A Wedding by the River

[stephbg]

Went to a family wedding down by the Swan River this afternoon, at the Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. In the vernacular of the classic wedding ice-breaker question of "Are you with the Bride or Groom?" I was the Bride's Father's Cousin's Wife (short form "Bride's Cousin" but the whole point of the CWIBQ is to make the answer as long as humanly possible to give the conversation a leg to stand on).



It was a gorgeous day for it; the service was on the grass at 4pm, so between the hour, the shade, and the breeze off the water it was warm but not hot. Lots of interesting clouds :-) . There were swans on the Swan, and I'm sure there were dolphins somewhere. The bride arrived by boat, which was not something I personally would have chosen, but it usefully gave the guests another topic of conversation: My Experience With Boats.

The bride was seriously radiant. I mean it. And her gown had wide straps and a V neck! Halleluliah! Not another strapless monstrosity, although in this case she could have carried it off. The gown was a Collette Dinnigan for those playing at home. (Also useful topic of conversation: Will Brides Get Over This Whole Strapless Gown Thing Not Everyone Can Carry It Off (with bonus anecdote from friend-of-a-photographer who spends a lot of time airbushing away muttontops).)

I must say, weddings do make conversations with strangers much easier than usual.

The groom's family was Sicilian-Australian and outnumbered the bride's Canadian-Scottish-Australian by about 3 to 1, and were very easy to spot (*much* more fabulous clothes and shoes, for a start). It amused me greatly to observe each side surruptitiously checking each other out across the aisle. While there was a lone piper to lead the guests from the lawn to the marquee (and three gents in formal kilts and full regalia) the Italian influence was definitely the stronger, and perhaps the source of some tension I sadly cannot divulge here. Ah, family.

Despite an elaborate DJ setup the compulsory flaw for the day was the frequent failure of the PA system, so in the end the celebrant just gave up and shouted. They got married anyway.

I was not in good shape, but treated the service as a non-negotiable outing, which meant liberal application of caffeine and codeine to get me there, and a heavy dependence on the stick even though I sat as much as I could. My arms and wrists will no doubt punish me very severely for that :/ . Still I got there, and managed over an hour of meet+greet+drinkies afterwards (See CWIBQ, above), leaving at about 5:45pm I think. "But dinner's starting in just over an hour!" they said, "And it will be finished by 9 or so." I'd almost forgotten how little a couple of hours means to normal people. I was well and truely finished, and they had been warned that I/we might not last as long as the formal reception. I lurched away, leaning heavily on both Husband and Mr Sticky, and probably looking like I'd attacked the drinkies with rather more enthusiasm than is considered polite. FTR I drank water.

I do love weddings, particularly during the vows where one's hand reaches out to Husband's and we give each other little grins and cat nudges. There was also a 4 week old baby next to us, and I tried to think about the positive aspects of Life Goes On and The Circle of Life and all that, and try not to miss Dad too much. That didn't work too well, but it was worth a try.

Best of luck to both of them. Got another wedding later in the year in Adelaide where I will be the Bride's Mother's Brother's Wife. Auntie Steph! I shall definitely have to pour on some misbehaviour for that one ;-)

Comments

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

Finally! Someone who has voiced my own internal thoughts regarding strapless gowns. So VERY FEW can pull them off, and yet, they seem to be everywhere!

And I'm glad you were able to hold up for the ceremony. I hope your body doesn't punish you too much for it.