Elizabeth & Ian
Friday January 3, 2014
Our wedding day was finally here. 363 days after Ian proposed in the walled garden of Dromoland Castle in Ireland and the same number of days in the planning we were now at the point when we just had to sit back and enjoy the ride. Well I say that but while I was at home with Adelaide, Celeste and Dominic and the girls and I were getting the works from Jess, our lovely hair and make-up lady, Ian and Raph were down at Clontarf staking out our chosen spot and trying to make it look suitably nuptial with the addition of chairs and pom-poms strung from the trees (the pom-poms were strung from the trees, not the chairs.) The day was warm and intermittently sunny. The patchy drizzle in the morning finally gave way with no sign of any more precipitation to rain on our parade.
The girls and I just concentrated on getting gorgeous. I felt remarkably calm but super excited. There is definitely a time when stress is pointless as you watch your planning unfold and the fun begin.
The limo arrived and with perfect timing delivered me with my beautiful Bridesmaids and my handsome Best Man to Clontarf Reserve. I gave Raph the signal and The Cure burst across the park with ‘Friday, I’m In Love’.
Celeste led, followed by Adelaide and then Dom walked me down the grassy aisle to Ian, who looks worried in the photos but assures me that he was happy. Katrina our lovely celebrant welcomed our friends and family,
Alyson and Adelaide did our readings.
Ian and I had kept our vows a secret from each other so our responses were genuine and we both moved each other with our heart-felt words.
While we signed our wedlock into law, The Beach Boys sang ‘God Only Knows’ and then Katrina introduced us to the waiting throng, (ok, it was a mini throng but you get the idea)…Mr and Mrs Ian and Elizabeth Laird and Sigor Ros heralded our presentation with ‘Inni Mer Syugur Vitleysingur’, which roughly translates as ‘Within me a Lunatic sings’
Our wonderful photographer, Jason took casual shots on the beach and the park and we finally looped back to join our guests who had found the bar set up on the verandah of the restaurant.
We all took our seats inside, our places indicated by individual Lego figures, each holding a name card and our entrees arrived. The food was delicious and we made good beverage choices too. After our main course, Celeste, Adelaide and Dominic sang a beautiful rendition of The Beatles, ‘All You Need is Love’. Dom accompanied on the guitar and our guests sang along gently. It was truly memorable and we were both so grateful to them because they were very nervous but they did it anyway.
After our yummy desserts and the necessary speeches from Ian’s Best Man, Rob and Celeste, and some sincere thank yous from me, the head table was moved off the dance floor and Ian and I produced our Wedding dance to Ray Charles, (I’m Gonna Love You) ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’. We were passable, we had practiced and we were able to produce more than a random shuffle but the fun bit was still to come. We made a ‘Flash Mob’ joined on the floor by Adelaide, Raph, Celeste and a couple of friends, Louise and Blythe, and danced our way through Empire of the Sun’s ‘Alive’. We’d practiced that too under the gentle tutelage of a dance teacher, the very patient Paula. It was energetic and we hope we entertained. We had fun anyway.
That was the signal to get the party started and we did. I dragged anyone who was foolish enough to come within my orbit onto the dance floor. We had candle lit tables on the verandah and inside the restaurant was lit with colour changing lights washing the vaulted ceiling.
The tables were set with every coloured gerberas like our bridal bouquets, set in bowls with LED lights that looked gorgeous. Everybody loved their Lego figure and we hope people keep them as a memento of the occasion. We wrapped up at 11pm and quite a few of our guests joined us on the Party Bus to Manly where Ian and I said our goodbyes and the bus went off to deliver the others to Brookvale.
We stayed the night at a lovely hotel overlooking Manly Beach. Ian and I took a long time to come down off the high the whole evening had created. We felt blessed to be surrounded by good company, good food and wine, a beautiful location, a fine evening and the love of our family and friends. I finished my speech with… ‘You are all the reason we didn’t elope’ and that was what it was all about really. It wouldn’t have been the same if it wasn’t shared and enjoyed by others. We were sad that there were several important family and friends missing for various reasons, mostly the fact that they lived on the other side of the world but we hope those people enjoy the story and the photos.
Well that is the saga of our Wedding Day, Friday, 3rd January, 2014. We loved it.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickles’ compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it our even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved
Shakespeare - Sonnet 116
Click on the image for the Photo Gallery
Click here to see the cute Table Plan