Going to the Chapel...

This past weekend hubby and I had a delightful (and child-free) time down in Dorset, attending the wedding of our very good friends R&G (of Lazyhill fame.)

We left DC at home with Grandma and Grandad on Saturday morning and headed down to our new house in Somerset where we dropped off a car-load of 'stuff' (mostly tools from hubby's allotment, which he has now given up in preparation for having a huuuuge veg plot at the bottom of the garden), got ourselves all togged up and then made the 40min drive to Abbotsbury for the wedding. As usual, we were running slightly late and it didn't help that we also got stuck behind a horsebox on the coast road between Bridport and Abbotsbury, so we arrived in a bit of a fluster, parked up and hurried through the village. As we passed the bride and groom's house so R dashed to the door to wave to us in all her finery and assure us that we had a few minutes to climb up the hill to St Catherine's chapel before she would be on her way.

So we hurried and puffed and panted and sweated our way up to the chapel and, fortunately, had a few moments to compose ourselves outside and take advantage of the cooling sea breeze. The floor of the chapel had been scattered with lavender and rosemary which smelt absolutely wonderful, and the scent was released all the more as we milled around awaiting the grand entrance of the bride. The majority of the service was then performed in the chapel before we wound our way back down the hill and through the village to the church where the 'legal' part of the ceremony was carried out.

Afterwards, it was a mere hop, skip and jump through the churchyard and over to the Abbey House for champagne, Pimms and canapes in the garden before going indoors for dinner. This turned out to be a great opportunity for me to catch up with former work colleagues, some of whom I hadn't seen for about ten years.

After dinner we enjoyed a 'cheesecake' instead of the usual wedding cake, accompanied by special wedding chutney handmande by hubby, using apples from our back garden.

All in all, a fabulous day. And, at the end of it, hubby & I merely had to wobble our way upstairs as we were lucky enough to be staying in one of the Abbey House's lovely rooms. And even luckier than that, we were staying for TWO nights! Which meant we had a lovely lie in the following morning before a great breakfast and then some time spent in the garden enjoying the sun; we also had a little jaunt into Bridport before returning to the sun-drenched garden of the Abbey House for afternoon tea and a spot of reading. Bliss.