Mr and Mrs Allen

Saturday 17th, 1:00pm, Hay on Wye .

This was the date and time of my cousin's beautiful wedding. She looked gorgeous, radiant and so happy that a tear was brought to my eye on more than one occasion. Her dad, mad Mike (who is indeed my favorite Uncle - he made a joke) was incredibly proud of his daughter as he walked up the isle with his arm linked in hers and I know that he knows (as do all of us) that Natalie and Mark are going to have the best time for the rest of their lives; they make a lovely couple and are a fabulous pair of groovy movers when occasion calls.

Natalie and I were born 6 months apart and have mothers who were very close sisters. As such we spent rather a lot of time together when we were younger. Along with her brother Andrew and my sister, we spent many a night jiving on balconies in Majorca and dying of embarrassment as (yet again) our fathers disgraced themselves after a little too much beer, whisky and what ever else they could find whilst our mothers tried hard to pretend that they were not associated to these mad men. lol. Once we got older and went to uni things changed a lot which is very sad because I've always enjoyed spending time with Natalie, so it was really nice to share in one of the most important moments of her life.

As usual it was a family affair. However, this was the first time in years that I've been to a family do and it wasn't about the Lloyds and I'm glad. No offence meant to the Lloyds ( i am one of them i guess) but this event was all about the Allens and that's exactly as it should have been. This was the first time that the Lloyd family didn't fill the room, all rushing to the buffet at once and the first family wedding that I've been to where it was obvious that the bride and groom have touched the lives of a lot of very lovely people who care very deeply about them. There must have been near 300 people grooving the night away when I left them.

Of course, it was said on several occasions that sadly there were certain members of the family who were missing. One very important one. I'm not sure they were right though. In fact, I am certain that everyone was in full attendance, there's no way they would have missed this event. Why else did the sun shine so brightly and the whole thing go so smoothly without a little bit of divine intervention? It was certainly not a day for sadness; celebration was the order of the day from start to finish.

Natalie was swept off her feet for the most part of the day and what with 2 hours of photos I did whisper in her ear "Who needs to be evicted from Big Brother to get the photographer's attention?". The most amusing thing about the photographs was the fact that Natalie, Mark and the photographer walked down to the beautiful golf course for pictures followed by my mother who shadowed them for the entire time taking pictures (and probably making 'artistic' suggestions). We all laughed at this as Mum could never resist the opportunity to take a good picture. We were concerned at one point however, when we saw Natalie and Mark returning without Mom. Matt was wondering whether they'd got fed up and tied her to a tree to keep her out of the way. Alas, she was just out of view and hadn't missed a trick. As such mum now has a collection of nearly 200 photographs of Natalie and Mark's big day (which I've pinched). I am releaved to discover that there are no shots of Natalie standing by pretty bushes or holding out her hands so that it looks like she's holding the sun in the photograph - That's what I've had to put up with every time we go went on holiday and I'm glad she spared Natalie! lol
" Just stand over there. That's it - now look at me" CLICK When the picture comes back I just look annoyed - which is exactly as I was feeling as this is the 4th film of the day.

Anyway, Take a look at my beautiful cousin and her fabulous new husband. There's more pictures on FLICKR - Just click the thing on the right that keeps showing different images and you'll be straight there.