Tales from a London wedding

I do love a wedding.
Even though I was not a bridezilla myself I do enjoy celebrating
and this is one of the few occasions where
my Anglo Saxon inner emotional life doesn't wince at sugary spoken words.

I love London weddings even more because it doesn't consume the whole weekend getting to a country/overseas venue.

But my husband and I are at the age where weddings are not as common an occurrence and going by people's timeline, I must wait for the batch of second marriages to start.

But this weekend we went to a wedding of two first timers that was in a church we walked to from home and more surprisingly which was a first of my husband - 
his first Catholic wedding.

I was raised Catholic and he was raised Greek Orthodox however he went to an Anglican school that required chapel attendance every morning and most of the weddings we have been to have all been Church of England weddings.

The couple were both Catholic via Italian / Irish / Scottish / Iranian roots and the service was held in a wedding mass.

Now this will mean nothing to those who are not familiar with Catholic services.

But I was sitting in the pew with my husband and one of his best friends who is a Hindu Protestant.

Okay let me explain.

His friend was raised in religiously tense Northern Ireland where
people like to know which tribe one belongs to. 
He used to reply he was Hindu.
But the people would further press - aye, but are you Hindu Catholic or Hindu Protestant?
He went to a C of E ( Church of England ) school so he became a HP ( for short ).

The gorgeous couple who really are lucky to have each other

I didn't think much of these slight variations of a mono theistic religion until the wedding mass.

Don't worry it's not one of those posts!

There is a bit where people will shake hands with people around you and one recites,
"Peace be with you."

I offered my hand to my husband and he looked confused and 
I didn't have time to chastise him so I offered my hand and said the peace greeting to his friend who looked at me like I was being odd and said,
" but I already know you."
My husband asked what I was doing.
I had to point out to what other people were doing the same all around us.

Then during the communion bit,
a bell is rung but they whispered that someone should turn their phone off.

The couple also received a special papal blessing and the non Catholics were asking if that was a big deal.  I had to reason with them what they would think if the Dalai Lama wrote in to express his wishes on their wedding...
 
But I had to laugh at the religious culture differences!

I also love the red London buses that some wedding parties will use to usher their guests to the next venue.

It is so much fun as the people on the streets and cars that 
we drive by honk their horns and start waving.

We drove past a cricket game whose appeal is so foreign to me.

But I think it has more to do with an all day excuse for drinking.

The reception was held at one of the orangeries.

Then we could either walk or take one of those trains to another orangery for dinner.

We chose to walk as the weather was perfect.

The irises were on top Chelsea Flower show standard form.

The lighting was perfect for the wedding photos.

I do wish I had more weddings to attend this year.
I might start pestering my single friends so I have a few more parties to go to!