Blog
Oops!
Sunday 1st June 2014
I thought I had seen most things at weddings but on Thursday I was taken aback by the events which unfolded. At first, everything went to plan; I arrived at the house early, the weather was fine and the bride emerged bang on time. The car was parked only a few feet from her front door. She took three steps towards it before coming to a sudden and abrupt halt with one foot anchored firmly to the ground. What was going on? Why the hesitation? Was she having second thoughts? No, she had stepped on a drainage grating and the heel of her shoe had become inexorably jammed.
The situation reminded me of a scene from carry on film; the bride resplendent in her white dress, clutching her bouquet and struggling to free her trapped foot. The family came to the rescue and helped her remove her foot from the shoe, which remained stubbornly wedged in the grating. After several minutes of pulling and levering, the shoe was successfully released. But, to add to her woes, the little cap on the bottom of the heel became detached during the struggle and lay, glinting, underneath the grating. The driver of the bridesmaids' car and I hunted through our tool kits searching for something which might extract the offending item. Luckily he had a Swiss Army penknife which had an attachment for every possible emergency and this did the trick.
To her credit, the bride remained calm and unflustered throughout the whole drama. Reunited with her footwear, she got into the car without any fuss and carried on as if nothing had happened. What a trooper!