Chapter Forty Three - "The Bristol Wedding"

Today, Saturday, saw the second of two consecutive weddings – last weekend’s being that of Jon and Anja, the latest in the line of Cornerstone marriages. (Who’s next?) This time it was the turn of Dave and Rachel in Bristol. Dave and I go back a long way, so I definitely wasn’t going to miss this one! As I said recently on Facebook, with every new person getting married, sure enough you don’t lose friends, but something certainly changes.

So, tickets bought, and a place arranged to spend the night (very last minute, but profound thanks to Isaac and Laura for putting me up), I headed to the train station. After arriving in time to watch the earlier train leave, fears started to arise when I realised that my scheduled train was running late – first five minutes, then ten. Despite my prebooked tickets, perhaps I should have used my normal travelcard to get into Waterloo as soon as possible. I had no idea what I would do if my train was delayed indefinitely or cancelled, as I’ve known can happen at the last minute. Hindsight, I thought, is a great thing – only it comes too late! Eventually, after much prayer, my train finally arrived, and to my relief, travelled non-stop into London. Thus I made my connections to Paddington and Bristol. The journey passed fairly uneventfully, though not having eaten anything since about seven o’clock, I was disappointed that the food trolley didn’t make an appearance. Darn these economy seats!

I arrived in Bristol about forty five minutes early for the wedding, and found the church very quickly. Seeing a smartly dressed group congregating outside a church at the end of the road, told me I was in the right place! Amongst the expected faces – Anthony and Dave; Dave, Andrew, Tom and Esther; Sophie and Emily – was one unexpected face, Will! I had wondered briefly whether I would see anyone from West Buckland, but instantly dismissed the thought with a feeling of ‘of course not’. What a small world it is! Will and his wife, Esther were there as the photographers (she has a photography business), doing a super job by the look of things. After letting the sights of all these faces sink in, and realising just how much catching up there was to do, I went inside the church with the others. I was still rather hungry.

As we mingled, I made sure that I was introduced to Isaac and Laura, who had also offered to give me a lift to the reception. I greeted Isaac, and Laura was pointed out to me as the lady with the horses on her dress – immediately recognisable. I found a seat on the groom’s side of the church, next to Anthony, and we continued catching up on events since we’d last met. He still remembered the ‘yogurt incident’ from Soul Survivor (something I had actually forgotten), which never failed to make him smile. I cringed as I remembered catching the pot, which was thrown to me for dessert. And while doing so, putting my thumb through the lid, covering myself with the strawberry goo. (My immortal next words were “Can I have a spoon?”) Conversation progressed onto absent friends, and then farmyard-themed neckwear – Dave, a man in the row in front, was wearing a tie decorated with tractors. I misheard the conversation at this point, and thinking that there was something on his tie, proceeded to try and get the groom’s attention. Thankfully he didn’t see me before I realised my error. When eventually the service began, and Rachel proceeded down the aisle looking stunning, preceded by Beccy, Dave’s younger sister – the only bridesmaid I recognised – it occurred to me how strange it felt to be sitting in the congregation; for the last two weddings I’d been with the band at the front. This made a pleasant change.

After a few songs, and the saying of the vows, one of the elders stood up to give the sermon, drawing on the theme of advertisements – ultimately making the point that a marriage is an advertisement for God’s relationship with His church, and points us to something much more than simply the bond between a man and a woman. I thought it was a clear, strong message, which was only dampened by the fact that there was a lot of background noise coming from Zachary, Tim’s baby boy, who was taking to hitting things loudly and shouting ‘mummy’ from time to time. But some things can’t be helped. (Tim, Dave's older brother, was the best man - returning the favour from his own wedding back in 2008. He was on the front row of seats, though his wife Rachel was sitting in the row just in front of me. I asked her if it was going to get confusing having two Mrs Rachel Chapmans in the family - to which she responded, "Of course not! There should be more!")

After Dave and Rachel signed the register, I tried to get a good photo of them together, but had trouble finding the best setting on my camera. As such I managed to get rather a grainy picture, but had more success as they were leaving the building. Using the sports setting, I got a good un-blurred close-up, and some very sharp pictures of their backs (wrong place to stand, methinks). Soon enough I rejoined Isaac and Laura, and we left for the reception.

On arriving at the venue, the Bodkin – which was disappointingly closed for a private function; oh wait – we found we were among the first there, arriving ahead of the bride and groom (who, I later found out, were travelling in a car with a top speed of 40mph, meaning we had plenty of time). I finally had a chance to talk to Beccy, who seemed well, back from Hawaii for a few weeks. I casually reminded her that she was next, being the only unmarried sibling – no pressure. It was also good at this point to catch up with Anthony and Dave S properly (though when Dave – the groom – arrived he had to disappear on groomsman photo duties), along with Ian and Julia, the groom's parents. Before we could head into the marquee for dinner, we all came together outside for group photos, Esther standing on a table to try and include as many people as possible. But why a wasp had to land on my face at the very moment the photo was to be taken, I will never know. I suppose it just adds to my hapless reputation.

Soon the time came to move over for the meal and speeches, and on reaching the lady who was directing us to our tables, I realised I’d succeeded in walking straight past the seating plan. Awkwardly, I tried to push my way against the oncoming crowd, and went over to find my table. To my delight, I was sitting with people I knew – making a change from previous weddings (ie. not the bride’s family) – including Esther and Will, who was keen to discuss radiology computer systems with me, as his job was developing in that direction. I sat next to Anthony and Trina on my left, and Andrew and (the other) Esther on my right, with Emily, Faye and Andy across from me. Looking at the menu, I remembered ordering potted pork to start, followed by the chicken supreme. Notably, Will ordered the goat’s cheese to start – something that he would never have been able to eat back in our schooldays. Praise God for such miraculous healing!

Then came the speeches, with Dave thanking all the people who made the day possible. Tim’s best man speech – which included input from me, regarding a long forgotten creation, ‘Fudge Fighter’ – was particularly enjoyable, and touching, as he commended marriage to his brother and asked that God would use his relationship as an example, as described in the sermon.

After making the various toasts, and consuming a lot of wine, we vacated the tent so that the evening band could set up for the music entertainment later on. During this time I moved into the lounge area, and enjoyed more relaxed conversation. When the disco finally got underway, we discovered three things – firstly, that it is very difficult to know how to dance to a jazz setlist; secondly, that sometimes you just have to leave the dancefloor to get yourself a bacon butty (or two); and thirdly, that despite the good quality of the music, there’s no resisting the pull of the photobooth – particularly when the photos are professionally taken. I made sure to pick up Esther’s business card before the evening was out, and exchanged numbers with Will.

The last event of the day was seeing the happy couple off, with sparklers. Standing at the front of the venue, holding an unlit sparkler in one hand, and a match in the other, trying to keep warm in the damp breeze, I wondered how things would turn out. I never found out the answer to this problem however, as Laura and Isaac were keen to leave. I was a bit disappointed at such an abrupt ending to the occasion, but admittedly it was getting late - about quarter to eleven - and some people had to work in the morning. On arriving at their house, I was shown to my room for the night, with a very comfortable double bed. In all, it had been a very full day, so I was very glad to put my head down, and I fell asleep almost immediately. Thus ended another wedding.

#chapmanwedding