2.00 p.m.

This is it. The moment the day really starts. I'm stood waiting for L to arrive, friends and family all behind me. My one regret is that I don't turn to see her approaching, will never have that image of her to look back on. She reaches my side and we smile at each other. My hand finds hers and I squeeze lightly. The next half hour seems to be over almost before it began and I remember only fragments of it; gazing into her eyes as I give myself to her and she herself to me, listening to someone I have known all my life talk about unconditional love, singing.

After, there are refreshments and a whirlwind tour of the room, trying to say hello to the couple of hundred people who are there before we are whisked away. We don't manage it and soon we are being driven back to the hotel in a luxury car.