Hello Lovelies, this week's walk down celebrant lane tells of a tale of loss... and discovery.
A lovely couple, let's call them P and J had organised to have their beautiful ceremony in the very picturesque Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne on the Taxodium lawn. Please note dear readers this is THE most popular spot to get married in the gardens, (this shall become more apparent as we go on).
P and J are a relaxed couple, the lead up to the wedding was fuss free. The rehearsal the day before had gone swimmingly well. Mum and Dad of J were an absolute treasure, very supportive and generous from my perspective. Mum of J was quite involved with the wedding preparations so was across all the details. Around came the day of the wedding and this is where a few bumps appeared...
Having arrived at the picturesque gardens I secured a plum parking position! Yes this was going to be a very good day indeed. No need to schlep my audio equipment too far, bonus!
It was a busy day at the gardens with all the prime spots entertaining weddings that day. Wedding vendors were flying about doing their level best to make couple's dreams come true, and the international tourists had their cameras primed and were out in abundance! Just then the garden's "helper" whizzed by on his golf cart. Was hoping he could help with expediting my equipment to the site - nope!... Although strangely enough, he stopped to chat to all the young ladies passing by regularly. OK more about that later.
I arrived at the Taxodium lawn and got set up quickly. Mum of J was there to oversee that everything was placed exactly as required. The garden's ducks had left us some special "surprises" which needed removing - another perk of an outdoor wedding! The tourists needed a bit of wrangling as they were posing on the cream carpet runway, moving and sitting on the wedding furniture for selfies - not really OK so I politely shooed them away. I asked our "helper" with the golf cart to keep the tourists who seemed fixated on becoming part of the ceremony for assistance with no success!
10 minutes before the bride is due to arrive, I stood back to survey the landscape... fabulous friends and family mingling and chatting - check. Wedding party present - check. Music creating the perfect vibe - check. Oh, wait a minute... where's the floral arbour? It's MISSING! How does one lose an entire floral arbour you may ask? What is a floral arbour you may ask? Well it's what the happy couple stand under (or right in-front of) you get the idea that it's a very large object. I discretely make my way over to the mum of J and alert her to the wayward arbour. Understandably she's a bit flustered so I offer to track it down. I was on the case! (One of my favourite characters on TV is Detective Olivia Benson on the hit series Law and Order SVU. Do-doo for special fans who will understand ;))
I rang the florist who told me the absent arbour had been installed correctly by her two assistants. Errr no! I was standing in the spot said arbour was supposed to be and I was definitely sans an arbour. Busy florist gave me the number of the assistants who I promptly called and yes they had indeed installed it at the wrong location. Great! 5 mins before the due arrival of J!
Over the hill comes hurtling a floral structure, hammers and pegs go flying! The florists are profusely apologetic, it seems the man in the golf cart had escorted them to the wrong patch of garden! And then the man in golf cart turns up apologising! No time for this as J is arriving.
Everyone takes their places and the ceremony commences without further hitches. Halfway through the ceremony P gets an attack of the giggles, I can see that some overly keen tourists have almost inserted themselves between the couple! I hear that in some cultures being close to the couple is good luck, but this is next level crazy! The tourists are led away, and the ceremony ends with clapping, cheering and happy tears.
The good news is that J was oblivious to the lost arbour and they both had the ceremony of their dreams!
Phew dear reader - that was another close call. What's the moral of the story... be wary of men in golf carts!
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