The McLawry Wedding in Manley!

A word to the wise…if you invite me to a party, I will make damn sure I am there. It doesn’t matter where it is (Europe, Cuba, Antarctica), you tell me when and where, and there is a 95% chance I will have bought my flight, party outfit and gift before the official invitations go out. Do NOT extend me a courtesy invite with hopes of an RSVP of “No, with regrets”…it will not happen. Based on this premise, it should be no surprise that when my favorite Australian couple in Zurich invited me to their wedding in Australia (although the invite was jokingly “contested” by the groom to be, Nick) I knew I was going to make the journey to Sydney to celebrate the momentous occasion.

With the wedding on Saturday, I arrived at Kim’s house in Manley on Friday to hang out with the bride and bridesmaids and help with the last minute items before the big day. My main tasks included a laundry list of items prepared by Kim’s family (cleaning the house, running errands, etc), running interference between Kim’s family and Kim and most importantly, keeping Kim happy with plenty of champagne. I was officially, the un-official bridesmaid biatch and it was a job I took on whole-heartedly and with pride …I was Kim’s minion on the job in Zurich and was happy to transfer the skills from work to wedding. And even better, it was great to have a chance to spend time with Kim before the big day.

And the big day was absolutely beautiful. The week of rain cleared up in time for the ceremony on the beach and everything followed flawlessly from there. The reception was perfect, speeches were intimate and funny and Kim had thoughtfully placed me at the rowdy table, who , along with all of Kim and Nick’s other friends, brought me into the group immediately….going to a wedding alone is scary enough, but doing it in a different country is something else. Thanks to their friends’ openness, this was one of the most fun weddings I have been to. Truly, you can judge a person by their friends, and not surprisingly the couple’s friends were all great people, who went out of their way to make me feel like I had known them all forever.

The party went into the early hours of the morning and I was sorry to see the night, and holiday, end…. I had absentmindedly bought my flight home for the following day, which meant I had to miss out on the Sunday BBQ at Kim’s house and the final send off of the newly married couple. Thankfully I was able to catch up with Kim in the hotel before she headed home and laugh with her at all of the funny stories from the night before. And, in true Aussie fashion, I managed to have one last Australian beer with some friends (Pete and Bianca), whom I randomly ran into on the promenade before heading home.