All pictures that follow were taken by our amazing photographer, Holly. http://www.hollytphotography.co.nz/
We awoke bright and early on the day… It was overcast, with fluffy cotton clouds hanging about the hills. Us girls were up early, to start hair and makeup at the early hour of 8am. We were only 10 minutes late, and Henri saved the morning by running off to get coffee, tea or hot chocolate as needed. I had a bit of a nap, what with the not sleeping much the night before, while they got started on Neke and Amy. We took turns sitting, getting hair fussed with and getting makeup on. Bubbles came out half way through, as did some muffins and pastries from across the road. Delishuz. I’ve never had bubbles that early in the day before, it was quite fun.
While we were out getting pretty, people were buzzing away at their tasks all over Alex. Ian, Liz, Katharina were all fixing up the cars, wrapping the bouquets, and sorting out bits for the picnic. Nessie was fixing food for the picnic, and lunches for the girls. The Smith family was sorting out all the stuff for the afternoon tea and the mini golf.
Holly (our photographer) turned up halfway through, with a ton of enthusiasm, and took some snaps while we were getting ready. I think we finally left there at around 11.30am… We arrived back at Ian and Liz’s at around 12pm, and only a slight panic as we stuffed down some delishuz (turns out I can’t spell that normally anymore!) lunch that our lovely helpers had prepared, and then zoomed off to the bedroom to get dressed.
The bridesmaids all slipped into their pretty dresses, applied boots and accessories, and brushed teeth.
We only had a slight hiccup when we realised we could only put my dress on me over my head, with a bit of gentle wiggling – it was too fitting around the hips to step into it, This wasn’t really a problem, but I had full makeup and hair done, and my veil was already well attached to my head..
It took a bit of maneuvering , bits holding, a towel over my head, and three or four people to get it on without ruining anything already done. But with a wiggle, I was in my dress. The girls pent the next few minutes lacing it up, and ensuring everything fit right.
Once the dress was on, it was all about accessories. I had a moment of panic when I realised the time, but someone noted that the boys hadn’t even left the house yet, so we were fine! We fluttered around the living room, ensuring we had all the bits we needed, and that everything was all ready to go.
Dad came out to the lounge, all dressed up in his lovely grey suit, and Mum was all kitted out in a pretty, sparkly, navy dress. It was all bustly for a bit, as everyone got themselves sorted, then started queiting down as people left to go get seated at the venue, and we realised none of the parents,or the grooms/groomsmen had their buttonholes.. we had to call Liz back, and give her complicated instructions over which one was for whom.. but she handled it great, and took off with all the buttonholes.
We waited a bit longer, then slowly made our way outside. It was my first real time walking around in all the petticoat and boots, and I nearly tripped over the doorframe.. but it didn’t take too long to get sorted. We had two cars that were decorated up all pretty, by Ian Nicholl, and we all piled into them.
The drive down was kinda nervy, but it wasn’t raining yet! When we arrived, I hoped everyone had ordered things so the boys weren’t standing by the door, but it was clear apart from the photographer. In fact, there weren’t many people around at all.
We piled out of the cars, adjusted the dress, and we were off. My first challenge was walking in everything on the gravel, but Dad helped me with that. My petticoat was a ridiculous thing, with metal loops, with the bottom loop extending way out the back, to hold the train out.
I was definitely nervous, but super excited, and remembering Nekes words of encouragement, I just looked for Dale, and tried not to fall down the steps, and it all went well!
Most of you will know what happened in the middle, but for those that weren’t there, it was lovely. The sun came out halfway through the ceremony, the readings were all lovely, and I didn’t fall over in front of everyone. I only had half a ton of lavender thrown down my top, and all the photos went well.
After the main family photos, everyone else tottered off to afternoon tea at Ian and Sally’s, or over the road to mini golf.
The bridal party walked down to the orchard, where we took some nice photos in between the trees, then I made everyone climb a tree so we could have photos in it…Coz climbing trees is such fun 😀
After the trees, we hopped into the cars again, and zoomed our way out to Butchers Dam, which was our main photo site. I wanted our photos taken there, as it had all the things I love, mountains and snow (even though we couldn’t see it on the day), water, rocks, a few trees, and lots of wilderness. We stayed out there for quite a while, with Holly being all happy and excited, and getting more so as the afternoon went on, the light got amazing, and the lake calmed into reflective stillness. We had a little picnic with delishuz food and bubbles, that was made by our lovely assistants, then wandered around the place, while Holly got excited about all the photos.
We made our way back about 5pm, and arrived at Orchard Garden. I had a quick petticoat change, and tied the back of my dress up into a more manageable amount of material. We were announced in as Mr and Mrs Smith, and proceeded straight to the cutting of the cake, as cake is delishuz!
We took our seats, and Josh commenced the evening with a bit of a chat, then it was straight onto dinner.
The speeches were all lovely, and made me cry a bit.
We had a first dance, the chicken dance, a photo booth, mulled wine, many bubbles, and a think a wonderful evening was had by all.
We stayed at a beautiful room at Oliver’s, and awoke at a leisurely hour and had a home cooked breakfast, before heading back to spend the day with family.
