PHOTOGRAPHS
of James & Carol's Wedding on the 17th June 2006
and their honeymoon in Venice

Click on thumbnails to view our full-size pictures

Click on these links to view our pictures of South Africa 2004, the Red Sea (April 2006) and the Trans-Siberian Express.

The Marriage

We had very quiet civil marriage at Abingdon Registry Office with a few family present.

Carol's son Dale and

daughter-in-law Maria

James's children James Nigel and Rosemary and his daughter-in-law Sheila

grandchildren Anthony, Dominic and Cecilia,

and his sister Elise

Everyone arrived in reasonably good time

and after collecting James from the safe custody

where Carol had left him overnight

we proceeded to the Registry Office for the ceremony.

The ceremony was short but moving. Dale and Elise were witnesses and Anthony took photographs.

The ring, from Watlings of Lacock, was handmade of gold and sapphires and similar, but not identical, to the one in the photograph.
It was not as hard to put on as the photograph leads one to suspect.

James Nigel read an extract from

R. L. Stevenson's "Virginibus Puerisque"

A man expects an angel for a wife; [yet] he knows that she is like himself -- erring, thoughtless and untrue; but like himself also, filled with a struggling radiancy of better things. ... You may safely go to school with hope; but ere you marry, should have learned the mingled lesson of the world: that hope and love address themselves to a perfection never realized, and yet, firmly held, become the salt and staff of lift; that you yourself are compacted of infirmities ... and yet you have a something in you lovable and worth preserving; and that, while the mass of mankind lies under this scurvy condemnation, you will scarce find one but, by some generous reading, will become to you a lesson, a model and a noble spouse through life. So thinking, you will constantly support your own unworthiness and easily forgive the failings of your friend. Nay, you will be wisely glad that you retain the ... blemishes; for the faults of married people continually spur up each of them, hour by hour, to do better and to meet and love upon a higher ground.

Afterwards we all posed for photographs outside the Registry Office.

Carol's bouquet and the buttonholes were made exclusively
with South African flowers by Sue, one of her fellows at
pottery class, who is a florist - and excelled herself.

The Reception

Our reception was held at the Lamb in Burford and in addition to the family who had been at the marriage there were a few friends, neighbours and colleagues.
James's father did not come as we felt that at 97 the combination of a long journey each way and a long day between them would be too stressful.

All the other guests were already drinking Pimms in the garden at the Lamb when the wedding party arrived.
It was a beautiful day and the Pimms went down very easily.

After conversation and photographs we went into the restaurant, which we had to ourselves.

The lunch was splendid and the conversation animated - and went on for a long time.
But eventually the guests all went their various ways and Carol and I went home to pack for Venice.

The Honeymoon in Venice

We got up far too early on the Sunday and flew with British Midland from Heathrow to Venice, where, having only carry-ons,
we took a vaporetto (water bus) from the airport vaporetto/water taxi terminal to St. Mark's Square and another on to our hotel.

We stayed at the luxurious Framon Hotel Manin which was once a private villa.
It is only 10 metres from St. Angelo vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal 600 metres from the Rialto Bridge.
Our room had a rooftop balcony (you can see it at the top of the first picture) which was over 20 metres long
running parallel to the Grand Canal with splendid views of the bridge and everything that was going on.
And the lobby is magnificently furnished

The hotel serves breakfast in a sheltered garden with friendly lizards and sparrows.

Every evening half a dozen gondoliers forgather in front of the hotel to give an impromptu concert
and a few yards along the canal was a gondola crossing carrying pedestrians across the canal for €0.50
a head rather than the €80 per hour charge for an individual tour. We did the crossing rather than the tour.

On our first evening we went out for a walk to find dinner somewhere - and did not bother to take a camera
because we had another four days to take pictures. In St. Mark's Square the Cardinal Archbishop of Venice
said Benediction in the square with full pomp, circumstance and security (there was was such a crowd that
we thought at first we had happened on a Papal visit). We were blessed, but we do not have any photographs.

We did not have any particular agenda - we just wandered around Venice on foot or on a convenient vaporetto seeing things
and taking photos. We bought 72 hour vaporetto passes for €25 each and estimate that we saved nearly €80 apiece by doing so.

We did go to Murano Island where the famous Venetian glass is made, had lunch in a very nice waterside restaurant
and visited a glass factory. Their product is fragile and we were glad to see that it is handled with great care.

We went to the fish market

and, of course, to St. Marks - the square, the Cathedral, the bell tower, and the Doge's Palace and the Bridge of sighs.

There was not much to satisfy our interest in wildlife in Venice apart from the lizards in the breakfast garden, sparrows
(which drink from the fountains), pigeons, seagulls and the odd pet. But there were bronze horses and plenty of winged lions.

Apart from the sightseeing we sat, ate, drank, and watched the world go by. The Venetian wine must be quite potent
because I could swear we saw a pink gondola - and Virgil himself standing on a box in a square!

We could have taken a cheap vaporetto back to the airport, but we spent some of the money we had saved
on our vaporetto passes and took a speedboat water taxi. It was fast, fun, and expensive!

Our flight home was delayed by (someone else's) minor medical emergency (oxygen promised but not on board)
but we finally got home to a pair of indignant cats who wanted to know just where we thought we'd been.