Everyone tells you that your wedding day will be the best ever. You’ll think your wedding was better than any wedding you’ve ever attended. You’ll look back on it for eternity with extreme fondness and the only thing you would change was that it didn’t go by so quickly.They are correct. Every bit of it is true.
Our wedding day. It really was the BEST day of our lives! And it may well be one of the best weddings in history because even the organization people at the chosen venue told us that it was the best wedding they have hosted there!
As most of you know by now, the setting was the Laurance Winery in the Margaret River wine region. The date, December 3rd which is, of course, a big weekend celebration for us every year but this year would be even bigger.
After a full month back in Australia where I attended weddings, caught up with old favourites and eagerly anticipated the arrival of Joep (he arrived 2 weeks before the wedding) the big week arrived. Wedding week. Now, I thought that we were pretty organized on the wedding planning front. I mean, I haven’t been obsessive about it but there is a pretty huge excel file that was tracking everything plus the parental unit had been a huge help so I just assumed the last week would be pretty chilled.
I was semi right. Whilst it was not super stressful, there was still a large amount of last minute stuff to be done! There was also the issue of the Margaret River bush fires which threatened to burn down our venue and, more devastatingly resulted in the loss of almost 40 homes and significant damage to the area surrounding Margs. We tracked the fires religiously and were very lucky that they didn’t hinder our day at all. And so, after getting the last minute stuff done, boy were we excited as we packed up the cars to head to Margs on Thursday! On the way down Joep & I stopped at the winery to drop off the last few bits and pieces and the all important wedding cake. We then enjoyed a delicious lunch over-looking the place that we would be wed in 48 hours. Words cannot do the excitement levels justice. We were bouncing off the walls!
That evening there was an impromptu get together at the Margaret River hotel where the groomsmen were introduced to my extended family and a battle of the big personalities ensued. It was gearing up to be quite the event!
Friday rolled around bright and sunny and promising great things! Joep & I had vowed that we would use this day to treat ourselves. Delicious massages, mani’s & pedi’s awaited us in the oh so peaceful day spa retreats surrounding Margs. It was heaven. We felt very spoiled, and we also felt VERY relaxed as we departed the day spa to head to Laurance for our rehearsal!
After a 4pm rehearsal, which went off without a hitch and involved loads of laughs largely at the mother ship as the guided the flower girls (Niamhy & Beanie of course!) down the aisle showing them how to throw pretend rose petals. Priceless. After ensuring that everyone knew where they needed to be the following afternoon, we all headed back to our apartments for the planned pre-wedding get together. Splendid!!
Here is where 150% of the credit must go to the Delany family and, by extension, the Dunne family. I had grand plans of being the hostess with the mostest at this bbq. These plans did not come to fruition. The bbq was held at the Leeuwin Apartments where pretty much all the crazy Dunne family were staying in a row of connected houses. A number of close family friends were also staying here as well as a few pals of Joep & mine. Needless to say, having everyone in such close proximity made for quite a fun night! As the Delany girls and Dunne aunts ran around like (in the famous words of David Delany) ‘blue arsed flies’, I reclined in a leisurely fashion with my husband-to-be and some great old friends. It was wonderful! The evening was deemed a big success as everyone got to know each other and pigged out and had a few drinks. Uncle Sean suffered a minor humiliation when the bench he was sitting on collapsed unexpectedly providing many laughs for the larger group … especially given that he is one of the world’s greatest sports and laughed harder than anyone while sitting somewhat trapped in the broken bench awaiting help. Awesome! The evening was ended with a wonderful speech from Joep thanking everyone for coming and then telling them to leave … good man.
After the bbq fun times Joep & I took a few minutes alone to exchange our wedding day gifts (spoiled!!) before we headed off in opposite directions only to be reunited at the top of the aisle the following afternoon … weeeeeeeeeee!!
Wedding day morning. I cannot tell you much about what the men did. I know there was a golf tournament on. I know this because Dad & Joep had been planning this for months. Devastation struck when dad became violently ill and had to skip the golf. It was a total bummer because he’d been looking forward to it for ages but he prioritized his energy levels and put walking me down the aisle first. Good dad.
I know that Joepster had a great day with golf in the morning, delivering flowers in the midday and enjoying a delicious bbq with his groomsmen before getting dressed and heading to the winery. The gals had a similar day! I was anticipating lots of crying and freaking out. There was none of this. I attribute this almost entirely to my bridesmaids and parents … and nieces and nephew. The morning began with a wonderful drive to Gnarabup to have a look at the fire damage caused the previous week (nothing like seeing someone else’s devastation to give you perspective that no matter what ‘goes wrong’ on your wedding day, it is not that bad). Having witnessed the devastation … and believe me, it IS devastation, we then headed for a morning coffee on the beach where we were treated to an impromptu meet up with Julz & Rog!! Our fav NZ’ers!! I was stoked to see them and I believe the feeling was mutual. That being said, there was some bewilderment regarding why on earth I was out wandering around on the morning of my wedding and not getting ready. I have a good answer … I didn’t need a whole day to get ready.
Coffee done, we headed back to the apartments to have a bit of QT by the pool with the mother ship before the arrival of the hairdresser. Once the hairdresser arrived things got a bit more organized. Jane was a godsend as she patiently sat painting all the girls nails, consoling Kynan when we was told that he couldn’t have his nails painted … not even if he wanted them painted grey … And doing all the girls hair in amazing ‘princess styles’ so that they all felt positively gorgeous by the time she was done.
In the meantime, each of us did make-up and had hair done and before we knew it, it was time to have a drink, put on our dresses and head off … Weeeeeeeee!!!
Everything ran like clockwork. The bus collecting guests was right on time, the limo was right on time, we were all organized! So we piled into the limo after I had made the executive decision that I would put my uncomfortable wedding shoes on when I got to the venue rather than wear them in the car. Upon arrival at Laurance (15 minutes early for my own wedding … don’t act surprised, I’m early for everything! Why should my wedding be any different??) I asked around to see who of my bridesmaids had my shoes. Hilariously, noone had them. In the minutes that followed the 4 gals spent so long apologizing loudly that they didn’t register my reaction … I was quietly ecstatic. I had been DREADING wearing those shoes. They were so uncomfortable! Going down the aisle in my grey flips flops suited me just fine. As luck would have it, I went 1 better. Aoife has a spare pair of flat silver shoes in her car …. And so I have my something borrowed (dress was new, earrings had blue crystals and were old …)! Sparkly silver flip flops that were super comfortable and didn’t look half bad! It doesn’t get better than this.
The hours that followed were, hands down, the best of my life. Joep and I have consistently tried to compile a ‘top 5 moments’ list but it keeps changing. What I will say though it that walking down the aisle behind my 3 sisters, favourite cousin, 3 nieces and adorable nephew with my arm in daddyo Dave’s arm looking into the face of the Joepster who was grinning from ear to ear and looking hot to trot in his Canalie suit is a something I will never forget. It was a huge highlight.
My cathedral length veil proved quite the challenge to maneuver in the wind and almost floored me on the way back up the aisle after the ceremony when it got caught on a tree and I didn’t notice until I was ripped backwards provided quite a few laughs … I was pretty happy to take it off though!!
The ceremony was lovely … but it was HOT!! As I recited my vows to Joep in Dutch I could feel sweat rolling down my body and I remember thinking ‘This is not as romantic as I thought it would be …’ before looking up and seeing Joep’s sweaty face and realizing ‘This is even better than I thought it would be …’
Besides thoroughly loving vowing to love Joep forever and ever amen (because that was naturally the biggest highlight of my life to date) and having him do the same to me, I have to point out one part of the ceremony that I will look back on with happiness forever … Aoife’s reading! She read an exerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and teared up half way through. Which caused me to tear up, and all the sisters to tear up. It was so moving! And we’re all cry babies. Content sigh.
Temperatures dropped after the ceremony which was great and allowed us to enjoy the photo shoot with James (worlds greatest wedding photographer, hands down, no competition) before returning to enjoy our reception!! Oh man, what a reception! The Irish contingent were in AMAZING form and the Dutch came out to party! We started the evening with our first dance and got everyone up within minutes of the reception starting. Quick segway - Our first dance sucked!! We had practiced it for some time alas the band played the wrong tune so we were slightly devoed but did our best to perform anyway and saw the funny side of it … you’ve got to right?! We then quickly cut the cake before I made my speech. Let me pause for a second here to note that Anna was our MC for the evening and she was FRICKIN’ AWESOME! We couldn’t have asked for a better MC. She was cool, calm, collected, funny, hot to trot, organized and … I could go for days here. Suffice to say, she was awesome. Seriously awesome.
After ending my speech I was free to relax for the rest of the evening. The speeches that followed were amazing – Sheenz was fantastic, Sjors (who flew for 60 hours only to be in Australia for 48 hours for the wedding) had the whole room in tears with his moving speech, Davo once again stole the show mixing hilarity with a few very touching moments and Joepster made sure his closing speech got everyone on the dancefloor.
- Aunty Anne leading everyone in an Irish ceili and shouting at them when they did it wrong
- Dad & Dave Brennan getting a limbo stick out for the masses to enjoy … and boy did they enjoy it!
- Joepster doing a knee slide under the limbo stick to where I was waiting to boogy with him
- The Russian dance-offs between Dave Brennan, Stewart (one of our fav Canadians!) and Joep. Keep in mind that the Russian dance involved getting down in a squat and kicking your legs out. Dave has only 1 arm. That means he wins instantly because it must be hard to balance like that!! Oh and for the record, the mother ship would absolutely lose it laughing every time they did this dance!
- The impromptu 4-hand performed by me, Sheenz, Jane & Siobhan … it was inevitable … and who know that Maroon 5’s ‘Moves Like Jagger’ would be so perfect for Irish dancing?
- The conga line!! Lead by Uncle Jeff and looping around the winery … it is a life highlight for me. I loved it!!
- The Joepster & Paul doing a circus act that involved some serious vaulting over each other … it was impressive and highly entertaining.
- The kids shaking their groove thangs and then trying to set up their beds on the dancefloor so that they wouldn’t miss any of the action … Thankfully Aoife saw this happening and realized they would be trampled and prevented said trampling. Good mother.
OK I could write for days about all of this. Suffice to say, it was the best day of our lives! And we were a bit sad to leave our own party but we were POOPED and exhausted … plus the limo had a big bottle of champagne for us to enjoy. To this day I have no idea what song we left to … I think it was to Men at Work – Down Under but I may be mistaken. What I do remember though it running out through the archway of our guests with my HUSBAND and feeling elated. Positively elated.
So there you have it. It was the best day of our lives. We loved every second of it. We’ll remember it forever and ever and it will always make me smile!! And so ends my first blog as Mrs Vaessen!
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