Johanna and Philip's wedding ... some photos at last!

Well, the great day dawned at last ... Kenneth and I were too exhausted to even realise that the wedding day had arrived. During the days leading up to the wedding we discovered all kinds of things which we had thought were done and in fact weren't ... I suppose that's completely normal for weddings. here are just a few snapshots of the day, when we get the "proper" photos I'll post some - Johanna and Philip are in Australia right now so we won't get to see the oficial photos until their return.

Most of the wedding guests from overseas had opted to stay in hotels in Arad but a few were brave enough to stay with us at the house ... poor fools, they didn't know what they were letting themselves in for. Old friends (In time not their ages!)Jane, Steve and Maureeen, brother Tom and our dear sister-in-law Susan and niece Deborah saved the day in more ways than one! There they are in the photos (Maureen is the one on her own ... not Intentional maureen!) My friend Mariana helped me in the week before they arrived to clear space for them in which to sleep - we had several large donations of clothing and food and I did wonder where people would sleep, but Mariana and Amy worked hard and we managed to find a bed of sorts for everyone!

Kenny was DJ for the day, helped by his girlfriend Alina. Poor Kenny got forgotten about and was only taken to the hotel with his equipment half an hour before the wedding service was due to start! He then dashed off for the service and rushed back to the hotel as soon as possible but ended up having to do his sound testing when all the guests had already arrived ... not an easy task, especially as there was a good number of children running around the dance floor!

The marriage ceremony was held at the Lutheran church, known as the Red Church on Bulevardul Revolutiei, the main road which runs through the city centre (you can just about see the church on this photo, tucked in behind the Primaria, town hall). It was a lovely service conducted by old friend and former elder at our church in Glasgow, David Harvey. We upheld the tradition of the bride being late ... and the bride's parents, uncle, aunt, cousin, bridesmaids, brother and all our house guests ... it's a long story involving a fair amount of stress and too much to do in one morning! The marriage service was lovely with three beautiful hymns and a moving solo by Michael Abubakar.

The reception was held in the panoramic suite on the 11th floor of the Hotel Continental also on Bulevardul Revolutiei. It is an amazing venue with balconies all round and lovely views of Arad, as you can see.

The food was fantastic, a cold buffet followed by a hot buffet, with a large selection of dishes. Our visitors from abroad all praised the food, Romanian buffets are always great. Main courses were followed by platefuls of delicious cakes, not that I saw any of them, in fact I ate very little as I was too busy trying to make sure everyone was all right. To finish it all off the wedding cake was huge, something like 15kg made from chocolate sponge and black cherries and as you can see from the photos was a little unusual.

Kenneth's speech was totally unrehearsed as he simply didn't get chance to prepare anything - he had planned to show photos of Johanna when she was small and stroppy ... now she's all grown up but just as stroppy! (She's in Australia right now so i can say what I want!)

Kenny did a good job of the DJ-ing and we had a nice mix of different types of music and dancing including a little Romanian folk music and of course a few Scottish dances ... and what a laugh that was! The photo shows me trying to show Mariana's husband Nelu a "St Bernard's waltz" - actually he was very good. We also did a couple of other dances including a "Strip the Willow" which to some of our Romanian friends will forever be known as "Strip the Widow"!

Travel cots are such handy things ... this one, donated in the summer by a kind friend at PCF church in wolverhampton was invaluable on the wedding day for both Yasmina and Irina's wee girl Daniela to have naps! Aunties are also pretty invaluable and auntie Jane and auntie Maureen did a wonderful job of looking after Yasmina for us. Mustn't forget the uncles ... uncle Tom and uncle Steve did a great job of being the taxi drivers!