Sunny Surrey Summer Wedding!

Yes, sunny and warm!  Our daughter was married on Saturday, possibly the sunniest weekend of the year so far!! Wedding days are known for being special, and I am biased because it was a family event, but this was truly magical and dreamlike, a Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

 

My guess is that most guests were feeling sun-deprived, so for that rarely seen ball of yellow light in the sky to shine, was the top layer on an already generously-iced cake. We British can be forgiven for mentioning the weather a few times and it was so surreal I felt I must share it with you.

The venue, a Queen-Anne style country house in the Surrey Hills called Barnett Hill, provided the perfect setting for what we wanted. It was winter when we (when I say ‘we’ this means our daughter, her now-husband, my husband and me) first visited the hotel, the gardens looking bare.

Tension slowly built up to the tune of violins and cello as we waited for the bridal party to enter; broken by the appearance of the chief bridesmaid (daughter) with 19 month-old flower girl (granddaughter) who stole everyone’s hearts; and eventually the arrival of the beautiful bride on the arm of her father who was in tears; the vows, the oohs, the aahs, the sighs and small chuckles …

The string quartet then continued outside on the terrace as we enjoyed canapés and bubbly and the photographer unobtrusively took hundreds of pics. Now, out in the open air, the relief and release was palpable. In the loveliest summery surroundings you could wish for, we could breathe again and relax – it was happening, this was real, this was wonderful. The sun was bright and everyone was exceedingly happy, glasses clinking, eyes twinkling.

The speeches were funny and tender; there were good jokes and some so bad they were great, and many heartfelt expressions of love, thanks and gifts.

We overran but in a good way – we were all having such a good time, so the evening people happily mixed and mingled without us until we all came together.

With the flower-girl long since safely tucked up in her cot, and the cake ‘cut’, the bride and groom had their first dance and some serious partying began – dancing to a six piece band. But the layout of the hotel was such that various other rooms were available, to say nothing of the garden, for chatting, ambling and, making it all very personal, leafing through some amazing photo albums of the bride and groom.

Sunday allowed us an al fresco breakfast we had not even thought would be possible. By half-past nine we wondered if we could take the heat!

 

How lucky were we?  Had I read this in a romantic novel I would have decried it as totally unrealistic!

 

English summer as it should be

This has nothing to do with books or Gypsies - or village life in Appley Green. I just wanted to share with you some photos I took at Nymans and Wakehurst Place, National Trust properties and gardens my husband and I visited on 28 June. It was a day when the sun did actually shine now and then and we dodged the showers.

Shades of Summer Green!

England is a 'green and pleasant land' and a lovely place to live.