5 Years

No that is not the number of years I have been blogging (been doing that for the last 8 years!)
No, this number is the amount of years hubby and I celebrated for our anniversary last week.

Yes we are just mere fledglings when it comes to this marriage lark, well we have been together just coming up 14 years, so maybe not fledglings anymore!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma come look after the boys whilst we escaped for the night.
We went out for dinner, stayed the night in a cute little B&B and then had breakfast in a quaint cafe and then finally came home in time to collect the boys from school.

I just had to show you my dessert from our dinner out......

That is a white chocolate mousse, with dark chocolate ganache coating the inside of the glass topped with raspberry coulis and some sprinkled pistachio nuts.
Let's just put it this way, as hard as I tried there was still some left at the end!!

W is for Wedding Day

How did you choose the day you were going to have your wedding on?

Was it a special day already?

Was it your birthday?

Was it the only day the restaurant you wanted was free?

Did you choose it 2 years in advance?

Was it because of the time of year you wanted to get married?

Was there a limitation of time for you to get married and this date just fitted your time frame?

Did someone else choose it for you?

This has always fascinated me....why people chose the day they did for their wedding!

I got married in September.
Was this my dream time to marry? No I always envisaged myself being a summer bride.
Although we were very lucky and ended up with the hottest day in September.
We got engaged in the March and knew we wouldn't be waiting too long to set the day.
In fact we ended up setting the day to coincide with ......wait for it........the school holidays!
Yes there I said it, we planned our wedding day around when the school holidays were!

Our oldest son was just turning 5 and had just started school. We were going to Dubai for our honeymoon / family holiday to visit my parents and so we decided to go when we knew it wouldn't effect Ben's first few weeks at school.
I actually chose the date in September...the 20th, which had to be an even number date (don't like odd numbers!), so that took out the week before and the week after. I know September is an odd number month, but sandwiched between number 20 and 2008, then I was happy with it. This sat nicely with the last week of term and flowed nicely into the 2 week school holiday.
Then it just started to transpire that this date was significant throughout Steve's family and suddenly we knew we had chosen the correct date for us and that it was never going to change.
Steve's parents had gotten married on Sept 20, Steve had joined the navy on Sept 20th and there was one other coincidence as well which I can't remember now.

So there you have it, why we chose our wedding day.

Nelson Wedding

Of course the main reason we went to Nelson last weekend was to attend the marriage of our Niece Sarah to her partner Joni.

Joni and Sarah

It turned into a wonderful family event that was short and sweet but perfect for what they wanted.

They held the wedding service at a local garden within Nelson that had a wonderful lawn and lots of plants. The gardens apparentlly belonged to the local Council but there was a house in the grounds that was part of a trust. It looked very pretty but we didn't venture in, as you needed money to visit with and also we didn't have time, maybe another visit to Nelson is needed!

The service was very short and sweet and to the point, although the celebrant could have done with a ray of sunshine pierced through her body! Just a little lacking in joy and happiness for the joyous occassion.

We had prepared the boys the week before for the fact that this wedding was not like all the others they had attended, that there was not going to be a groom and more likely 2 brides in pretty dresses. This never fazed them at all and no odd comments were ever made. Amazing what kids accept nowadays, but then guess we never made a deal out of it so it wasn't a deal to them either!

It was a very joyous occassion celebrated by all who attended.

I have lots more fun and cute pictures of Nelson so will organise another post of them later on

Nelson

Last weekend we went to a family wedding in Nelson.
Nelson is situated on the top of the South Island in NZ and manages to catch quite a few rays of sunlight during the day.
It is a popular tourist destination and is gorgeous with views over the bays like none I have ever seen before.
It has a huge arts culture and has a lot to showcase.

I have been there a few times in my time in New Zealand, but did just realise that the last time was 7 years ago, so do not remember too much.

The boys were well excited about going on a plane or 2 or 4, seeing as we had to fly from Hamilton to Wellington (1 hour) and then change to take the next little hop skip and a jump to Nelson (30 mins).
It had been 4 years since they last went on a plane, so very intrigued.

Mt Taranaki so clearly seen, which is very unusual, so such a lucky sight

The West coast of New Zealand

The visit for the weekend was for the wedding but also an oppotunity to catch up with Steve's brother and family. Lots of pictures to show so will post more on that side of things in another post.

Up Coming Wedding

We have the lucky chance of going to a family wedding next month.
Now going to a wedding is nothing new for this family. There was one held last year, my cousin Lucy.
Steve and I got married ourselves 3 yrs ago and my other cousin (Lucy’s sister Kerry) got married 4 yrs ago. So there have been a few to attend over the years, which is quite surprising when you realise just how few people there are from the family in New Zealand. Really we should all be in Southampton, UK but that would be boring, so we are all here instead!

This was us at last wedding

Anyhow, the wedding we are going to in November is on Steve’s side of the family, and although he has many nieces and nephews, there has only been 1 wedding so far (6yrs ago) many babies but not many bells ringing! His niece, or should I now be saying our niece, is having a Civil Union to her girlfriend Toni. But for all simple purposes, there is a wedding and we are going.

We have told the boys about the wedding, they are so excited to be going to Nelson for a long weekend, in fact I really ought to start thinking about what they are going to wear. However we have not yet told them more detail about the wedding. They know their cousin Sarah is getting married and I think they may have heard the name Toni float around in the same sentence but they of course, because they have said it, think that Toni is a guy. Alex even asked if it was Tony from the Barber's that Sarah was marrying? Why would they think differently? They have never been to a wedding that isn’t like mummy and daddy’s.

Now it never crossed my mind to mention anything until some girlfriends casually mentioned it at a girls night a few weeks ago. Then I realised that yes we need to mention it and no it does not have to be a big deal. I discussed it with Steve who sort of agreed that we need to say something but he didn’t think it a big deal either. However, knowing little people and big voices, I would rather we mention it before hand.

Ben however is very good at dissecting conversations and will dissect it down to the smallest detail and recite it several times between when we tell him and actually going away, and seeing as my head can not take him dissecting it down over several weeks then the conversation with them will be had as close to the time as possible, mainly for my sanity more than anything else!

PS - any suggestions on how to broach the subject but keep it simple and to the point??

Royal Wedding

This is one event that can not just pass by without people commenting on it.
Me, being British, even though I live in New Zealand, was glued to the tv for the whole of Friday night here. We even let the boys stay up for the whole thing, well at least until they fell asleep on their own accord.
Alex sadly only made it until 8.30pm so there by missing the main event (but we recorded a highlight show the next day for Alex to watch because he got very upset that he had missed the wedding. He actually wanted to know if there was going to be a 2nd one as he had missed the 1st!), Ben however managed until 10.30pm and only missed the kissing on the balcony.
But to me it was a wonderful time to explain the British Monarchy to them and be able to show the people and explain who they all were. Ben thought this was great fun and got to know who was who.

Was it OTT at all - never, it was done with great respect and tradition. I loved the fact there was hardly any flowers around, thus showing that they had not spent excess $$ on stuff that was not necessary.

The groom - he looked very dashing. He managed to smirk several times when being watched, even though he tried so hard to keep a straight face throughout just like he has been taught over the last 30 years. He also tried very hard to not turn round and watch Kate when she was walking up the aisle, however he did have a sneak peek just before she got up to him. I love the fact he turned and whispered to her that she was looking beautiful.

The Bride - she was beautiful. She out did what everyone was thinking and went with a dress that was so plain and traditional. I was so pleased. I hoped that she would prove all wrong and not go with something very wild, hippy and modern. I think she may have proved to people that she will mix in with the royal family so very well. The Grace Kelly style wedding dress was a wonderful shape and style. I also loved the head piece with the old tiara and the way the veil hung over the back of her head in an old style as well.
She walked up the aisle with such poise and style, I honestly thought her father was going to cry. It was obvious that she has taken everything on board that they have taught her over the last 6 months but has still managed to keep it real, lets hope they do not try to knock all that out of her over the years to come.

The Bridesmaids - were so cute. Again their dresses were plain and simple and I loved it.

The Service - was perfect. They sang all the hymns I love, the prayers were perfect without going over the top, the reading was short enough and so was the sermon. However I was sad that he didn't have a ring. It would have been so nice to see him wear a ring as well. I also hope that they had a sneaky kiss in that back room after signing the register and before they came back out to face everyone.

The Balcony - we all hoped this would be a fun and joyous occassion and it was. It was fun to watch the little bridesmaids so taken with the planes that flew over. To see Kate's face when she first stepped out of the door and realise just how many people were down below watching them. Also the fact William kept talking to her and that he asked her if she was ready for the kiss.

And she was and they kissed twice, much to the crowds pleasure.
I also love the fact that they have not gone on honeymoon........because he has to go back to work. How down to earth is that. He tries so hard to be allowed to be normal for as long as possible and he is, even though they had a public holiday for the actually day of the wedding, this weekend is in fact a public holiday weekend in England anyway, so they all gained a 4 day weekend. So nice to see he has to go back to work and so therefore will honeymoon later in the year. So many people I know have done that nowadays.

I hope you enjoyed watching the parts you managed to watch. I think it was a perfect occassion and showed England in a wonderful light. I also think it did the Royal family good to have a simple, perfect yet tradition plain event that ran so smoothly and was not OTT

Wedding

Just before Christmas my cousin had the pleasure of marring her wonderful boyfriend. They had been planning the wedding for over a year. It just seemed to take a long time coming round.

Of course all the family were there for it.

My 3 guys

Me and my boys

Looking good, looking good

Me and my mum

Crazy group of people!

Nice family picture

Whilst in the church Alex kept Grandad busy by reading the bible with him. Now Alex has not had anything to do with churches and Dad is a sworn Atheist, so to watch these 2 together was just awesome. I got some wonderful shots of Dad and Alex in deep conversation.

The main conversation was to do with the maps that were in the bible, as we have lived in many of the countries being shown and Alex thought this was wonderful.

Lucy and Gareth got married in Rotorua and had their reception up the Skyline Sky Ride.

Beautiful Bride

Handsome Groom

Their reception was actually held half way down one of the luge tracks in the venue that is hidden in the forest. Of course there were only 2 ways to get there, yep that is right, you could do the boring thing and sit in the van and get driven down OR you could be wild and adventurous and luge you way to the venue.

Bridesmaids

Father of Bride

Bride and Groom

Guess which way most people went? Yes a lot of fun was had just in the sheer pleasure of getting there. The kids all thought this was awesome.

The venue was a devine marque in the middle of the forest and the food was, as always, lovely. Loads of fresh seafood which the Skyline always offer.

A wild party evening was had by all and everyone had a great time celebrating the happy union.