Doug and I had our US ceremony last night (it’s not the legal one; that will be Australia for various weird visa reasons I’m not going to go into). It was really lovely and we were thrilled to see so many of our friends here on such short notice. People left quite a bit earlier than we expected but we understand some of them had to get up early and work (we especially appreciated that when we went to grab a cubano this morning at the little coffeehouse that could and two of our guests were there working hard and had been for hours!). We were very sad that Doug’s daughters were both unable to make it, but pleased that his sister, her daughter and her husband were there.
It rained yesterday for the first time in about five months, which was lovely.
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was down from Olympia for the ceremony and she stayed here Friday night and helped clean the house and prepare food (utter angel!). We had a very silly time trying to make a pavlova. I told everyone it was a Clayton’s Pavlova, but of course, that joke doesn’t really work here either. We made lots of salads and Doug piled melon balls and raspberries into the watermelon shell and we put all the mead on ice.
I went and got my hair done (I wasn’t going to, but it needed a cut desperately, so why not get it styled while I was at it?). I won’t go through the silliness of the next bit except to say when getting wedding hair done, always wear something that unbuttons so you can get it off without disturbing the do.
Back home, more interstate guests already there (hi,
!) and into the merlot silk chiffon dress. Merlot nails to match: check. Amber engagement necklace: check. Burgundy Fluevog shoes to match: check. Garnet earrings and red paua shell bracelet from Matt to match: completely forgot until 11pm. Ah well. Doug changed into his red silk Chinese jacket and burgundy sarong.
Laid out nibblies. More guests. Looks like the rain has gone so we will walk down to the park for the ceremony. Just as the sun is setting, gorgeous skies, the air smells fresh and rejuvenated. Mum had said to me that it was Yom Kippur, but of course, with the sun set, it wasn’t any more and in fact, exactly the right time to be having a big feast.
The ceremony was lovely. I think I might post it here later when I have photos… And the food for the reception was incredible!
Thank you so much, Lars, for the unbelievably amazing mojito pork. Yum! (Yes, I have *completely* fallen off the vegetarian wagon over here.) There was so much mead. And the cake! Oh. My. God. Gluten-free chocolate bourbon cake with raspberry butter cream and fondant. It tasted like cake! And I told Doug that he had to be careful not to hit the bottom when he cut the cake or he’d have to kiss the nearest boy (it’s an old thing from when I was a teenager at birthday parties…) so, he hit bottom, turned to
‘s partner Bruce and they had a good old snog. Lars checked his watch and said, “One hour, 52 minutes!” and everybody laughed.
Sabine and Doug’s sister Linda and Kate from Barefoot *cleaned the kitchen* while I wasn’t looking which was amazing. Sabine says I have to pay it forward.
Everyone was gone by half past midnight so we went to bed and had a delightful time.
This morning we had the interstaters over for cheese platter which never got put out (mmm, taleggio and pear; mmm, edam and quince paste) and mimosas and smoked salmon omelettes which Doug whipped up. And then, Doug and I took a lovely lazy drive over Mount Hamilton to Stone City to help a little with the Mabon festivities and lay a couple of stones in their new labyrinth, since the second day after we met, we walked the labyrinth near our place in Melbourne.
Sorry for the brevity of this, but my delightful love awaits me in the bedroom and the weekend has been somewhat exhausting.