One of the delightful features of Phillip and Lisa’s wedding were the individual touches they created that made every guest feel welcome. One of these was a named envelope, marking the place where each person was to sit at the reception, which contained an illustrated postcard with a personal message on the back.
Apparently, during her childhood, Lisa spent numerous holidays in Skegness, a traditional British seaside resort on the Lincolnshire coast. Phillip recreated his own version of a famous 1908 poster by the illustrator John Hassall (1868-1948), produced for the Great Northern Railway, declaring that ‘Skegness is SO bracing’.
Here is mine, declaring that Coventry, the city of my birth and the first eighteen years of my life is, ‘SO bracing’ 🙂 Whilst the artwork is a fairly accurate recreation of the original poster, it does contain a typical Phillip Yates addition of a squashed beer can on the beach 🙂
As well as my personal postcard, there was also a wrapped present from Phillip and Lisa, awaiting me at my place on the top table. It contained this inscribed beer glass, with the contraction of their names as ‘Phlisa’, which also appeared on their wedding invitations.
However, inside my beer glass was a further gift – an EU flag – emphasising my strong support for the ‘Remain’ cause, in the recent referendum. Apparently Hugh, Lisa’s father, also received an inscribed beer glass. Inside his beer glass was a Scottish flag, in recognition that, although of Irish heritage, he was actually born in Glasgow 🙂