Matt and Cor's journey to a good life: The thing we said we’d never do…

… is get married. We never really saw the point. A lot of money spent on a big to-do where you don’t get to talk to your friends who come and you stress out about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter, and for what? How could we be any more committed after almost 17 years? Hell, we have a house together, and now a farm and a baby on the way. We should be committed. And surely it doesn’t really matter these days?

Well, just like having a baby (the other thing we said we’d never do), we caved. We decided that an excuse to get both sets of parents together for the first time in something like 5 years was too good to pass up. But as usual, we had to do it our own way (with a bit of prompting from Samara!). We decided to get married on the farm by the dam, and follow it up with a barbecue reception for a few local friends in the shed. Not a big deal. We wouldn’t have even told people it was going to be a wedding if we knew that “just a barbecue” might not be enough to pull people out of their routines and get our parents to fly in to Tassie.

It worked out marvellously. Mostly. We found an old wood fired barbecue on the farm and got that going great, but when we arrived for the ceremony after heading home to get changed we found that the bottom had swung open, dumping the coals and fire onto the ground and setting fire to the grass, just outside the shed where all our guests were waiting!!! Ross swung into action and with a bit of ingenuity from him and Roy we rescued the fire, and prevented our shed from burning down in the process.

I must confess to being a little stressed on the day. Having both sets of parents in town and combining farm jobs with wedding preparations (sorry, barbecue preparations), and baby stuff left me feeling a bit under pressure. But once it all started it was all good. The ceremony lasted all of 10 minutes, one of the platypus came up to say hello, we signed the bits and pieces, had a few photos (thanks soooo much Cassy!), we walked past the pigs (as you do), and then kicked off the barbecue.

The barbecue staple was our Wiltshire lamb chops together with lamb “wedding bangers” that we made earlier in the week. Plus we had asked everyone to bring a plate (how many weddings where you have to do that?) so the salads and desserts were well covered. Half a dozen bottles of Ralph and Jane’s Wombat Springs Pinot Noir, plus a roaring fire on a chilly starry night, what else could you ask for at a party?

The release of the pressure got to me a little, I drank a bit of red, and then when we got home hit the Scotch with the father-in-law, so Coreen spent her first night as a married woman looking after her sick (inebriated) husband. Begin the marriage as you mean to go on I say, not to mention that she has been doing this for years so has plenty of practice. I must have become a bit of a lightweight since leaving London… that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Oh, and this story is only on the blog because Coreen has been telling it to everyone high and low and you were bound to hear it eventually anyway.

Our thoughts were with all of you who we wish could have been here. But then we would rather see you all one-on-one anyway instead of at a big shindig, so to make up for missing our wedding you will just have to come visit instead!

So I will save the farm shenanigans for another post, now for some wedding pics!