Wedding fun

This past week has been absolute mayhem... so I think my posts will have to be thematic not chronological.

Weddings
The wedding went off really rather well - they were actually married, and no real arguements on the day. The service was as expected, very nice and lots of good singing. My sister was there on time and looked lovely (well the best she can!) My usher duties were more complex than I though, as we had a mini seating plan to ensure that the families were at the front, and then friends behind. This worked well, but did mean that those unused to such ideas (our side) kept trying to sit anywhere, where as her husbands family who are onto their 4th family wedding in 4 months were more prepared for the seating process.
We then headed through the horrendous traffic jams that seem to be plaguing North Tyneside, up to the hotel for the reception. Every time I tried to get near any of the nibbles, I was called for a photograph, outside where it was a touch chilly, but not too wet thankfully, so by the time we were let in for the meal I was starving.
I was on a table near the top (which surprised me) and with various relatives. The meal was lovely, just like the taster one had been. The roast beef was very tasty and came with lots of gravy, yorkshires and carrots. The chocolate pudding with raspberries in the middle was fantastic and yummy. My description of it as a chocolate goo pudding may not be technically the best though.

Then we came onto speeches, which seemed to go on for a long time, although they both got off relatively lightly when it came to tell stories about them and their growing up. My dad managed to hold the line between being honest about my sister and not painting her out to be perfect. Thankfully several of his stories had been spiked by Mum....The evening was a mix of party games - with that many small children (and grown up children) there wasn't much alternative - and a slide show of embarrassing pictures of the two of them. I featured in a few pictures of my sister, including one suggesting I used her head as a drum kit. This got a laugh from everyone, until I heard my sister shouting out "You lot think they're joking!"

The day ended very well with the family and friends sitting round drinking cups of tea after the bride and groom had retired to their room. Then when the parents went to bed, my cousin, cousin in law and I sat round keeping the barman working until about 2am. This is the problem with family events, you see each other so rarely that there always seems so much to catch up.

The Saturday morning was nice and relaxed, where we all had breakfast, then while some of the people with kids went to use the swimming pool, the rest busied ourselves decanting the wedding paraphenalia into the cars to go home.