The weekend started with all the boys coming around to my place for some much needed relaxation, in the form of beer. It wasn’t a particularly huge night, as none of us were interested in having a massive hangover.
The big day itself started out pretty easy, we all woke refreshed and had our showers and watched some TV before heading up to the church to put some finishing touches on (flowers at the foot of the altar and ribbons on the ends of the pews) then back to the flat with some lunch to get ready. As we all started to get suited up Mick was starting to show some nerves, blaming it a bit on last night’s pizza, but we had an inkling it was more than that :)
The ceremony itself was fairly standard, not the full blown all-singing-all-dancing affair, but it had a few nice readings and enough pomp and pageantry to make it clear you weren’t in Las Vegas. There was an amusing point just before the ceremony when we realised that the Father was calling Mick ‘Kevin’ (it’s his middle name) and Mick had to point it out to him so he didn’t call him Kevin all the way through. The Father did a pretty good job too, because there was about 10 times he had to say Michael instead on Kevin and he managed all of them. There was a point where he got upset at the photographer for breaking his concentration, but he had in fact told Mick about not having photos during that particular section and Mick forgot to pass on the good news :) anyway, it gave us all something to smile about and you could just feel everyone in the church slowly putting their cameras away ;)
After the ceremony was the obligatory milling around outside while the congratulations were given and the photos with family taken, then it’s off to the Museum for the rest of the photos (via Dan Murphy’s to pick up a slab)
Photos for the wedding party were, as mentioned, at the Museum. Not a bad site, as it has some modern architecture, some classic and some greenery in the exhibition gardens. We knew it must have been a good spot, because there were about 6 other weddings taking their photos there. I haven’t seen so many weddings since I used to work at The University of Melbourne (lots of wedding photos on the south lawn and in front of the 1888 building)
So the photos were fun, just the wedding party and those roped in to be drivers/photographers/videographers so we were mucking around and playing up and joking amongst ourselves, as the main stress part of the day was over as soon as Mick and Steph walked out of the church.
The weather had been looking bad in the morning, raining in the morning when we went up to the church and we were just thinking that if we got a few dry parts of the day we’d probably be ok. Little did we know that the weather was in fact going to be perfect from the time Steph walked out of her front door until after everyone had staggered home to their beds that evening. In fact the only thing that had been planned for the day that looked like it was going to go wrong were the Bonbonniere. The original plan was to have little bundles of lollies placed inside commemorative stubbie holders. The issue was that the stubbie holders hadn’t shown up on time, and the courier company seemed to have lost them, as nobody knew where they were. We weren’t too concerned about it, I mean everyone wants everything to be perfect, but there’s a point where you have to accept that some things don’t work out as you plan, and you don’t let it ruin your day. Besides, the courier company lost them, so once they were found the courier company can deliver them to every guest :)
After the photos we drove off to the hotel that the reception was being held (Rydges Richmond, just a 5 minute walk from my house) to await the moment of our ‘arrival’. Of course we can’t be seen to be arriving before the guests, but not everyone shows up on time, so the process is that we arrive and get put into a little room off to the side, where we can relax, have a drink, and make sure everything is ready for our official arrival at the reception. This is the lovely little illusion used by reception places the world over to help create the magic of a wedding. Of course one might expect the illusion to suffer a little if you have to walk past the transparent marquee where the reception is being held in order to get to the bridal party room. One might even expect the illusion to shatter of the bridal party room was also only separated from the reception marquee by a clear glass wall and a few meters. :) Not that we were too concerned about that, because it also allowed us to see clearly that in fact the stubbie holders had arrived! Not only that, but the hotel staff had put them together as Bonbonniere and placed them on the tables! We were so thrilled we were laughing and pointing. Of course only about three people outside of the bridal party knew what the hell we were laughing about, so we must have looked like a pack of maniacs. Especially when Katrina went and stole our ones off the bridal table so we could start using them. I’m not sure that too many bridal parties first priority at a wedding reception was to get a stubbie holder, I suspect that it is in fact unique ;)
I suppose I should introduce the Bridal party at some stage, so now’s as good a time as any. Firstly of course we have Steph Wahren nee Foreman (designated as B), and Michael Wahren (G) then we have Therese (MH), Usha (BM1), Sandy (BM2), Katrina (BM3), Dan (BM), Joe (GM1), Scott (me) (GM2), and Ian (GM3).
Now we’re pretty much all friends from way back (except for Ian (GM4) who is Mick’s brother in law, but by this stage we’d been drinking with him on a few occasions, so that still counts) so we’ve been having a good day just hanging out and mucking around. Therese had been doing a fabulous job all day with her responsibility for ensuring Steph was always at her best, happily getting up partway through the ceremony to make sure the dress wasn’t all bunched at Steph’s feet etc, and her husband Edmund had been working all day making sure everything else was just right and doing all the video work. Whereas I spent a lot of the day just hanging around and joking with Usha (BM1) and Sandy (BM2), which I always end up doing when were together since they are so much fun to hang out with. In fact, Sandy and Usha are very good friends with the incandescent Kate and when the three of them get together it’s usually a barrel of laughs (and monkeys, of course). So anyway, it’s largely due to the efforts of Therese that Steph looked gorgeous all day (not to mention the team of hairstylists, dress designers, makeup artists, tan appliers, manicurists, etc)
The reception was also a blast, with our entry to the sound of the bagpipes played by Steph’s dad, wailing out Scotland the Brave.
The staff at Rydges seemed to have our number pretty well, and supplied us with a very nice waiter (Monique) who plied us with alcohol all night, even to the point of bringing out mini-jugs of bourbon & coke for me as I was drinking my glasses faster than they could keep up ;) The food was also very nice, although I would have liked to try both choices of each of the three courses, as they all looked pretty good :)
The night wound on, with lots of activities to fill my time, dancing with Sandy and Usha, dancing with Kate, Dancing with just about anyone, catching up with Rose and Trudes and Helen and Kate and Felicite and Dean and Bec and everyone else who was there :) In contrast to my brother’s wedding a week earlier, where I ended up a little bored because I hardly knew anyone, this wedding was action packed because I seemed to know everyone (just about) so I know I didn’t get a chance to spend time with everyone I wanted to, and I could probably have been in that crowd for 2 weeks and not have spent enough time with everyone that I anted too, although if Monique was going to keep getting me drinks for that whole time I think I’d be in hospital eventually for liver failure.
The music was pretty good and the crowd was great and nobody really wanted it to end, so after the bouquet had been caught by some relative of Steph’s and the garter had been caught be me (had to elbow Joe out of the way) and the bride and groom had spent about an hour going around the circle (always seems to take ages) then a bunch of us headed off to Hubcap for a bit more of a dance. Felicite and Dean were very upset with us for not having brought them there before, but it’s hard to explain that it’s not a club we go to often, it’s just a handy little place near home that we sometimes stop in to. :) Anyway, danced a bit more, joked around a bit more, was there until the club shut at 1am and then walked the BMs back to Rydges and staggered home myself.
Sunday was another day again, with a BBQ around Mick and Stephs and some video watching and present opening, and then it was back home to clean up and get to bed.
Funny thing is, that when I got up to go to work today, it felt like a week had passed since I was last there, as there’d been so much fun and activity.
1 comment:
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