Saturday the 18th May was my brother, Stephen’s wedding to his partner of five years Stacey Griffiths. The ceremony was at St. Georges Hall and the reception afterwards was held at the Head of Steam.
My mother, brother Daniel, his friend Paul and myself and David were supposed to be at the hall for 3.10pm, the wedding being at 3.30pm. However, with David taking time to get ready, (he was under the weather with a cold) and then taking a scenic route to St. Georges, we arrived at the hall at 3.25pm! Then as there were no signposts as to which room the ceremony was to be held in, we wandered around the floors, going up and down the lift to floors one and two before finding the right room. I had visions of us knocking at a door and there being another wedding in progress… ‘and if anyone knows of any lawful impediment’… ‘opps sorry wrong room.’
We arrived just in time! Unfortunately where I was sitting I could not get a good view of the ceremony so the footage is rather dismal. The ceremony was lovely though with two readings given by friends and family. My two nephews Nathan and Aaron alongside two bridesmaids brought up the front while Stacey looked the beautiful bride in a cream silken dress. The ceremony lasted about 20 minutes, we spent more time getting all our pictures taken!
At nearly an hour later, we all headed over to the Head of Steam which was across the road from the hall. The only down side to the venue was that it was a function room attached to a pub and the only toilets in the entire building were annexed to the pub, so we had to walk through a seething crowd of revellers every time we needed the loo and then they were disgusting! There were only four cubicles for the girls and none of the toilets flushed, so you can imagine the smell after a good few hours. It was not pleasant.
The function room was done up with balloons and bubbles. The wedding cake was delightful and the buffet catered for every diet. I loved the fruit salad, mmm pineapple and strawberries! 😀
What became my undoing was that our table with my mum, uncle Malcolm, aunty Dot, cousins, Sarah and Michael, myself and David were given a complimentary bottle of rose wine. My cousin Sarah and I noticed another two empty tables with bottles standing proud and we managed to bend the arms of Malcolm and family friend Paul to go and obtain these bottles illicitly before anyone saw us! So all in all it was a cheap night out for me, where I paid for nothing!
After 7pm the DJ arrived, the wine was flowing (I drank for about 5 hours!) and I had my first taste of a Jagger Bomb! It was very sweet and sickly, I don’t really see the appeal. My mum had to leave after 8pm as she was baby minding Nathan and Aaron so it was just me and David with the rest of my family who drank and boogied until we decided it was time to go.
We left about 11pm, slightly chatty and giggly with the wine I had consumed, (yes we drank all three bottles of wine between four of us! ) but feeling fine. It was come 3am when I awoke and could not get back to sleep my mind flashing up screen caps of the day and the music thumping in my head. It was after 6am when I first felt nauseous and I became acquainted with the toilet bowl (oh hello old friend!). I felt hungover until 8pm that night and I think it was only down to the medicinal ingredients of good old lentil soup! Thank God for lentil soup!
I am really not one to indulge much with alcohol, but I suppose it was the situation, the people I was with and the knowledge that the wine was FREE that tipped me over the edge. I had no sympathy from David nor any of my family for the self inflicted pain the next morning. I think it will take my body a good few days to really recover sufficiently, I am feeling knackered now as I go back to a full weeks work of exam invigliation for the University of Liverpool!
Christine Lucas 