Rebas' Adventure in Ozzieland

Well my dears, I have been to my first Aussie wedding. Now I have been to enough American weddings to know that they can vary to a great degree, so it is hard to say how typical this wedding was, however I will endeavour to tell you about it. The ceremony started at 11am. I wear my new dress and even curled my hair (got lots of compliments too). I was picked up by Damon and Becky who you can see in the pic of the congregation you can also see Malissa sitting next to them looking the other way. Damon and I had a very interesting conversation before the service started about Mars Hill Church; I find that if people recognize the name Seattle, it is because of Grey's Anatomy, Twilight, or Mars Hill. I have had several people ask me if I have met Mark Driscoll (mars hill pastor) or if I have been to Forks WA (twilight). Anyway, the ceremony lasted about an hour. Jane's father past away a few years ago and her mom gave her away, and Tim's dad married them, so sweet. After the processional and greeting the whole wedding party sat down and David (my pastor) gave a 15 min sermon. I have been to weddings were the pastor gives a talk but I have never seen the bride and groom sit down for it. The whole service was nice and relaxed, not very fancy or solemn, and you could tell how happy they were. And then we all mingled in the lobby you can see a picture of the entire Rowbottom family and me and Mal and Melanie.____________ Melanie is my friend who gave me the nick name Sugar Pot. Now I have been trying to come up with a name for her because you can't respond to a greeting of "good morning sugar pot" with "hi Melanie". Much too pedestrian. I have, am I happy to say come up with the perfect name. I all happened when I was watching an episode of Big Bang Theory. In the episode it is revealed that Sheldon's grandmother calls him Moon Pie because he is "nummy and she could just eat him up". And I thought what a perfect counterpart to sugar pot! Melanie was told of this at the wedding and loved it. (Now I know you might be thinking, why didn't I make up my own name instead of stealing one? This brings us to the point that while I excel at telling stories, I can't make one up to save my life, I can't even lie convincingly. That is why I must listen carefully and take great sayings and names where I can get them. Which reminds me, I was a part of conversation last week and a phrase was used by Tim C. (not the Tim getting married, he is Tim L) I always give credit where credit is due. Anyway he used a phrase and the minute he said it, I thought "what a glorious name for my next car!" OK, picture this...a modest sedan or hatchback, hopefully black, plain but with hidden spirit, its name...Stealthy Magpie. Oh it's too marvellous! What a name, such a humorous oxymoron and someone actually used it in a sentence! Could there be a greater encore to Salacious Crumb? (My last car).___________Back to the wedding, sorry about that tangent. After the ceremony we did not have a reception. That's right, in Australia the reception is several hours after the wedding. Usually a smaller group of people are invited (and kids stay home with a baby sitter) and it is for a full meal. The wedding party take the time in between to take photos; they will even drive the beach and other locations around the city and take pictures at several places. Because the Grand final Aussie Football game was on (not American football or soccer, but Aussie football) Jane took pity on her sports friends and timed the break to last the whole game. For the afternoon I was invited to go the Sarah and Emma's house with a group of others. We made lunch and hung out and talked. I took a break around 3:30 and just read in a corner, so relaxing. At 5pm we freshened up and went to the reception. Wow, was it nice, catered dinner, dessert plus cake. No alcohol because the mother of the groom was a teetotaller and they didn't want to offend. The parents gave a speech as well as the best man and maid of honour. And telegrams were read. I don't know if they were really telegrams or emails from relatives and friends who couldn't come. I had seen this in a British TV show once and I really liked it. Jane and Tim both had a grand or a great grandparent who couldn’t make the trip and so we all got to hear their blessing to the young couple, so nice. The evening ending with dancing, except for the first dance it was all club dancing, not my style. My evening was saved however by Jono (all Jonathans are nicknamed Jono over here). Jono is a nice guy (no, he is barely 23) and he knows how to Bush Dance. This is like folk dancing or square dancing. He knew enough to teach me one and taught him the basic swing. It was enough real dancing to make it fun for me. It was quite the bash, didn't leave until 10:30pm.