Anna's Aussie trip, Post 2: Shell & Simon's wedding

Continuing on from the previous post...

On Thursday afternoon (November 10th), I took a Greyhound bus from Dalby to Toowoomba (a one hour trip), where I was met at the bus depot by my high school best friend, Kat. We only had an hour and a half together, but we spent it chatting nonstop at a café and then back at her flat. (We forgot to take a photo, but click here to see the one we took almost exactly a year earlier!)

Then, Shelley and Zoe collected me from Kat's flat and the three of us headed to Shell's parents' farm near Gatton, half an hour away. Zoe was over from NZ for the wedding, and it was the first time I had met her - although we had both heard about each other from various mutual friends! Shell and I hadn't seen each other for a year, so it was wonderful to have that night together at Graham and Katrina's house to catch up properly before lots of other guests arrived the next day.

On Friday, various friends and relatives trickled in throughout the day. It was a fun and relaxing day of eating yummy food and catching up with good friends.

Delle and Shell
Sheralyn, Chany, Tim, Zoe and Shell
Wes, Lianna, me, Delle
Zoe trying to avoid catching an iPad addiction
That evening (the night before the wedding), about 20 of us met at the reception venue to set up the tables for the next day, practice our musical numbers, and have dinner.

At dinner, I passed my camera along the table and collected the following shots...
Valda (mother of the groom), Katrina and Graham (parents of the bride)
Tim and Chany
Zoe, Delle (sister of the bride) and Caleb (brother of the groom)
The groom
The bride
Lachlan (brother of the bride) and Sheralyn
Lianna
Lachlan
Wes
Alex (brother of the bride)
[In the early hours of the wedding day, insert here my experience with the stomach bug mentioned in the previous post. It does not need to be blogged about; suffice to say that I was very glad of some effective medicine that got me (albeit rather pale and faint) to the wedding I had travelled 12000kms for!]
And now for some photos of the wedding!
Shell and Simon's wedding ceremony was held at 3:30pm on Saturday, November 12th, at Spring Bluff Railway Station...

Shell, Graham, Lianna and Delle arriving




Lianna and Delle
Caleb and Lachlan



Graham and Katrina









Glen and Jo
And here are some photos from the reception at the Lockyer Valley Cultural Centre in Gatton...






At my table: Wes, Jo, Glen, Tim, Chany, Sheralyn, Jess



It was a thoroughly beautiful wedding - a classy vintage theme, touching vows, heartfelt and hilarious speeches, beautiful singing, delicious food, a lolly table, and departure by plane (see above). Congratulations Shell and Simon!!
The next evening, after having spent three nights at Graham and Katrina's, I headed back to Brisbane with Delle, and stayed Sunday night at her place. I spent Monday hanging out in her flat while she went to work, and that evening we had Red Rooster for dinner before she dropped me at the airport for my flight to Perth to spend six days with my parents.


To be continued!

Australia trip, Post 1: Kraig & Ingrid's wedding

We landed in Brisbane on the morning of Thursday, November 11th, and were met at the airport by Ben's parents (Jim and Jenny) and Bevan. After a few hours at Jim and Jenny's, we set off on the 2-hour drive up to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. We were staying that night in a unit with the groom's family and a few other friends before the wedding at 3pm the next day.

After we arrived and greeted a bunch of our good friends that we hadn't seen for 2 years, the boys went go-karting. The photos below show Kraig and his two brothers, Wes and Tim (in helmet). To provide a bit of context for those reading this blog who are about to see lots of photos of people they don't know: Ben has been mates with these blokes for over 10 years; Kraig was MC at our wedding and Tim was best man (and also went on to marry one of my friends - in fact, that was the wedding we went home for between England and Canada)...




That evening a large group of us had a BBQ on the beach, and we caught up with a whole lot more people. Note the plaster on Kraig's arm in the photo of him cooking up some snags on the barbie - an unsuccessful plot to scare Ingrid when she arrived!



The next day we spent the morning lazing around in the unit. Here's the view from the balcony, and some photos from lunch. The third photo below shows the groom's parents, Trevor and Valmai - very dear friends of ours...





A couple of hours before the wedding, Ben, Ash, Tim and Wes tackled Kraig, zip-tied his feet together, and decorated his back. No doubt some payback for many similar incidents Kraig has been involved in over the years! Here's a video of the tackling and tying process, and a photo of the end result (censored for the enjoyment of your imagination)...

A few more pre-wedding photos...

And here are some photos from the wedding, which was at Clio's in Palmwoods. If you're interested in seeing a LOT more wedding photos, visit our Australia trip album in Picasa.

Photos of various friends...
Tony and Corinne
Amanda and Kel
Tish and I
Chany and Tim
Wes and Lianna
Us with Petrina and Mark(This was the first time we had met them. Long-time blog readers may remember Trev and Sharon of the cooking competition etc in England - Mark is Sharon's brother so we took this photo for her.)
Kate and Russ
The Bus Boys...


Kraig and his mates...

The reception...



L-R: Tony (holding Sienna), Corinne, Mark, Petrina, Tim, Chany, Ben
And, of course, a few bits of mischief towards the end of the night...
Putting Vegemite on the manifold
Securing a doctored smoke alarm
Some strategically placed ice...
...Which was then poured up Kraig's trousers...
...And his pants legs taped up!

Brrr!
And... goodbye!

As you can see, it was a beautiful wedding, complete with lots of laughs and good friends. It was also a great way to see more of our further-afield friends than we otherwise could have!
After the wedding, we drove a few hours north to spend the next few days at my parents' place. To be continued!