What are you all up to
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Well... our daughter set off this morning to go to their home in the Outer Hebrides. We've had a lovely Easter with them, in spite of them breaking down on the way down to us (and being recovered to a garage here in Tamworth, who managed to repair it in good time.).... and in spite of our coughs and colds!! She set off at 5.30am in order to get to Glasgow in time to pick up Wayne (he husband) from the airport (travelling home from his Switzerland job).
Got a phone call from her (at Knutsford Services) at around 8am..... the car had broken down again!! Something different this time!! Unbeliveable - considering the car is regularly serviced..She's being recovered to a garage in Inverness. Wayne (her husband) is making his way to Inverness by bus. They'll spend the night in Inverness, before picking up a hire car to get them home until the car is repaired.
After the problem we had with our car last summer when we went up to visit them on Lewis, I'm beginning to wonder what might happen when we go up in August...!!
Oh well!! I guess it's the luck of the draw!!
David
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We don't get invited to many weddings. The last two have been the weddings of my Brother's Grand Children. Sadly he is no longer with us so one would have thought we might have been invited to the actual service, but no, only to the evening do which we were a bit miffed about! One was in Farnham and the other in Wells. The latter we declined as it was a long way to go just for an evening event. We did go to the one in Farnham which proved quite expensive. Not only was there the hotel but at the evening celebration bottles of wine were £40 a throw!!!! Given that a wine of a similar quality in Waitrose would likely be under a tenner I was somewhat shocked!!! I suppose its all the rich tapestry of life?
David
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Weddings are hugely profitable for hotels, etc….. It seems quite the norm nowadays for couples to be together, buy a home, have children, then decide to get married, I suppose that financial stability is coming later in life for many. £35-50k is probably the average for many weddings. It’s a proper money making roulette when you drill down into the details. Every bow on a chair costs, any deviation from a menu choice, even to cater for veggies, vegans, children is usually charged for, numbers are usually limited, so that’s where Aunty May and Uncle Joe often miss out. Last three weddings we have been to, I volunteered my craft skills to save the brides a bit of money. I made the head dresses for two, did the flowers for another, and helped out with all sorts of other things that the venues wanted silly money to provide. It’s something I feel honoured to do for our lovely families, and they trust me to deliver thankfully.
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When our daughter got married (2016) they decided they only wanted a small main celebration with close family as they were paying themselves, and additional friends for the evening do.
However her in-laws had different ideas, and a large family of aunts, uncles and cousins! Not inviting them all was apparently not on, so the in-laws paid for all the "extra guests" , which I believe came to about £15k. 😮
On our side we had only close family, as agreed, 10 people plus us. We gave her the same cash gift her brother got, which she used to pay off some of her mortgage.
The whole thing was at the "House for an Art Lover" in Glasgow, a humanist ceremony. OH made her veil, and I made a quaich for our grandson (8) to carry the wedding rings in, our grand-daughter (4) was a flower girl, they both did very well. The bride made the cake herself.
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Our second son’s wedding was a fairly expensive affair. A beautiful small church wedding near Leamington Spa and a large reception at a gorgeous hotel near Stratford on Avon (Welcombe Hotel). This was in 2004 and the price seemed astronomical to us even though they did a lot themselves, DIL made all the invitations and OH printed for them. I made and decorated the wedding cake, I did quite a few in those days. Like others ours was a local church and the village hall for a wedding breakfast, nothing in the evening much, we just went back to Mum’s for a family get together.
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We were married at a time when the bride's parents traditionally paid for everything. Church, traditional three course dinner at a hotel. No "evening do" (though my family went to the pub after we had left for our honeymoon).
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Mum and Dad paid a lot of our wedding, but OH and I made a list of things we wanted, deemed essential, then we went with desirables next. We did a lot of the catering for our wedding as well, the kind of food both our families enjoyed (We weren’t veggies at the time). Mortgage came first though, and we had a proper honeymoon, straight from the evening do. We came home straight to SILs wedding, and a well booby trapped house🤣
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Sounds lovely, some special keepsakes from the wedding. Had we had the garden we now have, I think we might have gone with a marquee. It’s really good if you have talented folks who can do certain aspects of a wedding, and help out, but I can fully understand those that just hand it over to a wedding organiser, there were moments on our day when things did get stressful, not least getting a three tier cake to the venue😱 Cake got there ok, but we had a puncture coming home, so that ate into our get your glad rags on time. Mum was a nightmare floating around, Dad was rigid with nerves, and my Sis only arrived home (working away) the night before. But it all came together and we had lots of fun, which is what we wanted.
Things I have kept…..dress, veil, headdress, loads of receipts for things, my bouquet is dried somewhere. We have some nice photos, although I came close to murdering the photographer at one point, he was a nightmare. I still have the hubby as well, slightly worn, engine occasionally dodgy, but he ticks along nicely still🤣
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Our wedding was a normal one for the time. Families from both sides meal after the church service then the evening do after that.
Our son's both had civil ceremonies, neither of the brides wanted church services. The did both wear wedding dresses. Family at the ceremony and meal afterwards, then evening do for friends.
My parents paid for our reception but we paid for everything else. With our children they both paid for their own. Happy to say we are all still married today, 52 years for us, 19 years for eldest son, 17 years for youngest.
The last wedding we went to was OHs great niece. The whole day was in a hotel venue, the bride was over an hour late (she was staying in the hotel) then after the ceremony the couple vanished for over 90 min doing photos of just them.
After that we were all ordered outside in 2 lines to throw confetti. All very orchestrated, nothing natural about the day, just a lot of standing around waiting. I know the day is supposed to be about the happy couple but we thought it went to far.
To be honest it was the least enjoyable wedding we've ever been to. I felt for the catering staff as it was running so late. Sadly the meal that promised something nice was dry and uninteresting due to the lateness.
The evening do was also a let down as once again the happy couple vanished to do more photos of themselves. To this day we haven't seen any of them. There has been no thank you notes, for the gifts they received. If this is modern day weddings then I'm glad we had ours at a time when it was about family, friends and the happy couple. 😊
Raining today again, please will someone put a stop to it I have things to do. 😫
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All our wedding experiences have been nice thankfully. Food a bit wanting at one, (we got a McDonalds on way home🤣 me in full hat and heels🤣) and getting your head around just how quick civil weddings are takes some doing, particularly around the money spent, but they have been very well thought out and family orientated. Next one is going to be in a very old church, then a lovely very old big house.
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There's a McDs in town and it shares a carpark with a supermarket. We were shopping and noticed a Bride, Groom and about 6 guests all dressed up to the nines sitting outside having their meal with a photographer recording the occasion, a cake on the table and a bottle of Prosecco being popped. At least they all looked happy about it. We gave them a toot as we went by.
Ours was a low key affair at a registrars in Bury. We got a taxi, a Mustard coloured Datsun Cherry!, to the hotel. Just 5 guests. Too complicated a story to explain. We were due about 20 friends at night but there was a blizzard and only 2 made it onto the Lancashire hills, and they lived locally. We were happy and didn't need a big wedding to prove anything. Best thing I did in my life.
(Marrying OH not getting the Datsun Cherry, but even that was memorable).2 -
Had, for us recently, eventful last couple of days.
We all decided it would be a good idea to get a wheelchair for MiL in order that she could get out and about. The possibility of shopping for clothes clinched the deal.
So we toddled off to an Ableworld and bought one. It took 3 trips and another one for me today but Mil has reluctantly joined the "old club" (her words not mine) at 91.She has mentioned M&S twice today.
We've had awful weather again. Garden too wet to do anything.
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Our wedding - 58 years ago - was very traditional. My Mum made my dress and veil and also the dresses for my 3 bridesmaids who were my 2 cousins and my best friend (whose 80th birthday tea I have just been to today 😊). We were married in church and had our reception in a local hotel where we had a buffet meal. We then got changed and left for our honeymoon in Brighton. No evening 'do' in those days! Some years ago when I was still working some colleagues and I decided to take our wedding photos in to work and the bridal taxi seemed to have the same driver at most of our weddings. Perhaps there was only 1 taxi in Peterborough in those days! By the way my Dad worked for the local paper so all our wedding photos were taken by their photographer free of charge. They were such great photos probably because we knew him.
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Church wedding for us, then buffet reception at the local Civic Centre Hall. Food came from the cash & carry and Mum and her sisters did the catering. Friend did the cars. Good evening do with a friend being DJ, people didn’t want to go home and we had to tell them the hall was closing 11pm. Honeymoon was spent in my parents cottage in Devon that they had just bought to renovate but hadn’t started, so January, no proper heating and only an outside loo. It was freezing.
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Register Office for us then back to Officer’s Mess for wedding breakfast. After the speeches we all piled out to watch a fly past which included a Spitfire, Hurricane and a Lancaster. Organised according to my FIL by him, 😉 Then back to the Mess for a party which went on way into the early hours. Honeymoon on tour, caravan in Langdale and on to Burts Hotel in Melrose. Both sides contributing to this memorable day.
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We are now back from our lovely stay with our son and family in rural N. Ireland. Everything was really successful until we were driving home from the airport yesterday afternoon. About 20 miles from the airport the clutch on OH's car gave out. We had to stop in the gateway to a farmer's field and call the rescue services. It was all very stressful but I have nothing but praise for Green Flag who kept in contact to keep us informed of arrival time of rescue. We eventually travelled home in the cab of the rescue truck and our car is back on our drive. Our lovely mechanic has been round to have a look and a chat with OH. He is going to arrange for it to be collected and repaired.
I have this afternoon been to a celebratory tea for my best friend's 80th birthday. As mentioned in my previous post she was my bridesmaid. She lost her husband last year so she wasn't really looking forward to the celebrations. She decided on a 'ladies only' do and it all went very well. Some of us hadn't seen each other for years so there was a lot of catching up to do!
I am pleased to hear about your MIL's whèelchair WN. Enjoy your trip to M&S 😁
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Been interesting reading about everyone's weddings, ours was planned very quickly , OH came home and said he'd booked the registry office and we had 10 days to sort everything. Wedding dress was hired, a friend lent us a vintage car, my mum's hairdresser offered to take some photographs, the cake was just an iced sponge, and we went to our local pub afterwards for a meal, only immediate family, just 12 people, it was amazing that things just fell into place!
Today I have been getting to grips with a new kindle, I dropped the old one and it wouldn't work, it was about 13 years old so the new one is a bit different .
Another of our elderly neighbours is in hospital, she has dementia but had been managing at home with help, now it looks like she may have to go into a care home.
Nellie hope you have a good trip in Scotland.
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Sounds like a job well done Francis. As you regularly travel down to Ayr perhaps you could tell me if there is a layby on the A77 between the end of the M77 and Monkton suitable for us to pull in with the caravan on tow around lunchtime on a Friday. We think we might be heading to a THS at Troonwhich doesn't start until 1:00.
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That’s good news. It’s safer, and hopefully easier with a wheelchair. Mum always said she didn’t need one, but I always let her walk as far as she could, then she would reluctantly climb in.
Had a very nice PB win today🤗🤩🥳
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Well done with the PB win, tda, something I have never had, although I don't hold very many.
Pleased to hear that your MIL is steadily improving, and has her priorities right with her plans for a visit to M&S, WN.
Hope that your daughter's car is soon fixed, David, you both seem to not to have had a lot of luck with your vehicles in the last 12 months.
Thanks, Helen, we have sorted out all our sites now, all we have to hope for is decent weather. Glad you had a good trip away last week.
Sorry to hear about the disappointing end to your holiday, millie. Fingers crossed that your mechanic can fix the car and that it is not a too expensive job.
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We got marriage in St Marks Church in Southampton. Nothing unusual about that I here you say! Only thing was that we got married in October and the church was next door the the, then, Southampton Football Club, The Dell. So when we went to see the vicar and we talked about dates he suggested it would be a good idea to avoid a home match just in case a goal was scored in the wrong part of the service!!! His name was the Rev Love which always amused me.
Helen said "Today I have been getting to grips with a new kindle, I dropped the old one and it wouldn't work, it was about 13 years old so the new one is a bit different ."
Is it one of the new Paperwhite Kindle's? I got one of those for Margaret a while ago and she doesn't like it as much as her original. With the old one you have a sort of mini keyboard so it was easy to access everything. On the new one its all screen swipes to get to where you want to be so not so intuitive. Probably a question of Margaret getting using it more rather than putting it off!
David
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Our own wedding, back in 1969, was in the University of Glasgow chapel, we met when we were both students there. The reception was at a small hotel on the south side of Glasgow, and our honeymoon was one night at a hotel near Loch Lomond, followed by a week touring Scotland with our small frame tent.
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Nellie - As Kj says there are a few lay-bys on the road after the M77 but they are just in to the side and not set back but they would be ok to sit in but maybe not the most scenic or comfortable if waiting for a while. If you cut off at Kilmarnock there is a BP with McDs etc just off the slip road and you may have space to wait there which I would say is better option we have taken caravan there before when fueling up car and had no issues.
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Lovely to hear about all the wedding's. This year it will be 45 years for us... (married at St Thomas's Church, Wednesfield, in 1979). One of my A Level music students played the Prince of Denmark's March on the trumpet at the beginning of the service. The Brewood Singers (which I'd started directing, 18 months before) together with my then church choir, sang at the service. Honeymoon in St Ives, Cornwall.....
These days, we seem to be getting fewer church weddings, especially as there now appears to be more secular venues licenced for weddings.
The two family weddings we went to last year were both at 'Stately Home type hotels'. Although I missed having these services in church, it was also quite nice having the ceremony and reception at the same place.
David
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I'm quite fond of Loch Lomond, but have never taken the caravan up the A82. The road isn't brilliant, especially north of Tarbet... where you turn off to the right to keep on the A82. Before we venture on that bit of the road we used to do a detour into Arrochar for a burger from the little takeaway by the Loch. However, the last time we went it was closed.... I got the impression they were redeveloping/ upgrading it.... I must try and find out before our next visit to Lewis with Harris, in the summer.... 😀
David
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Thanks Kjell & Francis, I will take a virtual journey down the A77 and suss out the laybys. We would only want a 15 min stop to give Flyte a comfort break, and a drink and a sandwich for us for lunch.
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