Farmer Focus: A midsummer wedding like no other

You are either going to love this one or hate it, depending on your view of weddings.

We could not have asked for better weather for the day of my daughter Rebecca’s marriage to Guy Champion. Midsummer’s day really lived up to its name this year, as we were blessed with warm sunshine all day long.

The marquee went up more than a week before the big day, which was just as well, as when we inspected it for the first time we discovered a dance floor that looked more like an alpine ski run. We hadn’t realised it would be positioned right on top of where an old plum tree had once stood.

Read more from all our Arable Farmer Focus writers

So a team of volunteers spent about five hours on the Tuesday night pulling up the floor, carpet and plastic undersheet so we could level out the offending bulge in what had been our lawn. In fact, the whole event was a real community effort from start to finish, with so many people all helping to make it a special occasion.

This was like no wedding I have ever experienced before: a cross between a steam fair and Glastonbury. Guests came from far and wide and were accommodated in every room in the house plus a temporary campsite in the paddock.

We had five steam engines in the driveway, two of which were lit up. There was also a coconut shy and various other old fairground attractions.

Bex had no idea she was going to be taken to the church in a horse and carriage and her face was a picture when we drove up to collect her from the local pub where she had spent the night.

The groom and his two best men arrived at the church on a trailer pulled by his steamroller and the guests were transported by tractor and trailer.

It was such an amazing occasion and I was so proud to walk Bex down the aisle to give her away. Guy will make a wonderful husband and son-in-law.

Simon Beddows manages 1,000ha of arable land at Dunsden Green, south Oxfordshire. Cropping is cereals, oilseed rape, beans and forage maize.



Need a contractor?

Find one now