Tom and Jen's Wedding

Today we went to Tom and Jen's wedding in Saltaire. I really like Saltaire! It's a model village built in the 1850's by Sir Titus Salt to house all his workers right next to his mill. At the time it was ground breaking - all the houses from those of the lowest paid workers to those of the executives had running water, an outside toilet and enough bedrooms to fit a family into. The streets are really wide so that all the houses get enough natural light despite mainly being terraces. There is a park and a church and a school and an institute (with gym!) - all so that the workers could live a pleasant life whilst they worked their fingers to the bone for Sir Titus!

Now its a World Heritage site so it is always clean and in good repair and no-one has been allowed to add tacky conservatories onto their beautiful stone teraces. The mill now houses a Hockney exhibition, high-tech companies and poncy shops (including the wonderful early music shop). There are independent coffee shops and off licenses and the whole place feels decidedly pacific north-westy. All in all, a lovely place to have a wander and a wedding!

Nathaniel was remarkably good throughout the whole thing! He had a bit of a wobble when he first realised he didn't really know most of the people telling him how big he was, but then calmed down and did a lot of eating cake and running around! He found some other children to chase after and seemed to have lots of fun.

He even managed to go to sleep in his buggy so that we could stay all evening and then didn't even protest as we moved him into the car and then into his cot. What a good child!