Daily Archives: January 23, 2011

Melbourne 2011

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When I wasn’t busy with my wedding duties, ha ha, I spent some time with my brother seeing the sights of Melbourne.

Melbourne put on a very good show of weather for us – so it wasn’t a hardship to just pick a direction and start walking. I certainly would have enjoyed just sitting out on the grass and enjoying the sun for a bit … if only I had had more time!

Day 1 in Melbourne was the Australian Open. I must say it was nice of Pauline to time her wedding around the first major tennis tournament of the year. ;-P I’ve never once been to my own country’s biggest tennis tournament but I’ve been to Wimbledon pretty much every year I’ve been living in the UK! … though I have visited Melbourne Park in the past to watch one of the Davis Cup rubbers against Spain. The Australian Open was very blue!!! … to match the sky!!

One of the very big differences I found between Wimbledon and the Australian Open was that the Australian Open had heaps of extra-curricular stalls so to speak – even including this water zorbing type thing, heaps of stores, Imperial Leather had this luxury lounge where all the ladies, and little girls, were getting pampered, and there was a Nintendo Wii station etc. Heaps of stuff to keep you occupied next to the tennis!

Stephen and I had only purchased grounds tickets so had to make do with hanging out on the outside courts. Saw one of my former favourite players Xavier Malisse, caught literally the end of Victoria Azarenka’s match, watched the number 6 seed Francesca Schiavone take a comfortable lead in her match and saw Jelena Dokic presumably cooling down from her loss earlier in the day. We couldn’t stay long though as we had our Vue De Monde dinner.

Day 2 was a bit of a wedding prep day but I squeezed in a catch up with an ex school chum Lucia – it has easily been seven years if not more since I’ve seen her. Very good to see her and hear how she was going. Then it was a Melbourne by night exploration … okay admittedly mainly a walk over the river to visit Crown casino. But still …

Day 3 saw us take a trip on the tram to visit St Kilda. Great day for it – very relaxing to have a late lunch, ice cream, take a walk by the beach etc. We found this really cute ice cream shop, trampoline. Not sure what drew us in – it was just very cute, and had places to sit outside on the sidewalk.

Then it was a whole heap of wedding stuff until our final day in Melbourne where Stephen and I had time for more ice cream on Lygon Street … after we had some lunch and visited Brunetti, a very popular coffee and cake place. One of the largest displays of desserts and macaroons I’ve seen ever!

I have to say a big thanks to Stephen for being so patient and being able to entertain himself whilst I was busy with wedding stuff. It was nice to spend some time with him considering how far I live these days. I’m going to miss Pauline, boy did I cry at her wedding when we were all saying goodbye, but hopefully it won’t be too long before I see her again.

P & B’s Wedding

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One of the reasons I was back in Oz was for Pauline and Brendan’s wedding which I was honoured to be a part of. My biggest worry was fitting into the bridesmaid dress that Pauline had made in Melbourne – mainly because of the amount of eating I’ve been doing recently! Ha ha!

Weddings are no small thing that’s for sure – even my part of the wedding. There were the dress fittings and dress pick-ups (apparently I got off lightly with only two fittings – the other girls had to go at least four times and their dresses were still too long and missing padding!), pedicures and manicures, wedding rehearsals, hair to get done, make up to get done etc. But I didn’t mind all this as it meant I got to spend more time with Pauline. I was happy to see it was like she’d never left London – we were both still pretty much the same. I met her Mum for the first time as well and boy was she hilarious. I don’t think I stopped laughing – I can see why Pauline is so down to earth.

Oh, celeb sighting! But no photo unfortunately. After we’d had the Wedding Rehearsal we grabbed a quick dinner at Wagamama. And, eating completely on his own was Tom Williams who is probably known best for hosting The Great Outdoors. This was my attempt at a stalker photo when he was sitting in the waiting area waiting for a takeaway:

But I completely missed him! Sigh. What a hottie.

The night before the wedding we bridesmaids stayed with Pauline at her mother’s house – which was probably a good move considering we had to get up at the crack of dawn to have enough time to get our hair and our make up. Yes The Wedding Day was rather a long day but everything went very smoothly and all of Pauline’s planning was worth it.

Long though it was, the Day itself was actually a fairly relaxed day considering. We even had time to watch some Sex And the City episodes when we were getting ready prior to getting to the Church which was on in the background for inspiration. Getting our dresses on were the hardest – the buttons on those things were impossible but worth if for the impact on the dress, and getting Pauline’s wedding dress on was an exercise in creativity. Her dress was simply gorgeous and looked stunning.

In comparison to everything else going on during the day the wedding ceremony seemed to just whizz by – I think its nice when the ceremony doesn’t drag on too long though Pauline had a couple of guest readings including one by Leah. Being in the wedding I couldn’t really stalkerazzi the wedding but I did poach a few photos from other people:

The photographer that Pauline had hired was very fast when taking photos. It was like we’d barely got into position and smiled and he was off organising the next shot. He liked the technique of getting us to laugh and talk amongst us so that the photos aren’t of us just stiffly smiling for the camera and should seem more natural type poses.

The Reception was held at Port Melbourne Yacht Club. An absolutely dazzling venue on the sparkling water, especially as the sun started to descend.

Food was delicious. I didn’t mind that the starter of Lemongrass Beef came with salad (heh heh) – beef was mouth wateringly yummy and followed by the Chicken served with Black Truffle Butter. Divine. There was also a cheesecake later on but by then most people were off on the dance floor or drunk somewhere. Pauline, however, made sure to grab me so we could enjoy the dessert. A woman after my own heart!

Speeches were good and touching. Both Pauline’s speech and her Mum’s speech had me teary. Cake-cutting went off without a hitch and then the dancing.

I don’t think Pauline and Brendan could have had taller groomsmen. Very funny to be dancing with the tallest one! Pauline and Brendan had rehearsed a very special wedding dance. So sweet!

I’m thinking Pauline and Brendan had an amazing day by all accounts. Congratulations kids!