Tea, scones and looking for wedding venues

This weekend I went looking for evening wedding party venues with my Mum. Before the congratulations start pouring in, no this is not for my wedding, it is for my Sisters. Now when I say evening venues, we are not looking for a day venue, wedding breakfast venue and not even a church - this is because my Sister, the unconventional one of the family is having her actual wedding in the Caribbean, Antigua specifically. More on this at a later date most probably.

As many of our family and friends won't be able to fly half way around the world to see not-so-little-anymore Sis' wedding there'll be a reception back in England a week or so after we all get back.

One venue which was on the original list of venues before the wedding moved 4000 miles away was The Great Barn in Ruislip, recently refurbished and host of the Duck Pond Markets every month. As soon as we stepped in we knew it was too big for just a party but after an afternoon on the road we needed some refreshment and soon spotted the small café across the central green.

We sat outside and shared the last scone with jam & cream and a banoffee pie and drank two large mugs of tea - this was a very English afternoon don't forget, no coffee in sight.

An enjoyable afternoon out on a sunny day but the venue search continues.

My tour of Great Britain: Royal Wedding Day

I was beginning to worry that the Royal Wedding Day would come and we would be stuck in a Scottish village that wouldn't give two hoots about it. So when I received an email from N whilst in Bridgend that we could watch the wedding in the grounds of Balmoral Castle I was over the moon.

Friday morning came and we drove the winding heather flanked roads from Nairn over to the Balmoral Estate, which we expected to be absolutely rammed. When we arrived at nine thirty we were nicely surprised that it wasn't as busy and had the atmosphere of a village fête complete with Rule Britannia being played and Union flags being handed out whilst we paid our entrance.

We settled in front of some of the large screens which had been placed on the front lawn to watch the wedding and I got a coffee from one of the little stands, the other stand had a hog roast cooking ready for the lunch time rush. My coffee came in a stupidly small paper cup - I had asked for a large but this was all they had apparently - but was otherwise quite drinkable.

After the excitement of THE dress, the trees down the centre of Westminster Abbey and THE kiss, we calmed ourselves down and went for a look around the house. Well it turns out you can only go into the ballroom as the rest of the house is shut up until the Queen goes up in the summer. We did get to see some of her very sparkly ball gowns though, although they had nothing on THE dress.