Preparing for the big day

And finally we reach the real reason for our small excursion down under. It's the big day! Little bro' is getting hitched! The last of the family to get married and the only one left with a chance not to screw up and end up divorced :-) The day dawned and we looked out, fully expecting to see rain or snow or something but instead the skies were clear and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day (re-mortgaging my soul obviously worked). Now, I'm going to split the blog in to probably 3 entries as it was a long action packed day. We'll go with the family getting ready, the wedding and the reception. And probably in that order too - a wedding is a traditional affair and there are some things you really shouldn't mess about with.

We'd spent the night before up the road with the new rels-to-be, having pizza and beer and generally relaxing. We were introduced to the Kiwi side of the family (come on down, you're more than welcome to stay - love those kiwi's!) and made fun of Jason and Dani but very sensibly we didn't drink a great deal which made it easier to cope with getting up and getting ready.

Now, let me tell you, being a bloke in a house full of women who are getting ready for a wedding is no fun. Especially when I was supposed to be doing a reading at the wedding and hadn't rehearsed. I also needed to compose and write a story in the wedding card. Eventually we were all milling about, pretty much ready so it became photo time. This is all the girlies: Mum, Rachael, Inga, Sam, Caitlin and Karen. All done up in their finery, made up like Indian's going off to war and all looking very pretty. Just to spoil things, here's one of me and Inga, posing on the balcony - actually most of the pics are of everyone posing on the balcony, I mean, why wouldn't you? We were scheduled to get a bus to the wedding. No, not a normal bus, a rented bus, just for us and some of the other guests who were staying in Gracetown. It would be a bit mean to make us take public transport to the wedding, to make us sit next to the great unwashed on a stinky bus. Ewww! (as they say in California). This is going to be a photo heavy blog entry btw, if you hadn't already guessed but, hey!, it's a wedding, what did you expect? We took alot of pics and were even all ready before the pickup time (c'mon, six women, be impressed at that). I finished writing my card in my neatest handwriting (which isn't saying much) and sealed it up. If you want to know what was written you'll need to ask Dani - it's called The Perfect Gift.
The coach turned up (just to remove all thoughts that we took a normal bus), the other passengers turned up and we set off. Next stop, Clairault Winery, where we would meet up with everyone else prior to the big event. Wonder if Jason will turn up or if he's done a runner? (Wonder if Dani had him tagged just in case?) More pics to finish with!