Well I promised so many people a blog entry and I am sorry to disappoint and make this so late, been so busy had little time on the computer where alone.
Wedding blog
The wedding day started out nice Fiona and I got up early, I could barely sleep, but I had 5 hours, can't complain. I'd stayed up late doing the finishing touches on my speech.
I had my pills, guarana to keep me awake, actifed cc, to keep my cold at bay, and some panadol to sooth the head and stomach.
Fiona and I spent some time together having breakfast, which we rarely have but decided to on this day so we wouldn't pass out with all the stress and standing up. Then we got the fatal call, something always goes wrong, Stefan's plain had been delayed and Mum and I had to make alternate arrangements to get me to the boat on time.
We had a shower and I got dressed to go over to Mums to get into my suit.
I did my hair then Sharon, Fiona's hairdresser arrived to do her hair, I got her to put some hairspray on me, and I got the stuff ready for when Mum got there. I waited on the computer, doing some housework on it so the server would keep going till we got back from our honeymoon, meanwhile Fiona was getting her hair done, hence me being told to stay put in the computer room.
I called the flower people as they were supposed to be there at 9 and running late, the courier was stuck in traffic, and I waited.
Impatiently I said I would get the stuff ready to go and wait for the flowers as the courier was only minutes away now according to the Roses only, I waited outside, then the flower man came and I helped him unload, passing the Flowers off to Marion for checking before I got the ones I had to take into the box of stuff I had to take.
I called Mum to check where she was, the impatience now starting to show, she was only a block away so I started moving the stuff out the door, Fiona was now either getting the Finishing touches on her hair done, or was now onto her make-up I don't know because I didn't want to see her till the moment she walked on the boat, so as I went inside to get the last of the stuff I averted my head, we packed mums car with the chocolate, flowers, cake, bubbles, speeches, guestbook, foxy and bear and my suit.
We raced over to Mums place, where Stefan had just arrived, and so Had Anthea and Michael. I raced in with the chocolates in my hand as the sun was shining on them, I put them down and Anthea handed me my suit, I was then directed by Mum to get changed in her room. I had one last trip to the toilet as a single (but engaged) man and got dressed.
I walked out and showed everyone they said I looked nice, thanking them I said we had to go, Mum wanted a photo first in their garden, I obliged, and we jumped in the car and headed for the boat.
I got a call from Dad on the way on his new mobile, saying that the boat had just pulled up, this helped my impatience along nicely.
I asked Mum to go faster, she of course did not want to be pulled over but we soon got there.
I jumped out and Matthew helped me inside with the stuff, then I handed out the corsages to Mum and Nanna, and the button holes to Dad, Poppa Bear and one for myself.
I hopped on board and arranged some stuff, Anthea offered to handout the bubbles and tell people to sign the guestbook, I thanked her as I still had so much to arrange and had to help Warwick (Fiona's cousin) point out who was who so that he knew who to photograph.
Fiona's grandmother turned up and I gave her, her corsage (I was stressing that I had too many, and that Fiona and Marion where one short, but it worked out ok) and handed her the scarf for the hand tying ceremony we were going to have.
Is everyone on board felicity from the boat company (skippers afloat) asked. I said yes, and the boat left the wharf.
Mum came up to me and asked me where Fiona was I said I wasn't going to tell her, several other people asked I didn't tell any of them, some speculated she was already on the boat, was going to arrive via helicopter, speedboat, jetski, parachute, and the correct answer via water taxi. Others speculated teasing me saying that she had chickened out and got cold feet, I said meh we'll just have a fun day then.
I then spoke to the captain about how we were going to do the music, I had burnt some tracks we had and put spaces in between bits, I told him when there was a space to pause it, then to press play when we went over to do the registry.
The boat had got into towles bay, picked up a mooring and spun around so the sun was in the right spot.
I saw the water taxi probably before most people on the boat. I looked over at the captain who pressed play on the wedding music I had arranged, then realised I still had a Vicks vapo-drop in my mouth I turned and threw it over the stern of the boat, the water taxi pulled alongside and the music started.
Then I saw Fiona dressed in her beautiful pale blue dress that I had not seen till this point, the whole outfit was amazing. Tiara, necklace, bracelet, make-up and hair, I was so happy.
She walked up to where myself and the celebrant John Hill were standing arm in arm with her brother Bill.
She looked so radiant and beautiful. John grabbed her and Bills intertwined hands and put her hand into mine, I felt so full of joy and love.
John told us what he was going to do then let Bill sit down.
Fiona was shaking, so was I, we were both nervous and a little light headed with all the preparations.
He read some things as an introduction that we had picked out, while he was doing this I realised I still had the engagement ring on that Fiona had given me I put my hand in my pocket and removed it making it look like I was going to get my hanky as my nose was dripping. Then John Hill asked who had brought this woman to be married to this man, Marion stood up and faced everyone and said I do.
We said our vows, Fiona saying I do and myself saying I do, I was already getting choked up at this stage.
Then came my brothers reading, which choked me up a little further. I thanked him with my croaky voice before he sat down.
Then came our little verses that we were going to say to each other, I really let lose at this point, I could barely finish the verse, and my nose had started to run again which really didn't help how I was sounding.
Then John had us read after him the words to the exchanging of rings that I had wrote. I cried a little, but I was so choked up, and I felt my love for Fiona being expressed in the words.
Fiona at this point in time came in and gave me a hug, I apologised for being so weepy, and we broke again.
Then came Marks reading, which made me cry a little more. I thanked him as well as he sat back down.
John Hill asked if Beryl could come forward, he then explained the significance and the ritual of the tying of the hands that we had chosen, very similar to hand binding, which was done in medieval times.
We went through the ritual then John said that we were man and wife, and we may now kiss, I leaned over and met Fiona and kissed, and hugged for a moment, I cried a little tears of joy onto her shoulder.
Then we were directed over to where we signed the registry, and signed our wedding certificate. We posed for a few photos and then we got up, John presented us to the congregation, and the music that I had picked for the recessional began playing (the blue Danube, we had to be geeky it is from 2001:A space odyssey and Elite). As we walked back down the isle, hand in hand, Anthea prompted to everyone to start blowing bubbles, they were everywhere it was beautiful, Fiona paused at one stage as she didn't want them landing on her dress.
We walked out and up onto the top deck of the boat for photos with our parents, then back downstairs to chat with people.
The boat arrived to take John Hill back to the dock, we had forgotten to pay them when Fiona had arrived so I paid them then.
We then paused the music for the speeches, I went first I knew I would cry again, but I was so happy, I couldn't even read my notes nearing the end and forgot to say how Marions selflessness had rubbed off on Fiona.
Then we cut the beautiful cake many photos were taken, and it was taken back to be cut up.
Then came the food; which was good, there was kangaroo and beef, lamb and salmon. Then came the octopus and we got a photo of Michael eating it...heheh, he did promise though.
Then we wandered around talking to everyone, I forgot to turn the music back on, so ran over and turned it back on.
We kept talking to people and I made sure Jenae got given one of the many disposable cameras we had lying around, to take some interesting shots with.
We eventually grabbed one ourselves to take some shots over our shoulder.
Then we realised the time and had to start handing out the chocolate boxes Fiona had made, as my grandparents where about to leave on a water taxi to catch the ferry back to their place. We decided to hand out the chocolates to everyone else, and by the time we had done this it was time to get off the boat.
I went to pickup some stuff, then Anthea said that I shouldn't take it, and that we should get off, so we did, entrusting the stuff to everyone else, we walked off the boat, had a few more photos and one big group shot that was very nice.
Then Fiona and I went to the car, I had to lean down and take Fiona's shoes off on the way as her feet were killing. We got in the car had some more photos, wound down the windows and waved goodbye to everyone.
Driving away to our honeymoon.
Honeymoon Blog
We left the wedding went home and finished packing our bags, I had left my joggers in Mums car and we had to drop the suit, hooped petticoat and bridal bouquet off at Marions, so the hired stuff could be dropped back and the flowers sent off to be made permanent in its own frame. Then we went to the airport hotel to drop off our bags, deciding on arrival that when we got back from dropping off the car we would get room service. We then drove to the airport and found out we had paid up to the next morning so we decided to keep the car and use it to get to the airport in the morning.
We went back to the hotel via a petrol station to fill the car up so we didn't get charged through the nose and we got some chocolate and some drinks and some ice creams for desert, we got back to the hotel and got room service, yumm, deciding not to have our petrol station drinks and had some cans of Diet coke and solo from the fridge.
We woke up early the next morning and had our drinks from the petrol store and packed our bags and left the hotel got down to the car and drove it back to the rental place in the airport (Avis).
We crossed the road then realised we were in front of terminal 2 and we were supposed to be at terminal 3, we hurried down the road and went in, booked our luggage in and went through the security, where I had to unpack this laptop etc from the back into its own little bin to be scanned.
Fiona went through the metal detectors with no problem then I went through, ehhh, I thought I had emptied my pockets, damn cargo pants, went through again, ehhh, damn it, the evil security lady told me to take off my shoes and said "this is not a joke sir" I suppose I was laughing at the time, through I went again, ehhh, bugger, I looked down and saw my nice shiny metal belt buckle, off it came I walked through, YAY, no problem.
I waddled over to Fiona holding my pants up. I put my belt back on and looked for a place to sit to put my shoes on, Fiona pointed out a bright orange chair near us, obviously for the security people, I said nah it is for them we don't wanna get in more trouble, she directed me to it and pulled it out.
We got our stuff together and headed for the terminal. Which happened to be right next to an Australia-post store, we bought some postcards to send to our parents, a silly thing to do to say hi from the airport. Then our plane started boarding and we rushed and dropped the postcards off, and got on.
Our first day here in the beautiful Whitsundays.
We got here pretty tired after a long plane, another plane, bus trip. It was a fun trip. On our first flight sitting next to us was a girl obviously afraid of flying she was sitting there the whole time in the foetal position rocking slightly. It was a smooth take off and a smooth landing, because we both hadn't been on a plane in a while we took lots of
photos, so you can see her in the background of some of the shots. There are also plenty of sill shots of each other excited as we were.
Then we wandered around Brisbane airport, I tried to bluejack but couldn't find anyone, we wandered out into the beautiful Brisbane day and took some more
photos as you can see our trip up is all in the same folder.
We then hopped on the Plane from Brisbane to Proserpine I have now found out that is as far from Brisbane as Sydney is from Brisbane, Yikes 2000 kilometers all up...
There was another odd couple across the isle from us, him in his Holden racing team shirt and hat, and tattoo covered arms, and her with her pink coper hair and metallica hat, Fiona pointed them out, they had new wedding rings on too, Fiona joked about what there wedding would have been like, we did take more photos in the same folder as the other trip up shots.
As we came into Proserpine airport we came in from the north of the airport and came in awful low, I could see the individual leaves on each tree for crying out loud, it was a very cool landing, the right wheel touched down first which is always good.
Day 1
click for picsWe got out into the sweltering heat, it actually wasn't that hot, but I had already taken my pants zip-off legs off.
We walked from the plane, pausing to get a photo off both of us infront of the plane. Then walked the short bit of tarmac to the "terminal" which was basically a large fenced off corrugated iron shack, about the size of house, with two desks on one side for
more to come including photos of our trip, too busy to finish at the moment. any pics I have the time and bandwidth up to transfer some pictures they will be on
here
