The biker wedding party

I got home yesterday evening from a couple of days away in Dorset and Devon. I will back blip but today has been busy getting ready for Helena's belated birthday picnic party which will happen tomorrow lunchtime. Bob and Mary are coming from the Isle of Wight to stay this evening and Jane is visiting from London.

I went shopping for some fresh salad and vegetables from the farm shop in Bisley, and as always it was fun to see Sally, Keith and their Dad who are members of the family that own it. Keith manages their honey business and we agreed that I would come with him in the near future to take some pictures of him at work with the bees. I am excited about that as I can learn so much from him. Jim his father taught Keith so that he could continue the well established business jim has built up over many decades.

On the drive down the hill into Stroud, I passed the Register office and saw that there were dozens of bike riders all dressed up and I realised that one of their number must be getting married. I pulled over to park then grabbed my camera and walked up the footpath to the Cotswold Playhouse. I asked the first biker what was going on and Denise told me that they were just about to leave en masse after the wedding. They are from a bike club in a village near Cirencester about ten miles away and she said that they were going back to have another ceremony where the bride could wear a dress.

I asked Denise if she thought anyone would mind me taking pictures and she said that was fine. I asked her to pose and she chose to stand by her bike which she was just about to ride away on. I wasn't well prepared and had a long lens so when I backed away I nearly bumped into her husbands bike, which wouldn't have gone down well. Actually they were really friendly. I crossed the road to get a wider angle accompanied by the noise of a countless bikes revving up.

I have put a range of images of them on this Flickr Gallery including the ones of Denise and her massive Honda 1300cc V-twin machine. There were also Harley-Davidsons, Kawasakis, Hondas, Triumphs and others probably, including several trikes.

There seemed to be nearly as many women riders as men and I loved the way they had dressed and decorated their machines. I think you will enjoy a quick look at the gallery. My blip is of a a group of riders emerging from a small side alley and I like to think that these three front riders might have been the bridesmaids. within a minute they had all gone and life returned to normal on the Old Bisley Road just a couple of hundred yards from the town centre.