The Weekend

Wow - I had the most amazing weekend. Left here at 9:50am on Saturday to pick up Dan and Rach to head off to the wedding, so we headed off. We hit the Brighton Road, the other side of Purley and flip was there traffic. It was madness. It's meant to take around 45 mins to get to Pyrford, but it took us 2 hours!!! The traffic was madness. They were doing gas works in Hooley, so we just got totally stuck. We were good folk though coz we text/phoned round everyone else and warned them. Praise God that we left so early though coz it meant we got to the church at 12:30, which gave Rach and I half an hour to change and then get into the church before Katy arrived!!!

The church was completely packed. It was wonderful. There's nothing nicer than a good Christian wedding. It was fantastic. Everyone sang the hymns really loudly and there was just so much joy. Katy and Stu both looked great - Stu scrubs up rather nicely in navy tails and Katy's white dress was simply gorgeous. Unfortunately it rained as Katy arrived and continued to rain throughout the service and when we left the church. But, praise God when we got to the reception it had stopped.

In between the service and the reception us St Mary's lot zipped over the the hotel we were staying in, to check in and re-do the hair that'd got frazzled! It was like a travel lodge, quite nice, ensuite etc. So then we got a cab to Painshill Park, where the reception was. Lovely lovely place.

The reception was in 'The Conservatory' - like a huge marquee, but really lovely, with proper floors and stuff. We were in a walled garden, which was very pretty. The photographer took photos for at least an hour, probably even more. We had a 'Croydon friends' photo, which was hilarious. We were by far the noisiest lot there! There were about 15 or so of us - maybe more - 12 from TnT plus Mark, then Richard and Anna, and Michael - ok so that makes 16!

We sat down for the meal at about 4:30/5 - I was on a table with Dan, Nana, Mark and then the curate, Neil and his wife, Helen, from Pyrford. Was cool. David and Leona were supposed to be on our table, but didn't come. We had like salady veg - carrot salad, rice salad, green bean and cherry tomato salad, and then I had a stuffed pepper and some veg - was yummy. We drank lots of champagne, and wine and water (!). Dessert was the wedding cake - mmmm chocolate - with a coulis and raspberries and a strawberry -yummyness! Then we had coffee too. We each had a little box wrapped with a ribbon saying 'Katy and Stuart 22nd July 2006' and inside was jelly bellys! :-)

The speeches were cool - Katy's Dad sang Katy's praises and talked about how wonderful K&S would be together. Stuart talked about his beautiful bride and how hard they'd had to work at their relationship. And Malcolm showed us an embarrasing photo of Stu and then sang his praises. It was all very lovely - lots of laughter and tears.

Their worship group turned into a jazz band for the afternoon, which was lovely. They had the first dance - can't remember the song - oopsy! Then we had a Kaylee in the evening - coz Stu's Dad is Scottish. That was hilarious and I really enjoyed it. I danced with Nana and then Paul H a bit later - was funky!

Stuart & Katy left about 10:30pm, then us Croydon mob left about 10:45. Stopped off at Sainsburys to stock up on liquid and got to the hotel about 11pm. We then all went into Nana's room and stayed there til about 1:30am. Chatted and laughed our socks off - good night! Then Nici and I stayed up chatting till about 2:30. Was cool.

And I got up at 7:30, left just after 8am and got back to Croydon in time to lead the All Age at St Mary's - all good! I stayed on the M25 until junction 5, so I didn't get stuck in the Hooley gas works this time.

Service was good. Richard got me up front and thanked me for all the work I've done this year as youth assistant. He asked me how I'd found it and for a highlight - which I decided was the youth concert. And he gave me a card and a £50 cheque. All good!

After church we turned the place into a jungle, ready for holiday club today. Was good fun mostly, but I just needed to chill out a little more. Was probably due to the fact I'd only had 4.5 hours sleep - all good really!

So... Holiday Club starts in approx 4 hours, so I'll be going off to have some lunch now...
Love to everyone who's reading!