A Squirrel and a Dandelion: Furness Wedding

Mischief&Marauders
Oct 12, 2019
8 min read

Hello There,

Welcome back to my Blog, so one of my close friends finally joined the Marriage club and I couldn't have been happier for her and her husband. I had booked some time off luckily for the wedding, as did Si way in advance, and what an eventful day it was. I'd been holding out to get my hair coloured for a few months and with cash so tight due to driving lessons and computer purchases we were really short on cash; and with payday the week after the wedding, we were having to be rather tight-fisted.

The morning began with the usually vitamins in the morning and wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather to rush out to the Gloss'nGlow in Wibsey to get my hair coloured by the very talented Sam Briscoe. With soggy shoes and wind battening down on my umbrella I overshot my stop and had to walk back through Central Wibsey before finding my way back to the salon. I got in and she'd already been touching up another lady's hair with vibrant blues and purples; so I found myself a seat by the door and placed my soggy umbrella behind me inhaling the overwhelming scent of nail varnish and varnish remover. There was a series of gossips and drama going in with each of the ladies, so I tried to keep my eyes on my phone whilst they nattered away. Eventually it was my turn to be seated and we looking through some of my hair inspo on Pinterest to get an idea of what colour I was looking to achieve. Sam discussed the type of hair dye she'd be using as boosters that would be needed to give the fire into the copper that I was looking for, before turning away to whip up my colour. once all of it was on she swapped me with a new lady to put on some blonde colour onto her hair and I took my original seat whilst listening to the owner discuss her overbearing partner.

The minutes ticked by and I began to get nervous with the wedding being at 13:00 and as Si was the Best Man we had to be there latest by 12:30, so I kept my eyes fixated on different wedding concepts I'd send to my sister for her wedding planning until Sam called me back to the chair. We washed the colour out and my oh my, it was vibrant red when wet. She gave me the trim to help my layers fall back into place and curled it as quick as she could. I thanked her promptly for the wonderful job she did despite the yanking of the hair during washing and legged it to the nearest bus stop all the while fighting the wind and trying desperately to keep my water soaked shoes on at the same time.

I got back for 12:03 to the house and quickly slipped on my backless bra which worked remarkably well before watching Si strut around the house in his new suit he'd picked up the day before. High heels on and dress tied at the waist I pulled on my Faux Fur coat and in we hopped into the Uber waiting on our drive. He took us down twisting country roads and down the back of the Hotel before dropping us right outside the hotel reception. Most of the guests had already arrived by this point and we went to speak to reception who allowed us to check in to the room early, rather than hold our luggage for the ceremony.

We were on the first floor with a balcony view of the gardens and with a quick through of the bag and a touch up of my lipstick we made our way back down to the reception and went to order a drink… I kid you not, not a second before the drink hit my lips they called everyone into the ceremony room and I was told I couldn't take my very expensive drink in and to leave it al the reception desk and collect when done. In a huff I placed my glass at the end of the counter and found a seat near the front so I could get a good view of the bride and of course the groom. Si naturally had to stand up with the groom and then was seated in the front row next to Matt's mom and the bride's sister's boyfriend joined Matt and Si' in the corner to have a chin wag.

Everyone took their positions and the bridesmaids made their way down the aisle to (insert name of song) followed by the bride. The sweetest thing happened and Matt was in tears watching his bride come up the aisle to greet him. Once the bride met him in the front the flood really started. They had their own personal vowels written and the bride jokingly looked back to make sure no one stopped the wedding.

You could feel the adoration from Matt radiating throughout the room. Once rings were exchanged they shared their kiss sealing their union and Si was then called up as witness to sign their certificate along with the maid of honour. Once all the photos that people wanted to take with them signing the registry, the bride and groom made their way out of the room to (insert song name) and everyone began to fill out of the room and make their way into the now sunny courtyard for pictures.

I went to find my drink as I was starting to feel really unwell (remnants of my sister in law's wedding exactly a year to the day) and after taking a few sips felt incredibly sick and had to make my way back to the room. Once refreshed I unfortunately missed the canape reception, but found Si in the courtyard having finished taking his pics with the bridal party we made our way back to the room to have a rest and a snuggle until the wedding breakfast was ready to be served. Si wanted to make sure I was okay and once we were refreshed, made our way back to the courtyard to mingle and found the photographer, groom and a guest from the States (whom Si would spend the majority of the night socialising with later at the party) and we all had some jokes and laughs once again congratulating the groom.

The room was eventually ready and we were welcomed into the suite. Si being the best man was sat on the head table and I was sat on a table close to the wedding party with a note of being one of the Brides Best Friends. I was sat initially next to one of the bridesmaids and another guest were talking over me, so I offered to switch seats so they could talk to each other and sat next to one of the brides other closest friends Leigh. We had some chit chat throughout the food which for me was Goats cheese tart, Chicken Roast and Eton Mess. The tart and chicken were very bland and lacking salt and pepper; which turns out were hidden behind glasses on the table and I had a good laugh about it after, but the dessert was gorgeous. The breakfast was made even more uncomfortable with having one of the bridesmaids send sharp dagger looks every time I looked over for some reason, but wedding etiquette prevented me from confronting her and asking what her problem was.

We were given small favour bags with chocolate hearts, rock candy sweets and a magnet picture of the happy couple (which is now on my fridge as a reminder of the day) and after tea and coffee was served the speeches began. As wine and prosecco was being served I handed Si all of my drinks as I'm not able to drink at present and at this point he was a bit tipsy, but the first to give his speech. He did seem to forget a lot of what he practiced, so maybe had we done the speeches prior to eating he may have had more to say; but this seemed to set the tone and the consecutive speeches following Si's were short and to the point just like his. We broke up again and were asked to be back for 6:30pm for the disco and the evening reception to start.

After a brief nap to digest the initial breakfast I was still feeling rough but we made our way back to the reception are and found a table close to the bar and dance floor before inviting the American (Rob) to join us and we got chatting before I switched over so Si could have someone other than me to chat to. They got heavily involved in conversation, and after finding out tha the dance wasn't due until 8:30 and with drinks flowing we began to look for ways to entertain ourselves. Thus the next event was totally on us and man the groom was not happy. It all began with flicking small wooden hearts at Mary (groomsman's girlfriend and bride's sister) before it escalated to her throwing pinecones (an excellent shot that hit me in the boob). From this we started trying to get the pine cone into the guys Waistcoats and Dan (Mary's boyfriend) escalated this further so we started finding smaller things to get the pine cones to fall into. An empty pint glass from Rob sealed the deal and the whole table got involved and we all started trying to get the pinecone into the glass cheering every time it went in. This game went on all night, but after hearing whispers about the Grooms annoyance at this, pulled Si and myself out of the situation immediately and went outside to help get the fire for the BBQ going.

I found myself a nice chair close to the fire and happily chatted to the sous chef who was failing miserably at getting the fire going. Eventually he got it going and whilst everyone sat in the ever more hot room I enjoyed the environment from outside with a roaring fire listening to the music from outside and inhaling the smell of charring chicken and beef. Finally it was time for the first dance, so I made my way back into the room to capture both the First Dance and the Father and daughter dance and to watch the brides mother burst into tears was very heart-warming. The disco went into full swing and with an ever increasing drunk partner I was praying the food would come out soon. The food was ready and I found it incredibly rude that people didn't allow the bride and groom to eat first, but as Si was struggling to walk I helped him get to the food bar to get some food in his system. As his condition got worse I felt it was time we leave, so helped him stand up and get up a flight of stairs. Boy this was a challenge, as was undressing him; I can only imagine a toddler being more difficult to dress…Flicking through the channels I put on some alien conspiracies and waited to fall asleep.

I was completely ready to wake up to a very hungover partner despite him wasting had a bottle of water the night before going to sleep, but turns out he wasn't as bad as we thought. After a shower and getting dressed we made our way to the breakfast hall and loaded up on bacon, sausage and egg; whilst I ordered bacon and pancakes from the station. Despite having 3-4 hours of sleep the rest of the bridal party came down and we hugged the bride and groom congratulating them once more before making our way back to the room to pack up and check outleaving the room with a flat untouched cider….the shame!

So all in all, we had a wonderful time and despite some unseemly behaviour from Si's boss it was a very good time.