I got to the front and the best man was holding the box as
though it had just been chucked at him, so I took it and gave it back to my
nephew and got him to stand in front of us.
Stood at the front with my dad and suddenly had to grab Mark’s
arm because I could feel the pain building in my legs and back, he could tell
from my death grip it was more than just holding him so looked at me and
mouthed “are you ok?”
We sang the first song – Be Thou My Vision – which sounded
amazing with just a guitar and an Irish lead singer, really got that Celtic
feel I wanted. Then my Grandad read from Ephesians whilst I got my sister to
quickly look up Declaration of Principles on Mum’s phone, she said she wouldn’t
read it so Mum did and did a really good job. We then sang the second song Amazing
Grace (My Chains Are Gone) and when everyone sat down our minister said “That’s
a modern version of an old song, by the writer Chris Tomlin. Sixsteprecords,
Chris’s record company have sent their best wishes and said that Chris is
currently on tour or he would have sent a personal message” Mark just nodded like
he’d had a message from his Mum or something, I don’t think it quite sunk in
until later!
The wedding itself was done really well, it didn’t draw
attention to it not being a legal service but at the same time didn’t make out
it was one. He even announced us as husband and wife. I think afterwards no one
could say we weren’t married, even the people who before hand said “so you
won’t actually be married after the wedding?” in fact we had lots of comments
about we didn’t need to rush it.
When he asked for the rings my nephew held the box back so
the minister put his hand out for it. As he stood up he said “turn around” we
did just as the owl flew down the aisle and landed on FIL’s hand. Mark said “I would
have wanted to catch!” so I said “it wouldn’t have been a surprise then!”
We took communion from the Quaich, which surprised me
because I didn’t know what was going to happen with it. Apparently FIL begged
it from the hotel (which I’d told Mark to do!!! He didn’t and FIL had a brainwave
to do it lol) had to show Mark how to use it because I’d tried to show him before
and he wouldn’t.
The minister gave a message and spoke about “leaving and
cleaving” and the passage on the husband being the head but he only did that
bit quickly and took his time explaining the next bit where the husband is
supposed to love his wife like Christ loves the Church, that he’d do anything
for her to the point of laying his life down and that if a husband does this
then a being the head is easy because naturally the wife will trust him in
everything (personally I think this is God’s ideal and like all things God
knows we’re human and it doesn’t always happen like this, He just gives us the ideal to work on) it was all really nice.
We had no signing tree because Mark had forgotten to draw it
(despite having the paper ready) and no exit music, the man we had asked to
sing whilst we signed refused to sing as we thought we could exit to that… so
we left in silence.
We went into the courtyard for photos, this was the first
time I’d seen how many people were dressed up. We had five people in fancy
dress, one person made her own and for her children,
only a handful hadn't. Everyone looked amazing, individually and as a whole group.
We had some pictures with the owls, Mark called me
over to him and the two handlers, he was just putting a glove on and they
wanted me to pose with him for photos. After he told me to give the owl back
and I moved my hand away slightly, stroking his neck and looked sad and was
told I couldn’t keep him :(
Then we heard the horse was back so it was back so we went around to where the horse was. I got someone to give out the dancing ribbons. I asked if it was ok for photos with the owl and they said it was as long as the horse couldn’t see him. So I mounted and the owl was passed to me. After a few pictures I gave the owl back and the ushers asked if we were ready to go. It took a little while to get the people behind the horse because everyone wanted to take pictures but as a rescue horse we needed to control his surroundings.
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