03/06/2026
Wedding Wednesday… today is a little story about our wedding alll those years ago. Don’t get me wrong our wedding was a lot of fun when we got a chance to relax but it was over in a flash and we were left wondering … is that it!
We got married on 6th January 1989, weddings were a very different story to what they are today!
Our date wasn’t chosen because it was some romantic milesrone or memory: it was chosen because it was during the cricket Xmas break and; along with us; most of our friends played cricket. We knew if we’d try to have our wedding during the season, half the guests would have been on the pitch instead of at our wedding.
I was never a girly girl. I didn’t wear dresses, didn’t do makeup and had absolutely no interest in spending months hunting for the perfect wedding dress …. I walked into a bridal shop in Dandenong, tried on the first dress I liked and yes … put it on laybuy (for memory it was about $300)
The hair and makeup process wasn’t much more fun. Most brides spend the morning sipping champagne and being pampered …I spent the morning wondering how soon I could wash it all off while mum and my 3 sisters fussed.
Being the late 80s, we did all the traditional wedding things because that’s just what everyone did.
The cake was a 3 layer marzipan fondant fruit cake which neither of us eat
The speeches seemed endless
The bouquet was heavy
And the photos that seemed to go on longer than the marriage vows … although we did write our own vows which was outside the norm back in the day.
And then came the bridal waltz … now, to call it a waltz is really petty funny; it was more of a sway and and awkward twirl with over 100 friends watching the embarrassment 😂
Then just as we had started to relax, have a few drinks and had ticked off all the formalites the venue MC advised us it was time to wind up the evening with the dreaded goodbye circle 🥹
For those too young to remember the goodbye circle, this was where the bride and groom had to walk around the room hugging and kissing every single guest before they could leave, and if you know me, you know I have an aversion to hugging and kissing (I have got better) - this was the real moment of dread.
The dread was real as next day when I woke up with a gigantic cold sore!
Then you think we went on a honeymoon right … well kind of over a month later … we had our annual family holiday booked in Yarrawonga at Skiland in February: so after all that we waited over a month for a kind of honeymoon with my entire family … although finally we were allowed our own room 😂
If we got married today, things would be sooooo different.
The day would be more relaxed
The rules would be fewer
The traditions would only be the ones we wanted … there would be no goodbye circle under any circumstances … no chance!
We would have a cake that was yummy that we could eat for dessert … true story we saved a heart layer of our wedding cake and when we moved from our house to the resort we actually found the layer with that thick white icing still intact 30 years later it had a bit of mould but the icing flowers still on top … it didn’t make it here to the resort!
The bridal waltz would still be a sway because let’s face it, 37 years later neither of us has improved our dance moves.
We wouldn’t have a sit down meal it would be a relaxed party with finger food or a big paella pan and the aroma wafting through the resort.
There would of course still be lots of drinks.
We would have a great wedding singer / DJ … who could still sing the Angels Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again without my Nanna having a heart attack, asking are they saying the F word?
Everyone staying at the resort and partying until they dropped.
And a big bacon and egg cook up on the barbie next morning … I am sure Scratcha’s brother Peter would be the grill meister.
Then the rest of the day would be spent around the pool catching up with all the important people in our lives and just relaxing and enjoying their company for an entire day.
After 37 years of marriage one of the great benefits of getting older is you realise the best weddings aren’t the ones where you do what everyone expects … they’re the ones where you do what makes you happy, coz you never get that day as a do over.
Enjoy a giggle at our expense … but if you want the wedding I wished we had we are here offering your wedding your way … check out our wedding page https://airtreeresort.com.au/weddings/
