Enjoying a Beautiful English Wedding

This past Saturday, we headed down to to Hereford (about 2 hours southwest) to a couple of our friends' wedding.  Jeff met the groom, Tom, at work and I was lucky enough to become friends with the bride, Sarah, last spring.  The ceremony was at this quaint church out in the countryside.  It was so interesting experiencing the differences between and American vs. an English wedding.  As we sat down, we enjoyed the company of some of our other friends.  I learned that often times the bride comes down before the bridesmaids.  This is so that the bridesmaids can hold the train of the bride's dress, although Sarah came down after the bridesmaids in her wedding.  There was no groomsmen, only ushers (including a best man).  They did not stand up front or go down the isle. 

 

Not the clearest picture, but you can see the adorable invitations. 

Inside of the programs

The wedding began, and there was lots of hymns and readings.  The minister asked if there were any objections, which I had not heard at a wedding in a long time.  I also found it interesting that they signed the legal documents during the ceremony.  Our friends laughed when Jeff told them we signed it at our reception on the back of our best man, Scott.  We threw dried flower petals at the couple as they walked out of the church and into their cute little ride. 

Flower send-off!

We headed straight to the reception, which was held at this winery. It was a beautiful set up, as we all sipped on cocktails outside on a beautiful day!  They came around with a few hors d'oeuvres, and then the reception began around 4:30.  Our meal, which was called the Wedding Breakfast.  I asked weeks ago about this, and it is called a breakfast because it is the first meal as husband and wife.  Cute, right? We sat down for our three course meal.  Jeff had chicken liver pate, chicken breast & vegetables, and eton mess for dessert.  I had the pea & mint soup, chicken & vegetables, and chocolate roulade.  No cake for dessert, but it is still tradition to cut the cake.  They cut the cake and put it out later for you to eat later in the night or take it home.

Loved picking out my fascinator for the wedding.  So much fun!

If the Mackins are reading this, we decided to wear the exact same attire we wore to your wedding since it was about a year ago.  We partied in your honor. 

We enjoyed the wonderful meal, and left completely stuffed.  The speeches started, and there was legit betting going on at how long the best man's speech was going to be.   Apparently, it is known that the best man always takes a really long time embarrassing the groom.  Jeff and I put down 7 minutes and 22 seconds for our bet.  We ALMOST won, as the winning number was 7 minutes and 35 seconds.  People started to heckle the best man to keep talking, so I think if they didn't do that...we would have won. Ha, wishful thinking?! The money is normally used to pay for drinks at the bar anyway.  All three speeches were great! The father of the bride spoke, the groom, and of course the best man.  It was really cute to see the groom speak at his own wedding.  I liked that.  

Next up was dancing.  There was a good amount of people dancing throughout the night, and often times to songs I had never heard.  My favorite part was when they brought out more desserts and cheeses to nibble on throughout the night.  Me being obsessed with food, shocker...right? This was mostly for the second round of guests that had arrived.  There were two invitations.  One invitation was for the entire day's events, and the other was to come after dinner. We had a great time, and felt so lucky to be able to not only experience and English wedding, but to celebrate with our dear friends, Tom & Sarah.  Congrats, Tom & Sarah!!

On to the next adventure...