Royal wedding - 29th April 2011

[Watching the Royal Wedding] Ringers across the country joined in with the team at Westminster Abbey to ring for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29th April. We at St Laurence rang as well but we also decided to have a party.

This started as a small plan to take a television up the tower so that we wouldn't miss the wedding and to perhaps have a drink or two to toast the happy couple. Enough people were interested that we realised we'd need to borrow the large screen in the church itself and take over the kitchen in the Ark for the catering. We were already planning a party to celebrate the 300th birthday of the bells so we decided to merge the two celebrations and have a full-blown indoor street party.

Doors opened at 10.15am for the screening of the pre-service commentary followed by the actual Wedding Service at 11.00am. We gave out an Order of Service so that people could follow the service and join in with singing the hymns if they wanted to. Afterwards we planned a 'Wedding Tea' with glass of sparking wine and a selection of sandwiches and cakes.

[Celebrating the Royal Wedding] The event proved to be a great success with 80 guests in addition to a dozen ringers and helpers. We sat in the church to watch the wedding and the drive home then adjourned to the Ark for refreshments and returned to the church in time for the balcony scene. The Bromsgrove Standard visited and BBC Midlands Today filmed us ringing and interviewed Colin Bennett about our plans for the restoration.