2 Weddings and a Shoe Department

Note: To understand the story from the beginning click here.

Last Friday I was home to see my friend Lynne celebrate her marriage to love of her life, Luke. A fantastic night it was in the gorgeous surroundings of Shell Bay, just across from Sandbanks. I caught up with old friends and (yeh, yeh here we go) I drank a bit. It all went far too quickly. Not just because I was drinking.

To reach the venue I had to go across the Sandbanks chain ferry.  Yeh I’m serious – a ferry on chains. Err – FUN. Hannah, my littlest sis, kindly gave me a lift and I took a snap of her and her other half, Joe, on the way over.

If you look closely on the photo (left) you can see The Haven Hotel in the background. This was where Hannah and Joe held their Wedding reception last year! Such an important day for Han and as a family we pulled together to make it as wonderful as it could possibly be given that we had lost mum, Viv, only 4 months before. Mum had told me to make sure we got those invites out. Han, understandably, had a huge battle determining whether she still wanted to go ahead with the date or whether it would just be too much. She realised that Mum would have wanted nothing more than for it to happen as planned. The show must go on. Mum had been there to help choose and see her in the wedding dress, us in our bridesmaids dresses, she saw the Church (where Sarah and Hannah had been christened) – Mum had been so so excited and part of all of the planning. I had done the invitations and removing Mum’s name from them broke my heart into pieces. We saved her a space though (group photo below). We like to think that it is more for her than the dress 😉

I was blown away with pride for Hannah that day. She handled it all with such composure and elegance. When I say she was elegant, well that was all the way up until she was found with her shoes off, air guitaring (not a real word – don’t care) her heart out on the dance floor. Classic Hannah. Joe was a complete legend too. Joe has been a part of our family for years, but when we lost Mum with such speed, he was absolutely unbelievable through the traumatic time. He didn’t just support Hannah, but our whole family and for that we will be eternally grateful. The pride didn’t stop there either. Sarah sang in the church when they were signing the registers and Dad, well Dad went against all the odds and absolutely nailed his speech without a stutter.

When I asked father if there was anything he wanted to add to this post, he replied saying just how it could never have been so successful without the support of the immediate and extended family. He signed his email off with “Power to strong families everywhere.” Go Dad.

We weren’t short of comedy moments that day. Dad got the giggles when he went to the kitchen to get a drink and saw chief bridesmaid Dani (Han’s best mate) shouting at Meg (Joe’s sister) through the cat flap. She had forgotten she could actually unlock the back door. Brilliant.

Another moment was when we were leaving to get the car to the church. We were running a bit late. Nothing like making the groom sweat a bit. Hettie (Joe’s other sister) had been worrying all morning about wearing the heels. “You’ll be totally fine”, we all reassured her. I was frantically trying to untangle my necklace in the lounge as I heard fits of giggles from outside.

This is what I found….

Nice one Hettie! Can you imagine? Having to walk down the aisle with a drain attached to you would not be ideal. Ha.

Shoe’s are important on someone’s big day. Not too high so you wobble, not too flat so you look frumpy. I loved our heels but they held us back from ripping the dance floor to shreds later and no one wants that. They were chucked to the side. (Anyone reading this from the Health and Safety industry may have a mild fit at the thought of this. Please note that no Brides or Bridesmaids were harmed during this event.)

I felt particularly nervy about leaving one of my postcards in the shoe department of Macy’s in NYC! In public places I wander around and I just can’t help but look so guilty – like a flipping shoplifter. BUT I’m not taking from the store, i am adding to it. I sometimes wonder if I will ever get into trouble?

I can see it now…..

“Hey Dad! I’ve ben arrested. It’s postcard related. Can you bail me out please? But take your time, maybe another couple of hours actually. I’m just doing a blog post from inside”.

It was worth the fear.

Annabella found that postcard……

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