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Our day started about halfway through it, around 12.30, heading back to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kesstrel's to pick up kyte and eponymousarchon before heading over to Slade Green for Andy and Nay's handfasting. There had been something of a medical emergency, though, with kesstrel taken ill that morning, so we were a little delayed in heading off. With bluedevi safely installed a chief looker-after (get well soon, kesstrel!), we left for Slade Green, getting there at around 2.30.
The handfasting ceremony itself was being held on the banks of the Thames, at Crayford Ness, about a mile-and-a-half's walk from Andy and Nay's house. It was a baking hot day, so the breeze coming off the river was quite welcome. The ceremony itself, Celtic in origin, is supposed to take place a year and a day before the wedding, and is a comfirmation of the promises that the couple have made to each other, witnessed by friends. Unfortunately, it had been delayed by a month because Nay was ill. I don't recall what the weather was like on the 5th of August, but it can't have been any better today's. I was actually a participant in the ceremony, reciting a few lines and binding a white ribbon round the couple's wrists (there were also reading symbolising the four elements, and seven other colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black). We all then picked up a stone from the circle (completed by a broomstick that had to be lifted to allow participants in, and was jumped over by the couple at the end), and threw it into the river, accompanied by a wish.
Onwards, then, to Crayford for all-you-can-eat Chinese. Some of the party walked all the way there (around 4 miles). I was one of the lazy bunch who walked back the mile-and-a-half to where their car was parked! The meal was great, though the 'Tiger Whiskers' spicy pork really wasn't as volcanic as some people would've had me believe.
Oh, and now I'm tired.
kesstrel's to pick up kyte and eponymousarchon before heading over to Slade Green for Andy and Nay's handfasting. There had been something of a medical emergency, though, with kesstrel taken ill that morning, so we were a little delayed in heading off. With bluedevi safely installed a chief looker-after (get well soon, kesstrel!), we left for Slade Green, getting there at around 2.30.The handfasting ceremony itself was being held on the banks of the Thames, at Crayford Ness, about a mile-and-a-half's walk from Andy and Nay's house. It was a baking hot day, so the breeze coming off the river was quite welcome. The ceremony itself, Celtic in origin, is supposed to take place a year and a day before the wedding, and is a comfirmation of the promises that the couple have made to each other, witnessed by friends. Unfortunately, it had been delayed by a month because Nay was ill. I don't recall what the weather was like on the 5th of August, but it can't have been any better today's. I was actually a participant in the ceremony, reciting a few lines and binding a white ribbon round the couple's wrists (there were also reading symbolising the four elements, and seven other colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black). We all then picked up a stone from the circle (completed by a broomstick that had to be lifted to allow participants in, and was jumped over by the couple at the end), and threw it into the river, accompanied by a wish.
Onwards, then, to Crayford for all-you-can-eat Chinese. Some of the party walked all the way there (around 4 miles). I was one of the lazy bunch who walked back the mile-and-a-half to where their car was parked! The meal was great, though the 'Tiger Whiskers' spicy pork really wasn't as volcanic as some people would've had me believe.
Oh, and now I'm tired.
