Fair Comment

As she came into the church with her dad, Carrie looked dreadfully nervous. 'I was terrified', she admitted later, 'and then as we started I just thought, it's going to be all right, let's just go for it, and I was fine.' At the door I said her dress looked great and the benefit of the huge train was that we'd get the church floor swept into the bargain.

Carrie and Ted had, for the first time in my clerical career (such as it is) opted to get married according to the 'old service' rather than the contemporary one. It meant a bit of extra trepidation for me as I tried to remember how to fit the choreography Swanvale Halt church demands into the different order of the service. I still think the modern one makes more sense, although the prayer that the bride make herself 'a follower of holy and godly matrons' is rather picturesque.

We got to the bit where I asked the congregation for any 'just impediment' to the marriage taking place and a toddler in the front row began to clap excitedly. I said I didn't think that counted as an objection, though perhaps he knew something I didn't.