ten years ago today, doug and i knelt together in the temple and promised to love each other, not just for this life, but for what comes next... and during those ten years, there has been good times, some really bad times... but it remains the best decision i have made to this day.
i decided to revisit my wedding photos and pop some up for our anniversary and so many wonderful memories came flooding back.
i was born in fremantle and my family moved to the bush in clackline when i was just 4 years old. i have a neverending love for fremantle though even to this day and for some reason, every time we go there, it's like coming home. for years i carried a dream in my head of having a photo in the whalers tunnel on my wedding day, and with the help of our amazing photographer, we made it happen. it is by far my favourite photo from the wedding and i never tire of seeing it.
it was a stinking hot week when we got married. it was 37, 38, 36 degrees celcius, then all of a sudden on our wedding day it was 23. what a miracle. to this day i still cannot believe it, but it was a beautiful day. perfect in every way.
one of the most wonderful parts of my wedding day was having all my brothers there to share the experience with me. they remain one of the most important things in my world and i am so grateful to have grown up as the youngest child, with three wonderful brothers to keep me grounded and remind me who i am.
we were surrounded by the most important people in our lives... and although i see so many people who fall out of touch with their bridal party members, our love for them remains the same. i chose my best friend jennifer, one of my oldest and dearest friends alexandra and dougs sister dominque, with my oldest niece laura as a flower girl. douglas was backed by his three "best men" as he called them, his two best friends from his childhood michael and james, as well as his cousin matthew and another cousins son matthew douglas (named after those two!)
i was super lucky to have my makeup done by michaels wife penny (who hilariously i have known since i was 11, so random that we ended up marrying friends) who is amazing and did an incredible job. i have never felt more beautiful in my entire life.
i love our photos. i still love to look at them and i am forever grateful for the patience of our photographer, a friend from church who stayed with us for hours so i could get what i wanted. i had so many ideas (and i was obsessed with photos even then) and was thrilled with the results.
this sweet little girl asked her dad the night before the wedding what a flower girl was meant to do. he told her to carry the train of my dress and to carry my flowers if i needed her to. she was incredible and such a sweetheart. she would continually appear and i would feel the end of my dress being lifted into the air and see her sweet smiling face. she is so special to me and i am so grateful to be her aunt.
the boathouse on crawley bay was a quick stop, our limo driver pulled into the bus bay to drop us off and then pulled into a side street while he waited. i love this place. i would pass it so often driving the work cars and i knew i needed to have this shot.
you'll notice i have a veil on in just this photo and not any of the others. a veil wasn't in my wedding dreams but i always wanted to have one photo of it blowing in the wind. it was my mothers and i love that we got this shot. it was my something borrowed for the day...
one of the most wonderful parts of my day was being able to walk into the reception on my fathers arm. having our ceremony in the temple does not allow for the tradition of a father walking his daughter down the aisle, so it was wonderful to share this brief moment with my dad. he is truly the most wonderful man i could have been blessed with as a dad.
doug's cousin matthew was in charge of reading the "telegrams" and well wishes from the relatives that couldn't make it to the wedding. he did such a good job and we were really impressed. more so when we found out later on that all of the pieces of paper he was reading from were blank. every single one... and he was just making them up as he went along. he's always been a joker, so really this didn't come as a surprise.
our speeches were hysterical. there was so so much fun and laughter and it was just so wonderful to be with people we loved. we were all especially amused when dad started his speech telling all our guests about how doug asked his permission to ask me to marry him one afternoon when they were out on the farm shooting. dad apparently retaliated with "you realise i am holding a shot gun don't you." it always makes me laugh to think about it because doug said when it was his turn to talk that it was a case of marry me or die trying. dag.
of course i stuck with tradition...
something old: my booties that i wore on my blessing day, attached to my bouquet (along with two two fabric horseshoes. mum always wanted to have a horseshoe on hers and when she tried to order one along with her flowers she was told by the florist "oh no darling,you don't order one, someone will give you one" they didn't, she was upset and so i had one for me and one for her
something new: my jewellery
something borrowed: my mothers veil
something blue: a pendant that belonged to my dads mother, it's a simple gold pendant with a blue stone set in it. i had it tied to the strap of my bra with a piece of blue silk ribbon
and this cake. it was so incredible. it was exactly what i asked for and tasted so good.
it was the most amazing day of my life, bar none and i have nothing but wonderful memories. ten years down and an eternity to go... i can't wait to see what comes next. ♥
