Long-Ass Wedding Update- Part Two
Aaaaaand, here's the rest of it! Apologies again for the split post. This one talks about everything from after our walk back down the aisle to our hotel stay after the reception (don't worry, it's all PG13 ;)).
Here we go again.
Once we'd headed back down the aisle and had our huge OMG WE'RE MARRIED cuddle, I was quite keen to mingle- but Matt was extremely overwhelmed and really needed some time out, and just wanted to spend some time alone with me. Plus, I think he was dying for a ciggie. ;) So, we snuck off to the cafe, Matt got himself a ginger beer (which was free, apparently!) and we plonked ourselves down on one of the tables outside- where several people came up and congratulated us and wished us a long and happy life. :) I went inside to grab a drink of water (as I realised how dry my mouth was!), and a lovely Indian couple asked to have their photo taken with me! Anyway, hubs and I hung out and chatted for about 10 minutes- I rehydrated myself, Matt smoked, and we held hands...and just chilled. We greeted a couple of guests who rushed past on their way out, and my Pop and Pip came to say hello and check on us. After that, we thought we'd better go back and greet our adoring public.
We headed back into the garden, and we were happy to see that A) people were making full use of the bouncy castle (and the photos show that just as many adults as kids partook- maybe more!) and B) tucking very enthusiastically into the food, especially Catherine's cupcakes, Rosel's Mum's salmon sandwiches and the bubbly that my new in-laws provided. I will say now that we owe Warren (my FIL), Jane and Brent and my friend Lucy and her hubby James our lives, for mucking in and helping serve up the drinks- as we hadn't organised that part at all!
Kids at heart ;)
Actual kids!
How'd you get so high!
Catherine's magnificent cupcake tower!
Yarnbombing!
Greeting our guests and getting mobbed with hugs was slightly overwhelming (as I'd predicted)...but still awesome. This is all a bit of a blur, but some highlights are:
* Hugging my Grandma (who I was convinced was going hate my dress because it wasn't white, and hate the ceremony because it wasn't in a church) and her telling me, “you look wonderful, darling- but I always knew you would!” Awww! :)
* Pip telling us that she had to look everywhere but at me during the ceremony, otherwise she'd start bawling her eyes out! And that meant a lot, because she isn't usually the sentimental type. Speaking of crying, Auntie Sara jokingly told us off for making her cry through the whole ceremony!
* Having loads of people say they loved my dress and that I looked beautiful- which is always nice. :) Especially having CJ, my old flatmate and our godson's father, say that I looked “absolutely wonderful”- and he's a staunch kiwi bloke who isn't usually one for compliments!
* Greeting Leo, Matt's old boss, who hugged me and said, “I was talking to Matt just before, and he could not stop gawping at you. He was all like, 'She's my wife...I have a wife!' I couldn't get a word in at all!” Once again, awwwww! :)
* Getting hugs from all our groomsmen. :) I thanked Den, the Best Man, for everything he'd done, and gave him a kiss on the cheek...which prompted Sam and Sean, the other groomsmen, to lean in for a kiss as well! Terrible flirts. ;) Den and I also made up something that was a cross between “the awkward man hug and the lame cool guy handshake” (Friends, FTW!).
* Getting to chat with Matt's Nana, who was put into a resthome around Christmas after having developed a form of dementia which took hold quite rapidly- and we weren't sure until about three days before if she was going to make the wedding. But, when I spoke to her, she was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and totally on to it! And she told me that she'd been telling all her fellow residents and the nurses and anyone who'd listen that she was going to her grandson's wedding- and everyone made her promise that she'd tell them all about when she got back!
* And finally, there were many special moments with the kids. For example, Henry dashing up to me just to tell me that, “OMG, Summer just went in the bouncy castle!” And Rose giving me a massive hug (and she kept hugging me several times throughout the day!) and squealing, “this is the best wedding ever!” (Uh, she's been to two ;P). And having my step-sister Freya launch herself into my arms and whisper “I love you”- which she has NEVER said to me before! <3
Awww, Mummy. <3
I got a massive bear hug from my FIL :)
Group hugs with the best man
Matt and the Ring Fairy :) (You look lovely, Ellen)
Posing under ecallen's parasol
After about 20 minutes or so of mingling, it was time for the big group shot with everyone- which I'd kinda hoped Paula would skip, as this has been an extremely irritating part of weddings I've attended in the past! However, it wasn't half as painful as I'd been expecting, and Paula did a great job of ordering all 130 of us into a nice little formation. I kept cool by snuggling into my new husband, and reciting quotes from Austin Powers with Rosel. Ilyssa, my four-year-old goddaughter, managed to shove herself straight to the front of the photo, which raised a few laughs! In the end, we got some great snaps. :)
Check out Ilyssa's Beauty and the Beast dress!
YAY!
Lovely :)
My fave!
After that, everyone who was not an immediate family member went back to mingling, raiding the food table or sampling the bouncy castle, and the rest of us all lined up for our family shots on the stage. That was fun and relatively drama free- apart from the MIL complaining that she had the wrong shoes on (she'd left her heels in the car for some reason), Summer being a bit cranky and Freya getting all camera shy and not wanting to be in some of the photos. But, again, we got some great shots. And Henry, bless him, kept doing devil horns and bunny ears above Paula's head while she was taking photos- which cracked us up, and made our smiles a hell of a lot more natural!
Us with Matt's folks
With Mum and Bill
With Dad, Catherine and the kids
With Mum, Bill and my maternal grandparents :)
Three generations! <3
Yelling at Matt to get in the photo! (He was all enchanted by his old friend's baby and couldn't hear us! ;))
The family again, with Pop and Freya
Where's the baby?! THERE SHE IS!
The sibs :)
Pretty sisters!
With Matt's grandparents :)
With his grandparents and all the cousins (on his Dad's side)
Sara took this one at the end- adorable <3
Then it was time to head off for our bridal party photo shoot- and we realised that we hadn't actually properly decided where we were going! We hurriedly decided on the Katherine Mansfield gardens right by our old flat. Then Jane asked for directions- and my mind went completely blank! Luckily, Matt set her straight. But then, we realised that Jane and Brent didn’t know who they were taking in their cars, and the groomsmen had no idea who they were riding with. Some slightly unpleasant chaos followed, when we couldn’t find Brent anywhere, the boys didn’t know what Brent or his car looked like, we hadn’t arranged for a place for Brent to meet the boys and Matt and I hadn’t arranged a place to meet Paula, who was driving us. Yeah, I got stressed. :/ But, we worked it out and, eventually, the 10 of us in the bridal party piled into three cars, and headed to KM park- about 20 behind schedule, but still in one piece!
When we got to the park, my heart sank upon noticing it was blowing a gale! Well, not quite, but the wind was very strong- which would’ve been fine, except for the fact we were all exhausted (well, Matt and I were!) But, we persevered, we got some absolutely amazing shots and had a blast!
The boys on the merri-go-round. It was hilarious- Matt and Den decided to spin the wheel at break-neck speed, and Sam and Sean got really freaked out!
All of us by the merri-go-round
Adorable couple on the swings ;)
Hehe, Matt looks like that cat that got the cream ;)
Us in the playground (I think the kids loved getting to scramble all over the climbing net in their good shoes!)
Rose and Lucy discovered the seasaw!
Windswept ladies
My girls look gorgeous, I look kinda...munted. I think Rosel was cracking me up with her Shakira impressions!
Sara's flowers got caught in Pip's hair- which actually made for an hilarious photo (sorry, Pip)!
My absolute favourite photo of me :)
Boo-tay!
Great shot of the dress :)
And, of course, there were many, many lovey-dovey photos of hubs and I ;)
Forehead wrestling!
One good kiss...
...deserves another!
I LOVE this series of us...
Awww, gazing dreamily
Yeah, we made out a lot- as Rose brought to our attention later on. ;)
I has a hot husband ;)
Love this one (shows off the shoes nicely ;))
Lovely brother
Lovely sister
After we were done modelling, we piled back into our three cars, and it was off to the Tussock for the PARTY! We arrived at the Tussock just after 6pm (15 minutes behind schedule, but hey), whereupon we were greeted with massive hugs by Denise, our wedding co-ordinator- who’d been an absolute angel throughout our planning process!. And, upon seeing us arrive all our guests (who’d seated themselves according to our plan by that stage) all stood up and cheered! Aw, lovely. :) I was also happy to see that Denise and her team had done a brilliant job of setting everything up, and how frigging fantastic the decorations looked! The centrepieces, the table runners, the CD mobiles, Pip’s place cards, the favours, the yarn ball fairy lights…everything looked fabulous (and I was so scared they’d look shit! Except for Pip’s place cards, which I never doubted!).
We schmoozed around some of the tables and greeted more guests. After that, we headed to our bridal party table (which stressed me out slightly, given the 8 of us adults were rather cramped together, and were practically elbow-to-elbow- but I got over it!) where 4 large plates of canapés were waiting for us! By this stage I was absolutely STARVING, as the sum total of my nutrition that day included a couple of slices of pizza, a few strawberries, some crackers and dip at Jane’s and two of Catherine’s cupcakes after the ceremony. So, I grabbed several handfuls of the blue cheese-stuffed mushrooms (OMG UH-MAZ-ING!!!) and the little ham and mozzarella bites (couldn’t remember what they were called, but still delish), and scarfed them down in a manner most inelegant! But, oh, they were PERFECT. :D Eventually everyone sat down, Den did his MC thing (toilets are over there...in the unlikely event of an emergency, everyone get the hell out...) and then called Matt and I up to run the music quiz.
Our arrival
Guests being awesome :D
Schmoozing
Jane looks like she's scheming something ;)
Lovely shot of Matt's grandparents :)
Den and Sam, yarning away!
And Den MCing away
The music quiz was...a good idea in theory, put it that way. ;) Nah, it was fun. Irritating in parts, especially given that certain unnamed people were several sheets to the wind by that stage, it was hard to get a few tables' attention to start the question, and Summer and Matt's mates' wee 10-week-old were grizzling away in the background (as babies do, of course)....and really, I don't know how pub quiz masters do it, especially when people keep yelling out “what was the question again?!”. ;) Plus, I ended up belting Matt in the arm for giving away a blatant clue- which caused him to yelp, and the audience to joke about "husband bashing" (as his Auntie Cathie yelled out, “Get used to it!”). But it was a good lark, and everyone got into it- especially our reader Fran, who jumped up and down excitedly when the U2-themed question came up!
And then it was time for food. We at the bridal table got our own separate buffet, and I got to pile my plate sky-high! And the food was beyond amazing. Especially the salmon- even better than my Mum’s famous baked salmon dish! Mum tried to discourage us from spending money on dinner during the planning process, as “no-one remembers the food.” Turns out, almost everyone we have spoken to since has waxed lyrical over the buffet and have said it was “the best wedding food ever”! Money well spent. ;)
Anyway, dinner was fairly uneventful. I ate loads, the girls and I ordered several raspberry cokes each, I marked the quiz, Pip continued writing her speech on her iPhone, Sam starting doodling a cartoon storyboard, Matt went out for a ciggie break with his cousins, the kids rolled around in the grass outside, Matt's Mum carried the little 10-week-old about and looked seriously clucky, several people came up and chatted to us and even more people gathered around the chocolate fountain.
Matt returned a little bit before we were due to start speeches, and looked more than slightly exhausted, so I ordered us more cokes, in an attempt to pick us both up! Also, I got stressed at some point (maybe because we were running late for speeches? I dunno) and when Den asked me to write down the order the speeches were meant to go in, I frantically scrawled all the names down and my writing was totally illegible- and Den was like wtf?! :/ Plus, I got stressed further when Matt muttered to me just at the speeches were starting that he was feeling a bit grumpy and over it all. :( But, he cheered up significantly during the speeches, so it was fine! :)
Adorable one of Matt; hideous one of me.
Sam doodling, Matt waving, me marking and Pip writing her speech
Raspberry coke!
Rose and Lucy sampling the chocolatey goodness! (The chocolate fountain was extremely popular...and delicious!)
Saucy! ;)
My Mum went first and, despite her initial reticence at being asked to speak, gave an absolutely amazing speech- which had everyone roaring with laughter and me just about bawling with happiness. In her welcome to everyone, she mentioned my Nana who passed away two years ago, and said, “she'd be so happy to see you looking so radiant, Erin.” My eyes might've started leaking a bit. :)
Mum went on to talk about the time that Matt rang her to ask her for “my hand in marriage”, and her first thought was that he was ringing to tell her I was mortally wounded and being rushed to hospital...so the prospect of a marriage proposal was a relief! She mentioned her proudest moments as my Mum (like when I was awarded Proxime Accesit in my final year of high school, or Salutorian for the Americans), the harrowing moments (like me running out of money in New York and texting her to ask for 2 extra grand in the middle of the MOMA :S) and the special mother-daughter moments (like us going together for the first fitting of my wedding dress on Christmas Eve). She said that Matt can “take on our Erin with our blessing”, because he "truly appreciates how special she is.” (That's true ;P). And she finished up by saying how much she loved listening to our radio show, and hearing Matt crack up while listening to me, “his warm, witty and utterly brilliant partner.” Yeah, I lost it. :D
Matt's Dad was up next- and he gave his speech in Te Reo Maori (which he's been learning for several years). I believe everyone was suitably impressed! He did an English translation, ending with a Maori proverb- which, from memory, went, “The rope that binds the waka (canoe) is easily severed. But the love that binds two souls is never torn apart.” Everyone went "awwwww" and I nearly started blubbering again. I think Matt was super proud of his Dad. :)
Then it was Den's turn with his Best Man's speech- which was adorable and surprisngly not that embarrassing. ;) However, he did raise several laughs, when he mentioned meeting me at the hairdressers (back in 2007, before I even knew Matt existed!) and us bonding over our hatred of emo music, and the time when him, Matt and myself went on a a late night excursion to KM park...where we managed to persuade Matt to come hill-rolling with us, even though he was wearing rather expensive jeans that he didn't want to ruin. ;) Den said that he could have filled everyone in on more of our flatting adventures- but “what happens in Thorndon stays in Thorndon.” After which I yelled out “Wolf pack!” (a reference to the Hangover movies), which cracked everyone up!
After Den's speech, it was time for dessert- which they served to us in little cups, kinda like shot glasses. I managed a few spoonfuls of the Baileys chocolate mousse and the trifle, but couldn't manage much more, on account of being seriously full from dinner and rather nervous about my upcoming speech. After a bit more mingling and hanging around the chocolate fountain, it was time for the last round of speeches, starting with Pip- with the speech she wrote on her iPhone!
She started off by mentioning that she and I have known each other 20 years this year- and she had with her a blown-up photo of the two of us taken at my 8th birthday party, looking very smart in our early 90s party dresses. ;) She said many lovely things (including references to Notting Hill and Grey's Anatomy)- but what surprised and moved me the most was that she chose to go to Canterbury University because she knew that's where I planned to go, and she wanted us to do the University thing together. :) Honestly, I never knew that; I thought she just liked the sound of their Geology department! She ended her speech by saying she was wearing a ring passed to her by her Great Aunt, who'd been married over 60 years when she died (six weeks to the day after her husband) in 2008- and she wished us a marriage that was even longer and happier than theirs. :) Yup, more tearing up from me.
Me and my Person :)
Matt was next up with his groom's speech- which he started off with a Nek Minnit joke! Which went something like, "Matt and Erin met on NZDating. Nek Minnit”! You kinda have to watch the video to get it- but he got the voice right and everything! I think you probably need to be a kiwi to appreciate it (it's kind of a thing with us...) - but it definitely went down well with our crowd. ;) He went on to talk about our first date and how great it was- and how we held hands for first time, and that one of the first things he noticed was my “lovely, warm, open smile”. He told me later that he was planning on saying that I had “a lovely, warm, open smile and nice boobs.” HA! I told him that I'd have laughed, but both my grandfathers would probably have had him run out of town. ;P
Love this pic of my husband. ;) Though he looks like he's about to get bashed in the head by a CD mobile!
Then it was my turn. I started off by saying, “Anyone who was at my 21st will know that I have a tendency to either ramble on, or spontaneously burst into song.” Yeah, big mistake. ;) In the middle of me waxing lyrical about my bridesmaids, the MIL yelled out, “you can sing now!”...which, of course, got everyone stomping and hollering and demanding my musical performance. I was momentarily terrified and frozen to the spot. But, I decided I couldn't beat 'em- and serenaded my new husband with the first verse of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (looking back on it, I probably should have added the chorus in there as well- but that might've been a bit racy, in retrospect!). Matt looked pretty thrilled- as did the audience, who gave me a standing ovation. ;) My heart was racing with all the adrenaline and nerves, I definitely remember yelling “Sara, I'm going to get you!” at my MIL over all the applause! But, I was happy. :D
During my speech :)
A Katy Perry pose. Or maybe just Bluesteel ;)
I finished my speech off with a wee spiel about how awesome Matt is, and how his love has gone a long way to helping me truly believe in myself and how, in the words of that horrible cheesy country song, I am truly “amazed” by him- and will continue to be amazed by him every day of our lives. Once again, n'awwww! Matt gave me a big kiss...and then it was time for us to announce the results of the music quiz.
As it turned out, some people did quite well- while others were not so lucky. ;) I was surprised that not many people got the Cat Stevens and Lady Gaga questions right...but everyone got the Beatles question (thanks to my hubby's clue!) and the Def Leppard question. We dashed through the answers, as everyone was getting a bit restless, and we ended up third prize to Matt's Aunties and Uncles (which was wrong- ecallen's team should have taken third! Got the answer sheets muddled somehow :/), who got a tiara and wand as a prize, second to morbane's team, who won a kids' “fishing set”, complete with rod and fish, and miriamus's team got first place and won a set of plastic numchucks...which I may have seen Mims playing with towards the end of the night; ;)
With the formal part of the evening over, it was back to mingling and hanging about the chocolate fountain (or the bar ;)). Which was fun...however, I had a minor panic when we ran into Fran and her hubby, who were planning on heading off. I was all like, “but you can't! Our first dance is soon!” (And Fran was one of the few people who knew about our first dance song!) They very graciously agreed to stay. However, that meant we had to get cake-cutting out of the way, quick smart. So, I commenced running around like a mad thing, trying to find Denise to get a knife for the cake, trying to get everyone's attention over the microphone and trying to herd a large group of people in from outside.
However, at this point, Ilyssa and Tyla, Matt friend Anna's daughter (sister to the 10-week-old), had grabbed the microphone from the bridal table and were having quite a nice time entertaining the crowd. ;) Tyla kept yelling “A plus plus” into the microphone (she did a drawing for Sam, who apparently gave her an A + + grade! Cute...), and Ilyssa swiped the microphone and gave everyone her best rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. The audience LOVED her! So, that took my mind off the stress. ;)
Anyway, we managed to get most people's attention, and we cut the cake. Which killed my wrists, as Ellen's lemon curd cake was THICK! And we had to do it twice, as Cory missed it the first time and needed it for the video. But we managed, and posed awkwardly for everyone's camera. I made sure to grab a piece of the lemon cake later on (even though I was stuffed full), and it was superb. :)
I was such a hot mess ;)
Close up of our caketoppers, which I was super proud of!
Shortly after that, it was time for our first dance- which also took a bit of cat-herding to organise (and two calls over the microphone!), but hey. Our choice of “Sweet Child o' Mine” seemed to go down well with the crowd, as did all our twirls and spins from my Uni n' roll classes that I taught Matt when we were first dating. :) We gestured to everyone to join us on the dance floor after- which took a couple of tries, but the floor soon filled up.
The kids all joined in and jumped around madly- and Rose and Henry showed everyone the “waltz” (or it may have been a Gay Gordon) they learned at school. We were also joined by lots of walzting couples, including Mum and Bill, my grandparents, my cousin Laura and her feller, Matt's cousin Keryn and her husband (Irish Dave) and Fran and her husband (who'd stayed!). Matt and I switched partners with Mum and Bill (Bill is a terrible dancer- but it was adorable!), and later danced in a “group-hug” with Jane and Auntie Sara. And yes, we air guitared! ;)
Don't know what I'm doing with my hand here...
Everyone finally hit the floor!
Hehe, Mims looks like she's having fun! ;)
Me with Ellen, our Ring Fairy, Set-Up Fairy and Baker :D
METAL! One of the best shots of the night!
So, that was fun. However, a lot of people starting taking off after our first dance. Which bummed me out at first...but we were over a hour late, and people would have been pretty bushed (and sunburnt!) after spending so much time out in the sun. And after that, the remaining people danced for a few more songs, but then went back to hanging about in groups, either at the tables, or outside or around the bar. So, the big ass dance party we'd planned (like the one that went down at screwthepast's wedding!). But, to be honest, I was completey shagged, and couldn't manage more than about four songs' worth of dancing. BUT I got to leap about with Matt and his old school mates to “Pour Some Sugar On Me”...so that was something! And later on, Matt and I got to slow dance to “Wicked Game”- and we basically just held each other, let the music wash over us and everyone else seemed to disappear. Beautiful.
Once all the dancing was done, I basically collapsed on the bench outside, where Matt, Cory, the groomsmen and some of Matt's other friends were gathered. I chatted to a few people as they came past, and hugged some more people as they were leaving. Henry was holding court, and telling Cory and the groomsmen about Steven Hawking and Quantum Physics...at which everyone was exclaiming, “Dude, you're how old?! 13?!” Yeah, he's from good stock. ;)
After we went inside, it was pretty just a mingle-fest until the end of the night. I was starting to get a headache (think it might have been caffeine withdrawl looking back on it...) and my feet were killing me- but I was too busy pinging from person to person to care! We hung out with the bridesmaids, ecallen, Mims, Keryn and Irish Dave, Den's girlfriend Suzie, (my friend) Lucy and her husband and her sister Kate, Matt's cousin Jared (who jokingly declared he “hated” me for my crafting abilities- when he has none!), Matt's other cousin Dennis (who was rather drunk and kept giving us neck-breaking hugs) and Matt's Auntie Sue- who was spectacularly sozzled, and would not stop cuddling me and telling me how much she loved me “because you love Matt so much!” Very sweet, but she would not let me go! I told her to “go and give your nephew a hug”- and then she latched on to Matt and didn't let him go for about five minutes! Quite lovely, actually. :)
Pretty us :)
Group hug!
Matt and Mims :)
Saying bye to Dad
Another one of my absolute favourite shots :)
Rose and Lucy, taking a moment
Me with (the other) Lucy and Kate, two long-time friends :)
Me with Auntie Sue...who was rather cuddly!
Man, I look tired here...
That was all awesome. It got to about 11.45, and Denise and the crew were packing down around us. Pip was fantastic and loaded everything into her car- after insisted on taking heaps of photos of us! Denise was also fantastic, and ordered cabs for everyone. It felt odd for the night to be ending already after nearly 15 months of planning...but, at the same time, I was seriously flagging and couldn't wait for some time alone with my husband. So, after loads more hugs, hurriedly grabbing my overnight bag from Jane's car, grabbing my Eftpos card and cellphone from Pip and making sure Matt had our hotel room key, we bundled ourselves into our cab and we were off to our final destination- the hotel!
I'll keep this last bit short, this has gotten bloody long! But the hotel was just amazing. The suite my Dad booked for us was gorgeous- lovely soft bed, lots of lazy-boy chairs, huge flat-screen TV, a mini-bar and the most fabulous breakfast waiting for us in the morning. We both raided the mini-bar (though we were boring and had coke and orange juice - we promised each other we wouldn't drink on the day) and tucked into the nibbles Lucy and James had given us, which Jane had very generously dropped off for us. Definitely beat going back to our horribly untidy flat!
So that was all brilliant...but the best part of our hotel stay was just being alone together. As I said in a post right after the wedding (and on my Offbeat Bride post), collapsing on our bed in my dress, cuddling and kissing Matt, looking down at our rings, being suddenly hit with the enormity of what we'd just done (uh, gotten married, that is!) and wanting to cry were up there with the best moments of my whole wedding day. I was exhausted...but completely blissed out. :D And that blissed out feeling continued for several days afterwards. ;)
So we managed to get me out of my dress (thanks to Pip's instructions before we left the reception- and it was SO much easier to get out of than in to!)...and I'll let you guys figure out what happened next. ;) Translation: I pretty much crawled into bed (somehow managing to get all my hair pins out, wash my face and get into my nightie!) and crashed, while Matt watched TV next to me, before cuddling up and also crashing. V. boring. ;) And when we woke up in the morning, we were married. :D And had an amazing breakfast.
So...that's it. ;) It's been three months, but the memories get more and more awesome with time! We had a fantastic day, and I would go back and do it all again in a heartbeat (except I'd do a tech run-through next time!). We have amazing families and so many fabulous friends, without whom we never would have pulled this thing off. And now, I have one amazing husband. And life is good. :) And...hopefully this'll be the last wedding post for a while!
Thanks for reading!
Here we go again.
Once we'd headed back down the aisle and had our huge OMG WE'RE MARRIED cuddle, I was quite keen to mingle- but Matt was extremely overwhelmed and really needed some time out, and just wanted to spend some time alone with me. Plus, I think he was dying for a ciggie. ;) So, we snuck off to the cafe, Matt got himself a ginger beer (which was free, apparently!) and we plonked ourselves down on one of the tables outside- where several people came up and congratulated us and wished us a long and happy life. :) I went inside to grab a drink of water (as I realised how dry my mouth was!), and a lovely Indian couple asked to have their photo taken with me! Anyway, hubs and I hung out and chatted for about 10 minutes- I rehydrated myself, Matt smoked, and we held hands...and just chilled. We greeted a couple of guests who rushed past on their way out, and my Pop and Pip came to say hello and check on us. After that, we thought we'd better go back and greet our adoring public.
We headed back into the garden, and we were happy to see that A) people were making full use of the bouncy castle (and the photos show that just as many adults as kids partook- maybe more!) and B) tucking very enthusiastically into the food, especially Catherine's cupcakes, Rosel's Mum's salmon sandwiches and the bubbly that my new in-laws provided. I will say now that we owe Warren (my FIL), Jane and Brent and my friend Lucy and her hubby James our lives, for mucking in and helping serve up the drinks- as we hadn't organised that part at all!
Kids at heart ;)
Actual kids!
How'd you get so high!
Catherine's magnificent cupcake tower!
Yarnbombing!
Greeting our guests and getting mobbed with hugs was slightly overwhelming (as I'd predicted)...but still awesome. This is all a bit of a blur, but some highlights are:
* Hugging my Grandma (who I was convinced was going hate my dress because it wasn't white, and hate the ceremony because it wasn't in a church) and her telling me, “you look wonderful, darling- but I always knew you would!” Awww! :)
* Pip telling us that she had to look everywhere but at me during the ceremony, otherwise she'd start bawling her eyes out! And that meant a lot, because she isn't usually the sentimental type. Speaking of crying, Auntie Sara jokingly told us off for making her cry through the whole ceremony!
* Having loads of people say they loved my dress and that I looked beautiful- which is always nice. :) Especially having CJ, my old flatmate and our godson's father, say that I looked “absolutely wonderful”- and he's a staunch kiwi bloke who isn't usually one for compliments!
* Greeting Leo, Matt's old boss, who hugged me and said, “I was talking to Matt just before, and he could not stop gawping at you. He was all like, 'She's my wife...I have a wife!' I couldn't get a word in at all!” Once again, awwwww! :)
* Getting hugs from all our groomsmen. :) I thanked Den, the Best Man, for everything he'd done, and gave him a kiss on the cheek...which prompted Sam and Sean, the other groomsmen, to lean in for a kiss as well! Terrible flirts. ;) Den and I also made up something that was a cross between “the awkward man hug and the lame cool guy handshake” (Friends, FTW!).
* Getting to chat with Matt's Nana, who was put into a resthome around Christmas after having developed a form of dementia which took hold quite rapidly- and we weren't sure until about three days before if she was going to make the wedding. But, when I spoke to her, she was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and totally on to it! And she told me that she'd been telling all her fellow residents and the nurses and anyone who'd listen that she was going to her grandson's wedding- and everyone made her promise that she'd tell them all about when she got back!
* And finally, there were many special moments with the kids. For example, Henry dashing up to me just to tell me that, “OMG, Summer just went in the bouncy castle!” And Rose giving me a massive hug (and she kept hugging me several times throughout the day!) and squealing, “this is the best wedding ever!” (Uh, she's been to two ;P). And having my step-sister Freya launch herself into my arms and whisper “I love you”- which she has NEVER said to me before! <3
Awww, Mummy. <3
I got a massive bear hug from my FIL :)
Group hugs with the best man
Matt and the Ring Fairy :) (You look lovely, Ellen)
Posing under ecallen's parasol
After about 20 minutes or so of mingling, it was time for the big group shot with everyone- which I'd kinda hoped Paula would skip, as this has been an extremely irritating part of weddings I've attended in the past! However, it wasn't half as painful as I'd been expecting, and Paula did a great job of ordering all 130 of us into a nice little formation. I kept cool by snuggling into my new husband, and reciting quotes from Austin Powers with Rosel. Ilyssa, my four-year-old goddaughter, managed to shove herself straight to the front of the photo, which raised a few laughs! In the end, we got some great snaps. :)
Check out Ilyssa's Beauty and the Beast dress!
YAY!
Lovely :)
My fave!
After that, everyone who was not an immediate family member went back to mingling, raiding the food table or sampling the bouncy castle, and the rest of us all lined up for our family shots on the stage. That was fun and relatively drama free- apart from the MIL complaining that she had the wrong shoes on (she'd left her heels in the car for some reason), Summer being a bit cranky and Freya getting all camera shy and not wanting to be in some of the photos. But, again, we got some great shots. And Henry, bless him, kept doing devil horns and bunny ears above Paula's head while she was taking photos- which cracked us up, and made our smiles a hell of a lot more natural!
Us with Matt's folks
With Mum and Bill
With Dad, Catherine and the kids
With Mum, Bill and my maternal grandparents :)
Three generations! <3
Yelling at Matt to get in the photo! (He was all enchanted by his old friend's baby and couldn't hear us! ;))
The family again, with Pop and Freya
Where's the baby?! THERE SHE IS!
The sibs :)
Pretty sisters!
With Matt's grandparents :)
With his grandparents and all the cousins (on his Dad's side)
Sara took this one at the end- adorable <3
Then it was time to head off for our bridal party photo shoot- and we realised that we hadn't actually properly decided where we were going! We hurriedly decided on the Katherine Mansfield gardens right by our old flat. Then Jane asked for directions- and my mind went completely blank! Luckily, Matt set her straight. But then, we realised that Jane and Brent didn’t know who they were taking in their cars, and the groomsmen had no idea who they were riding with. Some slightly unpleasant chaos followed, when we couldn’t find Brent anywhere, the boys didn’t know what Brent or his car looked like, we hadn’t arranged for a place for Brent to meet the boys and Matt and I hadn’t arranged a place to meet Paula, who was driving us. Yeah, I got stressed. :/ But, we worked it out and, eventually, the 10 of us in the bridal party piled into three cars, and headed to KM park- about 20 behind schedule, but still in one piece!
When we got to the park, my heart sank upon noticing it was blowing a gale! Well, not quite, but the wind was very strong- which would’ve been fine, except for the fact we were all exhausted (well, Matt and I were!) But, we persevered, we got some absolutely amazing shots and had a blast!
The boys on the merri-go-round. It was hilarious- Matt and Den decided to spin the wheel at break-neck speed, and Sam and Sean got really freaked out!
All of us by the merri-go-round
Adorable couple on the swings ;)
Hehe, Matt looks like that cat that got the cream ;)
Us in the playground (I think the kids loved getting to scramble all over the climbing net in their good shoes!)
Rose and Lucy discovered the seasaw!
Windswept ladies
My girls look gorgeous, I look kinda...munted. I think Rosel was cracking me up with her Shakira impressions!
Sara's flowers got caught in Pip's hair- which actually made for an hilarious photo (sorry, Pip)!
My absolute favourite photo of me :)
Boo-tay!
Great shot of the dress :)
And, of course, there were many, many lovey-dovey photos of hubs and I ;)
Forehead wrestling!
One good kiss...
...deserves another!
I LOVE this series of us...
Awww, gazing dreamily
Yeah, we made out a lot- as Rose brought to our attention later on. ;)
I has a hot husband ;)
Love this one (shows off the shoes nicely ;))
Lovely brother
Lovely sister
After we were done modelling, we piled back into our three cars, and it was off to the Tussock for the PARTY! We arrived at the Tussock just after 6pm (15 minutes behind schedule, but hey), whereupon we were greeted with massive hugs by Denise, our wedding co-ordinator- who’d been an absolute angel throughout our planning process!. And, upon seeing us arrive all our guests (who’d seated themselves according to our plan by that stage) all stood up and cheered! Aw, lovely. :) I was also happy to see that Denise and her team had done a brilliant job of setting everything up, and how frigging fantastic the decorations looked! The centrepieces, the table runners, the CD mobiles, Pip’s place cards, the favours, the yarn ball fairy lights…everything looked fabulous (and I was so scared they’d look shit! Except for Pip’s place cards, which I never doubted!).
We schmoozed around some of the tables and greeted more guests. After that, we headed to our bridal party table (which stressed me out slightly, given the 8 of us adults were rather cramped together, and were practically elbow-to-elbow- but I got over it!) where 4 large plates of canapés were waiting for us! By this stage I was absolutely STARVING, as the sum total of my nutrition that day included a couple of slices of pizza, a few strawberries, some crackers and dip at Jane’s and two of Catherine’s cupcakes after the ceremony. So, I grabbed several handfuls of the blue cheese-stuffed mushrooms (OMG UH-MAZ-ING!!!) and the little ham and mozzarella bites (couldn’t remember what they were called, but still delish), and scarfed them down in a manner most inelegant! But, oh, they were PERFECT. :D Eventually everyone sat down, Den did his MC thing (toilets are over there...in the unlikely event of an emergency, everyone get the hell out...) and then called Matt and I up to run the music quiz.
Our arrival
Guests being awesome :D
Schmoozing
Jane looks like she's scheming something ;)
Lovely shot of Matt's grandparents :)
Den and Sam, yarning away!
And Den MCing away
The music quiz was...a good idea in theory, put it that way. ;) Nah, it was fun. Irritating in parts, especially given that certain unnamed people were several sheets to the wind by that stage, it was hard to get a few tables' attention to start the question, and Summer and Matt's mates' wee 10-week-old were grizzling away in the background (as babies do, of course)....and really, I don't know how pub quiz masters do it, especially when people keep yelling out “what was the question again?!”. ;) Plus, I ended up belting Matt in the arm for giving away a blatant clue- which caused him to yelp, and the audience to joke about "husband bashing" (as his Auntie Cathie yelled out, “Get used to it!”). But it was a good lark, and everyone got into it- especially our reader Fran, who jumped up and down excitedly when the U2-themed question came up!
And then it was time for food. We at the bridal table got our own separate buffet, and I got to pile my plate sky-high! And the food was beyond amazing. Especially the salmon- even better than my Mum’s famous baked salmon dish! Mum tried to discourage us from spending money on dinner during the planning process, as “no-one remembers the food.” Turns out, almost everyone we have spoken to since has waxed lyrical over the buffet and have said it was “the best wedding food ever”! Money well spent. ;)
Anyway, dinner was fairly uneventful. I ate loads, the girls and I ordered several raspberry cokes each, I marked the quiz, Pip continued writing her speech on her iPhone, Sam starting doodling a cartoon storyboard, Matt went out for a ciggie break with his cousins, the kids rolled around in the grass outside, Matt's Mum carried the little 10-week-old about and looked seriously clucky, several people came up and chatted to us and even more people gathered around the chocolate fountain.
Matt returned a little bit before we were due to start speeches, and looked more than slightly exhausted, so I ordered us more cokes, in an attempt to pick us both up! Also, I got stressed at some point (maybe because we were running late for speeches? I dunno) and when Den asked me to write down the order the speeches were meant to go in, I frantically scrawled all the names down and my writing was totally illegible- and Den was like wtf?! :/ Plus, I got stressed further when Matt muttered to me just at the speeches were starting that he was feeling a bit grumpy and over it all. :( But, he cheered up significantly during the speeches, so it was fine! :)
Adorable one of Matt; hideous one of me.
Sam doodling, Matt waving, me marking and Pip writing her speech
Raspberry coke!
Rose and Lucy sampling the chocolatey goodness! (The chocolate fountain was extremely popular...and delicious!)
Saucy! ;)
My Mum went first and, despite her initial reticence at being asked to speak, gave an absolutely amazing speech- which had everyone roaring with laughter and me just about bawling with happiness. In her welcome to everyone, she mentioned my Nana who passed away two years ago, and said, “she'd be so happy to see you looking so radiant, Erin.” My eyes might've started leaking a bit. :)
Mum went on to talk about the time that Matt rang her to ask her for “my hand in marriage”, and her first thought was that he was ringing to tell her I was mortally wounded and being rushed to hospital...so the prospect of a marriage proposal was a relief! She mentioned her proudest moments as my Mum (like when I was awarded Proxime Accesit in my final year of high school, or Salutorian for the Americans), the harrowing moments (like me running out of money in New York and texting her to ask for 2 extra grand in the middle of the MOMA :S) and the special mother-daughter moments (like us going together for the first fitting of my wedding dress on Christmas Eve). She said that Matt can “take on our Erin with our blessing”, because he "truly appreciates how special she is.” (That's true ;P). And she finished up by saying how much she loved listening to our radio show, and hearing Matt crack up while listening to me, “his warm, witty and utterly brilliant partner.” Yeah, I lost it. :D
Matt's Dad was up next- and he gave his speech in Te Reo Maori (which he's been learning for several years). I believe everyone was suitably impressed! He did an English translation, ending with a Maori proverb- which, from memory, went, “The rope that binds the waka (canoe) is easily severed. But the love that binds two souls is never torn apart.” Everyone went "awwwww" and I nearly started blubbering again. I think Matt was super proud of his Dad. :)
Then it was Den's turn with his Best Man's speech- which was adorable and surprisngly not that embarrassing. ;) However, he did raise several laughs, when he mentioned meeting me at the hairdressers (back in 2007, before I even knew Matt existed!) and us bonding over our hatred of emo music, and the time when him, Matt and myself went on a a late night excursion to KM park...where we managed to persuade Matt to come hill-rolling with us, even though he was wearing rather expensive jeans that he didn't want to ruin. ;) Den said that he could have filled everyone in on more of our flatting adventures- but “what happens in Thorndon stays in Thorndon.” After which I yelled out “Wolf pack!” (a reference to the Hangover movies), which cracked everyone up!
After Den's speech, it was time for dessert- which they served to us in little cups, kinda like shot glasses. I managed a few spoonfuls of the Baileys chocolate mousse and the trifle, but couldn't manage much more, on account of being seriously full from dinner and rather nervous about my upcoming speech. After a bit more mingling and hanging around the chocolate fountain, it was time for the last round of speeches, starting with Pip- with the speech she wrote on her iPhone!
She started off by mentioning that she and I have known each other 20 years this year- and she had with her a blown-up photo of the two of us taken at my 8th birthday party, looking very smart in our early 90s party dresses. ;) She said many lovely things (including references to Notting Hill and Grey's Anatomy)- but what surprised and moved me the most was that she chose to go to Canterbury University because she knew that's where I planned to go, and she wanted us to do the University thing together. :) Honestly, I never knew that; I thought she just liked the sound of their Geology department! She ended her speech by saying she was wearing a ring passed to her by her Great Aunt, who'd been married over 60 years when she died (six weeks to the day after her husband) in 2008- and she wished us a marriage that was even longer and happier than theirs. :) Yup, more tearing up from me.
Me and my Person :)
Matt was next up with his groom's speech- which he started off with a Nek Minnit joke! Which went something like, "Matt and Erin met on NZDating. Nek Minnit”! You kinda have to watch the video to get it- but he got the voice right and everything! I think you probably need to be a kiwi to appreciate it (it's kind of a thing with us...) - but it definitely went down well with our crowd. ;) He went on to talk about our first date and how great it was- and how we held hands for first time, and that one of the first things he noticed was my “lovely, warm, open smile”. He told me later that he was planning on saying that I had “a lovely, warm, open smile and nice boobs.” HA! I told him that I'd have laughed, but both my grandfathers would probably have had him run out of town. ;P
Love this pic of my husband. ;) Though he looks like he's about to get bashed in the head by a CD mobile!
Then it was my turn. I started off by saying, “Anyone who was at my 21st will know that I have a tendency to either ramble on, or spontaneously burst into song.” Yeah, big mistake. ;) In the middle of me waxing lyrical about my bridesmaids, the MIL yelled out, “you can sing now!”...which, of course, got everyone stomping and hollering and demanding my musical performance. I was momentarily terrified and frozen to the spot. But, I decided I couldn't beat 'em- and serenaded my new husband with the first verse of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (looking back on it, I probably should have added the chorus in there as well- but that might've been a bit racy, in retrospect!). Matt looked pretty thrilled- as did the audience, who gave me a standing ovation. ;) My heart was racing with all the adrenaline and nerves, I definitely remember yelling “Sara, I'm going to get you!” at my MIL over all the applause! But, I was happy. :D
During my speech :)
A Katy Perry pose. Or maybe just Bluesteel ;)
I finished my speech off with a wee spiel about how awesome Matt is, and how his love has gone a long way to helping me truly believe in myself and how, in the words of that horrible cheesy country song, I am truly “amazed” by him- and will continue to be amazed by him every day of our lives. Once again, n'awwww! Matt gave me a big kiss...and then it was time for us to announce the results of the music quiz.
As it turned out, some people did quite well- while others were not so lucky. ;) I was surprised that not many people got the Cat Stevens and Lady Gaga questions right...but everyone got the Beatles question (thanks to my hubby's clue!) and the Def Leppard question. We dashed through the answers, as everyone was getting a bit restless, and we ended up third prize to Matt's Aunties and Uncles (which was wrong- ecallen's team should have taken third! Got the answer sheets muddled somehow :/), who got a tiara and wand as a prize, second to morbane's team, who won a kids' “fishing set”, complete with rod and fish, and miriamus's team got first place and won a set of plastic numchucks...which I may have seen Mims playing with towards the end of the night; ;)
With the formal part of the evening over, it was back to mingling and hanging about the chocolate fountain (or the bar ;)). Which was fun...however, I had a minor panic when we ran into Fran and her hubby, who were planning on heading off. I was all like, “but you can't! Our first dance is soon!” (And Fran was one of the few people who knew about our first dance song!) They very graciously agreed to stay. However, that meant we had to get cake-cutting out of the way, quick smart. So, I commenced running around like a mad thing, trying to find Denise to get a knife for the cake, trying to get everyone's attention over the microphone and trying to herd a large group of people in from outside.
However, at this point, Ilyssa and Tyla, Matt friend Anna's daughter (sister to the 10-week-old), had grabbed the microphone from the bridal table and were having quite a nice time entertaining the crowd. ;) Tyla kept yelling “A plus plus” into the microphone (she did a drawing for Sam, who apparently gave her an A + + grade! Cute...), and Ilyssa swiped the microphone and gave everyone her best rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. The audience LOVED her! So, that took my mind off the stress. ;)
Anyway, we managed to get most people's attention, and we cut the cake. Which killed my wrists, as Ellen's lemon curd cake was THICK! And we had to do it twice, as Cory missed it the first time and needed it for the video. But we managed, and posed awkwardly for everyone's camera. I made sure to grab a piece of the lemon cake later on (even though I was stuffed full), and it was superb. :)
I was such a hot mess ;)
Close up of our caketoppers, which I was super proud of!
Shortly after that, it was time for our first dance- which also took a bit of cat-herding to organise (and two calls over the microphone!), but hey. Our choice of “Sweet Child o' Mine” seemed to go down well with the crowd, as did all our twirls and spins from my Uni n' roll classes that I taught Matt when we were first dating. :) We gestured to everyone to join us on the dance floor after- which took a couple of tries, but the floor soon filled up.
The kids all joined in and jumped around madly- and Rose and Henry showed everyone the “waltz” (or it may have been a Gay Gordon) they learned at school. We were also joined by lots of walzting couples, including Mum and Bill, my grandparents, my cousin Laura and her feller, Matt's cousin Keryn and her husband (Irish Dave) and Fran and her husband (who'd stayed!). Matt and I switched partners with Mum and Bill (Bill is a terrible dancer- but it was adorable!), and later danced in a “group-hug” with Jane and Auntie Sara. And yes, we air guitared! ;)
Don't know what I'm doing with my hand here...
Everyone finally hit the floor!
Hehe, Mims looks like she's having fun! ;)
Me with Ellen, our Ring Fairy, Set-Up Fairy and Baker :D
METAL! One of the best shots of the night!
So, that was fun. However, a lot of people starting taking off after our first dance. Which bummed me out at first...but we were over a hour late, and people would have been pretty bushed (and sunburnt!) after spending so much time out in the sun. And after that, the remaining people danced for a few more songs, but then went back to hanging about in groups, either at the tables, or outside or around the bar. So, the big ass dance party we'd planned (like the one that went down at screwthepast's wedding!). But, to be honest, I was completey shagged, and couldn't manage more than about four songs' worth of dancing. BUT I got to leap about with Matt and his old school mates to “Pour Some Sugar On Me”...so that was something! And later on, Matt and I got to slow dance to “Wicked Game”- and we basically just held each other, let the music wash over us and everyone else seemed to disappear. Beautiful.
Once all the dancing was done, I basically collapsed on the bench outside, where Matt, Cory, the groomsmen and some of Matt's other friends were gathered. I chatted to a few people as they came past, and hugged some more people as they were leaving. Henry was holding court, and telling Cory and the groomsmen about Steven Hawking and Quantum Physics...at which everyone was exclaiming, “Dude, you're how old?! 13?!” Yeah, he's from good stock. ;)
After we went inside, it was pretty just a mingle-fest until the end of the night. I was starting to get a headache (think it might have been caffeine withdrawl looking back on it...) and my feet were killing me- but I was too busy pinging from person to person to care! We hung out with the bridesmaids, ecallen, Mims, Keryn and Irish Dave, Den's girlfriend Suzie, (my friend) Lucy and her husband and her sister Kate, Matt's cousin Jared (who jokingly declared he “hated” me for my crafting abilities- when he has none!), Matt's other cousin Dennis (who was rather drunk and kept giving us neck-breaking hugs) and Matt's Auntie Sue- who was spectacularly sozzled, and would not stop cuddling me and telling me how much she loved me “because you love Matt so much!” Very sweet, but she would not let me go! I told her to “go and give your nephew a hug”- and then she latched on to Matt and didn't let him go for about five minutes! Quite lovely, actually. :)
Pretty us :)
Group hug!
Matt and Mims :)
Saying bye to Dad
Another one of my absolute favourite shots :)
Rose and Lucy, taking a moment
Me with (the other) Lucy and Kate, two long-time friends :)
Me with Auntie Sue...who was rather cuddly!
Man, I look tired here...
That was all awesome. It got to about 11.45, and Denise and the crew were packing down around us. Pip was fantastic and loaded everything into her car- after insisted on taking heaps of photos of us! Denise was also fantastic, and ordered cabs for everyone. It felt odd for the night to be ending already after nearly 15 months of planning...but, at the same time, I was seriously flagging and couldn't wait for some time alone with my husband. So, after loads more hugs, hurriedly grabbing my overnight bag from Jane's car, grabbing my Eftpos card and cellphone from Pip and making sure Matt had our hotel room key, we bundled ourselves into our cab and we were off to our final destination- the hotel!
I'll keep this last bit short, this has gotten bloody long! But the hotel was just amazing. The suite my Dad booked for us was gorgeous- lovely soft bed, lots of lazy-boy chairs, huge flat-screen TV, a mini-bar and the most fabulous breakfast waiting for us in the morning. We both raided the mini-bar (though we were boring and had coke and orange juice - we promised each other we wouldn't drink on the day) and tucked into the nibbles Lucy and James had given us, which Jane had very generously dropped off for us. Definitely beat going back to our horribly untidy flat!
So that was all brilliant...but the best part of our hotel stay was just being alone together. As I said in a post right after the wedding (and on my Offbeat Bride post), collapsing on our bed in my dress, cuddling and kissing Matt, looking down at our rings, being suddenly hit with the enormity of what we'd just done (uh, gotten married, that is!) and wanting to cry were up there with the best moments of my whole wedding day. I was exhausted...but completely blissed out. :D And that blissed out feeling continued for several days afterwards. ;)
So we managed to get me out of my dress (thanks to Pip's instructions before we left the reception- and it was SO much easier to get out of than in to!)...and I'll let you guys figure out what happened next. ;) Translation: I pretty much crawled into bed (somehow managing to get all my hair pins out, wash my face and get into my nightie!) and crashed, while Matt watched TV next to me, before cuddling up and also crashing. V. boring. ;) And when we woke up in the morning, we were married. :D And had an amazing breakfast.
So...that's it. ;) It's been three months, but the memories get more and more awesome with time! We had a fantastic day, and I would go back and do it all again in a heartbeat (except I'd do a tech run-through next time!). We have amazing families and so many fabulous friends, without whom we never would have pulled this thing off. And now, I have one amazing husband. And life is good. :) And...hopefully this'll be the last wedding post for a while!
Thanks for reading!