Our wedding

The whole weekend flew, was amazingly fun, I'm still spinning...

It began for the girls on Friday, when we got our nails done, had a beautifully relaxed lunch at Pettavel Winery with Mum and found some white arum lilies that were just starting to open. That night was spent arranging flowers, deciding on photo venues with our photographer Charlie, doing last-minute tasks and attempting to sleep early...


Jess and I woke before our alarm on Saturday, too excited to sleep. We met Kate at Darren Grayson to get our hair done, then rushed home to get changed. Even the drive down the highway to Melbourne seemed fast and we were near the registry, I suspect, before the boys.

The Park Hyatt was perfectly placed as a change room and we touched up, put band-aids on our feet (the shoes were worn in, but obviously not enough), then walked down the road to the registry.

To be honest, I was expecting it to be a little sterile where you're rushed in and rushed out. (There's a wedding scheduled every 30 minutes). We arrived a little early and were escorted to a waiting room, where we... waited. Finally, the celebrant arrived and explained what would happen, where to stand, what to say. Then we were lined up outside, waiting for the doors to open.


Kate walked in first, followed by Jess, then Dad and I. To the simple sounds of First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes, I gave a bunch of lilies to Sue, then one to Mum, before joining Ben at the front. I was told to hold his hand, so I did, very tightly... not believing we were really there.

For some reason, I didn't expect it to be as quiet as it was (I guess I didn't hear the roadworks outside). I knew it wasn't going to be raucous, but it felt like everyone was holding their breath and the near-silence made it even more unbelievable.


After the intro from the celebrant and the giving away by Dad, Charles read the first reading, 'Something Short' written by W. As he was doing this, W pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. I began wondering if I should have written down my vows too, when music started up - the unmistakable start to She by Elvis Costello, which W began singing!


I was stunned, in a state of shock, as W doesn't consider himself the most musical person and this was an amazingly brave and touching thing to do. It brought my father and bridesmaids to tears and it took a lot of self-control (the shock might have helped too) to not break down too. It was a surprise for everyone - I couldn't stop smiling and squeezing his hand in support.

After that, Kate and... um... Jess, read the reading I wrote called 'Dear Waldo'. Then it was onto the vows, which we also wrote, exchanging of rings (which took some effort for me, but at least it won't fall off his finger), then the kiss and the signing. Jess and Melinda signed as witnesses to the sound of Elixir's Essence of My Love and Drunk on Her Taste.


Finally we were presented with the wedding certificate and hugged everyone before running out to I'm a Believer by Neil Diamond, as W was adamant we do.


We were met outside by roadworks and the 'papparazzi'. But there were more photos to come as we headed to the Treasury Gardens. Once the family photos were done, we walked to the Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens, had a drink at Riverland, then wandered up to Fed Square towards the Arts Centre, with Charlie snapping away.


Running extremely late, Jess whisked us off to the brasserie at Crown (where we were even later, as we couldn't find valet parking and ended up at Southbank) for an amazing lunch with family and the bridal party.

It finished even later than I expected and we barely had time to have a rest and a bath at the Royce Hotel before Jess, Kate and Mark were back. The girls took a cab while the boys walked to Bacash in the rain.


We had a wonderful night, with possibly, even better food. Fearn and Jess did amazingly beautiful speeches, Amy stayed awake, Jon was unimpressed with the note on his placecard and James started a trend with Saskia's jewellery. Once again, time flew and moved onto the Amberoom for a couple of drinks before retiring upstairs in the early hours of the morning.


We got the timing all wrong on Sunday and were surprised when Jess and Kate joined us at breakfast. Still, we managed to do our hair, load up the car and arrive in Warranwood - not too late.


It was wonderful to see all our family and friends there, but there were so many people (and I was so tired), I didn't get to talk to as many people as I wanted to. It made me even more glad that we didn't try to have a big celebration with friends and family there, as it would have been even more overwhelming.


There were more photos (in the cold!), more speeches and more food, although I barely ate or drank. Dad, Nigel and Wendy spoke, then Fearn and Jess repeated theirs, to a much less rowdy crowd. The cake Andrew made was heavenly - and tasted even better than it looked.

By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but so happy - and not wanting to face the prospect of W flying out to London the next day...