Jacob my ‘baby’ brother was our MC for the evening.
He introduced himself and our bridal party while Lindsay and I stood waiting nervously outside the Marquee.
Jacob then introduced us as Julia and Lindsay Holmwood (I think thats what he said)
My second cousin Hallie blew bubbles for us as we walked into the marquee.
Considering that Lindsay had been standing in the marquee only hours earlier ankle deep in water it was pretty good. Only one muddy section!
Guests in the marquee
Peter took some table photos for us while Lindsay and I inhaled some dinner. What I ate tasted fantastic! Everyone commented on how well they got on with the other guests at their table. We had spent hours discussing which guests would get on the best together, who had things in common, same job etc etc.
While everyone else got stuck into the buffet, Peter escaped with us for a super quick bride and groom photo session, our getaway car?
The handy Dandy golf cart! With me driving this time though!
headbutt of happiness
“fancy seeing you here”
Me: omg, Linz, we are on a brige, i hate bridges
Lindsay: its okay, only this board here, those 3 boards over there and the next 2 are wobbly and lose.
We got back to the marquee had time for a something to drink before it was time for Speeches!!
I don’t have copies of the speeches, but when I do, I might put them online for the friends and rellies who didn’t make it to the wedding.
Dad got up, and swore with in the first 10 seconds of the speech, which I reckon is a good start.
During Dad’s speech he said that I had asked him to stick to 5 minutes, after he said that one of the Chinese lanterns fell down on one of the tables!
pre lantern falling down
After the lantern had landed
(note the missing lantern and naked bulb)
Dad recognised that as a fair warning and moved on quickly through his speech.
Up next was Justin, whose speech was very nice considering he had only decided to do a speech the night before!
Then came Will, the bestman’s speech. It was great, he knows us both so well. He did a fantastic job even with Lindsay yelling at him “don’t you F***ing dare” halfway through an embarrassing story about Lindsay.
Next up came Jacob who said some lovely things and introduced David the page boy he had forgotten to introduce during the grand bridal party entrance.
They all did amazing speeches, making me laugh, squirm and even cry!!
We got up to say some thank yous before it was time to get stuck into the dancing and dessert!
The Bush band we had was called The Inland Navigators , they played the music and called the dances. They were fantastic, they were brilliant and very very awesome.
Most guests got up and had a dance. It was so much fun.
They really got into the spirit, joking about alcoholic-ly challenged dancing, and telling us how great/terrible our dancing was! They were hilarious!
We stopped briefly for some photos, to cut the cake and have some dessert.
The gorgeous cake was a gift from my lovely friend Lea! it tasted soooo good. Chocolate mud cake!
Then it was back to the dancing.
Special mentions go to:
My uncle Maarten for teaching my aunt Kate how to dance with passion, flamboyance and no consideration for other dancers.
For Ducky, who danced the majority of the “waves of bondi’ with one hand, her other hand was busy holding onto the broken strap of her dress.
Beer for dancing with my mother and I who have no idea about timing but were having an awesome time!
Kwan for ’stealing’ my husband for the first dance but telling me how handsome he was and thus well and truly making up for it!
Kerry for coming to the rescue and tucking the train of my dress down my back and then helping me tie the chiffon around my waist.
Chris Carty for introducing himself to me as he swept me onto the dance floor after I found myself partner-less.
Little David for his break dancing,
My dad, Maarten and Louis for the ‘pole dancing’
Louis for probably being the only man who knew that he was supposed to lead the lady in the dances and doing it very well!
Little Chris Smits for dancing with me the most of the evening and being patient when I forgot the some if not most of the steps.
The band got to the last song, “Auld Lang Sang”, we all had a bit of a waltz…or a kiss and sway in Lindsay’s and my case. And a confusing dance partner swap for Lea, Jen, Will and James….lets just say Lea is trouble.
Now here comes the best bit, the caller (dance instructor/singer) of the band had worked out that there were many Dutch people at the wedding…and it turned out he himself was Dutch! He surprised us by singing the song “Lang zal ze leven” which is sung at Dutch celebrations, it means Long shall he/she live.
Without missing a beat all the Dutch-ies started singing along at the top of their lungs, me included. The awesome part is that a lot of my friends have gotten to know the song or at least the tune of the song from past birthday parties and thus were able to sing/hum/mumble along!
It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.