Bouquets at Dawn

Just got back from a wedding. It was nice, the bride looked good, etc etc etc. But DULL! Why are other people's friends (or in particular, other people's friends' other halves) so arse-achingly boring? And do I seem that dull to them? I bloody hope not.

One thing that struck me was how strong the imprint of the traditional wedding is. This one was between a Dutch Protestant and a black South African adopted into a British liberal Jewish family, so for the avoidance of argument there was no religion involved, but it was still all white tulle and lilies and bridesmaids and the bride's father bringing her down the aisle and stuff like that. And the civil wedding service still uses some pretty archaic prayer-book style words. I suppose if you don't want a ChurchLite wedding, you need to get some druid to do it on a hilltop at dawn or something.

I have got progressively calmer about the fact that I may well never get hitched (particularly after meeting other people's friends' other halves and realising afresh how many truly dire people there are around), but for me, when my father died and I thought that he would never haul me down the aisle and hand me over, it made me think about whether I would really want that anyway. I say no, of course not: but I bet a lot of the brides who end up being given away by daddy would have said that too. It is very odd how much of a traditionalist vein it seems to bring out in even the most non-traditional people.

The only wedding I remember actively enjoying and thinking was truly original was one that incorporated a pub quiz in between the service and the reception, with the bride as questionmaster and the groom and best man as the markers. It was brilliant fun.