Did you hear the one about the Irishman who got lost on the way from the pub to the church? You will….

The day starts all rather calmly.  London weddings always scare me a little.  I know…Richmond and Kew aren’t REALLY London.  Well, to me they are.  As London as anything else I get to.  The traffic, the crazy pedestrians.  Seriously, I get the eebiejeebies.  So Darren and I arrive nice and early here, checking out the location of the church and the pub for the boys long before we needed to be there.  Perhaps I’m alone in my general caution in relation to London weddings.

Louise and Sam met me last fall at Mercedes Benz World.  An odd place for a meeting.  Sadly neither of us were there to buy a car.  I had always hoped that they would book.  There something about his hair and her smiley personality that said “this could work”.  Luckily for me, they did and that’s where our little story begins.

The Groom and a large contingent of guests all started at The Roebuck, high up on Richmond Hill.  The plan being that the crowd would move, en mass, to the church near the bottom of the hill.  Conversely I started in a quiet street just outside of Twickenham, The Home of English Rugby.  I’m guessing this may have been intentional as I bumped into a few pictures of Sam in his rugby kit and they did have Jerusalem as a hymn.  So far, so good.

I dash off back to Richmond to see the last of the guests arrive and be ready for Louise’s arrival as well.  I walk into the church to find 2 people.  Those two being the Groom and the Best Man.  But wait a minute…its 8 minutes to 2.  We kick off in 8 minutes.  Quickly a few more folks arrive in the form of ushers who decide “let’s call back to the ladies and tell them to hold fire”.  Too late, they are already en route.  Suddenly a flood of guests arrive and I’m guessing this is all going to plan.  2 minutes, 1 minute…2pm.  Apparently there are a few more guests to come.  OK…it happens.  Meanwhile the Priest reminds us all to double check that our mobile phones are OFF.  Anyone who has a phone that goes off is promised by Father that he will ‘kill them’.  Umm…ok.  Perhaps not the kind of Priest I want to cross.  Passive, yet effective.  Finally at 5 past a call is put out.  It would appear that those last ‘few’ guests turn out to be an entire row and all from Louise’s Irish contingent.  It would seem that upon leaving the pub, they made a wrong turn and were, in fact, heading completely the opposite way.  Thankfully, the compass corrected itself and soon we were underway.

The rest of the day went off without incident.  Kew Gardens did their best to wow everyone with the guests enjoying a trip on the Kew Explorer shortly after the last speech whilst we got to visit a few of the landmark locations for a few portraits.

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HP7c – The Dress at the Top of the Stairs

A twist of pepper, a dash of balsamic and a Choo of shoes

I know, if I had hair I’d let my little sister decide on how to wear it…but I don’t have hair or a little sister

Ching ching

Upon realising how we too were amused at the answer to the question “so who got you those lovely earrings” — “I DID!”, Louise retorts

Its was either funny or there was an errant nail sticking out of the pew

Time waits for no man…but the Priest waits for the lost Irish tourists

tick tock

Sunflowers…the theme of the day

huggles

A brief stop back up on Richmond Hill – a special place for the Lou and Sam

Speech al fresco

Inside the lovely Cambridge Cottage dining room

I want his job!

And a few from Darren

Woman breaks shoe, spends day walking backwards…that is all

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