Wedding Rehearsal + Hen Night + Stag Night

Today was our wedding rehearsal at Kelmarsh Hall. All the key players were there. Wow! what an event. The singing brought a tear to the eye and musicians were just fantastic! A real worthwhile exercise overall, and it really helped to iron out the nitty-gritty. Thanks Jill, Thanks Emma for your advice..and your patience!

Hen Night:

Ann had her Hen Night at Rushden Hall…or was it Rushton Hall. Whichever one it was, as Ralph and I were the surprise guests to run the ‘Hen Quiz’, I managed to drive us to the wrong one! Doh!!!!

On arrival, just 45 minutes late, the girls were clearly in the mood for competition :) and we proceeded to run our ‘Love and Marriage’ Quiz. Yeeks! I thought blokes were competitive, but pitch a group of girls against each other and wait for the fireworks! Lucky it was only for fun!!!!

After announcing the winners, Ralph and I stayed on briefly, before tearing back to home, for a quick change of clothes ready for my Stag Night.

 

Stag Night:

My Stag Night was at The Raj in Kettering. Thanks to some superb organisation by Paul, we managed to conjure up enough cars to get there without needing a taxi. The Raj was already busy when got there, and after some drinks upstairs in the piano bar we were ushered to a separate room for main meal.

In a true and highly predictable nature of a Stag Night, it wasn’t long before some of the team were scheming! Drinks were flowing freely – a bit too freely in my direction – and I slowed down my intake considerably, if only to make it until the end of the night!

The meal was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Next up, back to the piano bar but not before the scheming played out in full and I was introduced to Belinda who together with her 34 friends were celebrating her 50th birthday via 35 bottles of wine and 15 bottles of champagne. In other circumstances, this was a young man’s dream come true, enhanced by the advice from our side that they’d apparently determined that Belinda wasn’t wearing any underwear!

My encounter with Belinda was short-lived – I wished her happy birthday, she wished me well for the wedding and i was soon following the boys back the piano bar. Clearly I wasn’t her type!

My glass only ever got to being half empty before some helpful soul (???) topped it up. I think all-in-all I only got through a couple of pints and a glass of red. My head was telling me otherwise though, and on reflection, I think some of my guests may have ‘topped up’ my beverage with other spirits. or maybe I just can’t hold my drink anymore??? – could I ever???

Twenty minutes later, the waitress let me know that ‘36 women were about to join us’. It was Belinda’s group. Soon we were outnumbered 2:1…and it actually felt quite intimidating. Thirty-six feisty women in search of (and determined to) have a good time was a site not to be missed as they gradually took over the bar. Drinking gave way to slightly slurred speeches from Belinda’s group. Not to be outdone, Tom jumped up on stage and proceeded to ‘big me up’ in front of the girls as a great dancer (err, no!) and one of the best at spinning on my head (err, no!). Luckily for me, there wasn’t much encouragement for me to follow it through – clearly, the girls could see my potential as a dancer, just by looking at me! Phew!!!

I lasted until around 11pm, when the alcohol was winning and my duvet was calling me. I agreed to exit with a few others leaving Tom, Paul, Bev, Trevor and John propping up the Bar. It was probably wise to leave when I did as I learned on Sunday that Tom got home around 4.30am.

A night to remember (as all Stag’s should be), and I retired to bed just before midnight with a very, very, VERY heavy head and no recollection of being hand-cuffed to a lamp-post!

Thanks for sorting it all out Tom – I’ll try and return the favour some time!!!!

:)

The Stags:

Bev R

Chris A

David A - Usher

David L

Ian McL - Usher

John C

John W

Paul J

Paul R

Ralph G - Best Man

Roger G - Usher

Roy C

Stefan B

Steve P

Steve S

Tommy T

Trevor L