Last Saturday (8 April 2000) was a wonderful day.
Lisa left early in the morning to go to the hairdresser with her bridesmaids and my grooms person. I could sleep in (NOT: my sister called from the Netherlands :-) and then left the house to catch up with my best man.
While Lisa returned to the house to get her make-up done, did I take care of some shopping and picked up the flowers. What I didn't pick up was the hire-car. We had chosen to hire an identical car to Lisa's parents (silver Ford Mondeo) for the transport of the bride, parent and bridesmaids. However, I had decided that it would be better to hire a full-stretch limousine. This would arrive at 2 and I had a couple of hours to cover to explain why the hire-car wasn't there. When I dropped the flowers off, I told that it was at the wrong yard and we would pick it up later (a good way to start the marriage: by lying :-).
What I did pick up was my parents and grooms person and after I got dressed we went to the church. I got stuck in traffic (behind the new Perth belltower) and this prohibited me to call the house to tell that the hire-car would be on its way. The lack of this news caused a slight panic, but when the limo did arrive all became clear.
At 2:30 (on time !) Lisa entered the church and she looked beautiful. After a relatively short service (I have to admit most went by unnoticed) we came out man & wife ! When all congratulations were exchanged did the parents and bridal party set off to the river-shore park for some photo's (see attached). The champagne flowed and everyone was happy ! From there more photo's were taken at Perth's old Constitution Hall and finally some at the jetty in front of the hotel with the sinking sun.
Now we had a change to relax some on our hotel-room, while the guests enjoyed a drink. At 7 the room was opened and after everyone was seated, we entered. Opening speeches from Lisa's dad (hinting at babies already :-), Kathy (Lisa's bridesmaid with some stories of her country-life) and Paul (who managed to dig up some stories of my Dutch childhood) set the tone.
What followed was a nice buffet-meal, which gave Lisa en me the chance to 'work the room'. Followed by more speeches, this time from my dad (in English !!), Paul with e-mails, cards & telegrams and finally both Lisa and me took the microphone to thank all present (or absent). This was followed by the cutting of the cake & the bridal waltz, signalling a combined dessert-buffet/dance.
It was after 10PM when Lisa threw her bouquet and in order to obtain the garter, the eligible bachelors had to pronounce the Dutch word 'ACHTHONDERACHTENTACHTIG' (eight hundred and eighty eight). All too soon was it time for us to leave and as exhausted as we were, were we too hyped too sleep ;-).
The next day did we have a breakfast at the hotel with other people who had stayed the night, and then a lunch at our house with the parents, to open all the presents. We've been very spoiled and now need new cupboards to fit everything in. Hereby I would like to thank everyone who has sent us greetings, cards, e-mails, were present on the day and/or helped with our preparations: THANKS !
Now we are collecting all the photo's & video's before going on our honeymoon to the Netherlands for three weeks. There we will have another party with all our Dutch friends & relatives (some from England and Germany as well) and on the way home we will stay a few days on Santosa island in Singapore.