A couple had to put their wedding on hold after an owl which had been chosen to carry the rings fell asleep in the roof of the church.
一对新婚夫妇决定在婚礼上利用猫头鹰运送婚戒,结果载着新婚戒指的猫头鹰在教堂房顶上睡着了,婚礼不得不延迟片刻。

The bride had secretly arranged for the bird to swoop down to the altar with the wedding bands attached to its feet by tassels. But the spectacular stunt failed when the barn owl, called Darcy, took to the rafters to enjoy an impromptu snooze.
新娘秘密安排了一只猫头鹰参加婚礼,原计划它脚上挂着绑有婚戒的彩带,从外面飞向祭坛。但这一精彩特技表演却失败了——谷仓猫头鹰达西选择飞上房顶椽梁,在上面小睡了一阵。

Rev Chris Bryan, who was in charge of the ceremony between Sonia Cadman, 46, and Andrew Mettle, 49, tried to coax the animal down but his efforts were in vain, so he decided to continue the service by using a back up set of rings.
雷夫·克里斯·布莱恩负责主持索尼娅·卡德曼(46岁)和安德鲁·麦图(49岁)的婚礼。他试图把猫头鹰哄骗下来,但所有努力都失败了,因此决定用备用婚戒继续婚礼流程。

He said: 'It would have been absolutely superb - if it worked. It was a lovely idea and it was supposed to be really stunning.
他说道:“如果表演成功,那肯定是相当精彩。这是个很可爱的想法,也令人感到震惊。”

'The groom is into falconry as a bit of a hobby and so it was secretly arranged for two falconers to suddenly appear at the moment when the best man hands over the rings. The owl appeared, and took a bit of coaxing to take to flight.'
“新郎很喜欢训鹰,把它当做一种爱好,所以我们秘密安排了两个训鹰人参加婚礼,当伴郎递交戒指时,他们便带着猫头鹰突然出现在婚礼会场上。但猫头鹰却不太配合,几遍命令之后才起飞.”

'But instead of landing on the arm of the man by us and delivering the rings it went up over our heads and landed up in the roof space.'
“原计划猫头鹰本该落在我们身边训鹰人的胳膊上,把戒指安全送达,再飞过我们头顶停在房顶上面。”

'The idea was it would be amazing and would swoop over the heads of the guests, and they’d all feel the air rushing from its wings, but it didn’t quite work like that.'
“计划的想法很不错,猫头鹰飞过所有观众的头顶,他们都能感受到翅膀扇起的风。但实际情况并非如此。”

Rev. Bryan added: 'We all had a bit of a laugh about it, and then we tried to get it down, but it didn’t come. In fact it fell asleep. It presumably thought ‘I’m a barn owl, this is like a barn’.
雷夫·布莱恩还说:“看到此景我们都忍不住笑了,后来试着把猫头鹰哄下来,但它就是不动地方。实际上那时它都睡着了,它可能在想:‘我是个谷仓猫头鹰,这个地方和谷仓像极了。’”

'We had a plan B. They say never work with animals, so we had a back-up pair of rings. After a few minutes, we gave up trying to get it down and carried on. It was actually rather nice when we went up for prayers and the owl was right above us.’
“好在我们有备用方案。都说永远不要和动物一起共事,所以我们还准备了一套备用戒指。事发几分钟后,大家不再试着让猫头鹰下来,而是继续婚礼。我们说祷告词时上面还有一只猫头鹰在听,这种感觉其实挺好的。”

'It’s important that people realise that a church wedding doesn’t just come as a package of things you have to do, and there’s no room for creativity. It was such a magical wedding and it was so full of emotion, it was nice to be able to have a bit of a laugh.'
“这个事件对我们来说都很重要。人们应意识到教堂婚礼并非一系列非做不可的繁文缛节,我们还有许多发挥创意的空间。这次婚礼就办得很魔幻,充满真情实感,还制造出了些许幽默效果。”

'Luckily the service was able to go ahead and the groom was able to hold the bird and have some really nice pictures taken after the ceremony.'
“幸运的是猫头鹰睡醒后继续为新人服务,婚礼结束之后,新郎抱着它照了许多很帅的照片。”