EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 13

March -May 1998

Tuesday 20th January 1998.

In my diary it says "Wedding of the Year?" And it was - Lisa and Matty tied the knot - after several setbacks, mostly financial, they finally made it - the bride wore black and the groom wore denim - and they looked beautiful. This was our first drop-in wedding - thirty people filled our house for a buffet and cake, all prepared here, in our kitchen.

As I witnessed the joy and gratitude of all concerned, I was filled with a sense of beauty - Here, we had a couple who are on the streets - they store their belongings in a boiler house - they were not expecting anything after the ceremony - they thought that what we gave them was wonderful - their friends too, all of whom were a delight to have in the house.

I thought of Lisa earlier in the day, tears of pleasure at a surprise bride's bouquet of roses given to her here, and I thought of the hundreds of pounds some people spend on wedding flowers - I thought of the months of planning and expenditure which accompany most weddings; everything `has' to be just `so', or else! I thought of the difference between people who expect it all and these two who didn't expect anything at all, what I saw was refreshing spontaneity and genuine gratitude - I heard thanks expressed as you seldom do nowadays. To people who say it won't last because their circumstances are so difficult, I say: please count the number of weddings which have broken banks; the number of couples who go straight into a house with a posh mortgage, which took place five years ago say, and tell me how many of those are still intact! Someone took one look at the wedding cake and said "don't give up your day job"! But it stayed in one piece until the required time! Lisa and Matty, may your marriage stay in one piece for all time - All at Saint Anne's House wish you the very best - Good Luck and God Bless.

The Wedding Guests :