England - Day Eight & Nine

So Emily hadn't read the vacation blogs yet so she decided to tonight and spent the entire time mocking my horrible grammar, with comments like "the education system failed you, but it's not your fault 'cause you went to school in the country". That's the kind of passive-aggresive beauty that I married :)

I apologize to all your fine folks, but in truth I don't really proof read these things for spelling or grammar. I'll try to be more mindful of it in the future though, now that I have a teacher looking over my shoulder.

Now. Onto the main event.

Today, as everyone whose been following this so far knows, was wedding day!

But first, the day started off with really typically horrible English rain. We decided to go out for lunch in the town of Cerne Abbas (which hosts the legendary giant mentioned in a preview post). We hit a pub called The Royal Oak, and not only was it the best food I've had the entire time we've been here (not that we've been seeking gourmet fare), but I finally found my perfect fish and chips!

The weather started to shift and we again climbed the magnificent Chapel Hill, where the wedding was to be held. The walk isn't as bad as it looks, and it would be much easier if I didn't have Ephraim on my shoulders.

The wedding was to take place inside the chapel, but as part of the ceremony we were to wait outside. The Bride & Groom must be the first to enter.

On a side note, Erik and Amy had to have a civil ceremony that morning because in England only certain places are designated as legal marriage locations - this beautiful chapel is not one of them. I thought this was quite interesting coming from a country where you could get married in a dumpster so long as you have the proper paperwork.

While waiting, Ephraim got his first kiss from his Toronto friend Saffron...

So then Amy the Bride was whisked up the hill in a jeep…

And escorted into the Chapel with her father…

Where the beautifully intimate wedding began...

Emily wrote a poem for the occasion and read it to the crowd…

The ceremony was quite lovely. I spent most of the time keeping the little guy happy, but he did quite well for someone his age.

Afterwards everyone exited the Chapel into beautiful sunshine! And Erik the Groom and Amy the Bride graciously posed for many, many pictures.

I didn't take any photos at the reception, but it was really lovely. Erik wrote a beautiful song for Amy, it wasn't a cliche ballad, but a sweet, boppy little number. I missed a great deal of the speeches in an effort to keep Ephraim quiet (we found a nearby apple tree and controlled his oncoming hunger attacks). There was a céilidh dance, and even an ice cream cart outside. All in all, pretty awesome wedding.

The next morning (we spent the night in Abbotsbury) Ephraim was pretty awesome about sleeping in a bit, but then he wanted to head out the door.

Because nothing opens till 10am, we found a local corner store, got some bananas, brie, and crackers and made an impromptu breakfast.

There was a little morning post-wedding get together, but on the way I wanted to stop by another Chapel in town that was owned by a Canadian artist, Marie Laywine (from Hamilton - small world, huh?).

I briefly saw her stuff the day before and was really drawn to it. I WISH we could afford the original paintings themselves, but for the time being I settled for a print of my favourite one. I'd put the picture below, but I'd rather you visit her site (http://www.marielaywine.com/category/large-abstracts/) and look around. We got the print of "Inheritance"

From there we want to the post-wedding celebration and enjoyed a selection of sandwiches and snacks while Ephraim had a nap.

Then we did a last trip to Tesco's and bought some train/airplane snacks. One other thing I keep forgetting to mention is that on the back of a lot of packages is the phrase (when it applies of course) "Suitable for Vegetarians". Which is pretty awesome and progressive. I was told it's because there is a large Indian population in England, which makes complete sense. All right Canada, get with it - give me my "Suitable for Vegetarians"

Got home and started packing. We start our trek back tomorrow, stopping again in Crawley.