Successfully Married (Again!)

Starman: He's so nice, I married him twice.

We didn't actually include that in the official service of marriage. (Starman read a poem by Christina Rosetti, I read a poem by e.e. cummings, and the "other Jill" from the registry office read the "Apache Wedding Blessing" which turns out to have been from a 1950s movie!) But it is true that we're now doubly married, and no way am I undoing those legal vows! We're well and truly hitched.

Photos? We have photos. You will get photos. LOTS of photos. We have photos taken by Starman's sibs, by Hub 1.0, and by the photographer, Damian, who was so lovely that even a devout conscientious objector like myself (it's against my religion to be photographed badly, which is pretty much the only result possible) didn't have a problem with it. Coffee Jones, my crone of honour, and her husband, Dino Burger, also have photos; we just don't have them yet because they flitted off to Amsterdam after the wedding and only just got home themselves.

So, while we're in black and white print for a while, I'll settle for a couple vignettes. First of all, everyone was magnificent. All our guests were absolutely perfect: Harry & Mary represented our new Harmonic life; Starman's former co-editor & his wife represented Starman's former professional life; my friend Jay represented pretty much the totality of my legal career; there were even old friends of Hub 1.0's there to signify the intertwined histories Hub 1.0 & I share. My former mother-in-law was there, and had a great time. Now, that's an accomplishment, wouldn't you say?

Starman's sisters, brother, in-laws, and nieces & nephews were all there. Such nice people, and as Coffee J. pointed out after a very successful party at the best man's house -- just the nicest group of people she can recall spending time with. Very multi-generational: From 4 to 80-something, and everyone got along great. Among the pleasures of the week was seeing the four English children playing so well with the two American kids. Hopefully they'll see each other again.

As for the house, the wedding, the flowers, my dress, the food, and the locale -- I'll save some typing and wait for the photos. But here's an anecdote Damian (the photographer -- did I mention how nice he was?) told me. He has a fairly standard format for traditional weddings: he starts with the bits & pieces of the wedding outfit, shoes, jewelry, the dress, etc. in still life shots. (I denied him access to my shoes, which were nothing special, but did ask him to photograph the two stuffed animals we had with us at Choristers' House; what can I say, we're weird.) When the album is finished, it starts with these shots before moving to pictures of the bride being groomed by her mother/her maid of honor/etc.

Well, in one wedding, the bride had bought very expensive Jimmy Choo shoes for the event. She made Damian take nine different shots of these prized footwear. They must have looked great, but did they fit? She managed to walk up the aisle and back down, then off with the shoes (I actually typed "shoos" which seems right for this brand...) and they were never worn again. Too painful!

I have some sympathy for that bride: My shoes got little more use than that. They were the right size but didn't fit right. Didn't matter -- I wore them for the vows and the subsequent photos, then we trooped out for photos in the Abbey ruins wearing our wellies. I believe I was barefoot during the wedding breakfast etc. The shoes have already gone off to be donated to a charity shop!

I can still feel mildly superior, though -- I paid a fraction of what the Jimmy Choos cost, and didn't feel like the money had been wasted at all. Chances are, not a single photo shows me wearing those shoes at all.