Going The Whole Hog

Angela and I were in the Welsh Marches this weekend. Specifically we were in Chirk.

We were in North Wales for a wedding with a difference. Our dear Nephew Stuart was marrying Ellen. The venue was a large field in Ellen's home village. A number of Yurts had been built especially for the occasion. Mobile loos had been hired, car parking arranged, and lighting had been laid on. Dozens of wedding guests would be camping in the field.

Bands had been hired, fire jugglers were on hand and workshops were taking place in drumming and willow weaving. This was no ordinary wedding - this was "Wedfest".

The trees were decorated...



Mountains of vegetarian food had been prepared; even better, as Stuart is a confirmed carnivore, there was a Hog Roast. A Hog Roast is a simple affair. You just get a couple of gullible friends to dig you a pit four feet long, four feet wide and two feet deep. Then you fill it with wood, allow the wood to burn to embers, then suspend an entire pig on a spit above it. Cover with corrugated iron to keep in the heat. Top up charcoal as it burns down. A fully grown pig will take about ten hours to cook... Oh, you will need to find someone to turn the spit continuously to guarantee even cooking and crackling which is simply cosmic.



The Hog roast shortly after cooking.

To make sure there would be enough food a couple of sheep had been keeping the pig company, stuffed with garlands of Rosemary and whole cloves of garlic. Awesome!

Dotted around the field were various sculptures by members of Ellen's family, such as this reclining bather...



The day went brilliantly, the couple were obviously madly in love, and facing the future together...



The wedding cake had been made by Jane, a family friend who now produces sculptures rather than cakes for a living.



The cake deserves a close-up of it's own - the happy couple...



The cider flagon is not just for decoration; Stuart had pressed three barrels of cider the previous Autumn in readiness for the day.

A few hours later this was all that was left of the hog roast and the two roast lambs..



The happy couple were spending their first night as man and wife in the Nuptial Yurt, set discretely apart at the far end of the field. The view was stunning as the sun fell behind it...



We wish Ellen and Stuart all the best for the future. We had a wonderful time, and we know they did too.

I will end this post with just a tiny peek into the nuptial yurt.

So Romantic...



.P.S. If you want to see all the photos I took at Wedfest, just click here to go to my Flickr account.

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