Re: The Wedding - Marc & Mark Evans-Leigh - 28.08.12
So now I have the photos I can write some kind of report…
After countless months of planning and having our living room look like the backstage storage for an episode of Blue Peter with paint, glitter and all manner of craft materials littered all over the place the day was finally upon us! The morning was actually quite nice. Ian was with us and was on hand for any last minute problems, of which there weren’t any… Well apart from not eating and so Ian got us some cheese twist thingies from Tesco. They were nice although it is bloody hard to digest anything when your stomach is in so many knots from nerves. Ian left us to get ready and of course, get ready himself. A few of the CFers were staying at the Southend LodgeofHELL. (I did try to warn them)…
I should note that some of these photos were taken by Martyn and others are from the Official Photographers Aaron & Laura – who I have realised do not really frequent CF so much these days so you probably won’t have a clue who they are…
So yes, CFers getting ready in LodgeofHELL!
Photo by Martyn
Meanwhile, Aaron and Laura had already arrived at the venue (along with some of the guests) to take some pictures and get some video etc.
An arty shot of the confetti cones…
Photo by Laura
And Aaron getting himself ready…
And this is an overall shot of the soon to be full venue…
Also being set up was the reserved seating for those important people who had jobs to do and so on. It was very tempting to include “from CoasterForce” on this but decided against it. Why am I posting the photo? Well, it is Ian from CoasterForce after all. (He was my best-man)
Over in town the others were ready to go, well almost. You can always spot the CF lovers of alcohol. I wouldn’t call them alcoholics as such, to be fair, it would be an understatement. But yeah, you can always spot them, especially when they are standing in broad daylight swigging a can of Strongbow no less...
oh and also attempting looking like some kind of CF mafia crew. It doesn’t really work so much when its outside a ‘lodge…
Very soon the venue was filling up and people were arriving… Can you imagine if they dressed like this at a CFLive?
Simple picture of people milling around…
And then they started taking their seats etc…
Now, in case you hadn’t noticed in previous pictures, Ben and Jake decided that they would tend in full wedding attire… suits and all… They looked bloody fabulous imo…
So with everyone (all 110 of them) all in, it was time to get on with it. Now I perform on stage quite a lot but nothing could prepare me for how excited but also how terribly nervous I was. It was like the worst stage fright ever. The moment doors opened to the orchestration of ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ and I saw everyone stood there, the knots in my stomach when beserk and my heart was pounding so hard anything would thing it was attempting to knob a Thai Lady-boy. It was the best I could do not to ball my eyes out as I walked down the aisle, seeing all of the CFers looking so fabulous! I think this picture is as we got to the end of the aisle and the registrar (the lovely Nicole) started to do her thing… You can see that I am holding back the tears (not the simply red song) my eyes are already a bit puffy. Yes puffy, not poofy. We all knew that already!
After a reading it was then time for the vows. Ironically, it was I that managed to fluff one of the lines instead of Marc! We had to turn to one another and do the whole repeating thing and again, I was concentrating so hard on not crying that I wasn’t really able to speak properly. However, I did manage to get the words out…
and then it was le rings. Cue the ring & finger jokes…
and an arty shot <3
Now, when it came time for my ring, my finger was really swollen as I was soo hot in that suit. Naturally Marc had trouble getting the ring on my finger (cue more jokes)…
And then it was the signing of the register and the opportunity for people to take photos of us fake signing a fake register (a whole boring legal thing – the fake stuff, not the actual photos etc)
There was a couple of nice organised shots before everyone else was allowed to take photos. It felt like we were being papped. I swear nearly every single one of the 110 people had a camera at this point…
I included this one because it’s the best men shot and it has Ian from CoasterForce in it…
After another reading we were declared legally ‘Civil Partners’ (screw you, we are married) and were announced as Mr and Mr Evans-Leigh WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO. With an orchestration of Can You Feel The Love Tonight blaring out we made our way back down the aisle…
Meanwhile, Karen was discussing something that I have no idea about…
We made our way outside where the local rag wanted to take some pictures
and everyone began piling out with confetti in hand… oooo look, there is Erol…
oooo check out the fascinator…
and personally I think it looks like Dhillon is about to eat the stuff…
there was a heck of a lot of confetti thrown…
Ian appeared to have taken a blatant ‘throwing a drink over someone’ lesson from Gavin…
but Ian is clearly not as good a learner as Rach, who managed to get me right in the mouth (cue jokes about my big gob etc)…
Now considering CFers are well versed in group shots, you’d think they would be the first to be ready for the first of the formal photos.
Nevertheless, we managed to get in a few shots of absolutely everyone before it started spitting (its spitting, its spitting, everyone inside, its spitting [/peterkay]
While we got ready for all the formals it was an opportunity for a fag break… well it was for some people… very sexeh Will
Naturally we also had a formal with all of the CFers… Well we tried to… However someone was missing… can you spot who…
Yup, you probably guessed it right and you probably guessed where she was… Now, ya see, I don’t know what possessed her, but Sue felt the need for the loo… When doesn’t she? Perhaps that is why she is so mysterious? Well, she managed to get herself locked in the Visitor Centre…
Nic (and pretty much everyone else) thought it was hilarious
And she had to be let out by my boss…
Meanwhile, we were still doing some formal shots, including one with the Best Men. Ian from CoasterForce does scrub up lovely don’t ya think?
And then we did some other nice posed shots whilst everyone else made their way to the reception…
and thus ends part 1. Coming soon: The reception…
