Safe to say, Sunday 25th August 2013 was the day that changed.
I think Ben was incredibly clever, and I was pretty lucky that he met, fell in love with and married Gem. She prepared pretty much everything for the wedding and left me with the tidying up to do alongside the organising everyone on the day - including distracting Ben when she turned up at the venue early. I'll openly admit even I was a little choked when she stepped out of the green VW camper (a very personal touch, kudos Gem) in her custom-made dress, Father of the Bride in tow beaming with pride.
Before all of that however, I was actually rather relaxed. I'd made a point of not once asking Ben how he was feeling, opting to keep him upbeat, smiling and laughing - a plan well executed until Dad decided to question Ben about every minor detail merely two hours before the ceremony. To be fair I had a few choice words for him before departing, and it wasn't long before the photographers had several shots of anything and everything from our pocket squares, cufflinks and the pre-ceremonial cigarette for the nerves that were finally starting to kick in.
Guests started arriving and naturally, as the best man, most of my time was spent meeting and greeting relatives from both families, close friends and ushering them towards the bar. I was still on a strict alcohol ban (not that it stopped us the night before...), quite disappointed to say I've never turned away so many offers of a drink! As Gem arrived, everyone had begun filtering in to the ceremonial conservatory, the registrar has been through our duties as Groom & Best Man, so we waiting eagerly at the front for the Bride's official arrival.
Despite my calm demeanour, Gem entered the room on her father's arm, greeted by a harmonious drawing of breath with nods of approval and it certainly wasn't long before a couple of guests started with the tears. At this point, nerves probably got the best of everyone with some form of duty on the day; Ben's face had lit up as the registrar began the ceremony and it wasn't long before Gem was giggling.. despite the seriousness of the occasion it lifted the room and the atmosphere suited such a spirited couple. It wasn't long before I was on my feet again to hand over the rings, at which point my hands decided to shudder - naturally it was only the most significant 'official' role of the Best Man. Thankfully I held it together, the rings made it into the not-any-safer hands of the Bride and Groom, so I took my seat again. The formalities continued, the guests kept up the tears and Ben was still smiling throughout. Simply put, the occasion was quite frankly, beautiful.
After pictures within the conservatory, everyone filtered out into the garden for their first champagne flutes, plenty of hugging, well-wishing and so on.. unfortunately behind the scenes, the Best Man is then scampering around picking up different groups of people for different photo requirements and so on. It sounds simple but I don't think I've been as stressed in a long while! I didn't need reminding either, but it was pointed out at every opportunity that the next big thing for me to do, was the speech. Specifically, the one I'd written on Saturday morning. Nothing like preparation eh?
So again, rounding everyone up and having them seated upstairs for the meal, champagne was served and before long, the first glass was tapped to introduce the Father of the Bride. Glynn had obviously had his speech well prepared as he delivered exceptionally, kindly pointing out that he didn't need to be charming or witty given that was my job - talk about a tough act to follow. Ben expressed his thanks in a short piece and then it dawned on me. I hadn't had the slightest bit of nerve about delivering a speech to ~50 or so people, but in taking a sip of the bubbly infront of me, standing and turning to address the audience - nerves were nothing short of overwhelming.
As if it wasn't bad enough, Dad was on hand to capture the moment from the most flattering angle, and in turn I'm opening myself up by sharing it on here. In hindsight, I'm generally pleased with the message I was trying to convey and to see it lasted 4 minutes felt like a pretty reasonable time! Having watched the video myself a couple of times, I've also become acutely aware that I stroke my nose when I'm nervous and trying to avoid just reading off of a sheet leads to a lot of 'erms' when you can't remember precisely where you're supposed to be picking up from again. Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy...
I'm pleased to say that following the meal (which was exquisite and I'd highly recommend eating there to anyone in T.Wells), the reception went off without a hitch and I struggled through several glasses of wine, countless JD & Cokes with an interesting mix of Jager and Skittlebombs until gone midnight.
As soon as the professional photo's come back, I'll either add them here or link to FB and hopefully expand on details about the venue and so on.
Hope your Bank Holiday weekends were as eventful as mine!
