I'm a grown up now!

A couple of friends of mine got married yesterday. If they got married, that means they're grown ups. I'm older than them (only a teeny bit, but still) therefore I must also be a grown up.

This realisation scares me. Actually, Jack, in Will and Grace (shit, I love that series) said the same thing, but that's besides the point).

Of course, my mid life crisis is what's making me throw it all in and run off to Japan. Or, as the BBC would put it, I'm a grown up gapper. Except I don't know that this is necessarily filling in a gap or just escaping or spreading my wings, broadening horizons, seeking adventure or a number of other cliche's.

That so many of my friends are doing or considering similar escapes says it all though. We're a clueless generation.

But back to the wedding. I managed to be my normal faffy morning self, who had meticulously planned everything to get there on time, etc, but caught up in lots of things that really didn't need doing. Running in Victoria Station in kitten heels was an experience. Ladylike and me don't generally go together. Ultra girlie dress, posh hair and full make up certainly don't. I got the train I needed by the skin of my teeth and made it to the chapel in plenty of time. Unlike poor Lainey, the bride who, through no fault of her own was 45 minutes late!

Seeing friends all done up in their monkey suits was most amusing. (It did take me 3/4 of the ceremony to actually take it seriously and realise they weren't 'playing' at getting married. I've known Lainey ages. It felt very strange to me.)

Lainey's car had been delayed going back to the hotel to pick her up thanks to a couple of fatal car accidents on the route.

Nick, the groom remained remarkably well composed, save for one brief look of panic I caught on his face. The Ushers were looking more worried than him.

The chapel was amazing. I didn't realise that schools had things like that. Actually, all of the buildings around it looked lovely and I'm sure the photos will be amazing. The whole thing couldn't have been more different from my old school. But the least said about that the better, I think!

I'm going to skip on details, but Lainey looked amazing and I kept myself composed right until the moment she walked down the aisle. I shed quite a few tears in all. The whole day though was perfect, the reception, the meal, the huge quantity of champagne, the speeches, the company......

And even though they've been together forever they looked so totally and completely in love and Nick just couldn't keep his eyes off her, helped her with her veil when they were sitting down and he noticed she wasn't comfortable......

Shit, I'm going to get sappy!

Wonder if they'll have the purple theme from the wedding at their 50th anniversary!

Good luck to you both. I'm glad you finally got around to it!

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And this was the first wedding of this kind that I'd been to - in a chapel, with hyms and formality, etc.

I'm sure when I was a kid I must have gone to a wedding, but I have no recollection, so my history of wedding attendance numbers four.

Number One was a Sikh wedding. The brother of a uni friend. We didn't really understand what was going on but I remember sitting on the floor with my head covered, not understanding the ceremony but wondering why the bride and groom chased each other several times around a round thing. I also remember there being food before the ceremony and food afterwards. And I remember us getting extremely drunk. And being white females doing so too..... Actually, I blame the brides grandfather, as it was him who handed me a whole bottle of Jack Daniel's when I tried to ask for a glass full. Maybe he didn't understand and couldn't speak English? Anyway, it was naughty of us, but we were students so I'll leave that as my excuse.

Number Two was a registry office bash down in Brighton. While we were waiting to be called in we got told off for making too much noise outside. As if! Then the bride snorted, giggled and sobbed her way through the whole ceremony. Then we misbehaved. As the bride was Muslim and had a lot of her family there, the first reception (yes, there were two) was to have no booze. It wasn't our fault we were thirsty. Neither was it our fault there was a New Orleans bar opposite the town hall where the registry office is. We felt obliged to pop in and they had happy hour with half price cocktails and we had to have one and some chips and then another one and er..... we found the hall with the reception after buying a couple of half bottles of vodka. We thought we were pretty clever sneaking into the loos with our cokes and topping up. I don't think we fooled many people. We claimed we'd got lost. Oh well. I do remember the food was yummy though. I also remember the bride had got locked into some house accidently between first and second receptions.

Number Three was earlier this year up in Scotland. I behaved impeccably. Though the hotel did go into a minor panic at the amount of Pimms we consumed. If anything out of the ordinary happened I either don't know about it, was too drunk to be aware of it, or have just forgotten it. It was wonderful anyway. I was just grateful it all went off well enough as somehow I'd managed to get caught up in quite a bit of the organising! Plus I'll never forget doing the Hokey Cokey to a Ceiledh Band! Or having been there at the beginning (well, I was in Paris with a load of other people the first time they got together) and the end of the first chapter (the wedding.)

Anyway, I guess the Scotland one and Lainey/Nick's will always remain special for different reasons, but Lainey/Nick's affected me more emotionally.