The wedding weekend started on the Friday evening (3rd June) when the first campers arrived at the base for the weekend, Trevelyan School, Windsor, where Emma is a teacher. The guests were a mixture of family, friends, and morris hangers on from Jameson’s 3 current sides (Berkshire Bedlam, Hammersmith and Rumworth), and Emma’s 3 current sides (Oyster, Windsor and Capering Crew), plus many other assorted morris friends from many other fine teams. On a fine clear evening, early arrivals were greeting with soup, bread, cheese and some very fine beer which Emma’s father Peter had a significant hand in – not literally, fortunately, but via the excellent quality hops used in their brewing in which he is a renowned expert.
The next morning, 4th June, was wedding day, and in perfect weather the dance teams assembled in Windsor for pre wedding dance spots. This was without Emma who was at home not worrying, but initially with Jameson, celebrating various ‘lasts’ as a single man (last foot up, last galley, last RTB, last slight mistake etc) before he disappeared with best man Malcolm and ushers Jerry and Roy back to Wokingham to brush up a bit and comb his hair (not a long task). The ceremony was at St. James Church Finchampstead, and coaches had been laid on to transport the dancers from Windsor. Despite Jameson’s worrying about road closures, adverse weather, people getting on the right coach, drivers losing their way etc, everyone arrived in plenty of time, and the church was packed with over 200 guests with more watching by CCTV coverage in the Church Centre next door. Emma looked lovely in her wedding dress, Jameson told everyone he looked good in his suit, and the ceremony went without a hitch (except for the lifetime one for J+E) – apart from the one time Canon Ken, who was otherwise superb, slightly lost his place and couldn’t remember what bit came next. Exiting to a guard of honour of swords, sticks and handkerchiefs, there were a series of photographs before more dancing at the fantastically convenient Queen’s Oak pub nearby (the only pub with that name in the country). Jameson and Emma joined all of their various teams in dances before disappearing in a vintage car to the reception (a shame their budget didn’t run to a modern one). The reception was held back at Trevelyan School, and after a Pimms and champagne welcome, there was an excellent buffet supper, with 250 guests miraculously squeezed into the main hall, now beautifully decorated for the occasion. To keep it in the morris family, the catering had been done by Andrew Hogg of Redbornstoke with help from the rest of Redbornstoke plus some other halves and members of Bedfordshire Lace. They had danced with the other teams in Windsor in the morning, but then raced back to the school to prepare the food and set up the dining hall splendidly, missing the ceremony in the process! Great effort on all their parts, but most especially Andrew – and good to see the Morris Federation President, Barry Goodman, resplendent in a bright red bow-tie that almost certainly offended some local bylaw, sweating along with the rest.
After the dinner there were speeches from Emma’s father Peter, who entertainingly compared hop nurturing to the upbringing of daughters, then well chosen words from Emma and then Jameson, and then a contribution from best man Malcolm. Apart from his own observations (not all favourable to Jameson, especially the resurrection of the plunger incident), he had been helped in this by genuine contributions from absent friends from Flag & Bone and Great Western, who recounted fictitiously what happened when Jameson tried to join them (turned down in both cases, apparently). There were also some splendid guidelines from Terry Dix on how to be a Witchman, which included a number of useful tips (never join a team which begins and ends in ‘H’……).
After the speeches and the clearing of the hall, Jameson and Emma took to the floor for the first dance to the excellent Stocai, specially brought together for the occasion, with who else calling but Nick ‘Mr.Marvellous’ Walden. The interval spot brought forward those stalwarts of BB weddings, the BB Men in Black, to once more strut their stuff, this time with a record 16 dancers (including drummer Bob). And there was an unexpected bonus for the audience at the end as Jameson, Alun, Mark and Will M seamlessly went into a Charleston routine, the outcome of just a few sessions of frantic practice, but flawlessly executed on the night. And as the BB boys exited, Chris Rose called back Jameson and Emma to be tied together and be over-the-peopled to Jerry’s melodeon by an alarming combination of 7 Champs dancers in various attires (including Lee) before a quick cake cut and a return to the ceilidh.
A truly fabulous day, and truly a marriage made in Morris heaven – the place where only decent teams are allowed to perform, there are no massed dances, no overdone costumes hiding underdone dancing, no out of time bass drummers, and everyone dances like they were 21 again (in years not stones).
Next morning all the teams returned to Wokingham for dancing in a fairly quiet Market Place – well quiet until the entourages of 6 Morris teams arrived. Due to an injury to one of their side the previous day Jameson was dancing with Rumworth, but BB performed creditable versions of Wheel of Fortune for 9, 2 sets for Wizo, and a big Coconuts to finish proceedings. After this, fond farewells before everyone dispersed apart from a few hardy souls who returned to Windsor to help Jameson, Emma, and Emma’s parents put the school back together again.
And he did look good in his suit.
Just a few days later it was back to more conventional morris duties, with a night out with Mayflower at the Frog and Wicket in Eversley. A very pleasant evening, with good dancing from both sides, and at the end of the evening the presentation of wedding gifts to Jameson and Emma, who had been a little preoccupied the previous weekend to hand them over.
