December
With three
weeks until the Wedding, the plans as far as Charlie and Toddy were concerned
were complete, the Church was booked for the Saturday before Christmas, the
reception was booked at the Barnabus Manor Hotel just outside the Village and
the tickets for their honeymoon in Rome were bought and paid for and Toddy’s
passport had arrived.
Toddy’s Wedding
Dress was ready for the final fitting and the other important intimate wedding
day accessories were hidden away until the big day and Charlie just had to buy
a new suit for the occasion.
Everything else
they left in the capable hands of Charlie’s sister Chloe, who after being given
the parameters was a force of nature, she knew everyone in the Village and knew
who did what the best, Flowers, Wedding Car, Invitations, Order of Service,
Menu’s, Wedding Cake, Photographer, Videographer, you name it she knew someone
who could do it.
Toddy had
considered Chloe to be her Matron of Honour, but in the absence of any family
Charlie suggested Chloe give her away instead.
“Really? You
want me?” Chloe asked and burst into tears
With that
settled she had to find another candidate for Matron of Honour and it only took
a moment of thought to decide and chose Church Warden, Kirsten Vaughan, the two
of them had become very close friends since she had been in the Village, and she
was thrilled to be asked, and didn’t dissolve into tears, instead squealed and
said “Yes”
Bridesmaid was
the easiest choice of all and required no thought at all, so she asked, her
soon to be niece, Verity Virtue.
“I was going to
do it whether you asked me or not” she said and laughed
As Verity
normally played the organ, her boyfriend Stephen Farnsworth had agreed to play
in her stead.
So, towards the
end of the first week of December Charlie hired a Ford Galaxy for a few days
and drove, Toddy, Chloe and Kirsten to Abbottsford, he could have fitted Stephen
and Verity in as well as it was a seven-seater, but they followed on behind in
his car as they were flying off to Germany the next day.
They went
straight to the Abbottsford Regents Hotel, where they had stayed before, and
checked in but unlike previous occasions this time Charlie and Toddy shared a
room.
As soon as they
had taken their bags to the room, they all met back downstairs in reception and
then drove in one car to the Phoenix Shopping Centre where they had lunch.
When they left
the restaurant, they split up, the girls headed off to sought out their wedding
clothes, Stephen went to do some shopping of his own and Charlie went to meet
up with his Best Man Paul Day and went to buy new suits.
Paul was his
oldest friend, and they had worked together a lot over the years and when he
had his Aerospace Engineering Company Paul’s Company was one of his suppliers.
But it wasn’t
just a business connection between them, they were both widowed around the same
time and were there for each other, and such bonds are hard to break.
Paul and Charlie
spent about an hour getting their suits and then after putting their suit bags
in the car they headed to the Phoenix Espresso Café to have a coffee
while they waited for the girls.
After about twenty minutes they were joined by Stephen and Charlie introduced
them and they sat chatting for the next hour before the girls arrived, laden
with bags and more introductions were made before they returned to the Hotel.
Later that
evening Stephen and Verity opted for some alone time while the other 5 went to
see a play at The Empire Theatre and then they all met up again to have dinner
together at The Wooden Slipper.
The meal was
notable in one respect and that was that Paul and Kirsten seemed to make an
instant connection.
The next
morning, fortified by a good breakfast, Stephen and Verity said their goodbyes
as they were driving to the airport and the rest of them drove to the
multistorey car park at the Phoenix Shopping Centre, so they could do some
Christmas shopping before saying goodbye to Paul, who had to stay in town for a
couple of days, and then they headed down the Expressway with a boot crammed full.
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