My cousin Jonathan was getting married today in the town of Poynton in Cheshire and although my Dad and Keith had been invited, in the end just Sophie, Mum and I were able to go.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast today was for rain and cloud and although it was dry when we set off at 10am, the skies were a horrible, lumpy grey. We picked Mum up and headed off on the A14 with the updated Gladys barking instructions at us. I'd planned on going up the M6 but she wanted me to go on the M1 so I decided to follow her and ignore my misgivings!
We stopped for a cup of coffee on the M1 near East Midlands airport and I had a look at the map to make sure we weren't going off on some weird route! It looked OK to me although part of the trip did involve travelling on a single carriageway which was a bit worrying if we came across slow vehicles or a lot of traffic. However, Gladys estimated that we would get to the church a good hour before the ceremony at 2pm so we set off on our little adventure after enjoying a coffee and a brioche roll.
The road was a good one (the A50) and was dualled so that meant we could bowl along at a fair speed! The weather was fine until we had about an hour to go when the heavens opened and the rain bucketed it down. As the scenery was fabulous, it was very annoying, especially as we had mist as well which made things worse!
However, by the time we reached the charming little town of Poynton, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. We managed to grab a parking space in the car park next to the Baptist Chapel and we peered into the church to see my cousin already there. He greeted us very warmly and we used the facilities which was a bonus! As we were early we headed off to a sweet little cafe a few hundred yards down the road and enjoyed toasted teacakes and tea. As we were sitting enjoying our refreshments, the heavens opened again and we had torrential rain! It absolutely chucked it down and I fervently hoped that, with half an hour to spare, it would stop before we had to make our way back to the chapel!
It did abate, somewhat, but it was still raining and Mum went to ask the cafe staff if they had bin-bags we could put over our heads! I didn't bother but Mum made sure that her hair was covered and still looking good for the ceremony!
The church had filled up quite a bit since we were last there and we took our seats towards the back of the room. There was a stage set out at the front so quite a bit different to the normal set-up of a church! Very soon the bride arrived and we all stood to welcome her and have a good look at her dress. The only other people we knew at the ceremony were my aunt Joyce, my cousin Tony and his wife and two boys, and obviously the groom. No other members of the family had made the trip up from the south of England which was a bit of a shame.
The ceremony was lovely, with quite a bit of singing, a few prayers and lots of bible readings. Half way through the ceremony Jonathan and Julie signed the register and afterwards we all milled about in the foyer for photographs and to chat with friends and family.
The reception was held a mere two minutes away and luckily there was lots of parking. There weren't as many people at the reception as I thought there would be and I think a lot of the people in the church were members of the usual congregation. We sat with Joyce, her very nice friend and my cousin Tony and his family. For some reason his wife Rachel doesn't like me one bit and completely blanked me the whole day! I also noted a lot of tension between Joyce and her new daughter-in-law and also Rachel and Julie so there were obviously some unresolved issues at play! To be honest if it hadn't been for Joyce who has always kept in touch with us despite being divorced from my uncle David (my Dad's brother) we wouldn't have gone but we really wanted to support her more than anything else. It was just a shame that my other cousins from Kent didn't make it.
I bought a glass of wine each for Sophie, Mum and I and we waited for the buffet to be available. Despite our earlier snack we were all a bit peckish and I had plans to leave after we'd eaten. It had taken us about two and a half hours to get up to Poynton and I didn't want to be too late getting home!
Eventually we had something to eat and we left at 5.30pm. It was still raining and I decided to head back the way we'd come. We had a great journey and we were back in Northamptonshire by 7.30pm. Along the A14 we must have come across a cloud burst as the sky went almost black and the rain came down so hard I could barely see! After we'd dropped off Mum we called into the fish and chip shop and Sophie ordered a chicken burger with some chips. I made do with a pot of hummus and some crisps but back home I had a small bowl of Sophie's chips with a rather large vodka and orange. Phew!
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