Monday 30th July 2007
Lewes, East Sussex
Our wedding took place at the beautiful Southover
Grange, Lewes at 3pm on Monday 30th July 2007. After having rained constantly
for weeks, the weather kindly cleared for us and the day was beautiful and warm.
The Elizabethan gardens at the grange were at their best and extremely
colourful, a large
Magnolia Grandiflora was flowering and exuding citrus smells and there were
even white doves flying about the place too. The perfect romantic spot for two
people to get hitched!
We decided on a very quiet, low budget wedding - as we only had a very small
budget! There were only two witnesses, and the day went exactly as we planned
it. After the ceremony we walked up the steep cobbled street to
Lewes castle,
climbed to the top of the tallest turret and drank champagne while we surveyed
the town and our beautiful South Downs.
After our witnesses had left, we returned to the now empty grange gardens
and had a private picnic washed down with Sussex mead. We have decided to keep
up the old English honeymoon tradition of drinking mead (honey wine) every day
for a month (a moon) after the ceremony. We even married on the full moon to
make it easy to remember.
We stayed the night in the
Crown Inn
in Lewes and had an antique 4 poster bed.
The next day we put Gill's posy on the front of the Harley and rode to Liverpool
to catch the ferry to the Isle of Man. We had hoped to walk right around the
island on the 98 mile coastal footpath (Raad
ny foillan) but unfortunately the foot and mouth
scare caused every footpath on the island to be shut three days after we
arrived. They opened again on the day we left! Never mind, we had a great time
anyway.
We would like to thank all of our friends and family who have sent us their good wishes for the future. You were all there with us in spirit on the day. Our intention was not to upset or exclude anyone, but keeping the whole thing quiet and as small as possible allowed us complete control of our day. Besides, we figured you've all been to enough weddings already.
All our love to all.
Andy & Gill
XX
I oversee the new Mrs Hibberd in the correct spelling of
the family name!
You would not believe how many different forms of the name I have seen over the
years. One woman even put a Z in it!
My ring was my late fathers 18 ct wedding ring, Gill's was
a brand new 18 ct white gold ring.
Southover Grange houses the Lewes register office and the
gardens are open to the public for free.
Packed ready for the
honeymoon
in the Isle of Man.