Ashgrove Bernese: The Wedding

The second part of The Big Holiday was spent in Hawkes Bay in preparation for the wedding. I was really, really tired when I arrived in HB but it was lovely to see Andrew and Maree.

I was expecting to have a very busy time in the lead up to the wedding, but in fact, Maree had everything pretty much in hand. On the first day we went to the hire company to double check that everything was all inhand. While there I began to feel a bit unwell. I had a bit of a sore tummy button at the end of the SI part of the holiday. I think it was from all the driving. I know that sounds weird but I was sitting in a driving position a LOT!!!! Anyway there was a tiny split in the skin and then when I arrived in HB (and was exhausted) it became infected and by the time we got to the hire company I had the beginnings of a fever so off to the doctor we went and I came out with topical ind internal antibiotics - quite a hefty dose.

Practising the charleston :-)

I wasn't a LOT of help to Maree for the next two days while my temperature came down but by the Wednesday I was feeling a LOT better.

On the Wednesday night Maree's family, the happy couple, their dance instructor and I all went out to dinner at Soda in Taradale. Once a month they have a themed dinner and I can't even remember what the theme was but the food was delish!!!

On the Thursday night we had a takeaway picninc down at the waterfront in Napier for anyone that was around and felt like joining us. It was LOVELY.

The big stuff started to happen on the Friday as the hire company finally completed the marquee. The wedding party had all arrived by then so there were plenty of hands on deck to set the tables etc. In the evening everyone was invited to go to Shed 2 down at the port in Napier to meet up and have dinner. It was a great evening although we didn't stay late. And guess what we had.....fish and chips......again!!!! (And they were LOVELY) :-)

The wedding day itself dawned fine and warm. I spent the first part of the morning setting out the chairs over at Maree's parent's place. Then I showered and concentrated on not getting hot so that I wouldn't undo the hair and make up that were the next thing to happen. We (the 'girls') took over the top floor of the house and had a fab time. We had drinks and snacks while we were waiting for our turn for hair and face.

Once we were all made up we got Maree into her dress, finished ourselves off and then did the official photos. It was quite a fun and he got some STUNNING shots. They can be seen at tim.co.nz. It was a very sunny day so the photographer needed some shade for the photos which he found under a tree in the paddock across the road. :-)

The wedding went swimmingly (although it was very, very hot!!!) and everyone looked amazing in their deco gear. The canapes were visually beautiful and tasted delicious. The reception was fab too and once again the food was DELICIOUS!!!! Maree and Andrew did a SUPER first dance (The Charleston) and it was just a really, really lovely day all round.

The day after the wedding was great too. Everyone was invited up to the house for 'brunch' and LOTS of people showed up. Steve and Andrea 'did' the BBQ which meant Andrew was able to spend the time catching up with people. After brunch, a group of people went down to Napier to see the Gatsby Picnic and came back EXTREMELY enthusiastic about going again next year. I stayed back at the house to help pack up. I have to say that it took a LOT longer than I expected and I was pretty pooped afterwards. But it was good to get it done.