Day 3, 17 September
So much happening! Awake at 5:30 am today– Still on NZ time obviously ha ha! But such lovely weather here, do miss that about Australia!
So many things to do today– Danni, Graeme and I sorted the service with Chris who is marrying them at St Aidans church in Exeter. The lovely thing is he and his wife Deb were our next door neighbours for 3 years when we lived in Robertson, and he is such a charismatic man.
The NZ family flew over today as well. So my Mum, Dad, sister Vicki, Sammy and Royden all flew together from Hamilton today. which was nice and part of the excitement!
Graeme Danni and I drove to the airport before they arrived and went & picked up the rental car, then connected with the family once they were through and I went over and got them and brought them over to the pick up area. We needed to take Vicki back to the rental car site as she was one of the extra drivers and they won’t allow it unless they physically site the drivers license, so we did that.
Driving through rush-hour traffic across town to Sutherland Shire was really slow as it was school pick up time and home time for a lot of people. Took us nearly an hour and the poor family literally had 10 minutes to drop their bags and we were out again to drive over to Yhe Arbour which is a lovely club, to meet Brad‘s family for dinner. It was nice as Anne-Marie, Brad’s mum said she had her birthday there when she was younger and had their engagement party, I think it was so they are very familiar with it.
We all had a lovely meal and drinks and a catch up then back to the motel – it’s pretty tired in places, but it did the job and the beds were actually pretty good.
Friday 18th September, Day 4
Busy, busy day again. We’re all awake early as two hours ahead on New Zealand time still, so we were up and drove over to Brad and Dan’s apartment by 8 am, so we could all have breakfast together there with Brad’s daughter Lotus, before she went to school.
It was a lovely get together, then we packed everything up and drove down to the Southern Highlands, near where we used to live, to Exeter. Took about 1hr 45 and we got to the hall and we did the setup with all the tables and decorations. Many hands made light work and great that the family are all happy to jump in and help. Sam and Royden were super helpful doing whatever was needed and Danni and Sam used their creative talent! At 2:30 pm, we stopped the set up and went across the road to the beautiful stone church and the wedding party all had a run through rehearsal for tomorrow.
After that it was getting quite late in the afternoon so we headed to our fantastic accommodation – ‘the cottage’, in Sutton Forest. It was such a cool house that had been extended and had a big internal square hallway with lots of room for all 8 of us as Danni will be staying with us tonight.
Had an hour or so and then over to Berrima – a lovely quaint town we know and we had a family hens & bucks night at ‘the surveyor’ – a beautiful old rambling stone pub. The girls are at one end and the boys were down the other. Sam bought along all the hens bits and pieces so we could do a bit of a dress up as well. A really lovely evening and Mero and Ian and Raffi and Bruno our friends joined us. Meredith and Ian had driven up from Melbourne the day before! They have seen Danni grow up since she was 17-years old!
Back to the house – it is a working horse farm out in the country. Everyone was running on low battery so into bed and Danni spent her last night as a single woman!
Saturday 19th September- THE BIG DAY! Day 5
The day has come! it’s all been a bit of a blur with so many last-minute things to do and everyone being together helping out π.
The make-up and here ladies left Sydney at 5 am to drive down and started the girls make up at 7 am – working through to 1:30 pm. Gosh the make-up lady was amazing and she did Danni‘s hair and make-up as she always does the brides. She did a stunning job and Danni looked absolutely serene and surreal!
Once we’re all had our hair and make-up done the lovely classic car That Brad had arranged came to pick Danni and Sam and Claudia, the bridesmaids up – a red and white ‘55 Chevy!
We followed them through to the church, were about 10 minutes late is the photographer had been taking an is the photographer had been taking a lot of photos, and then Graeme and I had the honour of walking our little girl down the aisle together. It was only a short aisle so we walked slowly and took in the moment. All I could see was Brad looking at Danni with so much awe and love in his eyes.
The service was so lovely and personal and the way that Brad and Danni looked into each other‘s eyes when they said their vows, it was like nobody else was there – perfect πππ.
After they became husband and wife! we were outside getting photos done – the photographer were a husband and wife couple and he was very quirky and funny. He got everyone going and got tons of photos. Then the married couple went off for their photos with him elsewhere and we all wandered across the road. Danni had arranged for giant outdoor games to be delivered - jenga, connect four & noughts & crosses and the setting was beautiful with a huge wide veranda and then a massive green area which is a cricket oval. What a setting.
They had a food truck coming in with pizzas,sliders and salads which went down so well. The great thing about the hall was it had a large hall for the setup and then another older hall attached to it in an L-shape, where the dancing was later on.
What an evening we had – lovely speeches that was so heartfelt from everybody – Sam delivered a stunning speech and for someone who has never been a public speaker & doesn’t like doing it, she reduced her mother to tears. When I reflected on what she had said, it made saying our speech so emotional, despite not being a public cryer- I did!
Will add wedding pics once the bride & groom have released theirs π
Sunday 20th September, day 6
We were all a little slower to get up this morning, although we had arranged to meet back at the hall to do the big pack down. Having had our Sam‘s wedding two years ago, we had some creative ideas to make it easier! Ian and Meredith came and saw us as well as Brad‘s brother and girlfriend, and having beat the bride and groom to the hall, Kiwi ingenuity had most of it done ha ha!
We are all packed up and out of our Airbnb‘s and travelled back to Sutherland where we met at danni & Brad‘s apartment and carried everything upstairs and left over alcohol etc in the garage. There are a lot of stairs so glad there were a few of us!
I had booked us all into an airport hotel in Graeme and I went with the family so Brad & Danni had time alone in their apartment as a married couple. We dropped the family into the hotel and then returned the rental car to apex rentals in town, and Danni dropped us back at the hotel after that, then she went home.We checked into the 4 rooms and had some time to decompress, then Sam, Royden, me, Graeme & Vicki all walked down to Mr Lee‘s Chinese restaurant, which we’ve been to before. Mum and dad stayed back and rested – they have done so well with everything as there hasn’t been any time to lay about! Was pretty warm, reminds you, you are back in Australia!
Monday 21st September – Day 7
We Didn’t sleep that well last night as the air conditioning in the various rooms we had – three were, one after the other on one side of the hallway, we are all different variations of hot and cold. Sam and Roydon’s was really cold, we were next to them, and ours was too hot so we didn’t sleep well, and Vicki’s was hotter I think! But we are ready to go up and at ‘em early – Vicki had got the hotel shuttle to the airport, at 6:20 am as she was flying back to Christchurch to meet up with a friend for a few days before flying back up to Hamilton to get her car, then will drive back to WhangΔrei next week.
So the rest of us got an uber into the city and down to City Hall, where we took a nice stroll along the beautiful arcade and tiled floors. The shops there were uber flash! Then we walked down to Darling Harbour, surprisingly almost every restaurant was closed today. But we found one where we could sit in a covered area outside. Took over an hour just to get a drink, but the breakfast were really nice and it was lovely to all have that time together on our last day before all the Kiwis left. That actually had to stay an extra day because their flight from Sydney to Hamilton have been cancelled, so they had to then fly Sydney to Coolangatta, wait 4hours and then fly back to Hamilton. But it did give them the day so we could all go into town together.
This is the first getaway Sam and Royden have had without there 4 kids, so was great for them to go off wandering on their own after lunch and look at everything the waterfront had on offer. So Graeme and I ubered back with mum and dad and took it easy.
Later on we went next door to the Mantra and had a drink together which was lovely. Then Graeme and I checked out after saying goodbye to everyone. Danni and Brad came and said goodbye to the family as well, then we took them to the airport. Was lovely to send them off to Bali for the week and they flew off in style – on Qantas of course! After we dropped them, we went back to the apartment and are staying here for a week while they are away, and until we head off on our trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore.
We’ve had 2 weddings in two years, so we are done & dusted now!ππππ
