Colin and Mo's wedding

We were actually married on 7/10/05 quietly at Oxford in the Dexter Room of Oxford Registry Office.

We had been together for 11 years, and it was a great joy to be truly together at last. Our big do on 29/10/05 was a Dedication Service at our own St Mary's Church at Streatley where Mo played the organ. It is a wonderful community at our Church. The whole congregation were invited to the service and for a glass of bubbley and nibbles. The weather was kind.

Our families and friends were a fantastic help. Our grand-daughters, Christina, Alice, Megan and Lucy were bridesmaids, and Mo's grandsons Laurence and Daniel, were page-boys carrying cushions with our rings. My son Jonathan, son-in-law James, and step-sons Andrew, Justin and Dominic were the ushers. The weather was warm.

Our vicar Father Elias had encouraged us to get married and presided over our service which we had writted together as a combination of the new Blessing Service and the old Prayer Book Service. We exchanged rings with the words: "I give thee this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow." The church was wonderfully bedecked with flowers by Marigold and her team.

The organist was our friend from SAS, Jeremy. He played one of my favourate organ pieces, the Prelude "Rhosymedre" (Lovely) by Vaughan Williams as we walked up the aisle. We had a fine choir from the church, from Sine Nomine and from SAS. The choir sang the Anthem "The prayer of St Chichester" by L J White with Beatrix as the soloist. Justin and Sigrid sang with the guitar "I stand before you now" by Don Franscisco. On the way down the aisle Jeremy played the Dubois "Toccata in G" that I had remembered from our visit long ago with the Chamber Choir to Chartres Cathedral.

Splendid photos were taken by our old friend Chris Gannon. A videos was made by our Oxnat friend Martin and a most professional DVD was made by James. James fortunately captured the precious moments of exchanging rings which the others had been told not to take! All the photos were informal just as we had wanted.

The reception was held in the nearby Morrell Room. Our friends at Oxnat did all the food and it was magnificent. The idea had come while I was on the telephone to the Best Man's wife Wendy, outlining the options.

"We'll do the food!" she said. She formed a little team and it just came along on the day. We were so grateful, and so proud of Oxnat for their wonderful expertise. There were speeches from Colin, Mo and Jim.

We left for a 6-day honeymoon in Porto, where neither of us had ever been before. Our hotel was the oldest in the town and we had a very happy time. We visited the port cellars and managed to get through a whole bottle of port during our stay.