Muz and Nicola's Wedding

Bradford is a grim place. We arrived on Friday afternoon, early August and grey clouds hung in the sky giving the city a gloomy feel, not unlike the cold grey January day in 1994 when I last visited. Ah well, at least it gave Steve the chance to prove his theory that it's grim oop North!

The hotel was rather nice. I think Steve felt a bit self conscious as we checked in, as the receptionist with the two tone hair (Black and purple!) asked if we really wanted a double room as he mumbled an answer about it being cheaper that way or something. Despite that uneasy start we did have a good couple of days there and some very tasty and large breakfasts!

We recovered from the drive up and went to meet up with Phil and Emma and Raz. It was really good to see Steve and Phil getting on well again. I suppose it's much the same as me and Adam, cousins who share a place together that just end up not talking. Mind you, we both thought that Emma has had a really positive effect on him, and they're a really lovely couple. I've enjoyed getting to know them both a bit better over the weekend.

Friday evening we met up with Muz , Brian (his best man) and some of Nicola's family for a curry at Aktahs on the Leeds Road. A good curry was had by all. Two family Naans were enjoyed by all... They were quite amazing, so large they came on a hook and hung up for all to share! Muz wasn't looking too nervous, despite not having written his speech!

We chatted a bit with him about the situation with his family. None of his family came to the wedding. Muz comes from a Muslim family and he ought to be part of an arranged marriage, but he's courageously stood up to his family and said he wasn't going to do that. It's made things really tough for him as his family want nothing to do with Nicola, and of course it meant they wouldn't be at the wedding, so it was doubly we were there as his friends to support him. I can't imagine how difficult that must be for him, but it does show just how much he loves Nicola and how love can conquer everything.

Saturday was the day of the wedding, and after the large breakfast we took ourselves off to get ready. We arrived looking smart (not often I do that!) and ready at about 11, ready for the rest of the day. We had a drink in reception, chatted a little with Muz before he went off to "meet and greet" and we panicked that someone else might have bought the same present from the list as ours, as we suddenly remembered we hadn't crossed ours off the list at Argos (I blame it on being forced into that wretched shop in the first place...).

We went down for the ceremony in the downstairs reception room, and we all managed to sit on the wrong side, not that it really mattered. It was a lovely ceremony, and I know Steve was welling up a bit inside. I suppose this is the first wedding of one of his school friends, and of course with all the hurdles in the way before they got to this stage, well it was quite emotional.
Awww!

Afterwards, there was the usual round of photos (we got some pretty good ones) before the reception started. It was all ok, and we only had to go in a couple of them, although, somewhat ironically, since it was a rather grey day, the sun came out when we were photographed, and I was squinting as it right in my eyes! Ah well!

The reception was good, great food, some good conversation with some of the people on the table, though we were rather isolated at the far end of the table opposite some people who knew each other very well and who didn't mix as well as they might have done (but doesn't that always happen at weddings?) and the speeches of course were highly entertaining. Despite winging it, Muz's speech was lovely and really touching. He got a loud round of applause for it, and rightly so. His best am didn't humiliate him too much either, though Steve and Phil had had fun earlier telling some him some stories from their school days...

There was a bit of a lull for a couple of hours before the evening do. We had a quiz to do, which helped to keep things going, but everyone seemed kind of subdued at this point, not sure what to do with themselves. We drank a bit, but we probably should have gone back to the room for a snooze really, but never mind.

The evening do was good fun. Despite the DJs best attempts, we got some good music played eventually and had a good dance! Muz and Nic had My Best Friend by Queen for their first dance (and a good choice it was too), but the DJ's copy (like a few other CDs he put on during the night) was scratched which was a real shame.
It was interesting to see what songs filled the dancefloor. By far the most popular were the mid 90s Britpop/ Indie anthems... We sang along, danced badly and had a great time! Who'd have thought Cast, an unloved band at the time would be such a big floorfiller? Brimful of Asha, you can understand, but Alright by Cast?! The only real problem was that it was really warm in the room, and so everyone ended up hot and sweaty!
We stayed up until the end of the night, after sitting down through some of the dreary R&B songs around midnight, and because Muz wanted us too (there's only 51 minutes to go guys, come on!) and we ended the end bopping to Motown songs, and laughing at the appalling dancing! Fantastic! We got to bed at 1.30 after showering... But it was well worth it!

We were amazingly ok in the morning,mostly because there was so much food and it was so warm that instead of drinking alcohol, we'd switched to the soft drinks (mostly tap water!) through most of the evening! We got up for breakfast and were just about the first ones there, but it did us a chance to speak to Nicola's Mum and Dad for a bit before the others arrived. It was great to chat with Muz and Nic for a while too.

We left around 10am, for the long trip home and overall it was a fantastic weekend and I'm so glad I was invited to be a part of it. We enjoyed the CD from Muz and Nic as Steve drove us home and just before we arrived we got the message at the end they'd recorded specially for us... We grinned. It was a great end to a great weekend!