30 august 2011, that was the wedding that was

The seventh of seven cousins, my brother's on sunday was the last wedding of a generation for us, and quite a long time coming, and quite wonderful. A rare but memorable meeting of so many different strands of family and friends, old and new. Meticulously planned by the bride and groom, it so clearly reflected their own styles and selves, from the lastminute.comness, to the all going swimminglywellness, to the mix of humour and melancholy of the speeches, to the more original events of the day, to the guests, to the everyone pitching in, to the amazing but so them venue, to the kids and the babysitting, to the drinks, to the afterparty, to the day after, as they left with the smoke alarm going off but with all ending well, to their very well deserved honeymoon. She looked amazing, he said all the right things, and everyone played their part in the richest mosaic of a day and indeed of the new life that together they now share, having got over the too much schmaltz part. The determination to hold the chuppah outside in glorious sunshine, despite the dark clouds earlier overhead, paid off marvellously, as we all revelled in what was probably the very last day of summer, and the start of something else, hopefully even sunnier.