Over the weekend, my Best Friend, The Out of Town Bride, got married. It was an epic weekend, wildly successful and one of those amazing weekends that you’re both glad and a little disappointed that it’s over.

I left Auckland on the Friday (on a random bus in a crazy storm) to arrive in Rawhiti a mere 5.5 hours later (it usually a 3.5 – 4 hour trip). It was gorgeous up there, blue skies and almost stupidly hot! The bridal party did our own little powhiri (which was short and sweet and necessary, as we’d be walking onto the marae post powhiri the next day).

Then us girls left to head to the Bridal Batch, which was AMAZING! It was all so well designed, and was gorgeous. Surprisingly, it was only the ‘bunkhouse’ – the main batch was HUGE and down the way! We wandered down the mostly private beach and enjoyed a late afternoon swim. It was pretty awesome. The Bay of Islands is truly gorgeous!

That night before the wedding was pretty fun. We headed back to the Marae to set up the last minute details (it was pretty easy to slot back into ‘marae’ mode, and washed dishes, peeled kumura with the mokopuna, made signs and arranged flowers), and on our return to the Bridal Batch we spent the evening drinking champagne, painting nails, tacking dresses and opening presents! The Bride got all us bridesmaids pearl studs, and a bracelet to match! I was blown away by her generosity, for serious. She also got us a pair of gold jandals each, and a pair of red gumboots, depending on how the weather went (none of us planned to be wearing our fancy shoes at the reception, nor in the bridal photos). This thoughtfulness is in part, why I adore The Out of Town Bride!!

The next morning, I snuck in early to the Brides room to see if she was awake (she was, of course) and we had a little squee together. It was her Wedding Day! We spent a little while discussing plans and then the morning came in full swing. We curled each others hair, fixed nails that had broke, did makeup, tried on our boots and did all the cute girly things you do before walking down an aisle.

Once we were all good and ready, we rushed down the road to await the Father of the Bride to appear (he was part of the Powhiri, and would meet us 5 minutes before it was done!) As we had time to kill, we did what all girls who had just gotten all dressed up would do, and we were cam whores. :)

The father of the bride appeared, and we walked down the aisle (followed by a gaggle of children) and we watched The Out of Town Bride get married. It was a touching moment, listening to their vows. It wasn’t without drama though, someone had misplaced the actual marriage license (so we signed a scrap peice of paper for the photographer and signed the real thing later on in the day), and the tent for the children wasn’t set up, so they ended up sitting at our feet. Which would have been fine had they been a bit older. They weren’t, so they were darting around from person to person, and around the bridal couples feet. Sigh.

The group photos after were pretty fun, as was the eating. Oh the eating! I love Marae food. There was fry bread and mussel fritters and fancy cocktails and punch and boil up, and cup cupcakes . . . it was all done in small cute little finger food packages, suitable for a wedding. Having been starved at breakfast I pretty much devoured anything that was put in front of me. At one point I was in the marae kitchen eating the fry bread as it came out of the pan! Oh, the perks of being maid of honour :)

The Bridal Party photos came soon after, and oh we had lots of fun! We were all drinking little bottles of champagne (yum!) and dancing around. We took lots of silly photos of ourselves, to balance up the ‘serious’ photos the professional photographers were taking. It was QUITE fun!

Unfortunately we were in an old farm like property, with long grass. And we were all in jandals – our poor feet got absolutely ATTACKED by the bugs! We were all itching our tootsies at the reception!!

The reception was quite fun too. It was held at Russell, which was a good 40 minute drive away (which was good, because it gave us some downtime). Once there we spent a good while socialising, and wandering around. It was good to see alot of the people that were there. The food was amazing (despite the small cockup, the staff had forgotten that they were to serve the bridal table, and as such we ended up watching other people eat till food came), and by this time I was well into the Champagne, and more than worried at the thought of having to do my speech!

But, the speeches did come. Both the Father of the Bride and the Father of the Groom spoke so eloquently of their children. The Best Man did quite a humorous speech and his speech was well received. Then it was my turn. I apologised for being nervous (and was lucky to have people yell out to tautoko me) and I plowed right ahead. It was good, everyone laughed when they were meant to (in fact my one joke was so well received that I had to pause twice, and mention that yes, it was funny well after the delivery of it. The silly thing was, it was funny because it was TRUE :P).

The worse bit, though came at the end. I’d left all the sentimental emotion for the last line of my speech, and I choked up. I looked at the bride, with her ridiculously big eyes filled with tears and I wanted to bawl my eyes out. I managed to stammer out the rest of my speech, and when I raised my glass for the toast I looked up to see both the Father of the Bride, and the Father of the Groom wiping their eyes, and past them, easily half the guests crying into their hands.

I didn’t feel so stupid crying after that, knowing that everyone else was crying too. The Father of the Groom came up especially to clink my glass for the toast And I got loads of compliments for being brave enough to share that emotion in my speech, and to be THAT sentimental. I didn’t want to cry, but it didn’t seem so bad once I’d seen that everyone else was crying right along with me.

The rest of the night was devoted to dancing, the eating of the cake, the first dance and much socialising (Particularly with The Square)!!

It was such a long day, and I retired gratefully when the Bride and Groom did around two. Early the next morning we met up with the Bridal Party for breakfast (which was delicious! I’m a huuuge fan of scrambled eggs!) where there were more compliments, and congratulations offered to the married couple. We helped pack up what was left, packed all the cars and The Boy and I made it away just before lunch.

This time we DID make 3.5 hour drive in the expected time, though I think I slept through most of it :) We got home, and I had enough time for a lunch and a quick nap before I met the Bride and Groom in Auckland. We opened the rest of the presents (marking down who got what so the Bride could send out thank you notes), and enjoyed cheese and crackers while we looked through the photos that had been taken.

After a Thai dinner, I took the wedding dress (to be dry cleaned and preserved – the Bride would be leaving too early the next morning to do it herself), said good bye (for I wouldn’t be seeing the Bride again till June!) and was on my way. I was SO EXHAUSTED and both glad and a little disappointed the weekend was over.

In saying that, it was a pretty amazing weekend. Incredibly successful, very few issues and the result was a happily married couple. <3

On the way back from the wedding this weekend, I got to go on a car ferry for the first time. Now usually, when you are driving around everyone is very isolated in their cars. The only real interaction is usually in anger (oh road rage. I wish people were more patient than they are) or occasionally when someone might give way.

But on the CAR ferry – things are quite different! Everyone gets out of their car and suddenly you realise (or was the case that morning) that you KNOW people on the car ferry! Everyone groups together, grateful for the break, to be standing in the breeze admiring the view (which is generally better than the road).

There is talking and people discuss the weather, the road conditions, how beautiful the wedding was. We laughed and chatted, and things were pretty grand.

When the car ferry came to the end of its journey we all piled back in our cars feeling better about ourselves, and the drive. Feeling MUCH less isolated, and more like we were driving in a convoy of friends.

Car Ferries are GRAND. I encourage anyone who is going on a trip to plan their journey to include a car ferry ride. :)

I’ve been to many weddings, lately. At least three since January. And I’ve got two more in the next month or so. It appears that I have reached that age bracket where everyone is now getting married.

My sister is in that phase where everyone is having 21sts, and I miss that. The crazy drinking and partying, the random nights out and hooking up with strangers and dancing till you couldn’t feel your feet anymore. Weddings are so very *different*.

More drinking champagne instead of tequila shots, less random and more formal, and everyone is all paired up anyway so there’s no hooking up with strangers without some serious carnage. There is occasionally dancing, but by then you’ve been in heels all day and you’re not quite drunk enough to not feel them and it’s all very silly. Much less with the wild abandon and more with the settling down and getting old.

Some of its nice – the food is great. Generally the setting is pretty, and everyone is all dressed up in their finest. Getting to see The Boy in a suit is fantastic, and watching the happy bridal couple publicly declare their love for one another is generally pretty special. I think I cried a little at the last two weddings, particularly when the grooms got all teary when they saw their brides walking down the aisle. I wish they wouldn’t, I always end up pretending I’ve got something in my eye.

And despite being the maid of honour for the out of town bride, you can easily forget how much work goes into the day. The numerous fittings for suits and dresses, smelling many flowers, scrutinising ribbon and designing placenames. There are a trillion, trillion little details to oversee, many millions of decisions to make, and when it gets down to it, alot of hard work.

The hardest thing a guest has to do is pick up a present and decide what to wear. Occasionally, this can be difficult. I am going to what I think is a Sikh wedding, and I’ve been asked to cover my hair, shoulders and legs. My usually wedding attire is a pair of heels, and a cute cocktail dress (of which I have many to cycle through depending on whose wedding it is and which dresses I’ve already worn). I have a firm belief that girls shouldn’t wear pants to a wedding, and that they shouldn’t wear black (it’s meant to be bad luck, see. Marriages are tricky enough as it is).

So for serious, what exactly am I meant to wear? I’m hoping I’ll pull something out of the air sometime next week, something that isn’t inconsiderate or culturally offensive but until then, enjoy photos from the last wedding:

The Bridal Party

The Boy and I

Me and K

Over the weekend we had The Out-of-Town Bride’s Hens Party. It was an EPIC day, filled with champagne spa treatments, pole dancing, silly games, penis straws, a topless waiter, and Guitar Hero’s World Tour.

We danced, and gossiped and giggled and had a fantastic, laxed out day. There were many ridiculous quotes that I shan’t repeat here (I think I’ve almost overdone the ‘penis’ theme) and generally many good times were had. For your viewing pleasure, a selection of photos:

Part of the spa day. We spent the day mostly beside the pool, or getting manicures, pedicures and massages. It was VERY relaxing, and getting pampered is one of those things you could easily get addicted to! (That happens to be The Third Quarter bottom right)

The Pole Dancing class was fantastic! The Instructor was skilled, and my appreciation for Pole Dancing (as an art, mind you) had increased exponentially because that shit is HARD! It’s not easy to convince your body that it should like to suspend itself perpendicular to a pole, and for several days after all my muscles were sore. It’s a fantastic form of exercise!

We also managed to get a Topless Waiter as a surprise for the hen! He was pretty fantastic, he served drinks but also was really sociable and hung out with us, took part in all our games and was awesome at the drums on GH World Tour! He did a great job of setting everyone at ease, and it wasn’t awkward at all!

One of the more tame games we played was the ‘Toilet Paper Wedding Dress’, where each team has 15 minutes to make a wedding dress from toilet paper. It was quite fun, and our topless waiter had no problem being a model. A bit more tricky than I thought it would be. I also managed to buy easily four times more toilet paper than we needed!!

The rest of the night was dedicated to more champagne, silly dressups, Singstar and Guitar Hero’s World Tour. It was an epic, EPIC night filled with many penis straws, many penis cookies, and many many silly moments.

In the very least I had fun. I’m fairly sure the hen did too :)

There is nothing like a hen’s party to bring out your inner 15 year old. In preparation for the said party, I brought penis straws (guaranteed to make the hen giggle, if not feel ever so slightly uncomfortable):

And I also made penis cookies, which made ME giggle.

And how many of you can say you’ve eaten tasty penis today? On second thought, I don’t want to know :P

Working where I do is an absolute pleasure – I’m still waiting for the flipside. Perhaps I’m still in that ‘new’ phase, where I don’t know better yet, and no one has spilled anyone else’s secrets.

But regardless, still loving this company. Because I started so late in the year I didn’t have any leave stored up, but the bosses were quite happy for me to take whatever days I wanted. So, I rather politely took a couple days between Christmas and New Years, and went back on the third.

On the fourth, the bosses came in all carefree and wonderful, and said that if I wanted I could take more time off. The office was quiet and it would be much nicer if I was outside enjoying the sun than inside doing not much. Sure, they said. Take a few days off, just email us to let us know – no problem!

So, I did. And after spending yesterday with The Out-of-town Bride shopping for bridal shoes (found an excellent pair at Maher’s – a pair of almost Bollywood-sparkly stilettos, to set off the very demure, very elegant dress), and this morning lounging around with The Boy, I’m very very thankful that work saw fit to give me a few more days to enjoy the summer.

And with today being all blue skies, I’m very very glad that work is as lovely as it is.

Woo! After many missions through fabric stores, after many emails, last minute txt’s and quick discussions at netball – the plans for the bridesmaid dresses are now FINALISED!!

We have found the three fabrics (one through K’s wholesale connections, one in a little store in Australia, and the other one I discovered while procrastinating in Newmarket), two of three of the bridesmaids have been measured up. And we have a fairly firm design which has been made up in mock form.

I am so glad things are moving forward! I’ve never, ever been so intimidated by a dress, nor done so much running around for one!! Trying to find the right colours was a bitch, and I must’ve looked through SO MANY WEDDING BLOGS!

Okay, I think I’m talking it up a bit now. In truth, it hasn’t been that bad. All the real work was done by the fabulous fabulous Kirsty who has always had time for me, even when we made so many changes. She came on fabric trips, found the pattern, and made up the mocks and has just been so absolutely fantastic.

If your ever in a position where you or your friend are getting the bridesmaid dresses made, find a decent dressmaker who will go the extra mile for you. It’s important that you have someone who is happy to talk through any changes you make and happy to tactfully tell you when changes are needed. A decent dressmaker is worth their weight in gold – for serious! I think we got lucky.

And the best bit? At all the fittings, and all the fabric meetings K let me bring Quinn to the party. Best. Dressmaker. Ever.

. . . is trying on all the ridiculous (and the ridiculously expensive) dresses that you’d never actually wear anywhere.

Fantastic, right?