You were at your maw's wedding!

When I was growing up in the East End of Glasgow, a common riposte, or even non-sequitur (not that I knew what a non-sequitur was back then) when someone was annoying you, was "you were at your maw's wedding".

My friends and I were admittedly quite advanced in the art of insults when we were five!

That was some 30 years ago now. Well actually it's over 40 but let's move on.

Thankfully it's no longer an insult. In fact, it's quite the reverse. Smaller children often take part in their parents weddings as Flower-girls and Pageboys, and grown up children as Bridesmaids and Best Men. For older couples, it can be grandchildren performing these roles. It all goes towards reinforcing the feeling of the wedding being an occasion for family and friends to get together and have a good time, creating treasured memories that cross the generations.

Recently I conducted a wedding for Andrew and Sarah. When we met a couple of months ago to start putting the ceremony together, Andrew reminded me that I had conducted his dad Jim's wedding to Joanne back in 2012, and that Andrew was the Best Man that day. As part of Jim and Joanne's ceremony, they passed the rings around the guests, the idea being for each guest to wish the couple well, while holding the rings. One of Andrew's jobs was to keep an eye on the rings as they were passed around, and to ensure we didn't get a polo mint and a haribo ring back!

His dad Jim was going to return the favour, and act as Best Man to Andrew. On the day of the wedding, it made for a really nice sense of continuity. It's also great when you have a connection to other people at the ceremony.

The Best Man connection was not the only theme to the wedding. Sarah is quite indulgent of Andrew's enthusiasm for Batman as this picture shows...

The happy couple, Andrew and Sarah! Stay away from the mini-golf guys 😃
(Is it just me or does Sarah look a wee bit like the actress Alyson Hannigan, aka "Willow" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Just saying. It wasn't my favourite series or anything like that...)

And of course, the story would not be complete without the Best Man. It was great to see Jim and Joanne again and they look younger now than they did when I conducted their wedding!

See you all at the Naming <cough> 👍