Mister and Missus

And just like that it was all over. The months of anticipation, the excitement, the planning and organizing, all for a single day which was gone in the blink of an eye. Leaving  hangovers and dry cleaning bills and tired whiny children in its wake. Bah humbug!
At 645am on Sunday morning, having crawled into bed at 330am, I came round to an excessively chirpy Cbeebies and the unmistakeable stench of a filled nappy, and for a moment I may even have been guilty of taking that view. But only very briefly!

Mr and Mrs Milverton

Me and my Anna and our Mary.

Because looking back, Clare's wedding was quite simply the loveliest of days, in the most gorgeous of places, with the best of people. An everyday miracle I suppose- from opposite parts of the world, Tim and Clare had somehow found each other and suddenly, that was that. She tells me that she just knew, and that she also knew that he just knew,  so for both of them marriage was simply the next step.  (The fact that he then went on to propose to her on New Years Eve, in his hometown of Sydney, with a firework display and Sydney Opera house in the background, is scarcely worth mentioning...but I just can't help it....sure I was swooning  myself when she skyped me later with the deets!)

I want one!

And so we  came - from as far as away as Sydney, London, New York, Melbourne, Boston, and Glenavy  just to witness my little sister marry her Prince Charming. Tim's dad happens to own a beautiful 1914 Rolls Royce Ghost car, which he looks after like a baby and houses lovingly in England (as you do!) and he drove it all the way over to be their wedding car. He drove Clare (and my mum and dad) to the church, and then her new husband drove her back again afterwards. It was..... just perfect.

Our special day....

And yes, the day definitely flew by faster than we all would have liked, but then again that wasn't really the point. Because at 3am the next morning, it wasn't really the end...for the two people who actually mattered, it was only the beginning. They weren't bride and groom anymore, they were Newly Weds. And on their wedding day, their excitement and love for each other was a joy and a pleasure to behold. What would life hold for them? What would the future bring?
And for all of us Oldly Weds out there, I think it reminded us of our own wedding days- of our own  hopes and dreams all those years ago as we set sail together on OUR journeys. And all that has happened in the years in between and all that is still to come...
My other sister Mary and I sang at the wedding Mass, and one of the pieces we sang was 'The Irish Blessing' which says better than I ever could, what I want to say right now.
To Clare and Tim-May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be ever at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, may the rain fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
EmmaXxxxx