Yes, I really did take a picture of you after six hours' drinking.

[reddragdiva]

Apologies for not posting earlier; I was on my honeymoon.

Photo sets: Arkady, Suzi, Sciamachy, Sean (all done on a cameraphone), Rosie (and her reception pics), Duster, Andrew. Any others?

The wedding enterprise was brightened immeasurably by my parents showing from Australia the day before, and staying at our place the first couple of nights. We woke up nice and early on Saturday. redcountess and I had stress tizzies at each other while arkady got me ready and we got out and to the pub with the Cake. Bus back to the Register Office by eleven, with people showing until about twenty past.

About thirty people showed for the ceremony, which was just enough for the room: my parents Shirley and Wayne, my aunt Jensine and uncle Colin, arkady, dathedi, ali_anarres, ksta, leunnammi, ewtikins, avalon_bliss, zeke_hubris, sheridanwilde, teqkiller, muftak, stevenothing, sparklielizard, gothstevek, silverfiligree, sbp, barbedwirekiss, gashinryu, blaadyblah, ickle_yuki, thamshere, sciamachy and Sue, Ingvar, damerell, cyberneph and fluffymark.

Liz looked Utterly Resplendent in a shiny gold cherry blossom cheongsam and matching shoes, which is an easy way to outshine a room full of people in black. I wore a black poet's shirt, PVC trousers and New Rock shoes (an outfit Liz and Rose are both trying to convince me to wear more often). The music was William Orbit doing Barber's "Adagio For Strings." (Starting with the straight version, only then letting it go into the Ferry Corsten doof mix.) The Register Office was air conditioned, praise be. Videos were taken by Avalon and my mother. Rose took care to glare at the room when the registrar asked if anyone had any objections to this union. (If only she'd brought the sword!) Everyone was kind enough to restrain their sniggering when the registrar said the word "exclusively."

Out into the garden for more pics, then herding people and goths onto buses (hence the saying "as organised as a bunch of goths") and off to the pub. For six hours' drinking and partying. Extra people who showed for the pub: mouseboks, corsetboy, ms_cc, duster340, princesssulky, valkyriekaren, daneel_olivaw, Christian, mjg59, _nicolai_, MikeWD, greap, giolla, gothslut, alixandrea, firewoman, bellinghman, bellinghwoman, lusercop, Gideon and Jen and wintrmute. (I think that's everyone.) The pub had Real Beer on (Courage and IPA) and served up a ridiculous amount of food - that "light buffet for forty" would have done seventy, I think. Liz and the family fell over at six, Rose and I stayed for the remaining twenty or so hardened revellers until seven. (Rose wishes to point out that she really was as trashed as she looked in the photos. But it is the Best Man's job to Take Care of the groom.) It was a TOP PARTY and I heartily recommend the Bell to everyone. Say we sent you.

I snogged three people I wasn't married to or going out with at the pub. (And I'm not naming them.)

Here is the original invitation (366KB PDF) and here is the recipe for the Enormously Popular Cake. You can leave out the step involving an eight-year-old daughter knocking all the colouring onto the carpet at a particularly opportune moment.

Too much of The Honeymoon has been spent with a summer cold. We did go touristing with the parents, to Shakespeare's Globe and the London Eye. Also went to the V&A for the Art Deco exhibition. The rest was spent in bed. For the wrong reasons, unfortunately. How annoying.

I am slowly getting used to this gold thing on the fourth finger of my left hand. I think I like it.

Note to photographers: I am seeking to collect original camera images of the above photo sets for hypothetical grandchildren or whatever. If you can burn a CD or something, good. If not, please get in touch and we'll work something out.

Comments

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

You both look gorgeous and very happy. Congratulations! :)

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

The full set (including those that I didn't deem web-worthy) totals about 12Mb. I just tried zipping them and the resulting .tgz file came out at ... 12Mb, so that's no help. It's an emailable number, if your ISP is friendly. Let me know the chunk size you're prepared to tolerate and I'll chuck them out at 24 hour intervals over 2 or 3 days?

[reddragdiva]

Um ... probably 2MB chunks to fun at velvet dot net. But a better method would be if you put them in a temporary webspace for me to grab them from. Thank you very much either way :-)

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

Uploading to here (http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~loveridg/pictures/diva/) as I type....

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

Upload complete. Gimme a shout when you've downloaded them again, as I'm not fully comfortable with the full (uneditted) set being in the public domain forever...

*hug*

[reddragdiva]

Got 'em :-)

[bar-bar-ella.livejournal.com]

Everyone was kind enough to restrain their sniggering when the registrar said the word "exclusively."

The bit in the Victorian schtick goes "To the exclusion of all others". We asked our registrar if that bit could be taken out but were told "no, we have to say that by law". The more I think about this, the more I get angry about it because that is such a crock. Sure, the law in Victoria says that a legal marriage can only involve one man and one woman, but I made a point of finding the marrage statute and having a read - there's nothing in there that says or implies that the people in the marriage can't do what they please and with whom (just as long as you don't attempt to marry them, heh).

I thought of making a point of crossing my fingers while it was said. But that seemed just a little juvenile. :)

Dom and I smirked at each other. Maybe Sandro coughed.

[reddragdiva]

Pretty much everyone at mine was Aware of the Situation and quite a few were visibly smirking ...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

IIRC, it represents the "the lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others", which means the ownership of property etc. It has nothing do with other forms of "union".

[log-reloaded.livejournal.com]

that is so typical of you ... get all legal about things ...
grr @ you !!

[arkady.livejournal.com]

I think we were deliberately avoiding each other's eyes; after all, it wouldn't have looked very good to suddenly have half the wedding guests suddenly burst into fits of giggles. Or the bride and Best Man! (And yes, I suspect once started neither Liz nor I would have found it easy to stop giggling...!)

[lnr]

Far as I'm concerned all the "exclusion" bit refers to is the being married. And if/when I do I'm perfectly happy to promise not to be married to anyone else. Like you say, nothing there says it has to mean anything else right? Even if by convention that's what people understand by it.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I think it can be read as to the exclusion of all other such unions, and indeed that is the legal requirement (ie, you can't marry anyone else.) That's how I interpreted it and hence I had no smirking problem.

[lnr]

Lovely to see the pics, you both look really happy, hell everyone does.

[log-reloaded.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!
I CANNOT BELIVE YOU GOT MARRIED AHHHHHH *jumps up and down lots*
hugs all around .... I jave soo been out of contact with you to for way to long.
love you both !!!

[reddragdiva]

So when you going to backpack around Europe, young lady?

[log-reloaded.livejournal.com]

when i get then money the time and the will :P

[lnr]

BTW thanks for the link to http://silk4you.com/retail.html : I seem to now be the owner of a lovely long black cheogsam with red cherry blossom or whatever on it. For $30 + $10 shipping. Which I only ordered on Monday from the states. Bloody hell that's fast!

(It very nearly fits too, which suggests I did buy the right size, since I am shrinking again slightly)

[reddragdiva]

Beware; their stuff is sometimes not of the very highest quality. Be good at restitching seams or find someone who is.

[lnr]

Oh at that price I certainly wasn't expecting the highest quality. It seems basically OK, but I'm a dab hand at mior repairs to things, so long as I don't mind if it's not the neatest job in the world. Just hadn't seen anything anywhere near so reasonable a price in the UK in my sort of size, which is ridiculous really. Been looking for a nice cheongsam on and off for years.

[redcountess]

Their sizing is wonderful, I was in a similar boat before the wedding, having found nothing my size in Camden. I have a very lovely green cheongsam that I bought in Australia 2 years ago, but it doesn't fit me anymore :-(

[lnr]

I'm only a largish size 14 at the moment and I struggle to find things that fit well even in this size, but it does get worse and worse to find things as you get bigger, and the states does seem to be much better at catering for anything above a 16 which is at all out of the ordinary. Though I do think the UK is improving even if Camden haven't caught up yet.

I've spent 8 years getting gradually too big for all my clothes, and then for all my new clothes, and then for all them too, and then the last 2 years doing the same only faster in reverse. Bit of a blip back up again now mind. It's so frustrating when something you loved won't fit any more. Though less so on the way back down IME.

Still need to shed about an inch to get in the new dress. Too hot for it this w/e anyway though.