It rained through most of the night, and everyone was worried about the conditions for the wedding this afternoon. But miraculously things suddenly got sunny. Adrian, Kuniko and I went out with Steve to walk the beach at Wollongong while Alyssa and Brenda went to get their hair and makeup done.
It was gorgeous out there – we started at Steve’s golf club and then walked the coastline with a keen eye out for whales. We never saw any, but the views were fantastic. The temperature was comfortable as well – here they were just swinging into spring and some warmer weather.
Then it was time to head back and get dressed up for the big event. We had packed some nicer clothes and were looking pretty good – the whole family looked nice. Brenda complimented Kuniko on her dress and when Kuniko said that it only cost $20, Brenda advised that she not mention that at the wedding. We took an Uber into town, and then a charter bus from there to the Imperial Hotel where the ceremony and reception was being held. It was a ways away, and I was surprised to see a train line running nearby.
The hotel was a historic building – sometimes historic means old but this had been renovated well and it had big windows overlooking the ocean. We went inside and since we didn’t really know anyone except for the Coursey family we weren’t sure how things were going to go. But soon people came up and introduced themselves, and we were introduced to interesting people, and then it was time to watch the ceremony.
The bride and groom asked us to put away out phones for the ceremony (visible looks of disappointment in the crowd) but it was nice there weren’t a bunch of phones in the air when they exchanged vows. The ceremony was short and sweet, and the vibe of the whole thing really fit well with Julia and Luke.
After the ceremony we waited in a short line for a personal congratulation for the couple, a glass of bubbles, and then some hors d’oeuvres before sitting down to dinner. We looked at some old family photos of previous generations from both sides, and then took some photos outside.
Soon it was time to eat family style at two very long tables. They had several different dishes and all the food I had was quite good – lamb, carpaccio, roast chicken, salad. Later we had cakes that various people had contributes (we had sneakily eaten some of Brenda’s cakes the previous night).
There were some great speeches, plenty of wine, and soon enough music was playing and it was time to dance. Kuniko was initially ambivalent about the idea of dancing at a wedding – just not a thing in Japan – but before long she was out there having just as much fun as everyone else. We spent a long time dancing (4-5 hours?) until it was time to get on the bus back to town.
We caught an Uber back from Wollongong up the hill to Mt. Kembla, what a great night! The wedding couple looked so happy and they were already starting to look forward to their honeymoon in Vietnam.
