{"id":2416,"date":"2013-09-02T21:04:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T20:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2416"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:41:58","slug":"its-all-about-the-big-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/09\/02\/its-all-about-the-big-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s All About The Big Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we arrived at Caroline and Steve’s in Horsham on Monday afternoon, their previous visitors were still there, so the eight of us sat in the sunshine having lunch in the garden.\u00a0 Before they left, young Jamie set Skype up on Caroline’s laptop which then put Caroline into a crazy new world.\u00a0 She skyped us in the garden on our computer, which did seem a bit nutty when we only needed to walk indoors to talk to her.\u00a0 She then skyped her daughter Frances in Aberdeen, phoned her daughter Claire in Horsham and tried to put the head-set of the phone next to the laptop to see if they could talk to each other.\u00a0 The wine flowed, the laughter was excessive, creating tears and hiccups and after a rather late night, we knew we were going to be in for a crazy couple of days.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Early the next morning their decorators arrived, plus Caroline’s hairdresser arrived and they must have wondered what was going in with people wandering in and out of the house all day.\u00a0 There seemed to be an endless stream of cups of tea being made and biscuits eaten.\u00a0 After lunch, we left the decorators there and Caroline, Rodney and I walked in to the town centre to try and find me a pair of shoes for Jonathan and Clare’s wedding.\u00a0 The first three shops had nothing in my little size, but then we wandered in to Marks and Spencers.\u00a0 Good old M & S, I had the choice of a few styles, most of which were completely inappropriate, but they had a perfect pair of black patent sling backs with a small stiletto heel that I managed to walk in, without falling over.\u00a0 To add to my excitement, they were reduced to only \u00a315, I did a little dance of joy in my new shoes!\u00a0 To celebrate we all went out for an Indian banquet that evening and waddled home feeling grossly stuffed, with no room left for even a beer on route.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning we managed to get in the shower before the decorators arrived to complete the work in the hallway.\u00a0 I then strolled back in to Horsham for an eyelash tint and a pedicure; it’s all about wedding preparations this week.\u00a0\u00a0 After a delicious home cooked moussaka dinner, Caroline and I had great fun trying on all of her hats and trying to choose a wedding outfit for her.\u00a0 As always, we both really enjoyed our stay at Horsham; thank you so much to both of you, it’s always fun to spend time with a couple of nutters who are just like us. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thursday was an early start and we drove down to Rupert and Rose in Polegate for an hour of nattering and then we all went to The Old Oak near Arlington for a nice lunch together.\u00a0 Back at Rupert’s, I was struggling to stay awake and my back was playing up again after sitting in the car for a while, but it was so nice to see Rupert and Rose again and also to find him looking a lot better than when we had last visited.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

That evening we drove down to East Grinstead, with me flat in the car again and arrived to the expected whirlwind of final wedding preparations.\u00a0 All day Friday was spent doing anything and everything necessary to help make the wedding the wonderful event that it was. Rodney spent two hours on a ride-on mower, cutting the grass in the field next to the marquee.\u00a0 By the time he got off, he was still vibrating and looked very hot and tired.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ride
Ride-on Rodney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had a cooler time in the supermarket with Jessica and then spent an hour with Clare folding about ninety cloth napkins in to fans and tying name labels on to them with ribbon.\u00a0 At the end of the day, while the wedding party went to the chapel for a practice run, Rodney and I cooked up chicken breasts and bacon to put together a huge caesar salad for the eight of us that were still in the house.\u00a0 At 11pm with Mark and Jonathan still in the garden, Rodney and I took ourselves off to bed in Eileen.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nearing
Nearing completion and the cake constructed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Saturday continued in the same way and late in the morning I nervously helped Lynda construct the wedding cake.\u00a0 Fortunately it all went well and I didn’t need to use the edible glue for any repairs, phew….! Finally at 1:30pm we arrived at Sackville College in East Grinstead all frocked up and waiting for Clare to arrive. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Julia
Julia and Amelia waiting for the bride<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When she arrived, Clare looked beautiful and her choice of colours, yellow and black, was delightful.\u00a0 Lynda’s flowers looked absolutely stunning and George had decorated the chapel with so many of the flowers, it was lovely sight to see.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Clare
Clare and Jonathan leaving the chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laura
Laura and Caroline frocked up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back at the house for the reception, everything was perfect.\u00a0 Jonathan and Clare never seemed to stop smiling and from 3pm through to 1am there was a constant procession of food and drinks.\u00a0 The cake stayed upright and intact and I left the reception with two bags full of Clare’s favourite sweets from the lolly buffet.\u00a0 Somehow we also stayed upright and were amongst the last to leave the dance floor at 1am.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The small and the tall; \u00a0Jonny is 6′ 8″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney Travolta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We spent around 45 minutes helping to clear up any urgent things and then thankfully we only had to haul our weary bodies across the driveway to where Eileen was parked and crawl in to our bed for six hours of sleep.\u00a0 It was another wonderful wedding at Lynda and Marks’ and we’re very glad we managed to be there.\u00a0 Thank you for inviting us and we wish the gorgeous Jonathan and lovely Clare a wonderfully long and happy life together.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laura
Laura, Steve and Caroline at the end of the night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we arrived at Caroline and Steve’s in Horsham on Monday afternoon, their previous visitors were still there, so the eight of us sat in the sunshine having lunch in the garden.\u00a0 Before they left, young Jamie set Skype up on Caroline’s laptop which then put Caroline into a crazy new world.\u00a0 She skyped us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-the-road-in-great-britain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8368,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions\/8368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}