THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR

Penny Anderson and Joshua Evans are now MAN AND WIFE!!!!

The Ceremony:

Aaaaahh...the ceremony at St Anne's in East Gresford was lovely. The weather had been crapola for a few days ...i'm talking absolutely torrential rain...but miraculously, God turned it all off just for Pen and Josh. The sun was shining and there was no sign of any supposed "drought".

We (a three car convoy from Sydney) nearly didn't make it to the church on time. Our tardiness was due to many factors, such as the rain, the distance, the lack of a map and the necessary Maccas stop to get changed. Then, when we were but kilometres away, the Gresford locals decided to take up their entire one street for Go Cart racing. Frustration levels reached maximum.

From the moment Pen arrived there were loads to tears, mainly from Dani Post. Pen looked so beautiful! And so happy. It was lucky we were late, really, cos it meant we all got a close up view and to offer huge smiles as she walked up to the door.

The church was really sweet, but a little small, and in order to avoid having to watch the whole thing on a television outside, we followed the bridal party in and stood at the back.

Highlights:

• Seeing Pen arrive!


• The flowergirls (toooo cute!!)


• Tim's reading of The Owl and The Pussycat (kinda stood out amongst the biblical ones!)


• Josh dropping the ring (it was pretty cute)


• Josh not being able to get the ring on Pen's finger. For a long time. Awkward. No, not really, just funny.


• Getting to throw petals in the bride and grooms' faces

Below: East Gresford Go Cart Races...and hay...taking up the whole damn one street. Above: Go-Cart Races Pit Girls!

The Reception part one: The Speeches

Josh was crying so much Pen had to hold his speech!! Awwww

The reception was at Riverside, one of the Evans' properties.

We had to navigate around a few cows on the kilometres-long driveway, and parked in some mud. Then we were promptly handed drinks. There were 18 wines on the menu. Yes, there was a wine menu. And no, there was no limit. Wow.

We took our seats for the speeches, which were many and varied and altogether very entertaining. Pen's dad even said some really, really lovely things. Lots of different speakers made a note of Pen's wild uni days and warned the guests about her wild uni friends (we took that as a challenge to live up to our reputation). Penny compared Josh to the Mr Men characters. But my vote has to go to Josh for the extended limerick he wrote in honour of Pen. My favourite line was this (and please excuse what is surely a misquote):

"To Mr and Mrs Anderson,

Thankyou for giving me your daughter.

I'll treat her like a precious resource,

You know, kinda like water"

Then it was time for the wedding waltz, which was to a song by the dixie chicks. We all got up and danced around, then we ate, drank, and were extremely merry!

The Reception part 2: Celebra-ate!

Penny + bagpipes playing you're the voice + alcohol =SCOTTISH JIG!!

Tim and Clare threw the flowergirls around a bit...they were pretty popular.

Stretching before the bouquet throwing..one...two...threeguess whose long-term girlfriend just caught the bouqet???Here's to Penny, she's true blue...haha no one is safe, ever. Not even on your wedding day.

The happy couple then made their way, via limousine no less, to Sydney for a night, and are now currently in Bora Bora. As for the rest of us, well...

The Reception part 3: Trashbaggery

Umm...we're not used to unlimited bar tabs...as a result we woke up in the morning to discover that between us we'd stashed 18 bottles under the gifts table. our badThis photo is one of an apparent series of everyone's boobs

I have no idea what time we went to bed. I do know that Tim, myself, Swells, Kel, Cogswell and Nic Powell, along with two random guys, were the last ones standing. One sister attempted to stay up the enI know Tim, Swells, one of the random guys, and myself slept on the marquee floor...and woke up covered in flies. We woke up at 8am (?!) to discover we'd hidden easter eggs everywhere but a few hours before.

I also know that vitaweet, vegemite, chutney and cheese singles (altogether) have never tasted so good, and that this was one of the best weekends in the history of the universe. No exaggeration.

I took so many photos that my camera died...twice! SO, these lovely gentle encapsulations of the evening don't really do it justice. Stay tuned for late night shenanigans captured on Kel's camera! I'm scared.

(Oh and ps the trip home was hilarious. The highlight was that during our second stop at Maccas (yes, 2 stops in 2 hours) Claire and Clare bought Mc Flurries...Claire proceeded to whynge and moan about her one tasting "like bark"...turns out she'd been given a McFLurry with OATS mixed through it instead of Crunchie pieces! Despite this, she ate the rest of it.)