The wedding...

was fantastic!

I went down home on Friday for Jo and Paul's wedding. I took our mate Amandha, who'd come down from Wellington. When we got to town we met Jo and Jem to do some last minute shopping, had tea at Paul's Mum's, then went out to the church for rehearsal (after going home again when Jo forgot the key. The rehearsal was cool, and it was decided that Jem and I were doing a speech at the reception (were going to, then weren't...but got swayed again). So after I went to Jem's so we could work on it. Jem has been to a few weddings recently so had a few jokes we could say! Also we'd worked on a poem to give them so we finished that to say.

Anyway, on Saturday we got up early and went out for breakie, then at 9am to the hairdressers. I was done first, hair in curls, so I went off to the beautician's for makeup. THen Jem followed. I went back to the hairdresser's as Jo was being finished. At this stage it was 12.45pm. We had to leave the house for the church at 1.30pm-ish. So I dropped Jo at makeup, Jem and I went back to her Mum's to change, and her Mum went to pick her up! Talk about rushing it! I got well nervous by then, mostly cos I knew Jo was starting to stress out. There was time for a few quick photos, then help Jo change, for her to have some photos, then off to the church!

It was meant to be rainy, but the weather was perfect. We arrived at the church, and Jem and I each walked down the aisle hold hands with the wee page boy and flower girl. I was shaking! The ceremony was lovely, though I didn't even look around the church at the decorations. Before we knew it, they were married and we walked out behind the new Mr and Mrs Keane to Smash Mouth, "I'm Believer"!

After hanging around outside with friends and fam we went for photos. First with a steam train, then overlooking the sea, then to a surf beach (but only the guys and Jo were in those photos so I don't know what they're like. We finally got to the reception at about 6.15pm. I was so tired. We sat, then wandered around talking to friends, then Jem, Jo's mum and I got stuck into the wines to build a bit of Dutch courage for the speeches. We ate our main, then it was speeches. All were awesome, Jo's and her Mum's were really good and touching as her Dad died 12 years ago. Mine and Jem's was awesome! The hit being, Jem: Now Selene and I are quite the singers, we love doing duets a lot, so thought we'd sing a wee song for Jo and Paul! (of course everyone got excited and laughed cos we really do like to sing!), then she said: But we've got a wee problem with our throats... Jo said she'd cut them if we dared! Hahaha!! Then we said our wee poem. Jem always used to write funny rhyming poems for our birthdays, and this was along the same lines so it went off! After that, we were all free to relax and get on with the fun of the night! Got well stuck into the wine...really well stuck into the wine! As had my parent's, Jem's parent's, and all that their table and our friends' table!! My bro's mate Rangi was playing, and singing, so I decided I'd help him out and kept going up to the mic and singing! We were all dancing up at storm! At one stage I went up to the bar to get another wine. Upon getting a half filled glass (the proper way), I said "now Jase (the bar guy), I know this the ponsy way to drink wine, but don't worry, just top 'er up and I won't need to come back so soon! Then after Jo and Paul left, I went up to get another one and he says, I'll get you another glass. He came back with a HUGE bucket of a glass! I then kept raving about since Jo had left I was the most important woman left being chief-bridesmaid!

Before the end of the night, our mate Shanna got Rangi to let us borrow a guitar and we sang "Stand By Me" for the wedding video that she was in charge of. We did that...quite badly. After that, I decided it was a good time to take the mic with Shan for my karaoke signature "The Greatest Love of All"!!! Yip... wasn't pretty! But, man I thought it was at the time. After that, before we headed out into town, Jem and I decided we'd try finish the bar tab... but I was pretty much over my wine, so I shoed up and we all left. We danced around like idiots at one bar. At the same bar I slipped over in my shoes and landed on my arse...classy! Then we went to another nite club. We met up with Jem's brother and I decided my feet hurt so I gave him my jandals which he put in his back pockets. When Jem gave them back to me, it was discovered that I'd worn her's into town and left mine at the reception place (she'd changed shoes). No wonder my feet hurt, after about 2 hours I'd discovered I was wearing a size too small shoes! When that bar closed it was home time.

Sunday morning was not happy. Mum and Dad cooked a hell feed of bacon, eggs, sausages, spaghetti etc etc. It went down a treat and I tried to refrain from taking any drugs to cure my killler headache. I went out to get my stuff from Jem's and my car and I was seriously not sure if I'd be sick or not. Things could easily have gone either way for a while there. Once home I took some drugs, then some more. When mate Brenda picked me up to go out to Jo and Paul's for BBQ I still wasn't flash. But a decision to have a lemonade ice block on the way out there, made me! I was back on top of it all and ready to face the day - at 3pm! Got stuck into a few beers, laxed out in the sun and had a good bbq dinner and had a great afternoon!

Other highlight was this brilliant painting that Jo and Paul got from a friend of their's. It's 9 separate square paintings and together in the 3 by 3 square they tell a story. Not sure what it is totally, but the paint has their wedding vows on it, and other stuff. Two of the squares come off, and under one all the names of the wedding guests in painted. Anyway, Jem and I were given one of the square paintings each, and it has "True friends leave footprints on your heart" painted on it. So when people see their painting, they might ask "where are the other two panels?" and They'll say, "my two bridesmaids have them." Cool eh! Such a memorable and lovely gift.

So yeah, sorry for the long long story of the weekend! But it was a truly awesome day, and couldn't have gone better. Before I was thinking, my god it's so weird Jo's getting married, but it was so perfect seeing them marrying each other and having such a happy day!

I'll post some photos sometime soon when I can connect my laptop to internet.