The Big Fat Jamaican Wedding

I am at that age where everyone I know is either getting married or having a baby. Facebook feeds full of wedding woe and joy or baby scan pictures.

In the past three years I have been to three full weddings and one reception.

If you had read my blog before you will know I have been a bridesmaid and done a reading. All of which I was honoured to be. The last wedding I went to a couple of weeks ago was of a friend who I have known since infant school, and who I used to play Animals of Farthing Wood with. At this wedding I was asked to be a witness, which out of the three roles was by far the easiest, all I had to do was write my name.

I have felt very honoured to play a part in my friends' special days, I don't think I will do a reading again though in a hurry, too nerve wrecking on a day where you spend the ceremony crying with joy. Bridesmaid is good but a very long day, luckily my friend was no bridezilla so it was a breeze. I would be a witness though in a heartbeat, my name forever on that certificate. This is the last of my friend's weddings really though.

Next year however one of the boyfriend's best friends is getting married...in Jamaica.

It is going to cost a small fortune but I am looking forward to being a proper guest at a wedding not having to worry about my dress, a reading or if I can remember how to spell my name.

The venue looks amazing and we would never choose to go to Jamaica, mainly because of the cost, but I can't wait to see his friend's tie the knot on the end of a dock overlooking the sea.

The wedding is in July so I'm sure this blog will be populated with dilemmas on what I am going to wear and the impending payment dates.

So raise a glass of rum to the Jamaican nuptials.

Love is..... doing a reading at your friend's wedding

As I said in another post I was asked by one of my close friends to do a reading at her wedding and I agreed.

I was after the vows and just before they were pronounced husband and wife. I was so nervous, I really had to calm myself. I was called up and read it without sounding like Larry the Lamb. It was only when I took one of my hands away from holding the page my other hand was shaking uncontrollably. I looked up a couple of times at the happy couple to see their beaming faces. I managed to keep it together until the last line when I looked up and started to cry with happiness as I walked away.

I felt so honoured to do it, but I have no intention to do it again any time soon. I just hoped that I did my friend proud they both said thank you, people even came up to me after and said how well I did which was good.

It was a beautiful day and my friend was a beautiful bride. And the weather made it the perfect day.

Below is the reading I did, it is beautiful and very poetic although I cannot find it in the book...

'Love is a temporary madness,



it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.


And when it subsides you have to make a decision.


You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together


that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.






Because this is what love is.


Love is not breathlessness,


it is not excitement,


it is not the declaration of eternal passion.


That is just being "in love" which any fool can do.






Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,


and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.






Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,


and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches,


they find that they are one tree and not two.'