A Wild Wedding

Bree's wedding outfit

Last weekend Bree and I attended Sally and Alex’s wedding. Bree goes to school with Sally’s older daughter Layrah and Sally often looks after Bree after school so that Bree does not have to attend the afterschool programme every day. Sally and Alex are great people and have been very kind to me during my stay here. When they invited us to their wedding I was very honoured.

The first thing was a suitable outfit. I have not brought a lot of clothes with me and fancy dress was definitely not on my mind when I packed. I had one decent sundress and the weather was still warm enough that I thought with a light jacket that would do. I managed to get some nice black shoes with a small heel for 50 cents at the near bye thrift store (called opp shops here which are short for opportunity). Bree and I frequent the opp shops because you can really find great deals. I also picked up a black jacket for a few bucks so I thought to myself "great job and all for under $5". But it was not meant to be! Later that evening I went to fix the ribbon on my dress which was very wrinkled. I found the iron and when I tried to flatten the ribbon I also managed to instantly burn a large hole in the front of the dress. Apparently the light gauzy material should not come near irons or heat as it melted instantly. I was now left with no dress and a big mess on the iron (which I am still trying to remove).

So off to the shops and $50 later I had a nice dress again. It is something I will keep so I guess it was worth spending the money. It is just that I am trying (but failing) to not accumulate stuff here as I need to get it all back to Canada and we only get 1 free bag of luggage each. After that it starts to cost quite a bit of money.

I digress, so back to the wedding. The ceremony was held at Alex’s boss’s house in their back garden. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all looking for shade. After the ceremony there were refreshments and some snacks while people mingled. There were lots of kids there and soon Bree was part of “the girl gang” running around screaming in the front yard.

Layrah and Bree singing

We then headed to the China Inn for the reception and this is where all the fun began. Alex is Greek and quite an extravert. The China Inn has a karaoke machine and I can tell you it was put to good use! The evening started with a few toasts and some appetizers. Then the Greek music started and Alex performed a dance which was full of plate breaking. The kids went crazy over this. Bree wanted to dance and smash plates too but I had to restrain her. The poor waitresses did not know what to think and one would just get a plate swept up when another one would get thrown down. The plate breaking only lasted for a song or two and then it was just dancing. The kids all joined in with this and soon they were at the karaoke machine too.  Dinner just kept coming and as all the kids at my table were full after the appetizers there were only 3 of us left with heaps and heaps of food.

It was great fun and Bree who has not really been to many weddings now thinks that all weddings are this exciting. She talked about it for days after and would really like a karaoke machine.  I have told her that we will have to wait on that (until we get a sound proof room I think).