Tuesday, November 10, 2009

My Step-Daughter's Wedding

Well, the wedding was an absolute success. There were a few small hiccups as one would expect but all were managed well and with great credit to the excellent organisation skills of the Virgo Nurse.

There were so many amazing photos from the day but I think this is one of my favourites:


Don't you think this photo belongs on the cover of a magazine. She has such a radiant smile and was able to maintain it until 4am the next day (as they did night shots in the city after the reception) even though it was not long after this photo that she passed comment how her cheeks were already aching.

Here's a picture of the whole bridal party:


The Kman was the junior grooms man on the left, the smiley monster was the page boy in the middle and the impossible princess was the junior bridesmaid on the right. They all behaved so well, considering they were woken at 6am for the two hour drive and had to put up with a two bedroom townhouse full of people for another four hours during the preparations and then had their very important roles to play through the ceremony and the photos and then the long night of the reception. I was so proud so many times that day but far from the least of that was in my own children in how gorgeous they looked and how they had fun and let everyone else have fun as well.

And did I mention gorgeous? Here's the smiley monster with The Starchild and the flower girl all looking out the window of one of the cars, which I think makes a really gorgeous photo:


The next photo is from the wedding ceremony. It was Coptic Orthodox as the grooms family are Egyptian and it was so beautiful even though I didn't understand most of it. The church was so amazing and the jackets the bride and groom are wearing were one of the parts of the service, which also included crowns and incense and singing and all the rest of it.


There were six '71 and '72 GT Fords as the wedding cars as well as four motor bikes.


I didn't get any good photos of all of the bikes but here is one of them with Bones in front of it that someone else took:



The reception was held at a place in a town in the outer South West of Sydney so you wouldn't really expect anything too flash but it actually was one of the most lavish reception venues I've been to. There were fireworks and pyrotechnics, the bridal table was a full length fish tank and behind the bridal party was a bubbled glass wall with water running down it, there were light up centre-pieces on the tables and everything was done up so nicely. There was a magician entertaining the guests as they arrived in the foyer of the reception while we were off doing the post-wedding photos and it was pretty much non-stop the whole night. The parents of the bride and groom had to do a bit of a grand entrance along with the bridal party and this is The Starchild and I coming in:


We all made our way to the dance floor to await the entry of the bride and groom and it was lovely to see so many family and friends there to help celebrate.


The magician did another performance during the reception...


...and there was a Michael Jackson impersonator along with his five dancers that did about half a dozen costume changes and were really very entertaining:


The grooms men even got a lesson on how to dance like Michael Jackson which was loads of fun:


There were also speeches - that was the part that The Starchild was dreading the most but he spoke so wonderfully...


The cake almost looked too good to eat...


...and the bridal waltz included more fireworks, fog, a beautiful spin, a dip and, of course, a high lift being that the bride used to be a competitive gymnast...


The Starchild and I even danced (although he left me there once the fun dancing started) and I think you can tell by the smiles on our faces how much fun we had!


It was such a wonderful night and it was so special to have Bones as part of the celebrations even if the nine live cat with clipped wings couldn't be there. I think the thought of him undoubtedly shedding more than a few tears at missing such a special occasion and knowing that it won't be the last one he misses was the only down side to the whole thing but everything else was just perfect and I'm so glad that they had the wedding that they had spent so much time, money and effort planning for so long.

Now, I am sending blessings of protection, safety and more amazing memories as they start their honeymoon and look forward to seeing them in a few weeks when they get back.