Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

• Up at 8.00, breakfast, waited for the hair-dressing appointment, 10.30, hair dressing, hair into curlers - off to Church in them to inspect the floral pew ends.
• Home to the makeup woman, bridesmaids arrived. Buffet lunch - only eat a bit of French bread ( with a knife and fork to save the make-up ).
• Dress on, fantasticaly valuable diamond earrings on.
• Photos in the garden with the bridesmaids who then went in the car. Then left with Daddy in the (rather fine) car.
• Arrived at the church, re-assured by seeing Peter [ the real Vicar imported from Hove ], excited to see the bridesmaids waiting outside.

• Up at 8.30am, talked to David in bed for a while, showered, went to Guesten Hall for breakfast.
• Bacon, eggs, toast, croissants, apple juice - rather good, spoke to various misc. relatives.
• Back to my room, some applied speech writing action, David assisted with various droll comments. Condensed to flashcards.
• Prayed in the Abbey ruins and practiced the speech.
• Robert and Marie Claire arrived, and we poked around the ruins, an extremely small spiral staircase was most interesting, with a diameter of perhaps 4 feet, very small.
• Parents rolled in, David took them to the right room, and I re-directed them to the wrong one, doh.
• Set out some tables on the patio and had a picnic with the family in the glorious sunshine. Went early to change, very calm.
• Driven to the Church by David, Sharon Gosling got my buttonhole in the right place, talked to lots of friends arriving in the car park. The Ryes arrived in their spare bus ( travel Rye transport in Newbury ! ). Great to see Martin Baulig and Dick Porter unfold from a full car with Tim Reid, Stuart Abercrombie driven by Andrew Mansergh.
• Into the Church, and after some faffing around sat at the front with David, amused each other a little. The brothers and Tim were ushering admirably.
• Sarah and Ali came to see us at the front of the church - the low church friendly people.

• Wilt thou have this woman to they wedded wife, to live together according to God's law in the holy estate of Matrimony ? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, in sickness and in health ? and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, as long as ye both shall live ?
• To which one answers I will! Similarly Julia promised the same, with an additonal 'obey' clause.
• Then the Vicar started getting the prompting badly wrong, but we had mercifully both learned our lines as it were:
• I Michael take you Julia to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy law; and this is my solemn vow.
• Likewise for Julia, but with even worse prompting blunders.
• Then exchanging the rings - David managed to procure them from one of his pockets, some relief.
• I give you this ring, as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of my Wife and I I would like to thank Anthony for his kind speech, and to you all for coming to celebrate with us.
"I am led to understand, that the dictionary definition of Wedding is "The inseparable fusing of two bits of metal by heat.";
"One of the things I love most about Julia is her attitude, confidence, intelligence, ability - that she is a worthy intellectual opponent when we discuss things - unafraid to tell me I'm wrong, amusing and relaxed.
"My Father when young, advised me to Marry a woman that looks like the back of a bus, this way you don't have to worry about them running off. I'm happy to say, as you can see that, as my Father before me, I've failed to take this advice.
"It has been said that A woman would rather be told she is beautiful than intelligent, because she knows men can see better than they can think - I've come to appreciate this reflection of male shallowness that they call female vanity as I got to know Julia more. Beautiful, a joy to behold and be with now - and also over the years - as we get baggier.
"You may be labouring under the illusion that my task is to propose a toast to the bridesmaids, and then shut-up. Before we get there, I'd like to propose another toast - to a very special lady, with a close association of the family, a dancing partner of my Father's, and benefactor of ours, who unfortunately cannot be present with us today. Ladies and gentlemen - can I ask you to be up-standing, and raise your glasses in the loyal toast to The Queen.
"Views differ on marriage: is it a biological trap, or the best thing they ever did ? Marriage is like the Army, everyone complains, but surprise surprise - they all re-enlist - as it were: Carpe Diem ("complain daily") - but there should be no need to re-enlist.
"By God's grace, and my wife's self-control, I'm really looking forward to opening God's wedding present tonight - a topic that obssesses our generation. I'm convinced that now, as in our old age - our technique will be amusing - but we want our love to be characterized by a life-long tenderness that will overcome this.
"I'd like to talk about God's Grace - that small word means His undeserved favour, He has been so good to us - not just

• Giving us both parents who loved us with care, kindness, self-sacrifice setting a great example, and being an inspiration to us.
• Giving us Jesus, who brought us to himself, and brought us together.
• God - who showed me what love is - what my heart is for.
• Giving us you guys - so many friends, and much loved family members, we treasure your support & friendship.
• Coming into the cess-pool of human existence to die for us, so that we could show forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness - and into his wonderful light.

"My peers are intrigued - How can you be so sure as to get married ? thy ask; perhaps I can help someone here with my thinking:

• Love - I look at myself, how I act when Julia's around, that strange lightness of step, song in the mouth, happiness - seems convincing. But perhaps this effervescence will fade ?
• A decision - this is something that we've decided, freely and willingly entered into, with oaths made in front of God & man. I want to re-make this decision daily.
• And finally - I can't know the future; there is a leap of faith here, that is matched by an iron commitment to stick it through.

"Lastly, as I come to the end - can I point out to you that time flies, Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on Him while he is near - don't assume there will be a better time. "Which leaves me with the Downing College motto - "Seek the Truth", or as they say in Latin Caicillius in Horto Laborat. "This leaves me only to thank the bridesmaids:

• Stephanie - for her courage and deportment.
• Louise - our mutual friend who brought us together.
• Kat - whose encouragement of Julia as a child to play with riding horses, not chasing boys kept her safe.
• and Sue - her Sister, support, playground protector & best friend.

"Please be upstanding to toast - the bridesmaids".