Friends Paul and Kelly from work were wed earlier today and aren’t they lucky that the English weather has decided to behave. After two days of unpredictable weather and after yesterday’s giant chuck down I was thinking that it might have been a bit of a wet wedding but in a blessing for them the sun was out and it was just gorgeous. I didn’t go to the wedding but will be attending the reception later. The venue for the reception is quite a bit south and from my place in the West would be quite a hassle to get to and though I didn’t mind the journey getting there I didn’t want to have to rely on the public transport to get home at the end of the night nor was I willing to face an over £50 taxi bill to get home so Sandra offered to put me up for the night. And even better she offered to cook us up a pre-reception meal!

I’ve talked before http://www.thekua.com/sista/?p=1900 how the English wedding is a bit different to those I’ve been to in Australia – mainly that not everyone goes to the wedding ceremony and wedding meal (which generally happens during the day and over a late lunch) but almost everyone is invited to the later reception which is basically a big party going until the hours of early dawn. Here the feature is normally light finger-food plus a bar (sometimes free, sometimes pay as you go.)

At any rate we weren’t sure when and how much we would get fed at the reception tonight so Sandra cooked up a delicious early dinner. She started with some yummy foccacia breads (which were extremely filling on their own actually) and then stuffed pork wrapped in bacon.

Mmm … lovely meal. My only concern was being able to fit into my dress for the reception!