Another Katherine Cruse, but spelt differently and married to Ben, not Tom!

Eleven years ago today, we attended a wedding; the wedding of Ann and Jonathan ~happy anniversary you two! Our (then) cutesy little four year old, Tom, was a dashing page boy, complete with top hat and Anni was all beautiful in purple velvet.

Today we were at another wedding, just the two of us this time; the wedding of Ben & Katherine Cruse. Katherine is our friend, has been our co-worker in the Friday night YP, lives in the next road (well, Grove actually) and teaches at Annabel's school.

The day did not begin well for me! The dress I wanted to wear required my fave boots which were in need of some repair. I'd left it to the last minute to take them in to the cobbler's (do they still call themselves that or are they now something ridiculous like "shoe rejuvenation facilitators?") and had to collect them this morning. This meant venturing into town on the Saturday before Christmas ~ not the best idea!!!

Consequently I did not have a great deal of time to get ready. In my haste I managed to rip one of the straps off my dress. I am not the most gifted of seamstresses and even have difficulty threading a needle, but somehow I managed a quick and none too obvious repair job. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I sat down to dry my hair. Time was marching on. For some reason, (thinking back I am baffled as to why) I stood up and in doing so my dress got sucked into the back of the hairdryer. By the time I turned it off, my dress had melted and torn and was unwearable. I am particularly gutted because it was the only one of its kind in a sweet little bargain boutique in the lanes of Brighton.

So it was back to the old faithful Monsoon dress that served me well for the last two weddings I'd been to. And would you believe, as I stood up, I caught my heel in the netting and ripped that one too? I just had to sew it up and hope for the best. I vow in future to get ready in my dressing gown until the last minute.

Thankfully, Kat had no such mishaps with her lovely dress!

All went smoothly for them and it was lovely to see them so happy. At the reception, we were greeted by these familiar smiling faces. Edwina, Mei Shan and Jess, back from uni and reunited with Abi, made excellent waitresses.

And talking of familiar faces...

We got to chat with the lovely Mr & Mrs Hubbard, stars of the last wedding we went to.