The organist librarian

Thursday to barbers with Declan. They gave us schloer bucks fizz, Ferraro rocher and coffee. Nice to have a proper wet shave and haircut. Andy the photographer turned up with Liz who had been at the house. Drove to the church and went back to pick up Flo - the bus was late. Wedding due to start at 2 p.m. actually kicked off at 2.20 p.m. Everyone especially our 3 looking very smart. Fr Costello was brilliant. Sophia walked down aisle and then wailed. David did very well on organ and Gerry sang well. Jo coped well with the long walk (Mendelssohn worked well for this) and read first lesson. We lit our candles and Dennis and Ann Marie lit theirs from them. Liz read Corinthians and I said prayers. Lovely prayer for the couple after vows to which they just say "I do"! Nice to have incense at the Mass - did not know the settings of Kyrie and Agnus but joined in with "Praise my soul" and "Dear Lord and Father of mankind" with gusto. Fr Bernard said he did not know...

The official photos are fantastic see http://www.contemporaryweddings.net/louise&tom.html Nice singing from Louise and Tom on the phone message!

The organist librarian: link to more photos

If you are on facebook you will find more photos from the big day http://www.facebook.com/group.pjp?gid=4914288206

A selection of Ann's pictures from a perfect day!

All is going smoothly and I did some more work on the corrections to the wedding booklet today. Louise found a lovely introduction to the lighting of the wedding candles. Went to tai chi at 2 p.m. and we practised stepping slowly. The first day without a children's librarian was quite quiet. To Bromley Catenian circle meeting - have not been there for some time. It is held in the Grand Hall of the Civic Centre and the bar ends up with visitors at one end and the Bromley brothers at the other end. I won a bottle of Cotes du rhone on the raffle and have copies of the provincial cook book to sell.

Long chat to Ann and Paul on Skype. Louise was here and finalised the wedding booklet. One of the Rutter anthems has changed back from "The Lord bless you and keep you" to "For the beauty of the earth". She also helped Liz with her CV and covering letter. To Coulsdon for the wedding. We had a good choir and I was grateful to Christian Strouver coming to sing tenor, although having such a fine organist in the choir made me a little nervous which is unusual for me. However this bride has given me too much grief! Never allow a bride to come to a choir practice! On the day I find that not only has "O happy day" been pulled but that there is no Celtic Alleluia and no Gospel! "The owl and the pussycat" is hardly material for a wedding sermon. Frankly it's naff to use it as a reading at a church wedding. Good to see the former vicar Martin Goodlad again and quite a few of the parish worthies were there. We sang a choral version of Schubert's ...

Saturday to Moss Bros to be measured for the wedding tail coat. The assistant kept asking me my measurements - I thought the object of the exercise was for him to measure me! To Southwark cathedral for evensong at 4 p.m. Vickie was there and prayers were said for Zimbabwe. We remember Rose Gill from our congregation and the group with Bishop Nick Baines of Croydon who are in Zimbabwe at the moment. Rose took a lovely booklet about the church with her along with the tape and CD we had made. When we lived in Johannesburg, Mum, Dad, Ann and I had a wonderful holiday in Zimbabwe. The war was still going on so we saw soldiers at Victoria Falls. The flight over the falls must be the most thrilling experience of my travels all over the world - it truly is the flight of angels. The Victoria Falls hotel had all the old world charm and standards of the past. At Wankie the game warden knew exactly where to take us to see the wildlife. Dad remarked to him that he must phone the elephants to warn t...