Yes, the big day had finally arrived indeed, and just like that it was also over. After a very long build-up, even the early morning start & late late night finish didn't seem like enough time to fit in all the scheduled items (I feel so very much to say 'commotion', but the nice kind. You know what I mean).
Groomsmen had it a bit easier than the bride's maids. We 'only' needed to gather at the groom's apartment in Chatswood at 0730 (translation: up by 0545 to get ready). We actually had a bit of a sit around while we waited for the photographer, make-up & florist to arrive. Groomsmen didn't actually get made-up, just a light touch for the groom to cover up his dark circles so he resembled less like a panda. After getting snapped while getting ready, we finally left to get the rental cars 10min behind schedule. Traffic to Cherrybrook was light so we got there with some time to spare. The bride's maids & 'sisters' were not ready anyway so we had a bit of time to wilt in the warmer than expected daylight. As we wilted, so did our floral buttonholes. It was also during this time that we had to do a lot of ‘fake’ poses for the photographers & videographer, ‘fake’ poses walking in a line pretending to talk & having a laugh, standing around in a circle pretending to talk & having a laugh, standing in line pretending to talk & having a laugh, etc. (I’m starting to see a trend here…) While the groom got humiliated at the ‘getting the bride’ games, the rest of us sat around for a bit before getting stuff ready for the cars & the rest of the day. As the Bentley – the bridal car which was of course magnificent – arrived we knew it was our cue to step up with the preparation & getting ready. We managed to delay ourselves further by another half an hr or so. We were stopped on our way to the church ceremony (groom, best man & other groomsman went ahead in a rental, while I drove the 2 bride’s maids & maid of honour in another rental, closely following the Bentley which held the bride & bride’s parents), luckily not by the police but by the groomsmen, informing us that the videographer was MIA. We stopped on the side of the road for nearly 15min before given the all OK to continue our way there.
I fought hard to not cry as the bride entered the church with her father. Luckily I was successful otherwise I would’ve made myself the centre of the showing instead of the bride & groom standing in the middle. Because of the pre-existing delay, & a little mix up in the end, we couldn’t have group photos according to the schedule as set out in the order of service. It got chaotic as we tried to gather people of the different groups from where they had spread – basically all over the church premise, taking refreshments, chatting, taking pictures, etc. As a result, we ended up being nearly an hr late for the location shoots. Further disasters as the bride’s maids dresses keep getting caught in their shoes, the rose on my floral buttonhole deciding to go walkabout, bride’s maids getting cold as the chills of dusk moved in. in the end, we didn’t have time to fit in the 3rd location shoot, which was supposed to be around the golf course, the venue for the night’s reception. In any case, everyone was busy running around the dining hall doing final preparations (informing the DJ, having buttonholes fixed, calming the bride, then groom, then bride again, re-do hair & make-up… It was a lovely reception. Lighting was moody, food was nice, people had fun, the schedule got pull out of whack because speeches went long… In the end we had to abbreviate some scheduled items so we could vacate the premise by midnight. I didn’t end up sticking around the help clean up because I got switched back to driving the bride & groom to their hotel in North Ryde. I hugged them goodbyes before sending them in to rest after such a long, eventful day. I of course wanted to just go home & crash also, which I did, for a few hrs, before getting up again to pick up the groom (the bride was still asleep), drop him home, before heading on to return the rentals before 9am. I needed to pick up the groom & drop him home because (1) we needed someone to come to the rental place to take us back to Chatswood, and (2) we needed to go back to Chatswood to pick up the Best Man’s tux, return all 3 tux, collect Edmund’s car before coming back home to Castle Hill. I ended up letting Clement drive the Audi for a little while, seeing that he’s paid for it and all. He actually wanted to drive it yesterday already, but no one let him. Nifty little toy that Audi was. I had the A4 for the day, & it did take a bit of time getting used to. Not just the fact that the sticks for the indicators & windscreen wipers were on the 'wrong' sides of th steering wheel, but also the fact that the brake was very sensitive while the accelerator was slow to react. In the end, I did get used to it, so much that when I went to collect the Laser to drive home I was trying to indicate the left (which for the Laser is the windscreen wipers). No more driving for a little bit. That should be long enough for me to forget the Audi.
For recap of rest of Sunday, see next blog.
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