The Wedding!

Hello all, hope that you are well. I wanted to start off with a post dedicated to the wedding as it was pretty amazing.

The day dawned and it was beautiful and sunny. As the wedding wasn't starting until 4.30pm we decided to have a lazy morning involving a long relaxing lunch in the pub round the corner. After that we popped back and got dressed up in our glad rags before being the last to leave the motel (we were getting a bit worried that we might hold the bride up due to a last minute emergency shirt ironing session following nasty shaving cut/blood/white shirt type situation - obviously not my emergency as I don't shave my chin yet, I am saving that for when I am old and bearded).

A mini bus took the 7 of us, now known as the orange marigold club (yes I know it wasn't a marigold but I like the name) because of the lovely button holes that Max & Jo arranged for us all. The Mission Estate is absolutely gorgeous and a perfect setting for a wedding. Moving across the lawn you had view of mountains, vines, forests.. basically lots of wonderful natural scenery. Tom was there ready and waiting for his bride, looking very daper I might add in his suit.

We all took our seats in the most shaded areas we could find (man it was hot) as we heard the sound of bagpipes signalling that Sam had arrived. The Bag
Piper (am assuming that is official name for one who plays bag pipes) walked in to the wedding area followed by Sam's adorable nieces who were the flower girls and did a great job scattering petals (they are only 4 & 2 years old, and very cute). Ruth (Tom's sister) and Charmaine (Sam's sister) followed as the bride's maids (or matron of honor I suppose technically for Charmaine as she is married).

Next came Sam and her dad. Sam looked absolutely radiant with a huge smile on her face. Her dad looked a little nervous. The service was great and you could tell that it was a friend of the family conducting it, as it gave a really fun informal tone to the proceedings. Sam and Tom did some great comedy faces (look on Sam's face at various points was priceless which was great as it stopped me crying as I was getting a bit emotional in places). Great bit of comic timing was when they were pronunced husband and wife and in the background a champagne cork popped. Think that is an auspicious sign for the new Mr & Mrs Osbourne.

After the service the champagne and wine flowed. All of it came from the Mission and was lovely. We were ushered in to a room that looked like it came out of a fairytale of a perfect wedding, where we took our seats and ordered from the menu (ummm food was gorgeous.. I had the duck, lamb and creme brulee - obviously that is 3 courses rather than me having weird mix of food on 1 plate!) The speeches were great, all of them witty, beautiful and short - so essentially perfect.

After the meal the band came on and the dancing started. Sam & Tom took the floor for their first dance which was to Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just cares for me'. As briefed moments before they took the floor, we all quickly piled on after them so they weren't left dancing alone in front of everyone for too long. Pierre (Max's boyfriend) and Stephan (Ruth's boyfriend) had pre-arranged a dance off for that night, which was great and I believe Pierre won but Stephan may well dispute that. The two of them dancing is amazing - I don't think the band quite knew what to make of it all.

It really was a fantastic wedding, as these things do tend to be made mainly by the people. Sam & Tom are related to, and friends with, a really lovely bunch of people and we had a great time dancing, drinking, taking in the atmosphere and soaking up the views. It really was an amazing night.

Thanks Sam & Tom for inviting me, hope that you are having a fantastic honeymoon and see you in Auckland end of March!