Wedding today

We slept well last night and had a leisurely start to the day. All but the female members of the bridal party met in the dining room. Those missing were having a separate breakfast and generally being pampered with hair and makeup etc .
We had plenty of time after breakfast to shower and get ourselves ready in time to gather at 12. 30 ready for a one o'clock ceremony.
It was lovely catching up with old friends who we used to see at least once a year but as our children all got older, we don't see often at all. We've known the mother of the bride since 1972 .
The ceremony was a civil one, lovely readings and music. The bride's father used to be a professional opera singer, so we knew that the music would be good. A beautiful rendition by him of "My love is like a red red rose" accompanied by a violinist, during the signing of the register. The bride was very emotional at such a tribute from her father. One rather unusual touch was the rings being delivered by barn owl - the best man had the task of having the owl fly to him then of removing the bag of rings before releasing the owl to fly back to his handler!

We went outside into the warm sunshine after the ceremony for fizz and canapes. Such a lucky choice of day weather wise.
After the photos and drinks reception we were free for a couple of hours, we made the most of it, as did many others, and went for a quick snooze to gather our energies for dinner and the evening entertainment.
The food was magnificent, beautifully presented and served. My blip is of my smoked salmon starter and its beautiful garnish. We'd chosen in advance so knew what to expect but the presentation was just superb.
We danced and chatted and thoroughly enjoyed the evening and managed to last to the end of the ceilidh section of the evening and even an hour of disco. I'm bed not long after eleven though, well fed and very happy. The joy of only having to go upstairs to bed!
Extra is the cake, the bride and grooms cat who was unable to attend was in attendance as you see! A couple of other pics of the day, in the collage too. No bride and groom pictures though as they asked to be allowed to have time to make their own posts on social media before anyone else did.