We had lived in Texas for 6 months when Ellie was 4 years old and James was just coming up for his 2nd birthday. Robin had a place in Bible college and I decided to tag along with the kids so we could see what life was like in USofA! One of our dear friends, Dawn, had given us a laptop to use and for the first time in our lives we had internet. I remember sending an e-mail and watching the bar travel over the screen till it had gone into cyber space and then the excitement of seeing that we had got one back! It was just amazing!
The call that made my sympathies soften to the kids came on Tuesday, when a very pleasant young man , going by the name of Ryan, called from BT and informed me that because I hadn't changed my call plan for the last 5 years we were probably entitled to a faster service at a lower price. It turned out that instead of upgrading our home hub last year, Robin had opted for a free year of BT Sport and obviously (Not!) as ecstatic as we all were to have that particular channel in the house, I have a feeling that if a family conference had been called at the time, the new home hub would've won hands down!
Ryan ( who has now been added to my ever increasing fictional Christmas card list) also told me that we had been paying almost £5 a month for the last 5 years for an internet phone service that I don't ever remember requesting and by the end of the call had given us Fibre optic broadband and reduced our bill by £20 a month...I think I might adopt him!
So we will soon be up with the Joneses when it comes to our download speed and Jake can hold his head high when he tells his friends about our new service that arrives at the beginning of October. I actually lied to him for 2 days and told him that I had bought the fibre optic broadband for his 16th birthday, as he's been begging us for it for so long. It was working really well, till I decided to confess, after a few days, as the guilt was starting to get to me. I reckoned one of his friends would've dobbed on me eventually, so now we'll have to fork out for something real when November comes....dash it!
Speed is something James and Lainee have no shortage of in their lives as they are Stock car lovers and taking pride of place as we walked up to the Springs yesterday was one of James' gloriously decorated vehicles, gleaming in the sunshine, testimony of his love for Lainee and his little daughter, Tiffany.
I had first met James when he was just a few weeks old, his Mum, Yvonne, had kindly invited me round to visit as I was just a new comer to Macduff, having arrived just a few months before Ellie was due. Yvonne was already an experienced Mum, having had Alexander a few years before and it was great to have a bit of support and friendship as I was starting out on the whole 'New Mum' road in a new place.
James was looking very smart as he came up to say hello. I have to let you know that as normally he is an inch deep in engine oil and the last time I saw him, a few weeks before, he had sustained a nasty burn up his arm while sorting one of his cars. He assured me that the burn had healed and he was more than ready for the day ahead.
There were already a lot of familiar faces floating around as we went in to the function suite, all admiring how beautifully it was set up with deep silver bows on the covered chairs and floral arrangements of yellow and grey.
I had decided to wear my 'Lillian' dress again ( before she comes to ask for it back) and got Robin to interrupt his preparations and take a picture of me with twinkling lights in the background for a change.
I sat at the back and watched as the guests came in to take their seats and Yvonne came over with Tiffany, who had stayed the night before with Grandma and Granda. Both were looking gorgeous and it was so lovely to see Yvonne as a Grandma, looking, really not much different to how she looked 21years ago when we first met!
Soon it was time for James and his two best men, Alexander, his brother and best friend Scott (Flatty to all), to take their place at the front. Tiffany came in with one of Lainee's neices ahead of the bridesmaids who looked stunning in strapless silver taffeta gowns. Poor Tiffany decided that she wanted a bit more moral support for her walk down the aisle, so Yvonne came to her rescue as Lainee walked in, looking quite perfect, on her brother Ewen's arm.
She wore a beautiful ruched strapless cream silk dress, delicately encrusted with diamonte on the torso and at the side.
Robin welcomed everyone.I had known from a while back that a quarter of the guests were going to be sixteen and under, so was expecting it to all be a bit chaotic but there was such a lovely family feel to the ceremony and all of the kids behaved fantastically, everyone enjoying seeing James and Lainee look each other straight in the eyes as they said their vows to each other, with such genuine love.
After the vows they had a hand fasting, using a tie that belonged to Stevie, Lainee's Dad, who died 10 years ago, though I'm sure was looking down with real pride on their day.
The schedule signed, the new Mr and Mrs Geddes led their guests out to 'Scotland the Brave' played by Hayley, the piper.
At the beginning of the service Robin had sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, "There's another guest with a dress in the same fabric as yours, just a different style."
I was waiting, watching for the poor lady to come in as I knew from past experience that it wouldn't bother me at all, but for someone who had been looking forward to a big wedding, to have a double of your dress at it can be a real dampener.
So as we left the hall, I still hadn't spotted my twin and asked Robin where she was. He informed me that he had got it slightly wrong and Louise, who I've known for years, appeared beside me in the 'same' dress....here's the picture folks.....
Practically identical eh??
The sad thing is that I showed this to Phoebe when I got home and she said, "Oh, look, she's wearing the same dress!". Really, I'm surrounded by a house of colour blind crazy people!! Thankfully Louise was in total agreement that our dresses were in no way similar.
Lainee and I had only met on Facebook before yesterday, so it was lovely to give her a hug and see her surrounded by all her adoring little flower girls as she posed for photos, for family, before heading off to Duff House, with James, for their official pics.
We had a drink and enjoyed meeting some of James' family, including some who had come up from the day from Torphin's. Andrea who was from Bangor had moved over here after marrying her Mr Geddes but had managed to keep her N.Irish accent beautifully, compared to my mishmash of Scottish/Doric/Irish.
We decided to pop home and check on the dog, dropping the marriage schedule off to the registrars on the way and arrived back in time, for our chance to congratulate James and Lainee, as they welcomed their guests in their lineup. Tiffany and Lainee's nephew gave out favours of whiskey miniatures and glitter shot glasses with sweets inside, what a lovely job they did.
We were top tableing again and this time Robin had an extra friend! Jillian is always a bit superstitious and hates to have 13 at the top table, so 'teddy' came and sat at the end as guest no.14.
He and Robin got on like a house on fire...
Lainee's Uncle, Abby gave a very moving speech welcoming James into the family and telling us all about Stevie who was such a character and made his mark on all their lives, very much missed as part of the day, but never forgotten.
James told us of his first date with Lainee, where he whisked her off to McDonalds for a classy meal and then went to her family's caravan where he got the third degree and a stamp of approval from all the ladies in Lainee's life!
Alexander's turn was next and he pretty much left no stone unturned in telling us about James growing up, especially of his tantrums and colourful language when he proved a bad loser at board games ( at the age of 6!). Yvonne assured me later that there was no exaggeration in the stories. I always thought he was such a quiet lad!
Scott took to the floor informing us that Alexander had only really got to be best man by a technicality, 'Family connection', while he had been 'chosen', so we all waited to hear what the 'chosen one' had to say. Needless to say, I can't really write it down here but when James came over for a chat after he did use the term 'best friend' in the past tense!
We were incredibly popular with the kids, big and small, coming over to see us on a regular basis through out the meal. Nothing to do with our friend Teddy of course or the fact that we had the lolly pop tree at our section of the table??
We had a lovely meal, as always and I even persuaded Robert to give me a mug rather than a cup for my tea at the end, something he's promised on a regular basis from now on.
The cake was a half white, half dark chocolate spectacle with chocolate strawberries around and two little knitted teddies on top and finally James and Lainee did the first cut under Tiffany's professional instruction..
I managed to grab Yvonne and Peter for a quick snap just to show you how gorgeous she looked in her bluebell outfit, they scrub up well for a Grandma and Granda, unfortunately they were photobombed by another wedding crasher but I just decided to to leave that in...
Stuffed to the gunnels, everyone headed out to stretch their legs and meet with folks coming in for the evening and we were really pleased to see Dave and Lyndsay, Robin's 36th wedding couple who now have the adorable Charlie as their sidekick at almost 3 years old, how time flies!
The kids had decided that a bit of fun was to be had now that the hall had loads of room for running about and it was lovely to see them all chasing each other and enjoying playing as Cover to Cover set up for the dance.
We all gathered round to watch the first dance,' I won't give up' by Jason Mraz and it was such a joy to see how happy James and Lainee looked as they hugged each other obviously having the best day ever.
Soon everyone was up and the dance floor was full of family and friends singing and swaying along.
We caught up with Dave and Colleen, lovely to see them after their wedding earlier this year and looking like it was all suiting them really well and then decided to head back home as Robin has two services to do today and needed to rest his brain!
We found James and Lainee, thanking them for a lovely day, so relaxed and great fun for everyone, seeing how happy they all were together and looking forward to reading about the adventures of Mr and Mrs Geddes as we stay in touch by Facebook.
Well, the day definitely went by at great speed and I can imagine that they would've liked for once to have it slow down a bit and linger in those wonderful moments a bit longer but that's what the photos, the videos and the memories are for and those will last a lifetime.x
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