Monday, December 13, 2010

A Melbourne wedding

There's been a lot of running about lately.

A week before I went to the Gold Coast, I actually found my way down to Melbourne for the wedding of one of my old friends from high school.

Melbourne is a nice city. But this was the first time I had been in Melbourne during the summer in at least 15 years. I was confronted with the unhappy fact that I seem to be allergic to the city. From the moment I landed in Melbourne, I felt congested and my eyes watered. It took me back to my childhood days as one of those kids who was constantly suffering from allergies. Ahhh, sweet memories....

This trip had a very specific purpose though. The wedding.

Amazingly, I was late (an annoying re-occurrence recently). I found myself rushing to the church in a taxi, looking anxiously at my watch as the minute hand past the time that the ceremony was meant to start.

I jumped out of the cab (as best I could with my knee in its recovering state) and rushed (again, as best as I could) towards the the front door of the church.

It then dawned on me that I had no idea whether I was at the right location.....

.... luckily for me, right in front of the church, there was a nice big sign that this was the right wedding.
My friend Steve had chosen two Combi vans as his mode of transportation for the wedding.

Clearly the "white wedding" hadn't diminished his sense of humour. Taking this cue, I quietly slipped into the church and sat at the back to watch the wedding.

It was a lovely wedding too. Done in a combination of English and Vietnamese, so I was at least able to understand half of it.

As the formal part of the ceremony came to a close, everyone could suddenly hear the noise of a band play up. Out of no where, the band appeared and began playing the song "Sexual Healing" to lead out the bridal party.
The bride and groom looked happy. The parents looked happy. The family and friends. It was hard to find a fault at all? Then again, why would you want to?
Everyone retired for a few hours before the reception. I headed to a quiet pub with some friends before making my way towards the reception location.

Of course, my habits were continuing though, and I managed to get us lost. We arrived at the reception as the last guests.

It was a big wedding. There would have been close to 400 guests.

I found my seat with my friends and began to have a great time. I even managed to eat two dinners since there was a spare seat at my table (something that one would assume I should have grown out of doing by now... but hey, I'm not going to turn down extra lobster).

As the night progressed, the true entertainment started. The bride and groom, slowly approached the dance floor and began their first dance as husband and wife.

They danced slowly and lovingly.

And then as their dancing came to a close, a rush of people literally charged to the stage.

About thirty of their closest friends had been rehearsing with them for a choreographed dance that they put on for everyone!
It was fantastic seeing them all dancing along in step and livening up the entire event. As their dance finished, they all rushed into the crowd and dragged people onto the dance floor.

I stood on the sides and took my photos and then annoying, I slowly made my way back to my seat with a knee that was screaming at me for having been standing for far too long.

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