Last weekend, I attended a very beautiful wedding held at The Wokefield Easte outside of Reading, England. It was a wedding of one of the friends that I have known the longest in England (14 years), and his partner from the last three and a half years, whom I have come to know during various meet-ups and events. Hopefully I will see more of them again as soon as their life is more settled after wedding preparations and honeymoons.
Andrew and Agnes had a beautiful ceremony at the Lincoln Suite at the Mansion House, part of the Wokefield Estate. The palladian-style Mansion House, built for a local wealthy family, dates from the 1720s and is set in 250 acres of parkland in Berkshire outside Reading. It is now owned by the De Vere group and has professional 18-hole golfing on site. The main reception was held at Lincoln Suite, but we also made use of other rooms at the Mansion House. Everyone had a lovely time, and I met some wonderful people and enjoyed catching up with other acquaintances from Andrew's circle of friends.
I am happy that we had nice weather for their special day. Well done, Andrew and Agnes, and congratulations.
Andrew and I met through a mutual friend in September of 2004 when a group of us went to see "Lord of the Rings" at the Royal Albert Hall, and we kept in touch and became good friends over the years (see Concert at Albert Hall: 'Lord of the Rings'). We had board gaming and "Lord of the Rings" marathons, flat-warming parties, and barbeques. Andrew hosted a Fourth of July BBQ every summer for a few years and invited his friends and family, and these were always great fun. I believe he celebrated the July 4th BBQ for me because I was going through a very tough time (this tough time is something that I will be posting about later this year and is a difficult subject to write about). Of course, I appreciated this and his kindness during these times; he is one of the people that I can chat to and have an interesting conversation with. It can be quite a challenge to find like-minded people in today's world.
In early 2015, he introduced me to Agnes; we met at the Anglo/Asian-inspired Wagamama restaurant in Basingstoke before heading to a lacklustre concert. I liked Agnes right away as she was interesting, and the conversation flowed naturally. We met up again throughout the next couple of years to attend additional concerts (one where we coincidentally bumped into Andrew's previous neighbours who would attend the annual BBQ), Battle Proms at Highclere Castle, pub lunches with other friends, castle walks, my first BBQ (Fourth of July BBQ in London), and general socialising.
The ceremony and reception took place in the late afternoon, so I booked a room at the Mansion House, where the wedding took place. This meant that I didn't need to worry about getting back to London from the estate and could also enjoy a few drinks to celebrate. The hotel rooms are nicely decorated as they have just been restored following a £20 million investment. The rooms are spacious with a vintage Scottish highland feeling. I loved the different frames and vintage prints on the wall, and each room had an old-fashioned telephone to complete the look. I do wonder if some guests understand how to use those old dial phones. (I may be showing my age a little bit with that comment.)
I loved the design of the bathrooms with a tiled marble effect and grey slate tiles on the floor. It's similar to a design I hope to achieve when I finish my house's renovations. Oh, and sorry about the make-up clutter as we were running a little late and I needed to make sure that I had everything out in order to get ready.
In addition to the facilities, the hotel has a restaurant, coffee shop, swimming pool, gym, and also a whiskey lounge, though they did not serve proper whiskey at the cash bar; they missed a trick there. (When I mean proper, I mean good Scottish and Irish whiskey/whisky and not the type of product that you'd buy if you were watching your money and wanted something a bit cheaper.)
The colours were varying shades of purple, cream, and white. And because Andrew loves both Lego castles and has transferred his love of the Danish plastic brick to Agnes, both of these ideas featured a lot. In fact, the wedding cake, which you will see below, mimicked a castle, and on top were two mini Lego figurines of Andrew and Agnes at the altar. Awww.
Without further hesitation, I will allow you to enjoy the photographs of the beautiful wedding day.
Congratulations again, Andrew and Agnes.
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