21st of April - our wedding!!!

Here is the definitive wedding post of Brendan and Tina's wedding, as written by Tina. This is a very detail-oriented and sentimental post, so if you don't really care about weddings, or know roughly what happened on the day, skip this post.

At 6.42 am, I was woken with a persistent knocking on the door. I'd only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, so I dragged myself out of bed. It was Julie, and I was supposed to be awake at 6.30 am. So I got up and got dressed, in time for the other bridesmaids to arrive. Mealz and I had some yummy fruit for breakfast, and then Tara drove me to my hairdressing appointment in Kilbirnie. Luckily it only took half an hour for her to backcomb my hair and do it into a french roll, and then it was back to the apartment, where the bridesmaids were having their makeup done.

I'd brought fake nails from America, but they proved to be a real pain as they wouldn't look right - the glue went white and clumpy. However, we were running out of time, so I just decided to go with them and hope they looked OK. Tara and I also had to make a run to Farmers to buy a very expensive strapless bra. I got into my dress - I'd tried it on the night before again and discovered that I'd actually lost too much weight in the time leading up to the wedding, with our strict cardio workouts. Whereas before it had been a perfect fit, now it didn't fit properly at all!

After some minor panic about the flowers, since I'd forgotten to organise someone to pick them up, the two wedding cars arrived. People ran to the windows and there were many "ooohs!" At this point, I was trying not to get too excited and emotional, because I knew that once I did, it would be hard to calm down enough to get through the day!

The weather was supposed to be partly sunny, but by the time we left, it had cleared to become a beautiful, calm, sunny day. Fantastic!

Brendan stayed the night at a different hotel room on the same level, so I was allowed out of the room under almost no circumstances, and neither was he! Brendan's family occupied a room on the same level about half-way between the both of us. Ida, Blaise and Jonny ran back and forth between all the different rooms, and many texts and phone calls were sent.

Blaise apparently had trouble tying his tie, resorting after a while to the internet. Brendan tried to demonstrate with his red one.

So at 10.50 am, we climbed into the white-gold Mustang and set off for the church. I remembered I still hadn't written my speech - so I decided to put all our Toastmasters experience into action. The Mustangs were convertible, so when we got to the church, we put the top down.

We all climbed out and adjusted dresses. Cameras were flashing the whole time, and then my Mum came out, and we hugged. It was a reunion, as we hadn't seen each other for seven years! The flowers were also quickly distributed to the right people.

I wasn't sure when to move inside, because people were still taking pictures, and I could hear Paschebel's Canon in D being played inside. Paschebel's Canon in D was the song we picked for me to walk down the aisle to, and I was still outside!

Dad and Fr. David, the priest, greeted me inside the church. Fr. David mentioned that Brendan was waiting at the front for me. I was so excited! I couldn't wait to see Brendan (and impress him with a pretty dress - isn't that what you're supposed to do?). I could see everyone in the church smiling at me waiting in the narthex - I felt so special and not nervous at all!

So I told the bridesmaids when the right time in the music roughly was, and they left: Tara, Mealz, Ida. Then I took Dad's arm and we walked down the aisle. Dad walked nice and slowly and the timing was perfect. I mostly didn't notice though because I was too busy smiling at everyone on both sides of the church, and looking at Brendan. He looked so good. :)

The ceremony went really well, perfectly in fact. I cried all through the rehearsal the night before, and I was so scared I was going to cry all through the ceremony! Brendan says he would have been disappointed if I wasn't even a tiny bit emotional, but I think its embarrassing. I was trying not to cry at one point in the vows... :(

When the choir sang the first time, I was feeling a bit excited, so I ended up singing the alto bit from the song - John Rutter's A Gaelic Blessing. All the excitedness melted away and I was normal again.

For some reason, when Fr. David asked us to raise our right hands, Brendan thought my right hand was my left and said, "No, your right hand!"! It was quite funny. Ida and Tara also started laughing when Ida tripped on her dress, and then Mealz started laughing too. (I tripped a lot on mine too, especially as we were leaving the church.) It was so lovely to look at everyone there, all our family and friends, and know that some of them had come pretty far just to see us!

Another funny thing that happened: my sister Sarah was wearing a low-cut black dress. When my grandmother saw her, she marched over to Sarah and yanked Sarah's top up!

When we came out of the church, suddenly there was a huge, "BOOM!" followed by another, then another. I hadn't realised that the 21st of April was the Queen's actual birthday (and my great-grandmother's birthday, incidentally), and hence there was a 21-gun salute just on the Point below us. Smoke drifted across the harbour. It was perfect timing.

Brendan and I had a few photos down at the Point, as the soldiers kindly offered to let us use the guns in our wedding photos. The sea was so calm and flat, and blue. We left for the Botanics in the red Mustang, which had black and white balloons, and cans tied to it to make noise. We drove down Wakefield Street and along the Quays - everyone waved and tooted at us! It was great fun.

Eventually everyone arrived at the Botanics, and we took photos. We were running a bit later than schedule, so we had to keep ringing the Skyline and putting the lunch times back! Luckily they were very nice about it though. At this point co-ordinating shoes plus dress plus veil became a bit unmanageable, and so the bridesmaids had to help me with my dress a lot, to get up the hill to where the reception was! I needed three people to help me hold the front and back and not trip over - there was a lot of dress at the front!

The reception went very fast - there was lots of yummy food but I was too excited to really eat it! I ate a bit because I knew I would need it, but I didn't really feel like eating. I'm told that everyone else made up for it though, since they were all very hungry after waiting so long! (Sorry!)

In between lunch and dessert, and after the speeches and toasts, we slipped out for a few more photos, and again near the end, about 5.30 as the sun was going down. (We didn't want everyone else to have to wait for us, even though we hadn't got all of the photos we wanted in the first round.)

The speeches were lovely, and funny. So many people said so many lovely things. We were also very pleased when Ida, Geoff and Mealz got up to speak, since we hadn't anticipated that!

The cake was amazing - made by Julie's friend Bridget, from a photo we'd sent her. It was an exact replica, and a yummy chocolate mud cake. Bridget told me that the flowers that the florist had made for the cake weren't right, so she'd borrowed the orchid that Myrla had put there in the church specifically, and added some extra greenery! She's very talented!

I never managed to get around seeing all the people I wanted to at the reception, unfortunately, so if I missed you, I'm very sorry. I also never managed to actually eat any of the dessert! I did manage to save one piece of our cake, and ate it four days later.It was so yummy and rich I didn't eat the rest of the night! I wish we could have brought it back with us, but US customs might not have liked that.

We had black, white and silver lollies / chocolate favours for people to put into their little Chinese takeaway favour boxes. Each had the person's name and was stamped with a stamp we got in Chinatown, San Francisco, which meant "love" in old Mandarin. Apparently they were practically inhaled! Luckily I had some pastel M'n'M's I'd brought over from America as well, when we got back from photos, and some people who'd previously missed out got those instead.

So, overall, apart from a few very minor mishaps, things were absolutely perfect. I doubt it could have been any better!

Jonny, Ellie, Ryan and Raydon won the game we'd devised for the Botanics... I think they were collaborating!

Afterwards, we went back to the apartments and got changed. We also organised all of our stuff to take with us, since we were taking Julie's car for a few days, and she would take the rest of it. I'd left a bag with my glasses in it at church, so Brendan drove up to Roseneath and I grabbed it. Luckily I had a key etc from when I was an organ scholar there, since the church had already been locked and alarmed.

Then we went to Geoff's 21st birthday party at the Big Kumara, his favourite club / pub. That was quite fun, since he'd funded the bar tab in true Geoff style: using his course-related costs loan, and by selling one of his many cars. Unfortunately we got there just as the bar tab ran out , so we just had red bulls since we were tired, and were driving. :(

That night, we dropped Mealz off at her gorgeous old Victorian flat, before driving up to Waikanae where we were staying at my aunty's amazing Bed and Breakfast in Waikanae Beach. We couldn't leave Mealz's house for a while though, since a tiny baby hedgehog came out and started running around in front of the car! I tried to shoo it away, and it only made it run under the car! Finally it moved enough that we wouldn't run over it.

Around 12.15, we arrived, and crashed into bed.

Here are the photos from that day from our camera. (Or you can just click on one of the photos above.) More to come! (Thanks to everyone who took the photos from that - there are some great ones.)

Also, a reminder that here are the professional photos - we love them, we think Tim did a great job!

Home sweet home...

Our flight home felt relatively short; probably due in part to getting better at sleeping. Brendan watched far less movies and we unfortunately missed the sunrise. But it was good: the air hostesses gave us each a spare Kapiti icecream! And we watched the proof DVD of our photos and looked at the wedding photos from family and friends. Stacey drove us to the airport, which was lovely. It was great to catch up.

So here we are, sitting in our slightly musty house with all the windows open, still very tired after a few hours sleeping and trying to think about dinner.

And after all the effort I put in with documents for the work permit, first I was told i didn't need them. Then I brought them all with me to the Easter Saturday appointment, and didn't use them. And now I have a letter demanding them all. I just want my work permit!!!

Wedding photos!

Last night we drove back to Wellington, from Waikanae, and popped into the photographer's in Johnsonville to see our photos. We loves.

One in particular Tim classes as one of the best wedding pictures he's ever taken, and plans to enter it into photo competitions.

So: for your enjoyment: official wedding pics. The best ones are on the "blog" page, and all of the proofs are on the "proofs" page. You can also buy them from the proofs page, just follow the instructions on the page. But, ask us first and we may just send you some for free!

Thanks once again to everyone that made it happen, especially Ida and Blaise (the head bridesmaid and best man) - we had a fantastic day.

Fun and busy-ness in NZ

In light of the rather nice posts of Jono and Inti from their NZ trip (finally!), I think I should let readers know what we've been up to.

We've spent quite a lot of time this week catching up with lovely Mealys and Evelz' and other friends for lunches, and little sisters Ellie / Steph / Mekie as well. Even if we dragged aforementioned little sisters through every mens shop on Lambton and Willis looking for the perfect Brendan summer jacket (no easy task since all the shops are preparing for winter).

The rest of the time has been spent doing wedding-related stuff, with lots of Julie's (Brendan's mum's) help (and how could we forget Ellie and Jonny!). Suffice to say we're pretty busy, and Wellington has been traversed in search of various items, and hair and makeup trials. I even went to Wainuiomata!

I am also doing lots of sewing of table runners, meeting various Brendan relatives and trying to work out a ceremony compromise between Brendans and priests. Ouch.

So. Yes, to everyone, we would totally love to have lunch with you. I'm just a bit more busy for Thurs and Fri. Try after Wed of next week.

The apartment is full of little chinese boxes which need labels and have been stanped. They look very pretty. And I am trying not to open all the packets of American lollies we bought. Some have already been sacrificed to the brave cause of the Ida and Tina and Brendan hunger for peanut butter cups and chocolate.

We also had to buy shoes today since Brendan left his formal ones in America. Yay for Shoe Warehouse! My shoes are hurting already - wish I'd brought them to America to practice wearing them. I wore them to the Subway at the bottom of the building and that was sore. Amazingly, we have only been to Subway once. I am not joking. Unless Brendan's hiding the evidence...

I miss our warm Californian weather as it's a freezing southerly right now. I do NOT miss the Wellington wind by any stretch of the imagination. Brrr. All my "warm weather" stuff only just makes the cut. It's supposed to be fine on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - here's hoping the weather report is right!!

It's also starting to feel more normal being back, and I don't notice accents anymore.

I've spent vast amounts of time sewing these black table runners, and I've only done 4 out of 11. Hope to do some more tomorrow. It's depressing. I managed to score some amazing jet beads for Julie to borrow - 100 years old, they belonged to her great-great or something aunt Ellie. And they look just like my black ones that Julie likes.

Last night I drove Julie's car down this tiny, steep, windy one-way street from Northland to Glenmore - it was a shortcut. I've only ever walked down it before. The cars are the other way around from America inside as well.

Wedding dramas....

The amazing present we bought for someone has been recovered from the airport. Thanks, Air NZ. No, seriously. It was one cool present.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently - I've been busy with wedding stuff. (And Brendan has also been helping. :) ) After all the family dramas, the person has decided not to come! Oh well. More room for other people then.

We do have one small wedding problem however - we have over-invited and there are not enough seats in our venue. So last night we had to do the rather sad task of calling people who brought extra guests and ask them not to. :( It was very hard.

I've been overwhelmed by the level of support from various people here though, both for wedding stuff and just being pleased to see us generally. We feel very loved. :)

Licences and weddings...

Since Brendan has suddenly become very modest, (strange that...) I am proud to announce that yesterday he got his Californian licence! Yay! I go for mine on Friday (NZ Saturday). He had my instructor instead of his beforehand, which as good as she's way more calm.

I have his instructor before the test, so I will have to concentrate on calmness. (Although he is rapidly becoming 'our' instructor since I've had him about as much as my other instructor now. He's cool. We talk about lots of stuff, and drink McD's coffee when we stop, and try and figure out each others' accents.) Apparently the examiner also gives due warning, and is calm.

Today it is exactly one month until our wedding... happiness and stress. Although technically it's still the 20th here. People like family members who still need to RSVP - You know you're coming, I think you're coming, but please just let me know properly so we can count, OK? Just email Brendan or me. Thanks. :)

If you know anyone in Wellington who wants to house-swap for three weeks for a lovely Californian apartment and sunshine, let us know... although today it rained here for the first time in weeks! I suspect tomorrow will be beautiful again.

Tara has posted a rather hilarious and descriptive account of Thelma and Quint's wedding (with pictures!) on her blog, for whom she was a bridesmaid. These are people I went to high school with... some people haven't changed much! They look very happy. (And I think Tara is mentally stockpiling "not to do's".) Ask me for the URL if you want to perve until I get the OK from her to post it here. I'm pleased it didn't rain during the actual wedding, only during the reception.

Edit: Tara has given me permission to give out the URL for her blog about the wedding: click here.

Today my ex-boyfriend married my friend...

in the rain. In Masterton. Poor Thelma and Quint. I got a text from Thelma while they were getting ready, and while she had been praying hard all week for sunshine, she said the weather was pretty "yucky".

My friend Tara is one of her bridesmaids, she is also one of my bridesmaids so I can't wait to catch up with them both and see pictures. (And exactly 6 months before our wedding, she was also her friend Jackie's bridesmaid! Busy girl...)

Anyway, I just wanted to record this rather sappy post as I thought about them all day and really wished I could be there, and hoped the weather ended up nicer than they thought it was going to be. I'm fantastically happy for them both as they make a really great couple.

On our wedding front, family dramas have occupied the last while... or rather, one particular family drama. After much thinking and soul-searching, I have decided that I would rather have the family member there and ignore the problems, than be right on principle and not have the family member there. Also I finally had a response from at least one of the people concerned, so hope that is sorted.

AIPT forms have been finalised!

Wow, AIPT emailed today to ask when we wanted to leave, as they had finalised our certificates and just needed to print the date. That's so quick! I expected it would take 4-6 weeks, and it's only taken about a week and a half. The certificates of sponsorship (and our visas) basically start from this date, so it's important. AIPT suggested January 1st (!!), but that's too soon for us so Brendan asked for the 22nd of Jan. This hopefully will give us time to go up to the consulate and get ourselves organised (and clean the study!). This is very exciting... it's starting to seem a bit more real, but not much.... I think it will be more real when we get on the plane. So at present, this is our official leaving date.

But we can't buy the tickets until we have the visas in our hands. It's going be a bit more expensive, unfortunately.

Also, I need to train someone new for my work (and get through all the hard stuff so they don't have to do it for a long time, i.e. until they understand it enough). I'm going to miss some of the people there a lot, they're lovely. And I'm especially disappointed I didn't get more time to do comms work, because I was looking forward to it so much! But I'm sure I'll get to do it in San Jose.

Again, if anyone knows of cheap shipping... we would fight to the death if there was only one laptop. I suggested this yesterday, and Brendan made the saddest puppy-face: "But we can't play games!" And now I have my new red graphics card, (birthday pressie from Brendan), I would miss playing Oblivion too much. Even if all the dungeon monsters have completely upgraded while I was doing the Arena quests, and now I'm too weak as a mage - the dinosaur things just swipe at me and breathe fire and I fall over dead. And I got asked to join the Dark Brotherhood, and I don't want to.

Also I have to finish wedding planning before we leave, or at least do the bulk of the organising. Luckily this has been OK so far because I've spent a year doing the research, so now I have a fairly good idea of what I want. A sophisticated, elegant wedding, with a black and white theme. (Brendan's word - elegant.) It's just a matter of a.) working out the details, and b.) trying to co-ordinate people to definitely do it. Although the two main venues are booked, which is the most important thing. And yes, I will probably leave my shoes and dress in NZ. Thanks to all those people who have offered to look after it! The lovely ladies at my church have offered to give me a kitchen tea in January, which will be very exciting!