Late and Early

From Rhonda:
We're back. We could not post yesterday because the day was far too long. I thought there were only 24 hours in a day......but since we left home there have only been extended days. Yesterday morning we got up and went off to breakfast. We found that we are only a block from a mall. Not much was open and we needed to get going since the wedding was at one and we would have at least an hour ride to get there. Not only that but we still had to work on making the broom for Carol and Sean to jump. The night before, after a long hard day of working on the hall for the reception, we went to Nkem's and Sean's to get material to decorate the broom handle and broom straws. Again we did not see our hotel until after 1 am. Since everything in London is priced (in lbs) but the dollar is only half the value, we could not find anything to add to the broom. Seko wanted to get a shave (those were 10 lbs at the local shop). Once you do the math, its about $20. He could forget it. We are, after all Broke in Britain. We headed back and by the time we finished the broom were only an hour from the wedding time. This meant, as usual, we were late.

Finally dressed, we headed to the Queensway station where we get on the Tube to go to the receptions site.

(Drum roll please).


It was closed!!!!!!!!!

We had to walk two blocks back to the other station which meant we had to choose another route. On we hopped. Hope never dies. I thought maybe the wedding would be a few minutes late. We ended up not only having to change underground trains once, but once on the surface (above ground) train we had to make another change to get to Elverson Road.

Here's the other trigger- we don't have walking directions from the train station.

Once off the train, we are about an hour and a piece late. By now we are trying to get to the church before everyone leaves for the reception. At least we'll be there. I was so upset that the bride and groom could not jump the very broom we spent part of the night and half the morning creating.

All the way to London just to miss the wedding. I could just sit on the curb and cry.

Once off the train we can hear the church bells ringing and see the steeple off in the distance. With the bells ringing we pick up the pace and rely on a mother pushing a pram and a woman walking passed to provide directions. Now we are hot, late, and rushing uphill to get to the church before everyone is gone.

There it is just up ahead. Someone must be leaving.......she's opened her van door.

We spot on of Carol's friends and Seko asks her for a ride to the reception. She agrees but has one stipulation.......

She is leaving right after they say "I do". You guessed it. The wedding had not begun. The bride was not even at the church. God was looking out for a couple of notoriously late folks. How often does someone arrive an hour and a half late for a wedding and still see the whole thing. Not only were we an hour and a half late....we were a hour and a half early. Confused?

The bride did not get to the church and the wedding start for an hour and a half after we got there. Seko's Aunts and Uncle had been at the church since 12:30pm. This 1:00pm wedding started at 4:00pm. Another 2 hours and the Rev could not have preformed the ceremony. She has to stop preforming weddings by 6:00pm according to the laws of the Church of England. Whew, that was close.

All in all... it was worth the wait. Sean smiled so hard we could have counted each of his teeth. Carol was beautiful in an overlayed dress that fit her and her personality wonderfully. Best of all the broom has been jumped, the Laws and Customs performed and the registry signed.
We have a new Varner Girl. Welcome to the club Carol!!!! (Photo of Carol & Sean signing the wedding document during the Church of England ceremony. Below: Photo of the wedding document.)