest of the congregation felt the same.
The hymn following the prayers was our final one: Thine be the Glory. Well known and a good rousing one to finish on, there was lots of singing. No problem with volume this time!
After the hymn, the wedding crew and the witnesses (the dads) stepped over to the table where
the registers were. I was first, Katherine next, and then the two dads. There are quite a few
bits of paper to sign (4?). Then we posed for a few photos of signing the register and set
ourselves up behind a pillar at the front, ready for the procession down the aisle.We caught the music director's eye as he finished his last chord of the signing-the-register music (Prelude and Fuge in C by Bach, from 48 Preludes and Fuges) and he launched into the processional music: Trumpet tune by H Purcell.
Katherine had to pull me back a couple of times as I was striding away with a massive grin on my face. We stopped a couple of times down the aisle so that people could take a picture of us, and then we got to the door. We stopped for a few photos (a group of old women looking in from the door had to be ushered out of the way for the photos) and then it was time for a few group shots in the door with various family members and Steve.
Then we waited for the ringers to start before we started to walk to the cars waiting for us
in the taxi rank. It was all rather strange weaving our way through the throngs of shoppers
(all looking rather surprised to see a bride and groom striding through town) with me holding
up Katherine's train to stop it dragging all the muck up. The timing couldn't have been more
perfect as the wedding cars had only just arrived at the rank by the time we got to it.After a few photos of us by and in the car and we were away. Mr and Mrs. Travelling to our wedding reception. We couldn't believe it had finally happened. Katherine swapped her engagement ring back onto the right finger and we grinned all the way.
Click on the "Reception" button to read what happened next.