The Wedding of my Brother Adrian to Hazel.
(Where pics are labelled "not my pic" it means that neither Margie or I took them, duh! But these were sent to me by various people and not really sure whose are whose!) I have also included some pics by the official photographer which will be labelled (OP)!
The last time the Evans/Drake clan assembled was a couple of years ago at Harriet's Party, so epic we all said never again😁😲, but here we are a couple of years later reconvening for the Wedding of the youngest and second most handsome (this is true, Margie said! Though I think my 3rd place was harsh😂! You came fourth, Mick!!) sibling of the Clan, to Hazel, who despite wishing to marry into the Clan has not been diagnosed with any mental disorder (or so she says!😂). The whole Clan was present except my Nephew Ethan who denies joining the RAF simply to get out of coming!!
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| Nephew Ethan in his RAF uniform, as proof it wasn't just an excuse!! Pic by proud mum Harriet |
The location was the Ardencote Hotel and Spa in Warwickshire, Margie and I, with my youngest offspring, Duncan and his other half Shannon squeezed into the Rio and headed off up the motorway network, on leaving, the Satnav proclaimed it was 2hrs 20mins to our destination, four and a half hours later we arrived😡, a pile up on the M25, ditto on the M40, where we saw several Red Kites, and the hotel not being where Google thought it was the reason!! We were glad to arrive, our room was very nice, although we struggled with the heating system, the view from the room was AMAZING
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| See what I did there!!!😀 |
We had dinner in the hotel, very nice Chicken Burger in a charcoal black bun, I'm so trendy!! What's that about!! We met up with the rest of the offspring, Henry and Nicky with their respective better halves Rebekah and Will, we watched the England Game and began the long process of trying to decide which of the plethora of dresses she had brought Margie would wear the next day!! Tired from the journey, we headed for bed quite early, though I understand the youngsters stayed up and indulged in some cocktails, I pitied them having to listen to Henry going on about how he had a room in the turret and certainly wasn't jealous at all😂!!
We were up quite early and indulged in the buffet style breakfast, with me restricting myself to just the eight Danish Pastries/Croissants, Sausage, Bacon, Hash Browns and a couple of bits of toast, bravely ignoring the yogurt and fruit. Margie had narrowed the dress choice down to two!! Back in the room I felt something was watching us and I was right!
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| Grey Squirrel through the window |
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| The grounds of the Hotel are very picturesque |
With a bit of time to kill, we decided an after breakfast stroll was in order, I took the camera with the big lens on just in case, I had spotted several thrushes feeding in the car park, well come on gotta do a bit of birding😁!! Margie got some good pics of the lake and grounds
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| Hunky Birder alert! |
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Coot crossing the bridge
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| The infamous Turret |
Meanwhile I concentrated on the birds, obvs!
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| Mallard, sadly the lake was devoid of anything exotic |
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| Coot |
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| Cormorant |
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| Mallard |
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| Mistle Thrush, lovely to get close to these usually skittish birds |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Redwing |
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| Pied Wagtail enjoying the golf course |
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| Siskin |
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| Cormorant |
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| Fieldfare |
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| Blackbird |
A very enjoyable walk, but it had to end, we had a wedding to go to!!!! Margie had agreed to take some pics of the Bride and Bridesmaids getting ready and I had to beautify myself (no easy task!😱😱) and get my shoes ready! Obviously up to now I haven't mentioned the shoes which had been pretty much what everyone was talking about, dare I wear the cherry red beauties, would I upstage the Bride & Groom, decisions, decisions😱😰😆!! Margie's photos of the Bride and Bridesmaid's preparations below:
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| My Nieces , Nia, Lucy and Molly who make up 3/5s of the Bridesmaids and yes, if you are reading this in 15 years time, it is the Nia Evans who captained her country 100 times, lifting the world cup 3 times and scoring 60 international goals in the process!! 🏆 |
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| The bride and make up/hairdressing lady |
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| The girls chilling out |
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| Hazel's daughter and grandkids |
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| Fancy |
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| Also Fancy |
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| Bit of Dutch courage |
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| The Bride to be with a bit more Dutch courage! |
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| The finished article, perfection! (not my pic) |
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| Official Photographer |
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| Margie captured this Blackbird getting ready for the ceremony |
Margie returned, dress decision made, we got ready, we were about to leave the room, when Margie sprang another dilemma!! Fascinator or not? This was a bit confusing but once I had established that a fascinator was some sort of headgear it became clear the answer was very much not!! Margie protested that everyone would be wearing a hat!! (literally no one else had a hat on😂!) Margie rather than trusting my unerring sense of fashion,😏😢 disappeared upstairs to ask the girls!! They said the same as me and the fascinator was binned!! Phew!!😁
We headed down to the ceremony, we milled around a bit with the rest of the guests before taking our seats, Adrian was getting a bit nervous as the time dragged on, the music tape went round again, when to everyone's and especially Adrian's relief Hazel arrived just about fashionably late and the ceremony proceeded as planned, bit of a nervous moment when someone (not me) cleared their throat, when the any objections bit came up!!😱😲 but nothing else occurred so Hazel had to go through with it!! It was a beautiful ceremony, with the sort of mushy vows that people do these days, several people blubbed and Margie got something in her eye, the room was lovely and everyone looked nice, I kept the Cherry-Reds tucked away so nobody felt inadequate. I didn't get any pics of the ceremony as it was only the official photographer who was allowed to take pics, it had been mooted that I might take the pics, but as I usually take pictures of birds and they weren't prepared to sit in a tree or lurk about in a Reed bed it was decided to get a proper photographer in, a good idea as she had multiple camera's with multiple lens and gave a good impression of knowing what she was doing, although at time of writing I haven't seen the pics yet!!! However with the ceremony finished we all headed outside for the photos so when I was not posing, I managed to get a few pics of the Clan in their finery!
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| Not sure how the car worked as Hazel was staying in the hotel😏? |
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| Strange we all had the same design of shoes all bought from different shops |
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| Getting a bit nervous pre-ceremony |
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| Getting a bit more nervous (OP) |
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| Phew the arrival of the Bride (OP) |
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| Tying the not! OP |
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| Signing the register (OP) |
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| The Bridesmaids |
Rumours I sold pics of the wedding to the Paparazzi are grossly exaggerated
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| Proud dad, my brother Michael, with his girls, yes I can't believe the suit either? |
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| Everyone!! (OP) |
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| Brother and Sister (OP) |
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| and again (OP) |
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| Happy Couple and Bridesmaids (OP) |
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| The Clan (OP) |
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| The siblings I suppose one good looking one isn't bad! (OP) |
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| My lot and their other halves, Rebekah & Henry, Will & Nicky, Shannon & Duncan |
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| My Sister Harriet |
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| Harriet with her daughter Ellie (my Niece) not my pic somehow they managed to avoid me |
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| Ellie with her Dad, Andy |
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| Hazel's Daughter Sharon with Hazel's Grandchildren, Jack, Harry and Ellie-May (I think) |
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| Shaun, Chris, Jack, the Happy Couple, Best man and Harry |
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| Hazel's Children, Chris, Shaun and Sharon |
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| Hazel's Grandkids Harry and Jack |
With the photos done we headed in for the Wedding Breakfast, confusingly at lunchtime, still a very nice meal, delicious Soup to start, Pork for main course and Sticky Toffee for pudding, all very nice although my Pork, though full of flavour, was a bit tough, I say a bit, I left three blooming teeth on that table😱!! By now I had had Buck's Fizz, a glass of Champagne and two glasses of Red Wine, so I was in no condition to take anymore pics, I know I've become a bit of a lightweight in my old age! Coffee arrived with some Chocolate Truffles, I innocently reached out and took one, not paying attention, yes you guessed it Chocolate Orange!!! An abomination before god and man that should be illegal or at least clearly labelled!!!!
The speeches were amusing and mercifully short and a very nice time was had by all!! I stopped drinking at this point. The evening, brought a Band and a Disco, both very good, despite a brief power cut. Adrian and Hazel done the first dance and cut the cake, obviously insensitive to my cake addiction but I managed to control myself!!
The Disco was one of those that asks for requests from the crowd, then play all the same songs you hear at all Discos mainly from the 60',70's and 80's any way my request for " Dead Embryonic Cells" by Sepultura was unbelievably overlooked😲, no accounting for taste, I obviously don't dance, not since the 1986 incident*, so sat on the side lines in a semi stupor watching proceedings with an air of detached bemusement, which Margie claims is my usual state at such events!😲To start with the dance floor was pretty empty, except for my sister Harriet, who always leads the dancing, whilst her moves might not make strictly's greatest hits, you can't knock her perseverance or stamina ploughing on regardless often a lone figure gyrating wildly in some sort of trance, through the night! To be fair the band were excellent with some decent takes on various classics! Margie, usually likes a boogie but had joined me on the side lines claiming her feet were killing her, not used to the heels, should of gone for a comfy pair of Cherry-Reds like me!! However the Disco bloke sneakily played the Nolan's "I'm in the Mood (for dancing)" and she couldn't help herself, joining the the now fuller dance floor!! The music went on well into the night, food arrived, large Sausage Baps and Chips which I foolishly launched into, temporarily forgetting how much I'd already eaten during the day and maybe the very large slice of wedding cake should have been saved for a later date!! We retired to bed where despite Margie's pleading, I took off the Cherry-reds, was way to tired and full of grub for any of that malarkey!! You've all got the image of me naked in the Chery-reds, stuck in your brain now haven't you😁😱, to be honest it probably isn't as impressive as you are imaging and fortunately there are no pics!!😂😂😂😂😱😲Phew!!!
Here are a few pics of the evening, none taken by me or Margie, donated from various guests!
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| First Dance (OP) |
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| Adrian trying to remove Harriet from the dance floor (she's probably still there) |
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| The Cutting of the Cake |
Sunday and time to go, another go at the breakfast where I was slightly more restrained than the first day, quick goodbyes to everyone, before the journey home via Ipswich, to drop off Duncan & Shannon a journey which took less time than the direct journey up!! A very enjoyable weekend, lovely to see everybody all together for a change!!
Thanks very much to Adrian & Hazel for a great Weekend, a lovely couple, at the start of their life together, wishing you all happiness for the future!💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
*There was no 1986 incident and I put that in to create an air of intrigue and mystery!!!
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