… 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!
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| We all start walking over to the dam for the ceremony |
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| The ceremony |
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| The Chinese tea ceremony (ie. serving the tea to the parents): an important part of any Chinese wedding |
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| Ross leaps into action and saves the day (and the barbecue, and the shed!) |
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| The barbecue back up and running, a source of warmth when the sun went down |
