BlogOfTheMoon

I’m a little late with this (this whole Twitter thing really does distract one from real blogging) but my little sister got married a few weeks ago and I should probably record something about the whole affair. Yes I had to deal with Family overrunning my home for several days; yes getting people down to the park for the photographs was harder than it should have been; yes the ceilidh band were more aggressive than I would have liked, but ultimately my baby sister had a wonderful day and looked amazing, and that’s what matters.

The lead-up to the wedding had me dealing with a few sets of relatives who were staying with me as well as dealing with people stressing out over the logistics of getting the rest of the family to the wedding, but ultimately, that was a good thing, in that more members of the family came than I was expecting. On the day of the wedding, I was probably more nervous than I had any right to be, given that I wasn’t doing anything, but eventually family were organised, everyone was where they were supposed to be and my parents and I arrived at my sister’s house as requested. She disappeared upstairs with her bridesmaids pretty soon after that (although not before giving me a present – a USB pen that’s both a USB stick… and a pen! I was most delighted ). I don’t know why, but I was expecting a fairly slimline, figure-hugging dress from her, but instead she arrived back downstairs in an amazing red dress that was pretty huge (red since that’s the traditional Indian wedding colour) but she looked fabulous.

While the ceremony itself was a purely civil one (rather than, say, a Humanist one) and as such fairly impersonal (something I noted about the only other civil ceremony I’ve attended, last year) there were enough personal touches to make it sweet. My cousin’s flute playing; the readings (especially the hilarious poem read by the mother of the groom); and the tea and scones afterwards – not to mention the exit to the Star Wars theme – all made a great event. I hadn’t actually realised how emotional I had become about the whole thing until Sam asked me how I felt afterwards and I completely choked up and had to take a minute to collect myself!

I also got to meet my cousin’s partner and their new baby, my nephew¹, for the first time at the wedding as well. The baby is only a month or so old, so I wasn’t actually expecting them to make it at all so was awfully pleased that they did. There’s even photographic evidence somewhere of me, looking rather terrified, I must confess, holding the bairn².

Much ceilidhing was done later, and I’m pleased that both my aunts were up and giving it a try. I’m pleased that I also managed to persuade my mum to do (half of) one dance as well, although a more spinney one might have been more fun than the rather sedate one we got. Mind you, I must confess I felt the ruse used to get people on the dance floor for the second half of the ceilidh was a bit of a dirty trick.

So to sum up, it was a wonderful day (even the weather held marvellously) and my sister was so happy all day that I was happy just watching her. And to cap it all off, I’ve got a thoroughly good chap for a brother-in-law.

My photos from the day are up on Flickr, as is a group to collection all of them.

¹ Technically not a nephew, he’s my cousin’s son, but by Indian tradition cousins are treated more or less like siblings, so if he’s my brother, then his son is my nephew. QED.
² No, this isn’t going to become a regular occurrence, I’m not getting soft on babies, Family has responsibilities