Malone's Blog

We were at a wedding last weekend. A couple of friends of Laura's got hitched in the little village they live in called Oldhamstocks. Lovely little place. Very oldy-wordly. Quiet. Hens and ducks walk freely down the street (there is only really one street.) The couple live in part of the old school house, which has been converted into two houses. Nice place.

The wedding was on the Saturday just before Easter Sunday. It was also the beginning of our two-week 'staycation'. We'd just finished work on a getting a new heating system and kitchen fitted in the house so we decided we couldn't really afford to go anywhere right now. But, we figured we'd have to pay for the kids' nursery anyway (3 days a week) so we could just have a nice break with them at home and use the nursery days as days for ourselves to go into town, catch a film, have some lunch...do things we rarely get to do these days.

I have a suit, but I bought it 5 years ago for my job interview and it's looking a little old and tired, so I thought it was worthwhile investing in a new one. It's chocolate brown linen, and i bought a pink shirt and tie to go with it - sharp.

Me and Seren in our new outfits

The couple had asked if I'd be take some photos for them. I wasn't sure what they wanted but I was flattered that they'd asked me (I am an amateur after all). As it got closer to the day I started to get a little worried about what they might be expecting. I asked Laura what she thought and she reckoned others would be taking pictures too and they probably were just after some casual shots throughout the day. I was a little worried about juggling the kids and trying to get photos so that sounded do-able. I brought my tripod with me, just in case, and plenty of batteries.

The ceremony took place in a lovely walled garden. They'd set up a marque next to the village hall for dancing in the evening. When we got there the groom filled me in on what they had in mind photo-wise. Guests were to arrive and be corralled through a gate in the wall and they asked if I could take their photos as they came through, then whatever else I could get. A little more than just casual photos, but I was fine with that.

'The Gate'

The forecast wasn't great but the rain held off long enough to have the ceremony out in the garden as planned, though it did start to rain a little ways through so the umbrellas came out in force - but it added to the atmosphere. I managed to get folk as they came into the garden, and a few during the ceremony (it was a humanist ceremony - nice) then a few during speeches after the meal in the village hall. The kids were all next door in the marque during the meal, with supervision of course. Seren did fine and seemed to be enjoying herself when we checked on her.

After the speeches we all retired into the marque for drinks and dancing. We hadn't planned on staying late as we had the kids with us, but we managed to stay long enough to see the couple take the floor for the first dance. Somewhere along the line we lost track of Seren. Shortly after the first dance I noticed a bit of commotion in the corner of the tent and saw the couple's daughter getting carried off in tears. One of the PA speakers had toppled over, probably due to the bouncy wooden floor vibrating under the rhythmic dancing. I remember turning to tell Laura to tell her what had happened. Seconds later a friend brought Seren over to us, who was also in tears and had blood on her face - someone said they thought the speaker had fallen on her! I felt sick. She had an egg on her head, but the sight of blood made my heart sink. We rushed the two girls over to the house and lay them out on the kitchen counter top. The couple's daughter had taken a hit to her leg, and it was bleeding. Seren was hysterical...it was awful.

After a bit of cold ice on her head the large egg that had appeared went down pretty quickly and she calmed down. She wasn't cut at all so we figured some blood had squirted onto her from the other little girl! We weren't really sure what had happened - though I thought that if a large speaker had landed on her she would probably have been hurt a lot worse, so I was thankful that she seemed relatively okay. We left and took her past A&E on the way home just to get her checked out. She fell asleep in the car so, rather than disturb her, I went in and described what had happened. The nurses were pretty unconcerned - essentially unless they've vomited a couple of times or have passed out then they're not worried. Their advice was to give her some paracetemol and to keep an eye on her. Advice I'd heard before and had expected. We headed home and all went to bed.

The next day we had planned on going back to Oldhamstocks for a planned Eater Egg hunt, in the same garden they'd held the ceremony. Seren seemed totally fine. We asked her what had happened, whether the speaker had fallen on her or maybe just the legs of the tripod stand. She seemed pretty certain that the 'music box' had fallen on her head! A little worrying, but she seemed okay. We got her dressed (added some fairy wings for that extra cute factor) and headed over.

Our little Easter Fairy

We got there a little late and most of the eggs were gone. But other bigger kinds who had a total stash of them put some back for Seren to find. Nice :). She got four in the end and seemed happy with that. On the way to lunch back at the hall and marque Laura chatted to a woman who had seen what had happened the night before. It turned out that the speaker had fallen onto a straw bale (there were lots around - for sitting on and for kids to play on) which had taken the brunt of the weight, but then had fallen onto Seren and Isla May who were next to it. So, sounded like it did indeed fall on them and not just the stand, but the straw had at least deflected it so to speak. Still awful though. Ugh.

I downloaded the photos. They were okay. Some decent ones, and some not so decent ones. I edited out the bad ones, cropped some and then added some nice effects with a Camera Bag application I downloaded a little while ago so they look better. Here are a few of the keepers....