the beach in their inflatable. If the size of Holly’s whoops were anything to go by, the photos of Ewan and a dozen groomsmen in their tuxes sitting in the boat in the shallows, then all leaping out onto the sand and high fiving their way up the beach swigging bottles of champagne are going to be amazing.
She laughed at me as she jumped out of the way of a wave. ‘This is exactly what a wedding by the sea should be.’
I was shouting at Ewan as he hung back to talk to Nic. ‘Salt spray in your stubble and sand in your jacket pockets makes for an extra handsome party. Don’t forget your buttonholes, they’re waiting in the hall of the castle for you to pick up.’
He pushed his fingers through his light brown hair, blinking in the bright light as he stared up the beach at the turrets beyond the shrubbery. ‘Tell me again, am I dreaming, or are we really getting married in a castle with views across the bay?’
Nic’s face dropped. ‘You wouldn’t rather be getting married in the distillery?’
Ewan opened his arms wide, and flopped a hand over each of our shoulders. ‘I don’t know how you two have pulled this off. Brilliant doesn’t come close, I can’t thank you enough.’
Nic grimaced. ‘I just hope stroppy tomboy Pixie’s up for being star of the show for a day.’
Ewan gave him a wink. ‘You watch, she might just surprise you.’
Pixie and the girls are staying a mile up the road and are currently enjoying the help of the Brides by the Sea dedicated hair and make-up team before being whisked over by Keef in the Brides Go Wild bus. Thanks to their light airbrush foundation, and deftness with the hair tongs, the make-up team are legendary across the county for making brides and their parties into the most fabulous versions of themselves, with a look that will last all day.
Meanwhile, Poppy and Immie and the rest of the Daisy Hill gang, have been putting in the final touches at the castle and checking the bedrooms, welcoming the guests, and directing them through to the spacious ground-floor room where the ceremony is going to be. The right entrance music is ready to go, and after that there’s a day-long playlist compiled by Nic. There are tall pots all around the edge of the room with pink and white and purple sweet peas and bright pink cosmos and blue cornflowers and vibrant orange marigolds and larkspur spilling out of them, all from Lily’s garden at Rose Hill Manor.
Whatever Nic might once have said about chair covers, the folding chairs borrowed from the manor’s wedding store are looking very well-dressed. The simple cream silk covers with chiffon bows that are lighter than air look gorgeously understated and are a perfect contrast for the rugged bare stone walls of the castle. And mostly they’re already filled with waiting guests, chattering excitedly, standing up to hug each other or wave as new ones arrive. I have to say, every second word I overhear is probably castle.
Due to Pixie’s preference for a relaxed day, and the number of wheelchairs coming, rather than rows we’ve set the seats out in clusters for guests to arrange themselves, with the aisle marked with smaller pots with the same tumbling masses of colourful flowers as the big pots around the edge. The ever present three-foot-high Brides by the Sea letters spelling out love are propped up by the monumental stone fireplace, and next to that, at Nic’s request, Merwyn is curled up on his best blue velvet cushion with the gold braid edging and he’s wearing his diamond studded collar.
At last we’re at the stage where everyone’s moving into their places for the ceremony. The registrars are standing together in a shaft of sunlight slicing the air from the small paned window, shuffling their papers for the fifty-seventh time. Ewan and Nic are at the right-hand side at the front too, sitting side by side, Nic flashing me a smile and a nervous thumbs up over his shoulder, grinning at his mum and a couple of grandmothers who I was hurriedly introduced to earlier as Nic helped them pull up their seats.
On the left-hand side at the front, there’s space for the basketball team to wheel themselves down the aisle ahead of Pixie and make a front row.
As I make my way back through the castle entrance hall, I can see the glasses lined up ready