Tag Archives: Weddings

My Baby Brother Got Married

Posted in Family, Life, Love, The List by

There are something things in life you know will probably happen in the future, yet are never prepared for when they actually do… My baby brother’s wedding is one of those things.  Maybe it is because he is the baby of the family, so it’s some subconscious part of my brain thinks that while he is now an adult… he should also still be 10 and watching me dominate at Mario Party.

The fact that I felt unprepared for the event is also ridiculous because this wedding was planned like nothing I had ever experienced before… there was a run sheet for everything, logistics meetings and 1000s of texts and calls to confirm details for the part my little family of three had to play… you would think that with all that preparation I would have realised what was happening… but I didn’t.

I still hadn’t caught on as I helped them move things into their new apartment, or when I sat through a very detailed wedding logistics meeting last weekend.  Not even when I tried on my new dress or rehearsed the song that we had chosen for me to lead the congregation in singing during the ceremony.  The penny still didn’t drop when Dave and I were watching Isaac be driven around in a miniature convertible making sure he would love his trip down the isle and not scream.  Even yesterday as I got my hair and makeup done… I still hadn’t let the reality sink in… I don’t think I actually realised until I watched my my little brother articulate clearly and beautifully all the things he loved about the woman standing in front of him as he read the vowels he had written for her.

Yesterday I got to witness two young people promise to be the moon and so much more for each other, to share their lives, to support and challenge.  To be their person for all time… and it was beautiful.  It was also a really nice reminder of the things that I had promised to my person almost 8 years ago.  But this blog is not about that.  This blog is to admit that I finally get it… he is a grown up… and he is married.  And… because of all of this I have gained a passionate, strong and caring sister who balances and loves my brother better than I could have hoped.  This is one of things that gets quickly overlooked at weddings, overshadowed by the displays of love and affection.  When people get married it’s not just two people who get joined for life, but families that grow… well that’s how it is supposed to work anyway.  Our already complex and large family grew by one and her family.  Which means that while we get one more person to care for and include, it also means we gain one more person on our team, to love and support us, just as we will her.  Marriage is an old, but powerful thing and it is most definitely worth celebrating.

Oh… and just in case you didn’t notice, this event crossed number 24 off my list and number 5 off Isaac’s list which just adds to the fun!

Our Curious Life: Week 11

Posted in Family, Life, Our Curious Life, The List by

 

 

 

Long weekends are great! I am pretty sure that everyone already knows that… but I think it is worth repeating. This week started they way the last one ended… down at Inverloch for the long weekend… It was a pretty quite week as far as the George household goes but there were a couple of highlights worth mentioning… but I thought for something different I would just use some pictures…

Here is our last two days in Inverloch…

The middle of our week…

And the most beautiful part of our week, Claire and Dan’s wedding…

Good job week 11

Our Curious Life: Week 2

Posted in Family, Life, Our Curious Life, The List by

Week 2 has been a week of friends, family and the good things about summer… It has also been another good week for the list.  In fact, even Isaac was able to cross something his first list.

We started this week with great food, beautiful sunshine and good friends as we learnt how to barefoot bowl at my sister in law’s Hen’s… and despite having a few family members that are quite good at bowling… my skills left a lot to be desired.  We then continued to celebrate Ness and our new skills (even if they remained poor) at a roof top bar with delicious tapas.  And… seeing as Dave was a Bridesman, our whole family was able to spend the afternoon together… it was a pretty great way to start a week.  Learning a new game also meant that we crossed no. 39. Play a Game of some kind, off the list.

I fully embraced the fact that my bestie has been home for Christmas, so we made the most of her presence with walks, dinners and a delicious brunch at our favourite local Half Half.   At brunch Isaac got to cross his first thing off the list as he hung out with his ladies and loved every minute.  He also got to wear his new jeans which match his Aunty K’s.  (I also got to brunch with my besties and given that one of them is hard to brunch with living in London… we both got to cross this off on the same day, so Isaac’s picture is with K).

We won a donut wall to use to celebrate Isaac’s birthday later in the year… so keep an eye out for that…

We hung out with family for take out, afternoon tea and post holiday catch ups, making the most of the pre-wedding celebrations and hanging out with family that have flown across the ditch from NZ.

We finished the week off with Ness’ wedding.  The wedding was the perfect nod to her and her partner… now husband, relaxed, fun and a little bit surprising.  There is no one else I know that could have embraced a torrential downpour through your whole wedding as well as these guys did.  Not only did they just go with it, but the enjoyed it and helped us to enjoy it to… because who would have a thought that a wedding in the middle of January could be quite that wet.

We also made he most of the glorious… although occasionally way to hot weather, with lots of family walks… the fit pig is back… but I think I need to do a few more walks before I can actually cross it off the list.  So there you go week 2… a little bit like a primary school diary entry… but I will get better at it.

Very Thankful

Posted in Family, Life by

I have been thinking about blogging about this for a little while now and given than yesterday was Thanksgiving and as I type Dave is outside putting Christmas lights up that I have been nagging him for, I figured now would be appropriate.

It will be no surprise to you that I love photos and that I have probably millions of them.  After we came home from our European adventure I started the process of updating our back-ups so that these fun memories were included.  This project lost a little momentum when we found out that we were having Josh, but now it has shot back up the priority list with the edition of our very precious photo memories of our little boy.  So the last couple of weeks
while I have been on leave I have spent a lot of my time looking through, sorting, storing and re-storing our photos.

Projects like this always take me a long time because I like looking through the photos, reminiscing and reflecting on what we have done, where we have been and who we have been spending our time with.  It’s nice to look back sometimes and in true thanksgiving style it always makes me very thankful for the things, memories, experiences and people who make up my life.

Anyway, while I have been getting the photos sorted, I decided that I also needed to include the videos we have of things like our wedding.  I love our wedding video, but I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually sat down and watched it… but this week I found myself doing just that, watching it after I moved it over to the back-up drive.  Now, I pride myself on remembering most of our special occasions well, and in detail, but it turned out that I had completely forgotten about the song that was sung while Dave and I signed the registry.   It was a song that we chose for the lyrics and as I listened to the song again tears flowed from my eyes because I realised that the lyrics were more true that I had ever understood.

The song is “When God made you” by NewSong and the lyrics are as follows:

img_9200It’s always been a mystery to me
How two hearts can come together
And love can last for ever
But now that I have found you I believe
That a miracle has come
When god sends the perfect one

Now gone are all my questions about why
And I’ve never been so sure of anything
In my life

Oh I wonder what God
Was thinking
When he created you
I wonder if he
Knew everything I would need
Because he made all my dreams come true
When God made You
He must have been thinking about me

I promise that wherever you may go
Where ever life may lead you
With all my heart I’ll be their too
And from this moment on
I want you to know
I’ll let nothing come between us
And I will even love you more

Chorus

He made the sun
He made the moon
To harmonize a perfect tune
One can’t move without the other
They just have to be together

And that is why I know its true
Your for me
And I’m for you
Because my world just can’t be right
With out you in my life

Chorus 

At the time, I have to admit that while I agreed with the words, I found it a little corny, but now given the events of this year, traveling together, working on our house and with the addition of Joshua, I realise that there is no one else that I would have rather been with.

I don’t give Dave anywhere enough praise.  He is truly a wonderful, wonderful man.  A man who is brave and courageous, a man who is wiser than his years, more caring and more loving than I have ever known.  He is talented and good at everything he does, he is humble and serves people without expectation.  And in the last couple of months I have learnt that he is far stronger than I ever understood.  He has stood in the gap for me, been my voice, my comfort, my protector, my support and my love and he has done all of this without any return, knowing I have been completely empty and unable to look after myself at times.

So this thanksgiving, I need him and everyone else to know that I could not be more thankful for him if I tried.  I love him more than I could ever say or show and he deserves so much more than what I have to offer.  I know that when God made him, as selfish as it sounds, he was thinking about me, because there is no one else but him that completes me, compliments me or who loves me as well as he does.

Thank you Jesus for giving me Dave, and thank you Dave for loving me.

I love you.

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Wedding Wonders

Posted in Friendship, God, Life by

Weddings are wonderful, there is no two ways about it… and I love them.  But more than just a regular wedding I love weddings of those I love, weddings I get to share in, support and embrace.  And lucky for me, on Friday I was honoured to share in another wedding of a wonderful friend.

The thing about weddings is while there are a lot of things that remain similar between them, they are always different, coloured by the personalities of the bride and groom and all that makes them and their love for each other unique.  Watching and attending weddings is always special, always a little magical and Friday’s was no exception.  On Friday one of my dearest friends married the love of her life, and I was privileged enough to not only witness their marriage, but stand by Sia as one of her bridesmaids.  I know that in my last wedding post about ‘My Best Friends Wedding’ I talked about the incredible blessing that being a bridesmaid has been and those feelings remain the same.  It was such a special honour to be part of  Sia’s wedding day, before, leading up to it and in the day itself.  And it is something that I will continue to carry on now after the wedding, a responsibility to continue to pray for and cherish their marriage and life together.

Sia and I haven’t been friends for all that long, in fact its less than 3years, but I feel like she has been a friend that was hand picked for me, by God, for just when I needed her.  A friend whose counsel is as Proverbs would say as sweet as perfume and incense (Proverbs 27:9).  She has been such a blessing to my life and I know that our friendship is more than just chance, but something that has been designed for a much greater purpose.  So to be able to share such a significant moment with her and her new husband Ben is something more wonderful than this blog can really do justice.  So just like Kirsten’s wedding I thought it might be easier to just share a few wonderful moments captured through out the day.

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My Best Friend’s Wedding

Posted in Life, Love by

This is not a blog about the movie just in case you were wondering… or mislead, in fact i’ve never seen the movie… maybe I should, it kinda feels like a classic… I’ll get on that.

This is in fact a blog true to its name, it’s about my best friend’s wedding, which incidentally was yesterday.

It feels a little unreal if I am honest, like I am not really sure it happened, the day was quite a blur, but the 669 photos I took suggest that it did in fact take place.  There were a number of things that made the day extra special, the first was that it the wedding has been a long time coming, they had been together a long time (almost as long as Dave and I) and you kinda just knew it was just a matter of when, not if.  But the other thing that made it extra special was the fact that I got to be there all day with her as one of her bridesmaids.

To date I had never been a bridesmaid, and this wasn’t something that had made me particularly sad, it was just the way it was.  And if I am really honest, I had convinced myself that I probably never would be, and that was ok.  So being asked to be there for Kirsten, as she said I do, is something that I still feel incredibly blessed by.  Even as I am writing this I am finding myself a little emotional, because I feel so privileged and honoured to have been a part of the day, it is something that is so super special.

I had so much fun hanging out with Kirsten and my fellow bridesmaids.  It could not have been better if we tried… everything about the day was wonderful…

Our early morning walk,

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Our morning of hair, make up and quick bits to eat,

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Their beautiful ceremony,

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Photo fun with bridal party,

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And the incredible celebration that was the reception.

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Everything was just perfect. But the best bit of all is that because of yesterday, my best friend is married to her love and they are starting the next chapter of their lives together.  He has certainly got himself a winner, Kirsten is one of the kindest, most generous, loving, loyal, wise and hilarious people I know.  She is the best of the best, and while I am still not sure how I managed to score her has my person, my life is most certainly better because she has been a part of it.  On the flip side though she is also pretty lucky, Ryan is not only an incredible guy in his own right… he is also my second cousin… which means Kirsten is now part of my larger extended family… which means we are stuck together!  This wedding is win win win!

Kirsten’s wedding also means an end of an era for my little trio of besties.  Kirsten, Pheebs and I have now all entered the realm of married life… we have come a long way from the girls that used to play love percentage games, outline our top 5 guys and dream about love.  We could never have predicted that it would turn out like this… it’s even better then we could have imagined.

The Most Beautiful Garden Party of All Time!

Posted in Life by

Now you may think the title for this blog is an exaggeration, but it’s not I assure you, in fact it’s probably an understatement if anything. And while I would like to take credit it for it all, unfortunately I can’t, while I contributed opinions and assisted in the set up the creative genius was not mine.

Last Saturday night my fellow bridesmaids and I put on a Hen’s evening for our bride to be.   The evening was designed to be all of the bride’s favourite things in one place, everything from a Mexican feast to an abundance of chocolate to an outdoor movie.  We spent the night outside and after an initial panic that Melbourne was going to continue to be the hottest place in the world, the cool change meant that the weather was perfect.  But the thing that made the evening even better than Mexican food and chocolate (which lets face it, is already a winning combination), was the detail and decoration in the garden it’s self… it was beautiful, and even a little bit magical.

One of my fellow bridesmaids is part of a new business called Petals and Pompoms (you can check out all the incredible things they do via instagram here).  Oh and just as a little side note… Petals and pPompoms are amazing… they just know what a space needs to make it incredible!  Anyway, this combined with another prep teaching bridesmaid (it appears that primary school teachers also seem to have been whacked with the creative stick), and the not so creative, but super practical and a little bit nerdy me were pretty pleased with our efforts.

It turns out the key is fairy lights, bunting and pompoms… who would have thought…  here are some pictures from the night… everything from our outdoor cinema, to the homemade pinata and the delicious feast setting… and I am pretty sure… no 100% sure that this is the most beautiful garden party I have ever been to.

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