Da Nice Lady, Denise

This morning, we went to Hounslow Registry Office to meet Denise, the nice lady who'll be marrying us. It was a good meeting as she sketched out how the ceremony will run, where the principal players should be, how Simmi's entrance will happen, where we'll be signing the register and how everyone will get from Great Hall to the Courtyard for the champers & Pimms.

She also asked us who our witnesses are going to be, which slightly caught me unawares as I just assumed it's always best man and head bridesmaid, but apparently not. We have a couple of ideas for who we'd like to do it and will be approaching those people presently.

We turned up there having picked two readings, but she said that in her experience, it's better to have three as otherwise the ceremony would be over far too quickly. Also, we're not allowed to use one of the readings we wanted to as it's from a religious text. Civil marriages allow no mention of God, heaven, angels, the hereafter, or any other notions of an even slightly religious nature. So I'm afraid the passage On Marriage from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran was deemed unacceptable, which is a pity.

Our other reading is OK, which is something at least. We now have to find two more readings and one more reader. If you get a call from us in the next few weeks, remember that the level of desperation in our voices will help you nicely gauge how many people have already been asked!