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Sunday 27 October 2013

Wellyfest.....



Wellyfest - I may need to translate for non-UK readers - wellies is short for Wellingtons, a popular name for rubber boots.  These were needed recently in large numbers at a friend's wedding.  The lovely Mrs Orkney Flowers married her Rock God in a beautiful wood on a rainy day in October.  She's given me permission to tell you all about it!  First there was the beautiful bride - above.  Looking radiant and un-spattered in mud. Note the stunning red wellies.  Mrs Orkney Flowers is a horticulturist extraordinare and part-time Womble (she's heavily into recycling and living frugally), so not seeing earth covering her hands or in her hair is something of a novelty.  She was truly a radiant bride ......

She and "Mr Flowers" have been together for many years, but had decided to "get wed" in Birnam Wood - yes THE Birnam Wood - the one in McBeth (Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.Wm Shakespeare, Macbeth 4.1). Anyway, I digress...... both bride and groom had happy childhood, and more recent memories of Birnam wood, hence the choice for a wedding wellie fest.

Now, I mentioned frugal living, recycling etc.  So, of course, these principals were applied to the wedding. Other clever horticulturalists had grown or acquired magnificant foilage for the bouquets and floral displays - all in Autumn colours of course.

I'd turned up on the morning of the wedding to offer assistance as a gofer (go fer this, go fer that) to the clever flower people and was handed a large bundle of banana leaves with the words "Find somewhere to wash these please Sian"....


I'd never handled banana leaves before - ooooh they have a lovely waxy feel.....  Meanwhile the bride's bouquet was made..... dried flowers, autumn leaves, with some lovely fair trade red roses for good measure.


And more floral displays of autumn colour...


And table decorations.....


Meanwhile, in the background of the photo above, you can see the Rock God's band tuning up.......

Soon it was time to head back to the hotel to get dressed in our finery, including wellington boots, grab umbrella's (it had rained all weekend) and head to the woods!  "Head for a bench" we were told.... ah we're here then....


Um... the babbling brook was more a raging river....


Once everyone was assembled.....


And woodland fairies had handed out the dried flowers for confetti....


And scrolls with the words to the wedding hymn (Let's get married by the Proclaimers - what else - accompanied by the Rock God and his Arch Angels)....


It was time for the ceremony.  Conducted by a Humanist celebrant, it was a lovely service, very Mrs & Mrs Flowers, with some humour thrown in too....


And of course all members of the family were present........

Haggis and Peedie
There was a lovely selection of footwear on display (I can reveal Mr Flowers is wearing odd socks! This is as a token of love to his new bride, who firmly believes life is too short to worry about matching socks).....


Then it was time for family photos to be taken, and umbrellas to be raised again (it had miraculously stopped during the wedding bit).  And a slight surreal moment as several canoeists arrived to paddle further down the river... not sure which was more surreal really, a wedding in wellies in a wood in the wain, sorry, rain, or canoeists appearing out of the trees to hurl themselves into the river.....



It was time to wend our way back through the wood and head off to the wedding feast.  And my, what a feast!  Nothing frugal about THAT! Much of it was from the windy isles (Orkney), home grown, or home sourced and put together by Mrs Flowers' wonderful Auntie C together with all her kitchen slaves (I kept WELL away from that - I don't do mass catering.... even if cake might be available!!).  Did I mention cake??  There was a fruit option too for those who wanted to be healthy - plenty of cake for me though!!


This was by no means a "traditional" wedding so, as the bride doesn't like cake (how did I become friends with someone who doesn't like CAKE?), there was a magnificent raspberry pavlova made by Auntie C with a vast number of Orkney eggs.....


And it was time for the dancing to begin.....



As ever at such events, men gathered at the bar to blether (chat).... A fine display of tartan there.... (nice legs too....).


 Mrs Flowers had exchanged her lovely ruby red wellies for a pair of satin slippers....


And the - er - Rock God had changed into his zebra striped lycra trousers, red cape with flames on, and strutted his stuff (no that's his real hair....heee heee....no not really....). I think the guitarist to the right is asking "Who IS this guy?".....


But soon they were - er - in the swing of things.....


 To be joined on stage by ....um..... Ozzie Osbourne????


And there I think I should draw a veil over proceedings!!!

But it was so lovely to be part of Mr & Mrs Flowers special day. It's an event that will live long in the minds of any who attended, for the fun, the originality, the laughs, the wonderful words exchanged, and the obvious love that the newlyweds have for each other.....ahhhhhh  May Mrs & Mrs Flowers (not their real name, obviously) have many many happy years together.

16 comments:

  1. Do you think The Orcadian realises it has a celebrity wedding correspondent virtually on its doorstep? :o)

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    1. LOL! Maybe I can start a new career....then again.... maybe not! I can distinguish different designer wellies, but am hopeless when it comes to frocks and hats ;-)

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  2. What a lovely account of a very individual wedding - and how much nicer it sounds than the very expensive 'dos' where people hire everything, and it is all very impersonal. I am sure this was so much more meaningful, and it is so nice to come across someone having a humanist service - when my father died we had a humanist funeral.

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    1. The day was very special and because it was "home made" as the lovely Bride referred to it, lots of folk helped out or provided stuff, grew stuff, made stuff and so it felt a real communal event, rather than just turning up at a posh do......

      I enjoyed the humanist service. Must say I'm probably 98% humanist really.

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  3. I hope that out of respect for the newlyweds, Ozzy would NOT be biting any heads off bats !

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    1. No bats were harmed in the course of this wedding I can assure you of THAT! LOL!

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  4. As we say in France "Mariage pluvieux ,mariage heureux" :)

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    1. I had to look that up!! I like that! (Assuming it DOES say "Rainy marriage, happy marriage".....

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  5. Hey there Mrs - firstly thanks for coming! It was such a hoot (and that was me without any wedding fizz!) and thanks for being the go'fer for the force of nature that was the chief florist of the day. The banana leaves were grown by herself (in a conservatory) as a homage to my tropical botany field trip to Belize - funny sense of humour that girl - it was the most bug infested trip of my life. So her leaves were to remind me that there are trials and tribulations in life! So glad you enjoyed washing them.

    Your account of the days proceedings are lovely and show me so many things I missed (like the hounds deciding to chat about WHO exactly would HECKLE the whole service - I see Peedie got the job) - and the canoes just made me giggle!

    What a lovely and fun filled (and frugal came in bang on the nose of the budget - most chuffed) and how hard you all worked to make it lovely. And, 16 Orkney eggs in that pavlova don't you know!

    Seeing chums meeting new chums and chatting really made my day entirely special.

    PS - You certainly have a good eye for a kilt clad leg.

    PPS - Brother in Law Michael took the challis of dressing up very well didn't he - no bats were harmed in this wedding.

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    1. It was just pure brilliant Mrs! Much like yourself and your wonderful Rock God ;-)

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  6. What a wonderful account od a deeply special wedding day, Sian. Do tell Mr and Mrs Flowers that it poured down when DH and i got married and that's over 45 years ago. :-) We've had a couple of home-grown weddings in our family (a sister and DD) and they were both frugal and totally memorable.

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    1. I will pass that onto Mrs & Mrs Flowers. I'm sure they will be heartened by that news. Yes this was totally memorable and for all the right reasons...

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  7. Lovely account of a lovely day Sian - and fabulous to meet you as well! I'd forgotten about the canoeists - and did you see the family who stood at the top of the steps and watched for ages too! So funny! My blog on all things wellie-festy will be up tomorrow.

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    1. Oooh no I didn't see the family at the top of the steps. I was trying not to poke anyone's eye out with my umbrella. I'd already caused chaos in the streets of dunkeld the previous day ;-) Your photos are absolutely ace! You have such an eye for a photo. And lovely to meet you. Let me know if you are in Orkney again - come over to Graemsay or we could meet for a cuppa somewhere.

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    2. I hear they're landing in April - watch out for visitors Sian!

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  8. I love this wee account of our wedding - thank you again Sian!

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