’Tis the season for spending the weekend trekking out to whichever far-flung corner of the British countryside that your soon-to-be-married friends have selected as the backdrop for their picture-perfect wedding. For Googling what “cocktail attire” actually means. For secretly wondering why the bridesmaids are convinced that your friend needs a four-day hen party in Marbella, with a dress code stricter than the Met Gala and a price tag to match. And for calculating precisely how long you can get away with muting that particular event-related group chat before your silence starts to seem pointed and passive-aggressive.
Once you enter your thirties, summer starts to acquire a whole new meaning. What was once a time for long afternoons spent in pub gardens and last-minute group trips to bargain destinations becomes a period that needs to be planned out with military levels of precision. Suddenly, your free time is filled up with a string of weddings and other associated celebrations, requiring a seemingly endless stream of Travelodge reservations, taxi bookings and acceptable small talk topics. And if you have the odd weekend free? Don’t get too comfortable. There’s always the strong possibility of impromptu engagement drinks (after someone popped the question on their special summer holiday, when their partner “absolutely wasn’t expecting it”).
