This is Sandras American penfriend who came to England specially for the wedding.

She's seen here, attempting to post herself
through the staircase in Sandra's house

Guests came from far and wide for this lovely wedding - the largest - and probably the most vocal contingent - were from Spain.

Evin is Spanish you see.

actually - the Spanish guests didn't just sing,
they were darned good dancers too !

Little details are always fun to take pictures of.

they're like little visual post it notes.

without little pictures like these,
so much might easily be forgotten.

The bag . . .

Sandra explained that this bag
is something of a treasured posession.

so I persuaded it
to pose for my camera.

 

The bag also makes a guest appearance later in the photographs . .

One of the brides shoes puts it's best foot forward.

 

Here we have a camp counsellor.

Heaven knows what sort of camp,
or counselling . . .

or training to be a camp . . . . .

 

best not to ask . . . .

Ah - the camp counsellor training came in useful after all . .

 

here - the camp counsellor finds useful work counselling a ribbon at the rear of Sandra's dress

Oh the pleasure of an English summer day.

black clouds.

spots of rain.

actually - quite a lot of rain. . ..

 

do we care ?

well - we'd like to say we don't care,

we do really - but we can't change the weather

so we may as well have a good time anyway !

At the church -
the blokes are having a series of serious buttonhole moments.

each helping the other.
teamwork seems to be the key . .

it's a bloke thing.

The Spanish contingent arrive
and make their presence felt.

Not sure about the operatics . .
but they're certainly fun types.

And here we have some bridesmaids

plus Sandra's penfriend,

sheltering from the rain in the limo

The dresses are a really bright splash
of meditterranean sunshine.

An extremely nice Minister
gives me an extremely good position from which
to take my pictures.

well - pretty good anyway,

The bride and groom are almost directly in line
with each other. . .
a bit of a problem - but I can't have everything . .

the one proviso from the minister was that
I didn't move around.

hmm. feet glued to the ground,
the only thing I could do was revolve.

Some vicars and registrars are really silly -
they ban pictures of the register when it's being signed,

as if the register had some religious significance . .

this nicel minister let me do anything I liked.

I like this guy.

well - I didn't take liberties,

but I got some pictures.
that told the story very well.

 

you expected this one didn't you . .

bride and groom exit the church.

 

 

 

Evin and Sandra hop into the car,
pursued by family papparazzi

Someday they might tell you an astounding secret
about the car journey.

I was astounded anyway.
I'd never heard of that sort of thing before . . .

I'm not going into detail here,

but it involved a puff of smoke.

you'll have to ask them about that one . . .

Hah -
undeterred by the totally wierd puff of smoke,
Evin and Sandra hop out of the car,
the door of which is opened strangely by a disembodied hand to the right.

 

(or it could be a pack of sausages)

 

yeah - you guessed - it's the chauffeur.

(he is the owner of the sausages).

the chauffeur then suggests that we take a picture
showing his cars and the hotel frontage

why not.

The spanish contingent notice the camera

and immediately burst into song.

There'a a pattern forming here . . .

 

Spanish people appear, music starts up . . .

The minister,
who is by now, my hero
and an all round good guy
because he allowed me to take some decent pictures

is here captured obtaining some falling down water at the bar.

so whilst revolving, I spied a gentleman making a video - he was standing almost directly in front of the bride and groom,

 

Oh I nearly forgot,

there was a jazz band playing too !

here the guy with the trombone,
is being stalked by a polar bear.

using only the wedding cake decoration as a clue.

 

you can now try to guess the occupations
of our bride and groom . . .

each time I thought they'd gone away . .

a sound would be heard from the bushes,  the Spanish people would appear,
immediately erupt into song
and partake in mad but happy behaviour.

 

here we have a game of hide and seek.
guess who's hiding behind the bride and groom !

guests partake in a little polite confetti hurling.

 

but where are the romantic shots in the garden you ask ?

we must have spent at least ten minutes taking them,
so they must be somewhere.

 

ok then . here's one .
Judges hotel has a lovely garden complete with quiet pathways

a river
(perhaps a wide stream or a junior canal)
complete with bridges and ducks and things.

Ah yes, you say,
Judges has that doorway and those steps.

 

yep true enough,

 

but it's good to give an unusual twist to things.

 

Hah. special guest appearance
of the bag marked . . . .

mrs s.

 

I told you there were bridges and things . . .

The grounds of Judges is littered with bridges, all of them picturesque and begging to be included in photographs.

 

Here we have the rear lawns of Judges graced by an extremely proud Evin and his lady.

 

My apologies if the picture looks a bit like a postcard.

I just tried to make a decent composition.

Evin gazes at his lady in the Judges entrance porch.

I stared at this porch for ages, wondering where I'd seen that sort of design before.

I'm sure that such contraptions are sometimes found in courtrooms above Judges heads.

 

Or have I dreamt that ?

 

below,
Evin gives Sandra a whirl on the dance floor

 

 

 

To the left,
we have volley after volley of unused world war one mortars and rockets fired into the sky.

The display went on for ages,
every so often there'd be a pause.

everyone prepared to applaud .
then more rockets whizzed into the sky
and it started over again.

a tad spectacular.

Finally,
we sloped off towards the car,
tired, happy,
and nerves jangling with firework explosions.