Here comes the bride - by water taxi.......

Wow, what a day....where to start my account of the wedding of Mr Tim Shrimpton and Miss Kay Annals.  I can only give you my account so here goes......

The day started fairly leisurely for myself (although I'm sure not for others involved), the wedding was to take place at 4pm in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney and afterwards on the Blue Room, more of that later.  So, from a brother's point of view, all I had to do was to get to Kay's house in Kirribilli for 3pm and photos.  Not wanting to be late I left my apartment at 1pm, knowing that the journey should only take half an hour anyway.  I was dressed in my hired suit, shirt and tie and the temperature was 28 degrees - so I headed underground for the train and to escape the heat.  The train took me through the city to Circular Quay to catch the ferry across the harbour to Milsons Point, a short 10 minute trip.  I was there in plenty of time and grabbed a quick takeaway lunch while waiting for the ferry.  Once on the other side of the harbour I could see the view that Kay has every day.  She lives in Kirribilli which is directly opposite the Opera House and her building is on the waterfront so has uninterrupted views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from both a bedroom and the living room - truly breathtaking.

I arrived at Kay's nice and early - as a brother should - to find that she wasn't in.  The hairdresser had taken longer than expected (4 hours) and they were on their way back.  After a frantic few moments the dress was on.....

The bride looked stunning and there were parental tears, as there should be when a daughter gets married.  A few photos later and it was time for an emotional mother and proud brother to leave for the ceremony.  Our journey was by road, across the bridge to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The journey of the bridesmaids, father of the bride and glowing bride was justifiably far more grand but first a couple of photos of proud parents:

The Royal Botanical Gardens are adjacent to the Sydney Opera House, just a short walk from the front steps of this famous landmark.  The site of the wedding was about 200 yards inside the gates on a flat grassy area that looks directly back at the Opera House.  Being a public place there were quite a few onlookers at all the funny wedding guests in full regalia, all slowly melting in the sun!!  The location of the ceremony was very special indeed:

Such a beautiful setting deserves a stunning entrance by the bride and that was provided by a white water taxi which docked (albeit over15 minutes late) at a private dock at the foot of the Opera House steps:

The bride walked up through the park to a symphony of applause from everyone in the gardens, complete strangers who added greatly to a very special day.  I had spoken to Tim prior to Kay's arrival to check with him that it was okay for me to be everywhere armed with both video camera and still camera in an effort to capture as much as possible for those who could not be there with us due to the distances involved.  Sadly this was a great number of people who were dearly missed but in everyone's thoughts.  Tim had agreed to my camera antics and I think I managed to get photos from pretty much every angle imaginable - it must have looked very strange to the amassed crowds for this restless person to be constantly wandering throughout the ceremony - and I sure I must have annoyed some of the assembled guests......

The ceremony contained two readings, the formalities expected as well as a sand ceremony performed by the bride, groom and their mothers.  This was an Australian tradition which involves the pouring of two different coloured sands alternately into a heart shaped vase, creating a unique and permanent memento of the occasion for the bride and groom.

Following a wonderful ceremony, delivered perfectly by Sue, a very close friend of Tim's family, pink champagne was served to the guests before the photos took place.  The photographer, Michael, was fantastic and there will be some very special memories captured through that lens...

Mr and Mrs Shrimpton invite you all to attend the Blue Room.............

Handbags and Gladrags....

I can't believe it.  I've come all the way to Sydney and ended up the day today shopping for handbags with my reluctant dad and panic stricken mum....but more of that later.

I spent Wednesday wandering and waiting.  My sister had told me that she needed to come into the city to get a few things and that she would give me a call when she was on her way about 9am.  So there I was, up early and ready (this was the waiting bit).  Kay rang just after 11am to say that she was just leaving home and that I should walk down to Myer, the department store where I could hire this elusive suit.  I got there, looked around all 6 floors and organised the hire of my suit before Kay arrived.......

We then looked at children's books and toys before Kay announced that one of her jobs was to get her eyebrows done - not very exciting, so I arranged to meet her for lunch after this.  Lunch was in a food court underneath the department store where we ate from Hokka Hokka, a great Chinese food place.  Kay's next job was to find some nail varnish (this was the wandering bit), so I left her to it and walked down through the city to Circular Quay, the ferry port, cruise terminal and home of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  I mooched around the quayside for almost 2 hours, taking photos of the sights and trying to be artistic:

After a couple of hours I decide to go and have a play on the ferries, for those that haven't been to Sydney, the ferries are a fantastic way of getting around and I could spend most of the day moving between ferries and returning back to Circular Quay.......There was a serious side to the ferry adventure, I needed to go round to Darling Harbour and find the restaurant for Wednesday night and also to find the way to walk back to my apartment from there after the meal.  The restaurant was found with considerable ease, mainly because when you get off the ferry George's Mediterranean is the first place that you come to.  Restaurant found I headed for my apartment, a short walk of about 10 minutes.  Restaurant found I headed there for the meeting time of 7pm, to find that I was the first there,,,,The meal was nice but the company was better, there were 23 of us in total including both sets of parents, bridesmaids, ushers, best man, bride and groom and the rest were just odd friends and hangers-on (myself included)!



Both sets of proud parents

Thursday came and will now be known as handbag day.  My mum and dad had arranged to come to my apartment, from where we could go and find mum a new handbag and also pick up my suit.  The story of the handbag goes like this.  Mum brought her handbag and shoes, carefully chosen from home and when she got to Kay's house she realised that in the picture of my brother's wedding (hanging on sister's wall), the same shoes and handbag were in situ......

Apparently to wear the same shoes and handbag is somehow worse than committing genocide so new ones had to be bought immediately.  Luckily enough they stopped off in a shoe shop just outside the train station on their way to me and found the perfect pair of shoes - which created handbag hell for the next few hours trying to find a matching handbag.  I lost count after the 789,145th handbag shop but eventually one was found that was of a decent match and price.  We also went back to the department store where we found this creature made from Lego:

After handbags at dawn, and all afternoon we headed across to Manly (where mum and dad are staying) on the ferry for a barbecue on their balcony.  However on the way we got slightly distracted by a bar called The Four Pines, where I was ordered to sit down as my drink was coming.....I was presented with a wooden rack containing 5 different glasses of 5 different beers.  This was the taster rack and as the bar brewed it's own beers they did this so that the customer could choose the beer that they liked best.  A great idea for micro breweries to take on and cheap enough too as each glass was only a small sampler glass....



Taster racks at The Four Pines

 The barbecue was great, excellent steak and sausages with salad and couscous and after a very pleasant evening I headed back to the city via ferry and train to my apartment.  I tried to take some nighttime photos and a video of the city from the water, some of which worked, most of which didn't.  One day I will learn how to take proper photos and maybe even invest in a proper camera that you have to think about before just pressing a button!

Anyway, I have stayed up late in order to speak to Luke, Harry and Claire after school and it's now approaching 3am as I've also been writing this for you.  I have a wedding to go to in about 12 hours, where I must simultaneously shoot video and take still photos so I had better get some sleep.  I'll leave you with a couple of the night time shots of the Opera House.  Next time I write will be to tell you about a wedding......




John Utzon's finest