My Friends Wedding

Sunday was spent over in Bolton at the wedding of my very good friend Adam to his partner of many years Phil.

The wedding was held at the Holiday Inn on Bridge St in their Cloisters venue hall - a stunning chapel with gorgeous wooden arched ceilings, stone pillars and stained glass windows. A perfect wedding venue.

I arrived at the hotel at 3pm looking a little lost as I didn't recognise anyone already there, so just hung back by the reception until another guest arrived looking lost and alone. So we leeched up to each other for the night. It turned out that we were to be on the same table anyway, so we got an advance on getting to know each other.

After a while we spotted a couple of empty chairs in reception, sat down and instantly recognised Gorfy from meeting him a few times in previous years; we introduced ourselves to Amy who looked fab in a gorgeous corset and skirt combo with a very cute top hat fascinator in her hair. Another guest, Catharine, who was also on our table came along looking like she belonged in an Austin film as her overall look was stunning and elegantly classic.

After a while Adam came into the reception greeting all his guests and looking very dapper and gorgeous in his morning suit with a cream waistcoat embroidered with golf thread and a gold cravat. Phil wore the same outfit too.

The ceremony itself was beautiful and brought a tear to many an eye in the room. The room was adorned with stunning flowers and glorious feather table decorations with candelabras dotted about the place. Tables had tea lights stood on mirrors and were named after various musicals - Cabaret, Cats, We Will Rock You..to name but a few.

After Adam's father, Adam and Phil gave speeches, and the wedding buffet devoured, the evening was turned into a masquerade ball with (those who remembered) wearing masks to match their outfit and a glamorous drag queen DJ/entertainer.

Sadly, I had to leave early to ensure I caught the last train (from Bolton) & bus (from Manchester) home, but it was most definitely a night I won't forget. After all it's not every day that amazing friends get married in an elaborate, stunning ceremony/venue that is them down to a 'T'!

Mmmmmmm!

Yesterday, I decided it was high time I went to visit my good friend Adam as it has been a very long time since we've been able to meet up with things getting in the way to stop us - money problems, work, lack of time etc.

So I set off bright and early as I knew it'd take some time to get over there by bus (takes 3 buses to reach his place - mainly due to my being skint, and a daysaver ticket is so much cheaper than a train fare), but I was climbing the hill to his home by midday to be greeted with the biggest bear hug I've had in years!

The day went perfectly - nice and chilled out, but with plenty of laughs along the way.

Myself and Adam are both big theatre lovers and just love watching shows, ballets etc and have had amazing times. Cats, Miss Saigon, The Ladyboys of Bangkok, The Rocky Horror Show have all been excellent birthday treats from him.

We sat down to watch The Pirates of Penzance on DVD both the straight version and the comedy Australian version with Jo English as the Pirate King were watched - poor Jon English though; at the end of the routine With Catlike Tread he ended up repeating it 4 times due to encores from the audience (and the conductor heckling him!); he was so shattered by the end of it all!

After watching DVDs for a while, Adam then took me through some of the plans for his civil partnership to Phil in August. The venue is stunning and the day will be amazing, topped off with a masquerade ball in the evening - perfectly romantic and enchanting.

Phil then surprised us both by taking us out for a meal when he got home from work, so off to Nando's we went for some scrummy chicken that was snaffled down very quickly by all. Only, we ere to be disappointed by desert - they'd run out of the toffee cheesecake! Sacrilege!! We made do with some extremely moreish Krispy Kreme donuts instead - and watched them being made and glazed at the factory in Trafford Park, complete with free samples (of a whole freshly made, just been glazed donut!). Yum.