The Aussie Celebration!

Last Saturday November, Damien & I renewed our vows at our Blessing of the Rings ceremony. It was a lovely morning ceremony and mass followed by a brunch reception. Originally we had planned to have an old fashioned picnic brunch outdoors, but due to poor weather and lots of rain, we quickly came up with an indoor reception plan. We had so much help from family and friends and I don't know what I would've done without the input & creativity from my sister in laws.

The ceremony was so beautiful! We had incredible singers who gave us goosebumps while singing our favourite worship songs. Our priest, who is a good friend of Damien's, gave a great sermon which was more like a Damien roast! He was quite hilarious --- Damien has yet to get over it ;) We chose the Beatitudes for our Gospel and it was beautifully tied into the sermon.

The reception was very laid back, decorated with hand-made doilie banners, yellow Australian wild flowers in tin can vases, as well as yellow & pink roses in mason jars tied with lace. The theme was rustic picnic and we did our best to create that effect indoors in the seminary dining room. The food spread was quite amazing -- we had mouth watering mini muffins, salmon and cream cheese rolls, lemon poppyseed loaves, chive 'n' cheese cornbread, cheese platters, and meat platters all labelled with doilie food labels. For drinks there was homemade sangria made by my Basque-born brother-in-law (his family's recipe), mimosas, beer for the blokes, champagne and strawberries, and OJ & soda for the kiddies. We had a guitarist playing acoutic music during the reception and everyone had a good time (so we heard). For wedding favours I baked up some heart-shaped sugar cookies and wrapped them in a doilie envelope tied with cooking string. It's amazing how innovated you can be with doilies!

We had an abundance of picnic baskets, so we used them as decoration wherever we could. It was a very simple event, very laid back and full of great Aussie humour!

Towards the end of it however, I had an allergic reaction to one of the foods! My throat started tingling and swelling up and I had bad stomach cramps for about 9 hours. I have never had a reaction like that, but thankfully I didn't have to use my epipen. I did however have to leave the reception to go to the dr's, but all was back to normal the next day!

We missed all of you and wish you could've been there to make it that more special. You were in our thoughts during the day. I've attached some pics for you to see, hope you enjoy!

xoxox



All photos: Life in Oz



 

We were so amazed by our musicians that I wanted to share a clip of them singing the 'Desert song' during Communion. They are so talented and helped make our ceremony so blessed. Song has such an powerful impact!

Hope you enjoyed the pics and the video!