Many moons ago, Arabella, Claire and I met in a noisy bar near Liverpool Street Station

to begin to plan for their wedding.  On Saturday it all came together like a dream.

The family home is a Grade II listed building, built in 1607.   The garden is acres of lawn and woodland. And in a woodland glade where we held the ceremony – the walk through the woods was strewn with flower petals and marked by glass jars containing wild flowers. The ceremony site was at the edge of the wood with beautiful trees which umrella’d an arch decorated with flowers and ivy and from the trees hung white origami birds and white paper lanterns  https://www.youtube.com/upload  .  It was perfect.

Freddie and Gavin played the guests in with ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ then Arabella walked in with her dad, followed by Claire and her dad.  We had already clocked the lachrymose ability of Claire and her family and so there were plenty of tissues to hand!  We had very special readings – a poem read by Claire’s mum, a reading from Terry Goodchild and Philip Pullman and by Amber and Andrew and another read by Freddie.

As part of getting to know the couple I often ask them (separately and by email) what they love about their partner.  Arabella and Claire’s responses were so personal and moving,  that it seemed right that they read them to one another.  Not a dry eye in the house!

We finished, after signing the certificate, with a 50′ confetti shower as the couple walked through their guests who were lined up back to the path leading through the woods.

The setting was perfect and the wedding was declared perfect by the brides and by the guests.  The only exception to the perfection was my toe – and thus the shoes were abandoned as soon as the ceremony was finished – but the less said about my toe the better!

If you’d like to hear the brides talk about their ceremony, click here https://youtu.be/wbbbiHjOuN8 and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmMcAbkrVn4&feature=youtu.be

and a guest   ……..   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2b63nPcNTw&feature=youtu.be  and the photographers  http://www.rolandblunk.com   who were a joy to work with  ….  https://youtu.be/uJ_LSVSYvdI