Jess & Adam’s Wedding

Just a month after the last time I’d been back in the UK, I once again found myself hopping on a plane up north to England in order to attend a rather important event: Jess and Adam’s wedding!

I’ve known Jess since we were quite young, as we worked together on a drama project together back in the day and then worked together at Burnley Youth Theatre for quite a good while. I then received the invitation through the post last year and was super excited to attend what promised to be a fabulous celebration.

After flying back with Danni from Madrid, I had an early night as the very next day was the big wedding. Awaking early, I dressed myself as quickly as possible in order to not be late to the wedding: I’d had very clear instructions from Amber that I’d to be there bang on time at 1pm.

I put the effort in and was out the door on time in order to rock up at the venue just before 1pm. I waved goodbye to my parents and they headed off as I headed inside to check out the lovely rural venue: a barn in the Ribble Valley.

I followed the signs round to the entrance to the barn, entering into the space for the ceremony itself, set out with plants, lights, and some lovely views over the valley. There was nobody there, though, so I headed further inside and past the dining area and the bar, both of which were also empty.

Figuring that Amber had just told me to be there half an hour before everyone else – knowing me as she does – I set out to find a staff member to ask where I could leave my stuff before the celebrations began. Coming across a woman in the corner of the room, I let her know that I was here for Jess and Adam’s wedding, and her response left me frozen: there was no wedding there today!

She also mentioned the name of another venue, The Out Barn, which was when it fully dawned on me that she wasn’t joking and that I had, indeed, come to the wrong place. A blind panic then set in, as my parents had already headed off and the lady informed me that a taxi could take up to 45 minutes to arrive thanks to the rural setting.

As you can imagine, I was furious at myself: I’d managed to be on time, but I’d gone to the wrong bloody venue!

After much panicking and frantic phone calls, my parents showed back off and whisked me the short ten minutes in the car off to the correct location. I arrived flustered and half an hour late, but at least I had a good story to tell. Also, it turned out that Amber really did know me: the ceremony didn’t kick off until 2pm.

I spent a fabulous half an hour recounting my dramatic tale and catching up with some old pals that I hadn’t seen since secondary school about ten years ago, but we were eventually ushered into the main space and seated for the ceremony to begin.

The ensuing day was an absolute blast, with the picturesque setting and the intimate size of a group of great friends and some hilarious new people that I had the pleasure of meeting. With the tears of the main ceremony over, we grabbed drinks and began lunch, which was then followed by a night of singing, dancing, and having a big loud celebration as only us ex-theatre lot know how to!

The wedding was an absolute blast from start to finish.

The next day I had a somewhat heavy head and a distinct lack of energy – something I should have thought about beforehand! It was nothing that an early breakfast cooked up by Jess’ dad couldn’t fix, however, so we all sat around and recollected the highlights of the previous evening whilst gorging on bacon, sausages, and black pudding.

Once I’d recovered and been sent home with a generous wedge of the delicious wedding cake, I rested for the rest of the day to recover from the crash I’d had after so many days of fun with some of the best people I know.

I can’t thank Jess enough for inviting me to form part of her gorgeous wedding, and extend once again my congrats to Mrs & Mr Barrett as they begin married life together. Also a shout out to Amber for whipping me into shape, and my parents for putting up with my chaos. Oops!

I’d then a week to work back at home from the UK, but this had been cut short in advance thanks to an event with a client that I’ll have to go into more detail about some other time. I had three evenings in the surprisingly sunny British summer weather to enjoy though, and so spent the most of the time available enjoying the countryside with my parents.

And thus concluded a very short five days in England. I’d liked to have stayed a bit longer to enjoy the unexpectedly warm weather and great company, but a work event called, as well as plenty of other plans that I’ll have to get into shortly.

For now, I sign off with this photo of me enjoying the great outdoors and pretending to be one of the very farmers who used to scare me off as we played in these very fields as young kids. How time flies!

When I was young, rumour was that the farmer had a gun!