On Thursday after work, Uns and I headed across to Euston Station and caught the train up to Stockport, about two hours away. From Stockport, we changed trains and made our way up to Adlington station, which seemed the closest station to Shrigley Hall. After a short walk up to the main street, we ordered a taxi and made our way over to the hotel. Shrigley Hall is a former country house standing to the northwest of the village of Pott Shrigley, Cheshire. It was once used as a school, and later when a chapel was added as a hotel and country club. The hall was built in about 1825 for William Turner, a Blackburn mill owner and Member of Parliament. After a quick check in and brief unpack, we headed back down to the hotel bar and met up with everyone else who had also come up the night before. We stayed for a few beers down in the bar, but kept it fairly tame, considering the rather big day on the Friday!

On Friday morning Uns was up fairly early to make use of the gym downstairs, while I caught up on a bit of sleep. Once she was back, we headed down for breakfast and then decided to take a walk around the gardens outside to check them out and get a bit of fresh air. The house stands in it's own 262 acre estate overlooking the Cheshire plain, and since being restored to it's original glory as a beautiful country house with breathtaking views, also has a mature 18-hole golf course in the grounds.

After a walk around the gardens we headed back to the hotel room and decided to pop downstairs for a swim and check out the spa. With that I got a call from Si asking if o could pop round and snap some pictures of them chilling out and getting ready. While I was hanging with the guys, Uns headed down to swim and I planned to meet up with her at the room again once we were done with the photos.

Once the guys were ready and the flags out front had been changed, I headed back up to the room to get ready before catching the taxi over to St James Church in Didsbury, the local church near to Si and Suzie's place. The earliest reference to Didsbury is in a document dating from 1235 recording a grant of land for the building of a chapel. The church was originally called St Oswald's and then renamed to St James's Church in 1855. The ceremony in there was lovely - a good mix of all things weddingly and good bit of humour too which always goes down well.

After the ceremony and a few pics in the gardens outside, we jumped into the taxi and made our way back to Shrigley Hall for the reception. Since we were there quite quickly, we all met up downstairs in the hotel bar until the rest of the wedding party arrived. The wedding was inside the Tilden Suite which was absolutely brilliant. I always knew it would be a fun wedding, and combined with the speeches, including Simon's which went on forever and even had to call an intermission, made it an awesome night. Once the DJ stopped playing, the few of us still left made our way downstairs back to the hotel bar until they shut or we called it a night.

Yesterday morning we all met up again at breakfast for a week deserved fry up before checking out of the rooms and meeting again downstairs in the hotel lounge. No one was in much of a rush to leave as we couldn't check into the next hotel until late afternoon and were only meeting the rest for lunch. Myself and Uns decided to take a walk for some fresh air instead of sitting around, so took a stroll towards the end of the golf course and back to take it some of the fresh country air.

From Shrigley Hall we caught a taxi across to East Didsbury again to Ye Olde Cock Inn pub, so-called because of the cock fighting that used to take place there. Back in early 1800's a parsonage was built next to the Inn and soon gained a reputation for being haunted, with the servants refusing to sleep there and was abandoned in 1850. Then in 1902, a local alderman who bought the house installed wrought iron gates at the entrance to the church's garden, which, because of the building's reputation, became known locally as "the gates to Hell''.

The plan was for everyone who was still around after the wedding to meet up there for lunch, and have a bit more of a relaxed afternoon with the bride and groom as well as everyone else. The sun even managed to periodically pop out from behind the clouds every now and then, so managed to sit outside in the beer garden for a good part of the afternoon. After lunch and some chilled out time in the sun, we headed over down to the Waterside Hotel where we had booked in on the Saturday night. It was about a 15 minute away, so not too far from the pub.

The hotel wasn't quite as lush as Shrigley Hall, but seemed OK at first, it was just for the one night. The rooms were fine and the hotel even had a decent swimming pool and relaxation spa, which we thought we'd try out the next morning after breakfast. After a bit of an afternoon/evening nap, myself and Uns met Lorenzo and we grabbed a taxi and headed on over to meet the others, who were staying at The Ram's Lodge just up the road from the Ye Olde Cock Inn pub. They had found a little Japanese restaurant, Kyotoya, which we met them at for dinner then made our way up the road to The Ram's Lodge.

We settled in at the The Ram & Shackle pub, in front of the lodge, which is actually more of a student bar with hostel attached at the back, rather than any sort of lodge or accommodation. But the vibe there was cool, although very young! Everyone was fairly chilled out after a rather large Friday night, so was a fairly relaxed night at the bar, more just a bit of a catch up. Arriving back at the Waterside Hotel, we were met with the aftermath of a local wedding there, which looked like an extract out of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding... brilliant!

This morning we popped down to the dining room for our breakfast then decided to try out the swimming pool and spa facilities. They had a 50m swimming pool as well as a couple of jacuzzis, a sauna, a steam room and a Japanese bath. We had asked for a slightly later check out which meant we got to relax and properly enjoy the pool and spa facilities before heading back up to the room and checking out.

From the hotel we took a walk up to East Didsbury station and then into Manchester Oxford Road to meet up with Si and Lozzie who were waiting at Java Bar Espresso just outside the station. After a coffee there, we caught our train back down to London, going via Sheffield due to engineering works on the line.

Once back in London, the others headed down to meet up with Fish and Al, and Uns and myself decided on Nandos for dinner, which I hadn't had in ages and still just as good as it always was!