Wedding Weekend

Well, it's now been a week since I went to the wedding, and being a lazy Sunday morning, I shall recap some of the events.

Friday morning, I took the train off to the airport, and there were no dramas involved.  The flight was fairly uneventful and I touched down pretty much on time, which was good.  I was only carrying with me a small carry-on case, so I didn't have to wait for the luggage to come off the plane like a lot of people were.  Once I got outside I called the person who was going to pick me up, to discover that they were running late and stuck in traffic.  Not much choice but to hop into a taxi and find my way to the rehearsal to get there on time.

I arrived about forty-odd minutes later, working through the traffic with a quiet taxi driver who didn't seem talkative, so I listened to the talk-back radio there.  Uneventful, but traffic.  When I got there, the others were just coming into the car park, so timing wise, it wasn't too bad.  We milled around for about ten minutes before the Father (minister) arrived and we trooped inside.

The church is pretty old, and it's been a while since I've been inside one.  The architecture was simple, stone with high wooden arches, plaques on the walls with memories and names, remembrance of those before who had been patrons or devout members, those perished in wars or in tragic times.  There was no air-conditioning built in, but they had modernised somewhat by putting small cooler units on stands at regular intervals along the pews to combat the ever increasing summer conditions that we face in this country.

Father Stephen was the person conducting the service, a nice person, firm handshake and a white beard of sorts (the kind that is the sideburns that connect with the goatee and around the lips moustache, whatever that's called).  He made some jokes, funny guy.  We told us the order of proceedings, where we should stand, and then we ran through the mock ceremony with how we should move from here to there, and sit, and back again, and then move to there and back and so forth.  Simple movements, but just complicated enough for him to reassure us that he would provide prompting subtly for everyone.

For me, my bridesmaid partner was Elena, who was a wee lass of five years, coming to my waist in height, but she did her duty just fine, holding onto my hand as we walked up and down the steps, around the back alter and aisle and so forth.  She was very cute and took it very seriously.  Her mother was the second bridesmaid while the bride's younger sister was the maid of honour.

That afternoon after the rehearsal was over, we went downtown immediately to buy a new shirt for the groom because he didn't like the shirt that came with the suit hire.  A bit of fuss really, and thankfully the Myer in the mall had something to his liking, so away we went.  By the time we got back to the house, it was early evening, and we started to go over things that needed to be done for the morning, since the wedding ceremony itself was at 1pm.  We ordered pizza from Pizza Capers, which for mass made gourmet pizza, was pretty nice, though the pizza size was a little on the small size.  We only got two pizzas and a single thing of garlic bread between four people, so I was still a little peckish after.  We did have icecream though so that made up the difference to my usual volume of meals lol.

There was bustle and hustle, and three laptops open and running.  Cleaning of the house, packing of things for the wedding night.  Telephone calls to find people and things, and also to arrange a hotel room and car hire.  Organised chaos is really how I would probably describe it.  By late evening, most of the things had been done and things had settled somewhat, and a DVD was put on, where we flopped on the couches and watched Iron Man in it's DVD quality (the Blue-Ray HD is so much better haha) before everyone retired for the night.

I was up in the morning pretty early, Elise making herself breakfast because she had to be off to the airport to pick up the rental car that was going to transport the bridesmaids to and from the various locations.  I went and had a shower and made my breakfast also, eating before I got changed.  The groom to be got up not long after and then continue to compose an additional list of things that had to be done in the next four hours, such as cleaning the car, cleaning the house, buffing his nails and so forth.  I pretty much had nothing to do, so I just sat at the table with my netbook surfing the internet and what not, while watching the hustle and bustle.  Elise disappeared to get the car, then Peter the best man arrived with water and food for the photoshoot.  We pottered about some more before finally getting dressed to head out.

Traffic got in the way, but we didn't arrive late, only because I ensured that we left 10 minutes before they thought we were leaving LOL, I have a habit of getting to places early, so when I said, it's time to go, I didn't say what the time was, I just said it was time.  They didn't check their watches, they just said, ok.  Good eh? :D

What can I say, the wedding went smoothly.  People arrived, we milled around a little before we were ushered inside by Father Stephen, and I took my spot at the front with the rest of the guys. Once the crowd had settled into the pews, there was quiet talk before Father Stephen appeared at the back, and asked for silence.  The organist started to play, and the progression began.

The ceremony didn't take that long, there were several readings, prayer, and a short sermon.  But what struck me the most was the vows, where the intensity of the atmosphere just swelled.  You could see by how Peta looked at Jame's face, her eyes locked in, with such strength.  The love was so solid you couldn't have cut it with a oxyacetylene torch.  From what the bridesmaids said afterwards, it was the same on their side, seeing how James looked at Peta.  It was a very warm day, predicted 33°C, and in a full tux with vest and undershirt on, you could feel it.

Post ceremony, there was much more milling, conversation, photographs, drinks and so on.  The official photographer took a series of photos before everyone then dispersed for the few hours before the reception, while the bridal party went off to the Botanic Gardens for the photoshoot.  We drove down, and then wandered around the gardens for a few hours where the photographer took lots of pictures at a few different locations.  Since it was a really sunny day, and predicted good weather originally before the dust storms, there were lots of groups wandering around along with us, in fact, we spotted six different groups also picking prime locations in the gardens for their photos.  I guess the advantage is that it's a free location to use with nice scenic value.

We then drove over to the Riverside Receptions centre, where after a brief rest period in what appeared to be the managers office (who seemed to be a sports fan, with AFL/Football and Racing posters on the walls) we proceeded into the reception.  More mingling, finger food, and then we sat down for the meal and speeches.  Dinner was the standard three course meal, a few speeches from the two families and best man, MC'd by the two brothers, one from each side.

It was a long evening, the food wasn't too bad, good portion sized too.  I had a simple garden salad, then fish, and then pavlova with fruit.  The wedding cake was also pretty nice, I had some of the orange and almond, and the chocolate mud cake layers, with the third layer being a gluten free layer since there were some people present who weren't able to have gluten.

Music came on and there was some dancing, more milling before the new couple left for their wedding night.  After that, I left with my school friends to a hotel room where a couple were staying, where we chatted and watched on youtube a movie about gamers since we were all gamers of old pen and paper dungeons and dragons.  After that, it was home to where I was staying, where then I proceeded to stay up the entire evening because I was afraid if I slept (this was 4am at the time) I'd oversleep and miss my flight, even though I had already booked a taxi.  So, I drank tea, ate some toast for a late night snack and breakfast (without anything on it... just toast) and watched some drama on my laptop and that was pretty much it.

The taxi came, I got to the airport, slept on the plane, trained home and then got my 2nd wind, so I didn't sleep until when I was in bed that night.

That was pretty much it.