The Baddick - Callaway Wedding

My Brother is a married man!A whirlwind trip to England started with a fantastic stag do (that's a Bachelor Party, Americans) organised by Frank's good friends Richard and Keiran. I'd been feeling like I was failing in my best man duties when they started organising the festivities, but I soon realised that they were the right people to do it, and they did Frank really proud. We found ourselves in rural Herefordshire late on a Friday night, after just landing in Heathrow. The weekend was mainly outside, situated at a fantastic campsite in rolling hills. That's about all that was suitable for this blog. I can say that by the time we left on Sunday, I had absolutely no idea what time zone I was in!After a short break in Devon we drove up to Loughborough, via Bath. I wanted a walk around my old stomping grounds from University times, and Christa had to find herself a cute hat. We stopped for cake first, then walked through the high street as memories of uni life flooded back to me. It seems weird visiting now that my life is so different. All the places are very familiar, but the feelings are all gone. I still think that Bath would be the top of the list if I ever decided to return to the UK, and luckily Christa seems to like it there too. We walked around the promenade above the gardens, looked at Pulteney Bridge, bought a hat, then headed for Loughborough.

I'd only seen pictures of the hall before the wedding day, but as soon as the gates opened and we saw the grounds, I knew why Frank and Vicky had chosen it. We greeted them on the steps with confetti, then celebrated inside with champagne and pimms. We did some photos outside with almost the whole family, and then some smaller ones with just the ushers. Soon enough the mingling was done and we headed to the dining room. I knew Frank would have been most concerned about the food, and it was really excellent. Something I'm hoping to emulate next year at our wedding. Four courses with flowing wine went by very quickly, with me nervously sitting next to Mum and worrying about my speech.The worrying about my speech paid off, and I delivered it smoothly. I'm pretty sure it went well; no one left crying, and Frank gave me a big hug at the end, so I was relieved. I could relax after that, and celebrated with wedding cake washed down with copious gin and tonic. The band Frank and Vicky had chosen played 90's British indie rock hits from open to close - it was the soundtrack to Frank and I growing up. I wasn't expecting to be so happy about the music choice, but it really finished off the evening perfectly in my mind. I was amazed how few of the songs Christa knew - another country and a couple of years difference really changes music choice!This has been a difficult blog post to write - the emotion of the day trumped any of the actual events. There were smiles from breakfast until the last slowly sipped glass of single malt at midnight. It was perfect.