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Jackie: For this week's podcastsinenglish.com I'm talking to Debbie. Hi Debbie
Debbie: Hello, Jackie.
Jackie: And I'm talking to Debbie about her wedding. Debbie, how long have you been married?
Debbie: I've been married for twelve and a half years.
Jackie: So, some time ago you got married.
Debbie: Yes
Jackie: Where did you get married?
Debbie: I got married in a registry office in Cornwall.
Jackie: In Cornwall, in the south of England.
Debbie: Yes, that's right.
Jackie: And not a church.
Debbie: No, it was in a registry office.
Jackie: Okay, so it was a civil wedding.
Debbie: Yep
Jackie: Was that in the morning, the afternoon?
Debbie: It was around about lunchtime. Because my husband's Dutch so we had his family come over. So we had it at lunchtime so we could then go and have a meal together to celebrate.
Jackie: How long… how long did the ceremony last for?
Debbie: It takes about twenty minutes.
Jackie: Oh, so it's quite short?
Debbie: Yeah. You go in there, you say the wedding vows, you exchange rings.
Jackie: And who is doing the ceremony, 'cos obviously it's not a church, it's not a vicar or anything.
Debbie: The registrar.
Jackie: The registrar. So 20 minutes, was there any singing or anything like that?
Debbie: There's a little bit of music which you don't choose.
Jackie: Could you say anything that you wanted to say or was it just a complete set piece?
Debbie: It's very… very formal. Um… you just say your vows, you sign… you sign the book and then the registrar says, “You may kiss the bride” and then you're married and people clap.
Jackie: People clapped?
Debbie: Yeah
Jackie: Oh, that's nice. Did you have any bridesmaids?
Debbie: Didn't have any bridesmaids because it wasn't a church wedding.
Jackie: Right. So, you didn't have a best man or anything?
Debbie: We had a best man. My, the best man was our son who was one years old.
Jackie: Oh, hold on a minute! So, normally the best man is the friend of the man who's going to get married, the groom . Because you already had a child then.
Debbie: Yes. And he just leaned to walk the day before so he was encouraged to bring the rings.
Jackie: Oh so the little boy had the rings.
Debbie: Which we exchanged.
Jackie: Oh, that's nice. So he felt part of the ceremony as well.
Debbie: Yeah, although he can't remember it now. [laughs]
Jackie: And okay, so what did you do after the ceremony?
Debbie: After the ceremony we booked um… a room in a hotel and we went for a big meal because it was only close family and er… one or two friends. And then my husband is a sailor and so a member of a sailing club so in the evening we had a big party.
Jackie: At the… at the sailing club.
Debbie: At the sailing club. But it was actually a Hallowe'en party um… because we got married around Hallowe'en.
Jackie: October, the end of October then?
Debbie: We married on 26th October and Hallowe'en is on the 31st October so we had a big Hallowe'en party where everybody dressed up but unfortunately my husband had forgot to tell his Dutch relatives what a Hallowe'en party meant so they all came in their best clothes and everybody else was dressed up as witches and wizards.
Jackie: So all the English side were all dressed up crazily and all the Dutch people in their… in their posh clothes .
Debbie: Yeah. Because he'd forgotten to tell them.
Jackie: [laughs] In the excitement of getting married. And then did you have a honeymoon?
Debbie: We did have a bit of a honeymoon um… but it was only a weekend because somebody had to look after our son, but we went to Dartmoor.
Jackie: Okay, that’s nice. Okay, so that was twelve years ago, Debbie. Are you still happily married?
Debbie: Oh yes. We're very happily married.
Jackie: That's good.
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