Love in Liverpool

Adam and Tracey got married on Saturday. We hired a car for the occasion and drove up to Ormskirk (just outside Liverpool) on Friday night. After a 4.5 hour trip (for 240 miles), we arrived just as the tent (sorry, marquee) setup was finished. So Steve and Jo, Alan and Claire, Simeon, Adam and the pony and I decamped to a tapas bar that was formerly Southport's finest underground toilets for some drinks. Claire was charged with the daunting job of getting Adam home to bed. He managed to outfox her a couple of times, but he finally left around 1:30 am.

Due to the size of the registry office, the numbers at the wedding itself were limited to 50. The pony and I were lucky enough to score a guernsey to the ceremony, so we were quite chuffed . By coincidence alone, we were sat next to the biggest homophobe there. If we had have know at the time, we would have made a bigger effort to be blatantly gay. Adam fluffed a line, and Tracey choked up at one point, but they were the only hiccups, and it was a good ceremony, as far as weddings go, you know I'm not one to get too carried away by weddings.

We'd had an early start, because the ceremony was at the ridiculous hour of 11:00. Paul normally is fast asleep then on a Saturday - so we couldn't sleep in. This meant we were at the reception and drinking champagne by 13:00. That proved to be my downfall. Tracey works in marketing for a wine company, and knowing how much I love wine, she took me aside, gave me a rundown on the wines and told me to open what I wanted. Very sweet of her, but after drinking Rioja, Shiraz, Cotes de Gascione, Sauvignon Blanc and champagne, I was struggling a little. We spent an excellent afternoon and evening hanging out with the lovely Jo (complete with accessories!), Sim (complete with Sarf London accent! And he is still as laid back, charming and fit as ever), the lovely Fiona (complete with nose piercing! And glamourous bridesmaid's dress!) and Ad and Trace (complete with wedding rings!).

Somehow (!?) we ended up back at our hotel after the reception - I took the opportunity provided by our room to take a short nap. I was woken by Ad and the pony at 1:00am, demanding that I come down to the Hotel bar for a drink (complete with tequila! and sambucca!). Most sensible people retired around 2:00, but the pony, Tracey, Adam, Sim, Steve and I decided we were tougher than that.

Sunday morning was pretty painful - I headed out in Southport (complete with snow!) to get some Nurofen, grabbed breakfast with the others. Tracey (complete with wedding shoes!) and Ad invited us back to theirs for a bit of catchup - so we (complete with wedding presents!) drove over and hung out for a while. Steve was the worst I'd ever seen anyone, he had to keep leaving the room. Ad and Tracey seemed really happy with our presents - I think sometimes we forget how good our taste is(!) The wedding was put on at very short notice and Tracey got quite emotional when she thanked us call for making it. Her and Adam have been together since University and I remember they were some of Paul's first friends I met. They are such lovely people and I'm glad everything went well for them.

The only disappointment for us was that it was the first wedding we'd been to where we weren't asked to arrange flowers ('because you boys are good at that sort of thing'). We're still recovering from the shock, but I'm sure there'll be others.