What happened to the Summer?

It's been a long time again, hasn't it? The handfasting went wonderfully, it was truly amazing to be in the centre of a circle surrounded by all that love, and everyone had a really good time. Quill were late arriving but made up for it with a brilliant set that got everybody dancing (even me), and the staff and landlord of the Bull i'th'Thorn pub were great hosts. You can only have a good party if you have good company, good hosts, and great music, and we had all of those. Thanks to everybody who came for making our day so special! Special thanks to Rick & Tigga for bringing a bag of tricks - party poppers, bubbles, sweets - and keeping the kids (and adults) entertained, what a lovely thought.

Any hangovers the following morning were wonderfully soothed by Graham's (pub landlord and chef) lovely cooked breakfasts - he even made sure there was something my vegan sister could eat.

During the week after the party, we nipped down to the registry office and did the legal bit - just the basic ceremony with my sis and Tracy's parents, but it was quite an experience nonetheless. I don't actually remember the words to the vows...

Then at the weekend, we buggered off to Italy on honeymoon. We'd wanted to go to Tuscany for the longest time, and it was every bit as wonderful as we'd thought it would be. The only thing I'd change if I could go back is that I'd probably go for an apartment with air conditioning, as it was so hot even at night, but then we might not have got views like this one:

That's the view from the pool...

We had a lovely week, and definitely want to go back and explore some more, Tuscany is a truly beautiful place with lovely people and the food and wine are wonderful too.

Since we got back I've not been in the mood for blogging, really, it's been back to reality with a bang and it all seems so distant now, even though we have photos and video - and rings - to prove it all really happened. People keep asking "how is married life". Well, it's not really much different to unmarried life, except for the rings and that little bit of extra security. For me, it's just nice to know that we have that legal protection now that we didn't have before. And now, instead of waking up every morning and being blown away that this beautiful, amazing woman has chosen to be with me, I'm blown away that she has chosen to make that commitment to me. I truly am a lucky woman!