It's normally assumed that the best man at a wedding will be, well, a man. But not at Matt Alcock's wedding. He wanted his best friend who happens to be Josina Marshall...a woman
 Josina (best woman), Matt (bridegroom) and Teresa (bride) |
Josina and Matt met at primary school at the age of 6. But by aged 10, each of them had moved with their families to other parts of the country. They didn't see each other very much, but stayed in contact by letter, which Matt describes as "a pretty cool thing to do because no-one else did it".
Josina first met Matt’s wife-to-be at his twin brother's wedding where Matt was the best man and Teresa the bridesmaid. She knew something was going on between them because he spent the evening dancing with Teresa.
So when Matt decided to marry Teresa, Josina was the obvious candidate for ‘Best Woman’. He says he was going through the list of his mates and realised that none was of as long standing as Josina. Although Matt is now a RAF pilot based in Brunei, he was still close to Josina. He says, "The person who was going to be best man should be the person who knows me best outside my family and Josina fitted the bill perfectly". He didn’t think the fact that she was female should be a stumbling block at all. Matt phoned Josina shortly after he’d proposed to Teresa and said "I have a small favour to ask". Josina didn’t hesitate in saying yes.
But first Josina had to endure the stag weekend which she describes as excessively laddish - Josina and a dozen or so RAF pilots. However, Josina has no idea whether strippers were involved because once the night clubbing started, she made her excuses and left.
 Josina with Matt and Teresa's daughter, Molly |
At the wedding itself, some of the guests were a bit bemused at the sight of a female 'best man', including the vicar. But Matt thought he was fairly safe as far as ‘best man’s’ speech was concerned. He didn’t think Josina had that much dirt on him. "I was pretty happy until about three lines in, and then my heart just sank". Josina says it was just a few tales about how accident prone he’d been growing up.
Josina hopes that if she gets married, Matt will be able to play some part in the proceedings. She says, "I did toy with the idea of making him my bridesmaid, although now he’s married he’d have to be matron-of-honour". But she can’t see him going along with that one. So Josina has made a deal with her father. Matt can have the honour of walking her down the isle and giving her away.
