From Tuesday onwards we had guests arriving including mum's cousin from Canada and the rest were from Sydney including my parents, sisters and friend Victoria.
Thursday evening was the rehearsal and it was a bit of a circus but I didn't care! It wasn't a Broadway production and I wasn't about to have everyone make perfectly executed moves. The priest just showed us what we should do and that was about it. I decided that whatever happened on the day would happen! Things did turn out MUCH more smoothly on the day, though!
Friday we picked up our bouquets to save on the delivery fee. We just kept them in water since they were on natural stems anyway. In hindsight I may have put them in the fridge just to delay the rate at which the flowers opened but they didn't open a lot and still freeze dried really well.
We also went to the reception venue to set up our photoboard, placecards, drop off the guestbook and dress up the candelabras with ivy.
That night my Sydney relatives came over for dinner and stayed quite late. I was hoping for an early night but it was not to be. We finished up manicures and Andrew and I stayed up til about 1am writing our speech!
I was too hot to sleep so at 2am I stripped off my pyjamas and slept like a baby til my alarm went off at 4:45am!
Victoria and I then went out for a walk. It was still dark but I'm so glad we did! I felt really good afterwards.
We started to prepare breakfast with my little sister Bridesmaid Helene's help. We cut up some watermelon and strawberries along with sone STRONG freshly brewed coffee that Helene expertly makes.
5:30am our hairdresser arrives and starts putting people in rollers so I had time for a quick shower. I got into my wedding underwear and bathrobe. Nothing feels real yet!
My hair is put into rollers which have to stay for at least an hour and in the meantime the hairdresser works on everybody else while Victoria gives me a face, neck and arm massage. I was SO spoiled!
Finally my hair is finished and Victoria starts my make-up.
The photographers arrive and to my horror Andrew is still prancing around in jeans and a t-shirt. I have to yell at him to get dressed cos I can't get up to go bash him myself! *lol*
The photographers spent the time taking great photos of Andrew getting ready with Mitch - our best man.
I finished getting my makeup done and got into my dress. It was a 3 or 4 person job but we got it right! Victoria patiently did up all my buttons.
My parents surprised us by presenting us with the icons they received for their wedding 25 years before. This is a traditional part of an Eastern European wedding but I never thought to include them. I'm so glad they did this for us!
We went outside where the cars were waiting to have some family photos. At this point we were running about 30 minutes late but needn't have worried since the church wasn't free in time! There was a tribute service before us and they weren't out til 10:15. Even if they finished as promised by 9:45 it still wouldn't have given my ushers enough time to set up. Ceremony was due to begin at 10!
We piled into the cars and set off for the church. On the way I called Liz, one of my ushers on my mobile phone and that's when she told me not to hurry.
Everyone was laughing at me cos the phone was the main item in my bridal...sure I hade spare makeup and tissues too! I ended up passing the wad of tissues to mum during the ceremony. She started to cry but I didn't! I think I was grinning too much!
As the cars pulled up at the church I was a bit annoyed to see lots of people standing around instead of being inside. We were already running late but also we didn't want any extra distractions before the service. The only people who should have been there were our bear bearers and their parents, our ushers and the priest. But it was still good! My dad shooed the extra people inside and we took up our places in the doorway of the church.
The ceremony was a very traditional Ukrainian Catholic one...I love it! It's full of symbolism and is very beautiful!
Read more about it here!
After the service we signed the registry and paperwork to make it all legal and walked out as husband and wife! At that point our guests started showing us with the dried rose petals!
We have time for some quick hellos and hugs and kisses before piling into the cars and heading off to the reception. We were eager to taste the wonderful menu we'd been planning for the past few months.
More on the reception venue here.
Almost all the guests had arrived by the time our car got there. They were busy having drinks and hors d'oeuvres so we had a few photos with the car and while we walked up to the main building romantically huddled under a big umbrella as it gently rained.
The bridal party was announced and Andrew and I eneterd to The Presidents of the United States of America's "Ladies and Gentlemen Part I" Quite an unusual choice! Here are the Lyrics:
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. What is your desire?
And hello ladies and gentlemen explosions and fire
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, are you prepared to rock?
And hello ladies and gentlemen, let's rock!
Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock
Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock Lets rock
Do you have any idea what it takes to rock?
Every night every day every night
Plug us in and watch us pump out sound
Comin' to you so you don't have to leave town
This is the show, we are the band
Sometimes it just takes you by the hand...
At this point my parents presented us with some bread and salt that we ate. Very tradtional part of a Ukrainian reception. The bread symbolises abundance and the salt represents the challenges we now face together as a couple.
Andrew and I sat at a table for two! It was a great idea! We didn't want a "head table". They often look silly and we aren't all that outgoing so not being such a main focus (at least in our imaginations) was a good thing!
The meal was blessed and we then sat down to entree. After we ate a bit, Andrew and I made our way to as many tables as we could greeting our guests. There were about 60 people in total but felt like much more! Very soon main course was served and the speeches began after the speakers were done eating so our guests could continue their meals as they listened. We managed to visit a few more tables before the speeches began.
My dad was the first speaker and brought with him the very modem that began the whole thing! His speech was very warm and funny and totally off the cuff. He toasted the bride and groom and we then got up together to respond.
Andrew and I each read out sections of our speech thanking all the people who helped make the day a success and then toasting the bridal party.
My 2 sisters made their speech together and finally our best man made an incredible speech! He wrote it by himself and it was really funny and a wonderful way to end. He got the most applause and rightly so!
After that we cut our cake to Harry Connick Jr's "It Had to Be You". We fed some cake to each other which isn't customary in Australia but I think it's cute! "Smashing" is NOT an Australian tradition thank goodness!
Mum also made a korovai which is a traditional Ukrainian wedding cake/bread. Traditionally it was eaten but nowadays it's the symbolism that counts.
After the cake cutting we made our way onto the dancefloor for our bridal waltz. Like all the other music choices (and pretty much everything else!!), we danced to an unconventional "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim. The lyrics are beautiful and it' surprisingly easy to slowdance to.
Partway through the song the DJ invited everyone to join us on the dancefloor. We didn't have parent-child or bridal party dances. It was much better this way. The dancing reallly started and we danced to a few songs before greeting the rest of our guests - many were still sitting at their tables. We tried to meet everyone else on the dancefloor. After a few more songs we went outside to have most of our photos taken since we didn't get the opportunity earlier.
We went back inside for dessert and then out for more photos. Then we returned for the final few formalities. The bouquet toss was a bit like a "mark of the year competition" A lot of our friends are Aussie Rules fans so we had the DJ ask anyone out onto the dancefloor who wated to have a go. We had kids, adults guys, girls married and single people. It worked really well. Everyone jumped up footy-style to catch it. I made my throwaway bouquet from synthetic roses so it was everlasting. Spiderbait's "Footy" was appropriately playing during the toss.
Finally we had the goodbye circle. An Australian tradition I like very much. We did an adapted version but basically everyone stood in a circle and Andrew and I went around and said goodbye to each guest in turn. It meant we got to talk to most people at least twice and at worst we had some moments with each person at least once if we happened to miss them earlier.
By this time the cake had been packed and distributed to the guests.
We left hand in hand to "Ladies and Gentlemen Part II" by the Presidents. Lyrics are below!!
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, hope you enjoyed the show
Goodbye ladies and gentlemen, it's time to go
Goodevening ladies and gentlementn, that's all the songs we know
Goodbye ladies and gentlemen so let's go let's go
let's go let's go
let's go let's go
let's go let's go
let's go let's go
let's go let's go
let's go
let's go
Some of our closest friends joined us outside for bubble blowing as most of the guests left. We had some more photos before piling into our limo which whisked us off to a city hotel for the night. Everyone left just in time cos apparently another wedding was arriving...I didn't notice though!
I was really glad to finally be alone with Andrew and relax at the hotel. We had a great day but it was really exhausting. The first thing I did was get my shoes off! Then I got out of my big heavy dress and sat patiently on the bed while Andrew pulled out hairpin after hairpin.
We grabbed the champagne and glassesd and enjoyed it inside a nice long hot bath which felt so good after a day on our feet. I tried my best to wash out all the crusty hairspray.
One of the in-house movies at the hotel was "The Wedding Singer" - one of my all-time favourites. Andrew didn't want to watch it though :-(
After we got dressed (in normal clothes) we walked down to a nearby McDonald's for dinner! We stocked up on chocolate at a 7-11 and back to the hotel for more indulgence and sleeeeep and more...nevermind!!
We got home and opened up some champagne I bought earlier in the week and christened the champagne flutes we got from Victoria as a wedding present. Also feasted on wedding cake. Only about 1/4 of the bottom layer had been cut for guests! Cool!
We opened up our presents and were so touched by everyone's thoughtfulness and generosity.
My dad spent most of the wedding with a video camera in hand so we got to watch the footage he took which was lots of fun.
After a late lunch we drove Victoria back to the airport and came home. It was really overwhelming what had happened in the past 2 days! It still didn' feel real but we were happy!
We didn't have a honeymoon so maybe we'll have one sometime soon.
On the monday we took my bouquet and Andrew's buttonhole in to be freezedried and framed. It came out beautifully! We're so pleased with it!
It was a fantastic day and we wouldn't have done it any differently! All our choices reflected us as a couple and so weren't typical. Most people loved that it wasn't the same old thing they see at every wedding. We mixed various mini themes instead of one big one (which I hate). We had gold hearts on the invitations, some medieval type of things, ivy used extensively, teddy bears and some things used the colours purple, deep red and dark green (like on this page). They'e a kind of medievalish combination...like jewels maybe. It all worked really well...not boring and reflected us!
Our biggest splurge was photography and it's the best decision we ever made! Check them out here!
