"Head, Shoulders and
Jo Walton and Emmet O'Brien's Wedding 28th July 2001
It's a long time since I've been to a wedding. Sadly, our family seems to have reached that stage where funerals are more common than weddings. My own generation is long married and settled; our children not yet at the commitment stage. So it was with particular delight that I accepted Jo's invitation to attend her and Emmet's wedding in Hay on Wye. Not only would I get to meet friends and have fun, but I would finally have a good excuse to visit the "Town of Books". I'd never been to Hay before. We actually lived not very far away once, but that was 23 years ago, before Hay became what it is today and at a time when we didn't have a car. Travel by public transport, other than into Abergavenny and thence to Cardiff, was very difficult.
"Do we have to have our photos taken?"
Once the formalities were completed, the cake was cut and the wedding party moved out into the hotel garden where Sasha, acting as best man and looking very dashing in a suit, proposed the toast to Jo and Emmet.
And it wasn't just the wedding vows that were different. Another innovation at this wedding was the giving of hobbit wedding presents. That is, in addition to the normal flow of presents, i.e. from the guests to the couple, gifts also flowed in the other direction. Each guest -- to their surprise and delight -- received a carefully chosen small gift.
There were other activities during the day, with ample time allowed them between to visit Hay's principle attractions -- the bookshops. Every bookshop I entered seemed to contain one or two of the wedding guests browsing the bookshelves, carrying large stacks of books or simply talking about books. As I had driven down from North Wales, I didn't have to limit myself to what I could carry. And who can resist a shop where all the books are just one pound each?
I really enjoyed the play. Unlike a parody, which only works fully if you're familiar with the original, I felt that Tam Lin stood perfectly well on its own. If you had read the books which inspired it, there were extra resonances to pick up on; but if you hadn't, the play not only made sense, but explored some interesting themes of its own. After the play -- which seemed to be well received, I'm sure I saw at least one person furtively wiping away a tear at the end -- there was the chance to sit around and talk until midnight, whereupon I retired to my guesthouse and bed.
Many of the bookshops were open on Sunday too, so there was more shopping time before many of us met for a final lunch at the Blue Boar pub before wending our way homeward. For more pictures of the wedding, try Tom's page. He also has some rather good photos of other things, including cats. Maureen Kincaid-Speller's account of the wedding, published in Ansible, can be read here.
(Pictures taken on Saturday, 28 July 2001 © M H Hall)
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The bride was attired in her favourite colour of blue, and wore a beautiful beaded headdress, made by Elise. This, combined with her long hair, gave her a rather Pre-Raphaelite appearance.
After the shopping and the poetry readings and the informal session where anyone who wanted to got the chance to show off their purchases and explain why they'd bought them, there was the buffet (with best man speech) and the reading of 
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