A Pagan wedding
The Baron and Dreads attended a Hand Clasping ceremony last weekend in Devon. These pagan weddings have become more and more popular in the UK and a real alternative to those couples who don't want the formalities of a Church wedding or the sterile environment of a register office or hotel meeting room.
It helped that the grooms parents own a farm in the beautiful Devon countryside and the wedding could take place in a private woodland glade complete with shady walks strewn with fairy lights and rose petals that the couples 5 year od twin daughters had strewn from wicker baskets in front of them.
The ceremony over, the party began with elderflower champagne that the Grooms brother had made the previous summer ( in anticipation of todays shenanigans). Its hardly alcoholic he waved a bottle at The Baron -we had some when we first made it - its just really refreshing and sparkley!
What the brother hadn't realised -or researched-that elderflowers have natural yeast in them and once bottled it cotinues to ferment -getting more and more alcoholic as time goes on.
Leaving the festivities, The Baron and Dreads went for a walk following the fairy lights into the early evening, a bottle of the elderfloweraccompanying them, marvelling at the full summer moon and the smells of harvest in the air. They found a fairy glade, complete with hay bales and fluffy blankets (obviously set out for someone to find by the Grooms mother) and entwined into each other drank the champagne waiting for the Perseid meteor showers which were forecast for the night.
Hours later, The Baron woke up with a banging headache and a dry mouth. Oh mum he sighed, I was living my hangover! For something that wasn't supposed to be alcoholic it certainly packed a punch. Waking Dreads up, they stumbled back to the party which was still in full swing, as was the dregs of the elderflower champagne with the Brides mother and Grooms father crooning away on the kareoke machine and the Groom wondering around in a blonde wig and feather boa ( there was a dressing up box so this wasn't as unusual as it sounds)! The Bride was nowhere to be seen but Dreads found her slumped over the top table hand trailing in the wedding cake.
The next morning The Baron and Dreads whilst packing the bus up found a crate of elderflower champagne that the brother had stashed away for safe keeping. They looked at each other and smiled. I'm sure mum and Rocksey could find a use for this - The Baron covered the crate with a blanket - come on it's a long way home.
Back at Rocksey towers, the crate of champagne safely put away in the beer fridge in Rockseys recording studio (where Rocksey and Marsh were dabbing in a new sit-com tune for Dangal TV India), The Baron and Dreads accepted my offer of cold brewed tea and Dreads showed me the photos of the wedding on her iphone and we oohhed and ahhed over the beautiful setting, the simplicity of the hand clasping ceremony and the Brides dress.
After The Baron and Dreads retired upstairs to sleep off the antics of the weekend, I mused on their latest adventure. The wedding sounded romantic and the setting idyllic, the elderflower champagne a delight - in moderation.
I decide to squirrel away a couple of the bottles for mine and Rockseys forthcoming wedding anniversary. I was planning on a firework display but a couple of hay bales and a fluffy blanket paired with a couple of bottles of natures nectar of the Gods may be just all we need!
