15 February: Wedding Day

Today, was the major event and anchor of SuperTrip 2025: Gareth's and Fabi's wedding. Hackney town hall is a stylish Art Deco building, with a wood panelled function room, which was packed with happy (and frequently cheering) guests, us included. The grooms made a striking entrance, hand in hand (the first of several entrances of the day. Each greeted with an increasingly boisterous reaction from the crowd).

We hadn't dressed up in ages. Carey looked dashing in his Italian wool jacket and tailored pants. I zipped up my purple suede boots with the 6-inch heels and literally rubbed shoulders with him (while clinging onto his arm for balance). The guests were all varieties of swanky – sharp suits, sequins, furs (faux and otherwise, by age), fascinators, buttonholes… Even so, no one held a candle to the stars of the day. Gareth gave elegance and sophistication in a beautifully tailored purple velvet smoking jacket. Fabi glowed R/romantically (with both a big and a small R), in a white suit and flowing cape.

After the ceremony; the hurling of scented, rose petal confetti and the standing about for somewhat-chilly photos on the town hall steps, the party jumped into an old-time double decker bus for the trip to the reception, which was held in a boathouse on the River Lea. The boathouse is home to a local rowing club, whose trophies, crew photos decorate the bar and lounge, making them cosy and interesting. The function room, by contrast, is fully-customisable, fitted out with mixing desk, lighting. Despite its size, it was completely full of people.

The flowers, freed from the buckets on the kitchen floor, looked gorgeous on long trestle tables also strewn with fairy lights and organic place settings. The bar was very well provisioned; the wait staff, attentive. The guest list was a deep cut of the families and friendships of two open people. The guest community was knitted together with degrees of separation between eras, stages and different stories of “the time when…” The whole occasion was such a testament to well- and generously-lived lives coming together. We cheered. We swapped stories. We clapped. We stamped. We whooped. It was a full participation reception.

The grooms worked tirelessly to make sure every guest felt seen and welcome. At one point, I actually asked Gareth to remember that we were there for them, not the other way around. But, I also know how much he enjoys looking after others.

I am sure you can feel from this post that we had a blast - even though we left before the dancing started, being the lightweights we are. As we walked the half mile from the boathouse to the bus stop through the cold, drizzly Saturday (Shabbat) night, we discovered that Spring Hill is an Ashkenazi area. We passed 5 family-men in beautifully-groomed shreimels and another 2 in fedoras with perfect curls.

Carey is now basically asleep on the sofa, back in his PJs and looking very comfortable. I'm still buzzing!