We got our stuff together and jumped in a taxi for our hotel that we'd booked. We got a big room in The Holiday Inn in Darling Harbour for about a quarter of the price it normally is. Preya arrived quite quickly afterwards while I kept phoning Rachael to ask her to pick up stuff that we forgot, such as the spectacular wedding cake we got (5 dollars from Coles). Preya started preening Bindya, while I just stood around as I was beautiful enough... We had snacks and cracked open some wine. Eve had made a lovely bouquet for Bindya and buttonhole for me. We also had been given some champagne for the ceremony. We were waiting for Rach and Broph (who was at the cricket) then we were planning on heading off about 4ish. We also had a friend of Preya's called Emily come along. At about half 3 I looked out the window and it had started to rain. Despite this, Rach assured us that it wasn't raining and it was good luck anyway if it was. We had no contingency plan for rain as when we had first met the celebrant and asked her about this she assured us that there was no way that it would rain in January. We all got in a big cab and headed for Shelly Beach. Bindya sat in the front, clearly fretting about the rain and I sat in the back fretting about Bindya fretting about the rain. Everyone else was chatting rubbish, possibly in an attempt to take our minds off the rain, but it wasn't really working.
We got to the beach and it was still raining but at least this meant that there was no-one else there. There was a little pub/cafe there so we went in and went upstairs to the covered balcony and had a drink while watching the skies.
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| Posing for cheesy photos while we waited for the rain to stop |
Fiona (our celebrant) turned up and it finally started to clear so we finished our drinks and headed for the beach. I set up the table and stuff while Rach and Bindya stayed in the pub, watching out from the balcony. Me and Broph waved over to them just to say Hi but they thought we were asking them to come down so they started coming over. Broph had to quickly get his guitar out, me pass our camera to Emily (you have to work for an invite to our wedding) and Fiona get her folder out then Bindya was there being played in to the tune of 'Wonderful Tonight' by Brophy on guitar. The sun actually came out for this bit and it all went pretty smoothly. It was very nice for us to be able to read our own vows to each other and we had most people sobbing through this. Preya's speech/reading was lovely even though she cried throughout and Rach gave a lovely reading even though we were a little confused but understood it later. We gave each other our rings, made of the finest Bolivian silver, and then we were legally married!
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| Bindya coming down the 'aisle' |
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| Our ceremony |
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| rings |
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| Champagne |
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| Dancing |
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| Cake! |
We all sat around the table for signing the certificate and stuff then we cracked open the champagne and handed out cake and strawberries, listening to our 'Wedding megamix CD'.
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| The signing and the witnesses |
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| Rach (tightly holding the captured bouquet...) and Broph |
We had lots of pictures and chatted to Fiona then Bindya threw the bouquet which was funny due to most of the guests being single women of a certain age. Rach managed to catch it through subtle use of shoulder barging, elbow work and high jumping.
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| the bouquet |
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| The wedding party |
We had our first dance on Shelly Beach (again Etta James – At Last) and then the clouds came over and spots of rain began to fall and so we headed back to the small cafe/pub for a celebratory drink till it was time to head over to Manly for dinner. They rang the bell when we arrived, gave us a lovely table overlooking the beach, champagne for the bride and groom and were served by a waitress from Hexham. So Neil and Preya chatted about England and what it was like to live in Oz. We had a lovely dinner and cocktails (Rach was getting more drunk), Preya spilt Coke over my wedding dress but it was a great meal. We then headed back to our hotel for a quick change before heading out for a knees up.
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| At the restaurant |
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| Rach's speech... |
At the hotel room we were all merry and continued to drink as me and Neil changed outfits. Rach made her second, uncensored, speech which was in the form of a little poem. We enjoyed this a lot... We listened and danced to our i-pod and then got a knock on the door at 9.50pm telling us that they had a complaint about the nosie from our room and reminded us that no parties were allowed. We quickly (after me saying loudly who complains at 9.50pm through the walls....merry I was) left and headed for a karaoke bar. We found one which gave us a private booth and the 6 of us started on about 3 hours of karaoke and jugs of vodka and Jim Bean.
Preya and Emily left at around 1am while me, Neil, Broph and Rach headed to find a dancefloor. They (Broph and Rach) decided to take us to Scruffy Murphys, where the bouncer asked Neil how much he had drunk that day, Neil replied “a couple” and they let us all in. We then had our first Jagerbomb's (Broph promised me Jagerbomb's, karaoke and dancing) and then headed to the dancefloor for some moves.
We then decided it was time to leave and so Me and Neil headed back to the hotel at 3am. Great day and night....and big THANK YOU to our friends for making it sooooo special.
Wedding photos
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