Our Wedding

OK so a little note for our avid blog followers; Peter commented that he thought my post about our wedding was a bit short, considering what an event it was for us both and compared to other blog posts that I have done for not so momentous occasions. My argument was that everyone who reads our blog was there, they don't need to read my account to know what the day was like. However I did think about this some more and realised that there are a few people that read our blog that were unable to make it to the wedding, so this extended post is for you guys and perhaps anyone else that can't remember what happened :-)

The day started out about 9am, Peter was collected by his parents and whisked off so that us girls could get ready (I would say in peace but those who know Peter, know that him being there or not would not have made any difference to the level of noise, unless him and Dad decided to get the guitars out!) Anyway, Peter was a little confused as to why it would take five hours for us to get ready, but this will just have to be a mystery of life for him until his own daughters (if/when he has any) get married and he can see first hand why it takes so long. Moira and Shona arrived bang on time and made a start on our hair and makeup and that is pretty much how the morning progressed, one person doing hair one person doing makeup three people to glam up, you get the idea. After a yummy lunch prepared by the Aunties we got dressed (the quick bit) and then headed into the garden for some photos. I seem to recall while all this was going on my Dad was on the phone to Kynan trying to decide weather or not to set up inside or outside, it was touch and go. As the time got closer to 3pm I was starting to get stressed and as soon as I had told someone to tell Peter I would be late I could relax a bit.

So on to the ceremony, we had to walk down a steepish ramp to the ceremony venue and I was nervous about two things, walking down that ramp without slipping and making my speech. So safely down the ramp it was on to the ceremony part. We both found it quite emotional and as some of you may know us Rowe Girls are a teary lot and I had some difficulty saying my vows without crying, actually it was impossible and I was in tears! After the vows were said we headed over to sign the register and I said to Peter "Is my makeup OK?" to which he lovingly answered "Yes". I didn't really believe him, I had half of my makeup on my tissue so I knew it wasn't true. This was confirmed by Deborah and Anna when I asked them and they kindly fixed me up :-)

After the ceremony it was photo time, David St George and Kirstan took most of the shots. The bridal party headed to the bay to have some wedding like shots down while the guests got stuck into the champagne and enjoyed a game of bowls or petanque. I was glad that we got to have a go at the games too when we returned.


Before we knew it it was time to sit down for dinner and it was a yummy dinner! I always said that the only thing I wanted for my wedding meal was carved ham so I was well happy there. After the dinner was the speeches, MC by my good friend Alistair who did a fantastic job of introducing everyone and keeping us all in order. Following speeches and cake cutting was a lot of dancing, Deborah had the nerve to say the reason she wasn't dancing much was her dress was too hot, take a look at the pictures and see if her point is valid compared to the LAYERS of stuff I was wearing, anyway, Peter and I had a great night as I hope did our guests. If you want to see some pics...

David St George took some great shots

We have also put together a collection of some other photos that were taken by various people, so thank-you to everyone who donated their photography services!

The following day it was pack up day and with a lot of help from releatives and friends that happened to be around it was done in no time, followed by a big family and friends breakfast/coffee/cake at one of the local cafes.

So a lady a work is getting married soon and she asked me if anything had changed now that I was married. She was disappointed with my answer of no not really, just my name. I think that as Peter and I had been living together for four years before we got married that nothing really would change. We knew fairly early on we were going to get married and stay together for a long time so there was no great revelation that this was for life as we had slowly gone through that process over the last four years. If anything after the wedding was a bit low for me, nothing to do with Peter at all, but just that I had finished my HK training which had taken me two and a half years and that the wedding was over which had taken a fair bit of time and planning, so it was a feeling of a lack of a project to work on, but mainly it was that we had had our first thought of being able to return to NZ. It was so wonderful seeing all my old friends and seeing them all "nesting". But we have a few more things to do in the UK but it is good to know that we would like to return back to NZ at some point and it might not be all that bad :-)