Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

George and Jasmine's wedding, November 20-21, 2009

Yay! George and Jasmine are getting married! Sparrow doesn't know anything about them. But I was one of the two main people guilty of introducing them, so here we are at the Nanga Bush Camp in Dwellingup, preparing for a festive weekend which just happens to include one wedding. I was delighted. George and Jasmine were meant for each other, and those of us who saw them together in the first few days of their friendship were simply counting down the hours til they realised it too. Whether it was finger painting at a family fun day in the Carlton Gardens, dressing up for the Australia Day festivities or comparing notes on how to hit a 120Y's engine with your shoe to get it started on a cold winter night when you've come out of the nightclub, it was obvious that two amazing and gorgeous characters from opposite sides of the country had more than just the surmounting of a bogan heritage in common. So here's a few photos from a weekend's cheerful detour into the realm of Delight and Occasional Mayhem.

We arrived Friday late afternoon, and spent a little time sitting outside and letting Sparrow have wriggle time on the grass.

There was some wandering around inside too, admiring the setup and building and meeting random people and saying hello.

Saturday morning. The groom has emerged from the bridal suite at a leisurely hour (possibly an attempt to avoid the chaos of the day for as long as possible) and is looking like he will flame into dust if that sunlight thing hits him. It probably wasn't fair to be standing there with a camera when he first faced the outside world on the day of his wedding, but it was sheer coincidence, honest.

Admiring the decor of the bridal cabin. We thought Sparrow would be quite amused by the flamingo but she was disinterested.

Off for a walk in the gorgeous Dwellingup / Nanga forest. A nice way to spend a little bit of the morning, with everyone in no hurry whatsoever.

The bride and groom also decided to nip off for a quiet, playful and peaceful walk in the forest without anyone else around.

Flying Sparrow up and down inside the big central area of the building. She was having raptures. She loves being flown. Her laughter was impressive inside that big space.

More hanging out and chatting to various relatives and friends of both bride and groom. Sparrow particularly liked all the grandparent-types who had to say hello to such a cute baby.

The wedding space is slowly coming together. The bouncy castle was a feature! and it was set up from about midday. I tried taking Sparrow on it but discovered a certain problem. I couldn't actually get onto the castle itself because you need your hands to balance and climb, and I was using both of them to hold Sparrow. So I tried three times, but never got past the entry pad without falling over. It was quite tricky too as the surface was getting very hot in the sun, too hot for Sparrow, so I had to make sure I fell in such a way that she never touched the plastic. Great gymnastic exercise (though that wasn't quite what I intended). We decided to leave further attempts on the bouncy castle until it was in the shade.

The idea of having the wedding over a weekend was to let things happen at a relaxed pace. So over the course of the day various wedding guests got different things set up and placed out. James and Sparrow are sitting quietly, discovering how to hold one's toes and watching people and stuff happening while I and a few others are laying out the creative-cartoon-and-colouring placemats and making sure each table is supplied with plentiful bubble mix, coloured pencils, flowerpots and celebratory flags. All the ingredients for creative and individual mayhem, with results ready to be saved and treasured by the bridal couple.

That sun's got a bit warm. Lets try one of the parasols. Jasmine had arranged for a pile of white parasols to help people deal with the possibility of too much sun - a genuine likelihood for a November wedding, though it turned out to be not too bad. The weather forecast for the weekend had been getting steadily stormier and stormier, but at the last minute changed to stormy Friday and Sunday but sunny Saturday.

Somebody has decided that I have been off doing other stuff for too long and is making cute faces at me to make sure I return this minute and give her cuddles.

There were a lot of colourful decorations all over the place. Colour and motion, flappery and frivolous frippery in the forest.

At no particular point in time various people wandered off and got changed into their official going-to-a-wedding clothes. The definition of this varied a lot. Here's James in his suit, with Sparrow in a dress. She seems fascinated with the skirt and how it could possibly taste.

Fan! Jasmine had these as well as the parasols, to help with the possibilities of flies and needing a cool breeze. Neither was a problem in the end, but Sparrow loved the fan. This thing that opened and closed and waved was pretty cool. I finally took it off her when I discovered she was sucking off the adhesive that was holding on the little paper strip at the edge.

Some random people wandering around as the wedding progressed closer to happening.

More random people shots, including the MC John getting dressed with the help of his lady Jo. John is the other main guilty party involved in getting Jasmine and George to meet up. They decided not to make too big a thing of how they got together (fine by me) other than a ridiculously silly and fun little explanatory sheet that Jasmine had put together (and spent many frustrating hours on trying to get the fonts to be the right size and go sideways at the right time and in the right place, it must have totally irritated her at least three times). But both John and I ended up with a role in the ceremony - John MCing, and I did the reading while they were signing the paperwork. The reading was a mildly edited version of a speech about love and lovers from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and was great fun to read.

A shot of me dressed up too. The feathery pin thing is a symbol that I'm one of the ceremonial party in some way (though I only joined them on the platform for the reading). And this is where my photos apparently end. I thought I managed to get a photo of the culminating kiss (itself a delightful if tricky moment given the height difference and the somewhat erratic attitudes towards formality of the pair), but apparently not. So no photos of the wedding dress, the bridal couple in their finery, the newly weds, the evening of relaxed celebration, the bits of cleanup that night and the longer cleanup the next way (performed by various guests as they woke up, surveyed the carnage and started helping :-). Still a fantastic weekend.