Guns and Roses: Shotgun Wedding

This was a particularly memorable wedding, you'll see what I mean later :)

The wedding held in a sweet little church. There were only about 130 guests and we completely filled the church, that's how small it was.

The bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, which took the couple back to the reception after the ceremony.







Don't the horses look smart?

It was a very intimate and emotional ceremony. J, the groom, was crying at one point...awwww...

Here they are drinking champagne as they set off to the reception.








It was a very organised wedding. There were coaches to pick the guests up from hotels, ferry us to the church and reception and return us to our hotels.

The reception was held at the the bride's parents' home.

Here are some guests walking up to the beautiful house. 10 acres! Now that's a big plot!













The reception was held in a huge marquee in the garden.

There were portable toilets set up in the gardens for the guests. OMG! I have never seen portable toilets like these...forget all the portaloos you have seen at festivals and concerts.

These toilets would not look out of place in a 5-star hotel. Certainly much more presentable than my own loo at home!












Here is the bride and bridesmaids with the official wedding photographer.










My main course - chicken pie. I tried to take more food pictures but the red wine was doing some damage.

The food was exceptionally good. Normally for these "mass-catered" events it can be a bit dodgy but we all thought it was delicious.

The menu was goats cheese with cranberry or pate to start, chicken pie/roast beef/roast vegetable quiche for the main and profiteroles/cheesecake/cheese platter for pudding. Followed by petit fours with coffee.


We were all starving by time "lunch" was served. The wedding was at 2pm, so most of us had skipped lunch. Then champagne was served at the reception while the photos were taken before the main meal was served at 5pm. Which meant lots of drinking on an empty stomach.



During the dinner, we had the traditional speeches i.e. the bride's father, the groom and the best man. Very emotional and entertaining. I had to wipe away tears during the speeches and I wasn't the only one.

Then there was a free bar (hooray hooray), live band and disco till late.








The inside of the marquee. The band and dancefloor are at the far end.

Then just before midnight, while the band were finishing their set, music suddenly stopped and the lead singer said, "Can someone get that guy out of here please?" and made a comment about a "shotgun wedding".

We were all stamping our feet and howling for more music so the DJ started up Guns and Roses's Sweet Child of Mine which sent us off into another frenzy - but suddenly that stopped too.

We were just standing confused on the dance floor. Then friends of ours who weren't dancing came over and said - you guys should move away from the dancefloor. A man with a gun just walked in and pushed over one of the amplifiers.

It turned out he was neighbour who was unhappy about the noise and decided to barge into the party with a shotgun!! He had to walk past lots of people who thought what? did I just see man with a gun??

I mean, you expect this of thing in South London but not in the "peaceful" countryside. Or maybe people are more crazy in the woods?

The bride confronted him (very silly of her) and said, "What are you doing? This is my wedding!" and he shouted, "My children can't sleep because of the noise".

The band wanted to call the police but the father of the bride tried to defuse the situation and walked the man home. The band were not happy - and I think they called the police - because they felt they had been directly threatened. What a crazy guy!

It was funny how the bar staff and waiters all disappeared in a flash! Suddenly, the bride was behind the bar serving people drinks, trying not to spoil the atmosphere. We all tried to start dancing again but it was difficult because the DJ was shitting himself and refused to turn the music up beyond level "one". We joked that we would get him a kevlar vest if he turned it up, but he refused. He looked really scared and sat down hiding behind his speakers for the rest of the night, but Mr K-E says at least he didn't leave.

So we spent the last hour dancing to music that was being drowned out by the noise of our feet!

I just hope that J and N don't feel that it was spoilt by that guy. It was still fun although we might have been a bit more nervous had we been less drunk. Anyway, when they get back from their honeymoon in a couple of weeks we will get the full story.