Reader, I Married Him

As Emily Bronte reported, it was a quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present.  As well as my mum, the kids and my niece.

How it came about that we came to be standing in the local registry office on 2^nd April must remain a mystery for now but suffice to say that, within about ten minutes, the deed was done.  We then went off to Barnsley House near Cirencester for lunch (http://www.barnsleyhouse.com).  I’ve often wanted to go there and missed seeing it in the days when it was still owned by Rosemary Verey, the internationally renowned garden designer and writer. 

Rosemary Verey, 1918-2001

Her most famous garden design was Barnsley House, her home, and she opened it to the public.  Following the death of her husband, she began designing gardens for a range of clients, including the Prince of Wales, Elton John and Princess Michael of Kent.  

Rosemary Verey and Some Bloke

I was most interested in the fact that she was the gardener who had made vegetable gardens (potagers) fashionable again.  The potager at Barnsley House was inspired by Chateau de Villandry on the River Loire in France. 

Sadly, spring was late this year.  So, on the day that we had a lovely lunch there to celebrate the legal part of our marriage, the gardens were bare.  I hope this isn’t an omen!  However, I will go back there when spring arrives and the gardens bloom.  The following pictures show how it should be, rather than how it was on that day.

The main celebration of our wedding will take place in June when the full story of how and why we have made this momentous decision can be revealed.  The house has become such a major part of our lives that we wanted to be married here.  However, it turns out that such things only happen in Hollywood films.  In the UK, you can only get married in licensed premises i.e. premises that have a wedding licence, rather than premises licensed to sell alcohol.  (Of course, we can do neither as our Deeds preclude us from selling alcohol, having been a rectory at one point.)  So, we decided that we would do the legal bit in a registry office and then hold a celebration in the garden.  

Having recently attended P’s funeral, which was a humanist event, I was very taken with the approach of the humanist celebrant so we have engaged one to carry out a wedding ceremony for us.  It will be a bit different and a bit pagan (I hope!), but enjoyable, we  think.  I hope that, like P’s funeral, it will capture the essence of those involved and be a ceremony that speaks about us, rather than simply a ceremony.

We will have a marquee in the garden, which will hold fifty people.  It sounded a lot until we made a list of our friends and now it is so difficult to fit them all in.  We will invite our lovely neighbours and others to join us at about 1600hrs so we can at least ensure that most of the people who are close to us and part of our lives will be there.  However, these things are always difficult and fraught with the potential to offend.  We can only hope that we manage to get it right.