The traditional idea of ‘happily ever after’ usually involves a knight in shining armour riding in on a big white steed to save ‘the girl’. He instantly woos her and they ride off into the sunset where they will shortly get married and live happily ever after. Our happily ever after was slightly different to that, which is probably a good thing, because I can’t imagine Pete riding in on a horse and I didn’t really need saving! Never the less, we did get married and had gotten around to the ‘happily ever after’ part of the deal…
It feels weird to say we had a ‘destination wedding’ when it was in our home country, but since we weren’t living in it, I’m not from there, and a large proportion of people we know don’t live there, it is fairly accurate. Having been in the UK for around 15 months at this point, we were both keen to head over to Melbourne and include friends and family in the extended wedding celebrations. This is where the idea for a ‘Happily Ever After Party’ was born.
After much deliberation and consideration that we were inviting friends and family who may know lots of people or perhaps no one else, we decided that bare foot bowls; drinks and a BBQ would be a good way to celebrate and keep our guests amused! After being blessed with a stellar day in Perth, we had our fingers crossed for nice weather in Melbourne.
One by one our friends arrived, and we excitedly greeted them. It was great to be amongst friends again, chatting and laughing in a group. Before long it was time to learn the ‘rules’ of bowling. Although we all listened intently, most of us were planning on having a few drinks and knew that so long as we kind of got the black bowl near the white ball we’d declare a winner that way. Luckily no one was too seriously involved in the game, as the white balls were a little too tempting to my 2 year old nephew who rather enjoyed running across the grass and sending any ball or bowl in site flying across the green!
My nephews were a hit of the party, running and playing around and feature heavily in the photos of the day. The chef aka Dad did an excellent job with the barbie and we were all well fed. Pete had a good few rounds of bowls, but I later realised I was so occupied catching up I failed to play a full game! By the afternoon the grey morning turned into glorious sunshine and we finished up our last few games. All too soon it was time to bid out friends goodbye and it was with some sadness the party wrapped up.
Post party, a few of us headed out to Fitzroy to tick a few more foods off my list, with a tasty bowl of Pho for dinner and Messina gelati for dessert. That night we were lucky enough to stay at a good friend’s house which made heading out to St Kilda to catch up for a family brunch with Pete’s family the next morning that little bit closer.
If you’re going to enjoy a lovely family brunch, great family, yummy food and a beautiful period Victorian house with incredibly high ceilings is the place to do it. We were greeted by Pete’s cousins, their families and his aunty who had invited us and my parents to celebrate with them. I had met some of the Melbourne Robinsons on Christmas Day, before we had left for the UK, but it was lovely to see them their families together. Most of Pete’s rellies are back in Perth, so it was lovely to recap the wedding with them and share a few photos of the special day.
All in all, we had a hen’s dinner, buck’s dinner, wedding, happily ever after party and family brunch in around a week. It was mad, it was fun, we laughed and we were crazy happy. By this point we were also very tired!! Luckily, Melbourne put on some stunning Autumn weather for us, and a mini moon in Rye, where were hung out on the deck with views of the scrubby tea tree plants and a day at the Peninsula Hot Springs, helped to rejuvenate us!
For the remainder of our trip we caught up with a few more friends, spent time with my family and nephews and enjoyed the sunshine. In the end we chose to have a mini moon and spend time with family and friends rather than head off after the wedding. It was a joyful pit stop in these two UK dwellers’ lives.
Post wedding we: flew to Melbourne, mini mooned in Rye, relaxed at the Peninsula Hot Springs, ate a Mooroolbark Pizza, ate two custard scrolls, ate FRESH sushi, cruised in the Premier, played with my nephews, ate Aussie fish and chips including dim sims (yay!), enjoyed the sunshine!
