Lara
& James

Lara — I've been your best friend since the third week of university, when you came and sat in the window of the library at dusk instead of staying inside under the fluorescents, and I thought: here is someone who understands how light works. You have always known what the right light looks like. You have always chosen it — in where you sit, in what you photograph, in what you wait for. I think James understood that about you very early, and I think that is why he waited for the rose garden at the right hour. He found the exact right light for you. That is not a small thing. That is a man who has been paying very close attention. I love you both. The photos from that evening are, by some margin, the most beautiful I have ever seen of you, and you have been photographed in good light before. — Cecily, who built this wall, who will be there for all of it

James — Oliver here, Cecily's husband and your soon-to-be-fellow-husband-of-a-Weston-woman. A few things you should know, entering this: they have a group chat you are not in. It predates you. It predates me. It will continue to exist after we are both gone. Do not ask what is in it. You will not get an answer. The good news: she chose you. That is the main thing and it says everything. The worse news: the group chat has a name for the husbands. I do not know what it is. I have been one of them for six years and I still do not know. Welcome. Fairfield House at golden hour was the right choice. You did well. — Oliver

My darling Lara — I am your mother, and I was in the garden when you called, and I sat down on the bench without planning to and stayed there for a while. I have watched you be careful about love. I have watched you wait for the right thing rather than the available thing, which is a harder discipline than it looks, and which cost you a few years and a few people along the way, and which I will tell you now — because you are engaged and I am allowed — was completely right and worth it. James is the right thing. He has been the right thing since the second time I met him and he arrived twenty minutes early and spent the time talking to your father about the garden, which told me everything. I am so happy for you, my love. The light in those photographs is extraordinary. — Mum

Lara — I am James's father. James called me the morning after the proposal and told me the whole story: the rose garden, the dusk, the way you reached for him. He said it very quietly. He said: "She was reaching for me before I finished, Dad." And then he stopped talking for a moment and I could hear that he was, in the way of Whitmore men who do not cry but sometimes find themselves in a situation where they might, managing himself. I told him: that's it. That's the whole thing. We are very glad you're joining the family, Lara. James has been happier since he met you than I have seen him since he was a boy on a summer morning with nothing to do. That's everything. — Tom

Lara — I've been trying to write this since Cecily texted me and told me she'd built this wall. It's taken me four drafts. I want to say: I had the ring for three months before I asked you. I looked for the right time and the right place for three months, and I kept thinking — not yet, not quite. And then I saw the rose garden at Fairfield in that light, on the longest day of the year, and I thought: there it is. That's exactly right. You reached for me before I finished. That is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. I love you. I am going to keep finding you in the right light. — James

LARA!!! Your little sister is SCREAMING. Okay I need to be calm for this wall. Let me be calm. He proposed in the rose garden at FAIRFIELD. The rose garden at Fairfield that you have loved since we were children. The rose garden where you spent literally every summer afternoon from age six to age seventeen. He chose THAT garden. At GOLDEN HOUR. I am not calm. I cannot be calm. This is the most romantic thing that has ever happened in our family. I am so happy for you. The ring is perfect. HE IS PERFECT. Also I told you so in 2024 and I need that to be on the record somewhere. I love you so much. — Harriet, your little sister, THE ONE WHO KNEW

Lara, James — from your neighbours at the cottage on the lane. We saw you both walk back from Fairfield on Friday evening. We were in the garden at dusk. We didn't know what had happened yet. You were walking quite slowly and talking quietly and you were both laughing at something. We said to each other: there is something very happy in those two tonight. Your mother called us the next morning to tell us. We were not surprised. We just thought of you walking back in the last light, slow and happy. Congratulations to you both. You are lovely neighbours and you will be a lovely married couple. — Peg and Peter

Lara — your father. I have been looking at those photographs from Friday evening since they arrived in the family chat, and I keep coming back to the one where you are both looking at the ring but James is also looking at you. Not at the ring — at you. There's a word for that kind of attention and I won't use it on this wall, but you know what it is. The rose garden was the right place. You have always loved that garden. He knew that. He chose it. I am very proud of you and I am very happy for you both. — Dad