August 25, 2017 – lifeofangela

*This was originally posted on April 3. We had just returned from our honeymoon, and writing this up was so much fun! I’ve included a few more tidbits and some more photos since then*

We’ve still got a few days before returning to work which is great. We are currently making our way through wedding cards and gifts, left over decorations, dry cleaning suits and dresses…basically everything we left before heading to Fiji! For now, I wanna think back on the happiest day of my life (so far!)

6am. I woke up numerous times throughout the night. Why? No idea. Nerves, heat, excitement? We had just done the rehearsal the night before and had sorted out everything we needed to. Everyone knew what to do, we just had to do it later that day. I was still nervous though. Mostly about weather, it was said to rain that day. It was spitting all morning, but I talked it out with Rory and it’s okay. It’ll make the photos look cool if its raining. We have umbrellas, we’re prepared.

8.30am. We got to my parents house, so I could start getting my hair and make up done. Rory said he’ll see me later and went back home to relax until lunch. Hair and makeup take a surprising amount of time. Anyway, Dom got my hair to set, and I wandered around in curlers. My sister (and bridesmaid), Jo, got her hair done first, then Kruti (best friend and maid of honour), then Bex (Rory’s sister and groomslady). Then we started on makeup, we were all set to go by 12.30. Where Mum made us lunch. I kept looking outside and the rain had fully stopped. We could get our photo session outside!

Here’s the finished look, taken from Dom’s Instagram.

12pm. On the boys side, they were all together at Rory’s dad’s place. They got their photos done and were all set by 1.

1pm. Kent came to our side, we got dressed, then took our photos. As I mentioned, it had been raining. So the grass was kinda mushy, our heels sank. But, just keep balanced on your toes and we made it through. My brother Andrew (also bridesman) joined us for the photo session. We also took many selfies that morning, because we were all dressed up and looked awesome. It helped to distract nerves. I also practiced walking around holding my train and bouquet, it takes more skill than I first thought.

2.30pm. We all separately made our way over to Percy Scenic Reserve. We were going to have a First Look shoot as we wanted to get photos done before the ceremony. So guests aren’t waiting around for us to come back before we dig into food. We didn’t really plan this well, Rory drove over as I was standing around without anyone blocking me. So he already got a quick look, woops. Also, a few of the groomsmen got lost on the way to the reserve. Double woops. We continued anyway.

2.45pm. Rory now had his eyes tightly shut as he didn’t want to see me again before the official shoot. He held onto Bex, who guided him to the first look location. I made my way through more mushy grass and got Rory to turn around by tapping his shoulder and saying something like ‘Sup’. This picture still makes me smile, even though he already kinda knew what my dress looked like, he was still emotional. After the first look, we did portraits, and lots of group photos. By the way, has anyone here done these kind of wedding portraits before. Cause they’re kinda weird. You’re moved into positions and told to act like they’re not there, or you have to suddenly smile or laugh. It feels a little awkward, I got into it more as the day went on, but there’s still that level of weird hanging around. At least in the official portrait photos.

3.15pm. When it came to the photos of just me and Rory. There was no awkwardness, he just told us where to walk and look in love. Easy.

4.15pm. Now we made our way back to the venue. This is when I was the most nervous. Waiting sucks. We were just sitting around, and I had time to think about everything that could go wrong. I texted Rory and asked how everything looked. Everything was all good.

5pm. Dad texted me telling us to come on over. It’s showtime. We walked to the bottom of the stairs. Our procession was pretty short (as was the aisle). Rory’s side was all already up at the front. Walking up, our order was Maid of Honour (Kruti), Bridesmaid (Jo), Groomsman (Andrew), Flower Girl and Ring Bearer (Niece and Nephew of Rory), then me with my dad. I walked up the stairs fairly awkwardly, dress kept catching on my feet, but at least I didn’t fall completely over. Dad walked behind me trying not to stand on my dress. Then I gathered myself at the top of the stairs and held my dad’s hand and went in. I waved to friends as I walked down the aisle, because why not?

5.05pm. Ceremony time. We included the filipino traditions I talked about in Mixing Traditions for a Wedding. Except for the candle, because turns out the old wooden villa we were using has very strict rules about fire. That all went well.

Next, the vows. By the way, during the rehearsal, Rory looked me right in the eyes, and with so much sincerity, said the vows, that I knew I wasn’t going to make it through mine without crying. I was right, and I cried and sniffled my way through the vows. So many emotions. I was determined to hold it together for the actual ceremony…I didn’t. Cried at the same spot I did the previous night. My friends were prepared for this, and a tissue was handed to me the next minute. Even Rory got a little teary. I made it through the rest of the ceremony without any more tears, then we kissed and were officially married 😀

5.45pm. Signing the license. We decided to sign right after the ceremony so it wouldn’t be forgotten. We all moved to the back, where all who needed to sign did. After that, I set off crying again. I couldn’t pinpoint why, just too much happy emotions I guess. Then Rory gave me a hug, so I cried more. Then family and friends hugged me and congratulated me, so I kept crying. Eventually, I pulled my self together for family photos.

6pm. The next 40 minutes was a lot of talking, catching up, eating (food kept coming my way, I suspect my husband and/or maid of honour wanted to make sure I ate). The food was delicious. It also gave people a chance to sign our guestbook. I saw ideas on pinterest of how to shake up guest books, so we made a polaroid guest book. We used an instax camera, a LOT of film, photo corner stickers, pens, guest book and a sign explaining what to do. Everyone LOVED it. Also since there was so much film, lots of people took home little polaroids as souvenirs too. Bonus! Kent also took me and Rory aside to take some photos by the stairs, so we got some alone time which was nice. It didn’t happen all that often, which surprised me. I thought I would have lots of time with my new husband, but after the ceremony, we kept getting pulled in different directions. Funny that.

6.45pm. Dinner time! We had a tv in the corner on a cabinet, so we tracked down photos of ourselves growing up, and my dad turned it into a cute little slideshow for people to watch while we eat. We chose the photos, so we kept out any awkward ones. More talking, eating, and having a good time.

7.30pm. Toasts! We did the usual of best man and maid of honour. Both were very sweet and personal. Rory teared up when Daniel did his speech, I burst into full on tears during Kruti’s. (If you’re counting, that’s three times I’ve been crying). Then both our dad’s did their speech. Also both very sweet and personal. I will also say that our guest list was only 38. We didn’t want too many people, only close friends and family. This way, we were able to talk to everyone, and basically everybody knew each other, and we’re all nice people. So it was always going to be a hit really, I shouldn’t have worried. We opened it up to the floor then, and friends and family had their say about how lucky we are, our great characters, and the importance of family. I was on the verge of tears by this point, but I held it together.

8pm. Dessert! So before cutting the cake, it dawned on us that we hadn’t made a speech. So Rory thanked everyone for coming, thanked the wedding party, and opened up dessert. I said nothing as I was feeling teary again, and was trying to get myself under control. We cut the cake and dessert was open! Another note, we only had a one tier cake, and then we had lots of cupcakes. Three different flavours of them actually (choc peppermint, mocha and peanut butter choc), they got knocked down pretty fast. I looked over 5 minutes later and 80% was gone. Our cake was lemon & raspberry, so we cut up half into little pieces and everyone had a slice. Then it was more eating and talking.

8.30pm. Hanging out. So normally, at this point in a wedding there’d be dancing. That’s not really our scene. Or our families, or much of our friends…also our venue was small, perfect for not dancing. So we all brought together a variety of board games so people could play that instead. Funnily enough, we never even used them. After dessert, drinking, taking more polaroid photos, laughing…we were happy just hanging out. People came up and started saying bye from this point. Rory and I snuck off one more time to take photos on the balcony. By 9.30, most people had left beyond the core family and friends. So we just started packing up our decorations. All the decorations, except for the floral displays, were pretty much set up by us the night before. It was fun actually. The rehearsal the previous night allowed both sides to get to know each other better, talk, and laugh as we set up decorations, then practiced the ceremony. Kruti made sure that the guest book was filled up with many many polaroids. I still love going through our guest book. I personally think it’s much better than just a book where people write their well-wishes.

10pm. By this point, we were all knackered. So with decorations cleared, we all headed off to our rooms. Did I mention that the venue has a motel on-site? So most of us just walked back to our rooms and crashed. Before I crashed, I did upload an update to instagram and facebook. Social media is a lot more fun when you have something big to share 🙂 Then Rory helped get all the hundreds of hair pins out my hair, and massaged my feet that had been in heels all day. What a sweet husband I have! Then we literally fell asleep cause it was a long and exciting day.

There you have it! An almost too-detailed account of Rory and mine’s wedding day! Ours went incredibly well, I can’t think of any regrets. I mean, sure, some things didn’t go according to my very detailed timeline. But you know what, I didn’t really care. Which is great, when you hear about wedding nightmares and disasters. I credit a lot of this to the fact that we kept our guest list small and limited to only people we really wanted to come.

I will write a list of all the vendors who helped out during the wedding. They all had reasonable costs, and were amazing to work with. Videographers was something we wanted, but they were all out of our price range, luckily, my almost brother-in-law was happy to film the day for us 😀

Wedding Venue: Alfred Coles House

Photographer: Kent Yu

Dress: Diana by Sally Eagle

Bridesmaids Dresses: JJ’s House

Cake and cupcakes: Sweet Bakery and Cakery

Flowers: Em’s Flowers. For more shots of our flowers on the day, you can check out a post on Em’s Instagram page.

Hair and Makeup: Jo & Dom Styling

I also wanted to include our little highlights reel video that Tibor (my almost brother-in-law) made for us!

Feel free to share any comments you want down below. What are some different or unique things that happened to weddings you’ve been to? How did your own wedding go if you’ve been married?

Angela.