Taking the Plunge
Trip Start
Jun 24, 2008
1
13
22
Trip End
Aug 10, 2008
Cairns,
Queensland,
Australia
Monday, July 28, 2008
We met up on Wednesday afternoon and headed out for drinks on The Esplanade in Cairns, which we followed up with a dinner of crocodile and kangaroo meat
Paul
. I refused to eat the kangaroo (that was Paul). The crocodile was okay--it reminded me of country-fried steak, actually. I just felt a little bad about eating it, for some reason. The weather was still a bit dodgy on Wednesday, but we hoped it would clear on Thursday. Thursday turned out to be a beautiful day--sunny and warm without any rain clouds. We all checked into the resort we were staying in for the rest of our stay in Cairns and immediately headed to the pools for some sun. The resort was amazing and we loved our 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment, which came with an open air dining room, a beautiful kitchen with a dishwasher and a washer and dryer. Paul said it was nicer and bigger than his house. While Paul and I spent the rest of the day on wedding errands (we had to meet with our coordinator and the officiant), Connie and Jeremy went out for some exercise. We all cooked dinner that night and drank leisurely into the night as Paul and I enjoyed our last few days as single people.
The next morning was also gorgeous, and Connie and I were out of the door early to get primped at the salon on the resort grounds. Meanwhile, the boys lounged at the pool and ran the few errands we had tasked to them. Connie was a wonderful person to have on hand, as she helpfully plied me with plenty of mimosas, made me lunch, and helped with all of the other important aspects of the wedding
Me in the Car
. Eventually the time came, and with several minor hair mishaps (it was so hot and humid that the curls fell out of my hair) she and I made our way to Trinity Beach for the wedding. The only sort of weird part was when we were waiting in the car for our driver. While I was pretty relaxed, he was all apologetic about being late and having spilled coffee on his jacket--he started to make me nervous with all of his apologies. And then he didn't leave and when I asked why, he said something about instructions from our coordinator. Finally, I had to call Paul and get everything straightened out, so we headed out.Upon our arrival, we realized that it was extraordinarily windy, and we had to gerry-rig my hair to keep it out of my face. Luckily our coordinator Alera came prepared with a fanny pack full of bobby pins and hairspray. It was so windy that we actually couldn't really hear what the officiant was saying through most of the ceremony and had to keep having her repeat stuff. The ceremony was quick but sweet. Paul had been so nervous about writing his own vows because he feels he is not very articulate, but he did a beautiful job. The only funny part was that he made a comment about the game show Jeopardy (we always compete to see who can answer more questions) and then turned to the officiant to explain the game to her. Anyway, his vows were really touching and I actually lost my train of thought and forgot what I meant to say (I hadn't written them down, but had instead counted on my legal training to bs my way through them--as it has in on more than one occasion, my training failed me), so his vows were actually way more articulate than mine
Me and Paul
. After the ceremony, we did the official stuff like sign the papers as we were serenaded by our guitarist Russell Harris, who was a lot of fun and had a great repertoire. He also looked pretty rock-star in his red and orange shirt and his Oakley sunglasses. It was nice to have a little music to sing and dance to as we were posing for our pictures (the singing and dancing were mostly me and Connie while Paul and Jeremy stood around looking embarrassed on our behalf--something we find them doing often). All-in-all, it was the fun and light-hearted affair we had hoped for. There were lots of laughs and only a few tears (of joy, of course).
After we finished the pictures, we went over to Far Horizons in Palm Cove for drinks and dinner. We watched the sunset over the beach and Connie acted as photographer and took some pictures of us on the beach with the sunset behind us. While our reservations were at 6, we ended up waiting in the bar until the wind died down around 6:30 before we sat down at a private table that had been set up for us away from the rest of the restaurant and shared a lovely meal with Connie and Jeremy, our feet in the sand, the stars above us and the sound of the waves crashing behind us. In fact, the only bad part of the meal was our wedding cake which, although probably pretty in the pictures, tasted AWFUL. Connie said the frosting reminded her of play-doh, and it actually did. Oh, well. If that's the only thing that was bad about the day, we can live with that.
Comments
Congats!
Just wanted to say, again how happy we are for you guys. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Vince
OMG
i just wnated to say how happy i feel for you guys!!
shannon congrats. the guys will be happy for you.
ps. you look soooo pretty