Everyone has their dream of the perfect wedding. For some, it is the big white dress, vows in a church, in front of all their family and friends.
For others, it is a small, intimate affair. For our daughter, it was to elope.
S~E had been settled in Sydney for a few years. We knew of the plans that she and G~J were making to elope to New Zealand. A friend of mine knew a wedding celebrant, helped chose the outdoor location, was their witness, while her son was the photographer.
So, at this precise time, one year ago, Aussie Mate and I sat at home, wearing our wedding outfits (new pyjamas) and celebrated with a bottle of champagne.
We had a copy of the marriage ceremony. When I shared that with a few relatives here, my aunt commented “That was lovely. I didn’t expect to go to a wedding today. I feel I should have dressed up in something nice before reading this.”
We felt part of their marriage celebration even though we were on the other side of the world, our evening to their morning, our spring to their autumn. Photos were sent through to us as they had their wedding breakfast. We saw the beautiful park overlooking the ocean, we heard about the orca whales that were in the bay below, that they stopped to watch.
It was the perfect wedding for them.
We were happy to have been at their engagement the previous year, when we were visiting Sydney. We understood their choices.
Aussie Mate and I had made a similar choice ourselves. We were living in London and we eloped to Wales. That was our perfect day and twenty six years on, we are still glad that we chose that specific way to get married.
Happy anniversary kids.
