ATAAHUA ORA

Yesterday we had a meeting with our chosen priest, Father Bruce. All in all it was a rather pleasant meeting, he asked us some questions about how old we were, how long we were together and how long we were thinking of getting married. Then he asked us some harder questions, like which church do we go to (we don’t regularly, we only “do” the big occasions like Christmas and Easter) and why do we want to have a Catholic wedding ceremony. We must have answered these questions to his satisfactions because he then wrote our date in his calendar.

Then it was our turn to ask some hard questions - how do we go about marrying in a garden and NOT in a church. Turns out it may be possible - altough made harded by the fact that we are both Catholic - and Father Bruce promised to talk to the vicar responsible for making this decision. He also warned us that the vicar is rather conservative.

All we can do on that front is only wait for the moment. Tomorrow we’re going to one of the venues in South Auckland again to see it setup for a wedding. We also hope to talk to the caterer and see (smell) the food. We’re hoping the menu is just “plain writing”, not plain food altough the caterer is apparently willing to adjust or make changes. Fingers crossed everything works out. At the same time we want to visit a couple of churches/chapels in the area, just in case. And we’ll have to do a pre-marital course. That should be fun.

Couldn’t resist and on Saturday went to SnowPlanet. Arrived in shorts and t-shirts, got changed into thermals, caps and gloves and after two hours of some serious riding (including some jumps and a couple of tabletops), got changed again into t-shirts and shorts. Loving it!

And on Sunday, to top off such an actively started weekend, we joined other 70,000 Aucklanders for Round the Bays. Photos here

We both took a half day off work yesterday and went to see a number of venues in South Auckland. Or maybe that should be south OF Auckland? Anyway, that opened up a world of new possibilities! Now we have two more possible candidates for hosting our special day… The decision will be made soon. Very soon!

It will be two weeks this Sunday since I gave my camera to the service technicians. I have withdrawal symptoms. It’s not the fact that I want to take pictures, it’s the fact that I CAN’T EVEN IF I WANTED TO….

Is it obsession? I’m borrowing my mum’s camera tonight.

It’s actually harder than we thought. Finding the perfect venue, that is.

Problem number 1: magical guest number. This number is 50. The next magical guest number is 80. These magical numbers dictate where you can hold your wedding reception. Or rather where you cannot. Our guest number is not magical, because it’s between 30 and 40.
Problem number 2: venues by the sea. This problem is actually very much related to Problem number 1. So even though our perfect venue would have been by the beach somewhere like The Dunes or Castaways, see Problem number 1.
Problem number 3: over-advertised venues. This usually goes like this: find a website, love the pictures, send an email, receive a very tempting information pack, go see the venue. Get disappointed big time because the pictures were taken at such angles that the lake turns out to be a pond 1.5mx1.5m, the room with the roaring fireplace is really a dark dungeon and the place smells of fish, which you couldn’t see in the pictures anyway. And the buildings weren’t painted or cleaned in the last 10 years.
Problem number 4: seeing too many venues! Most of the venues will have “something” great. The location, the view, the ambience, great food or good price. Usually just one of these. So if we could have The Dunes downsized and moved to Auckland (along with Onetangi Beach) it would’ve been perfect. Or if the French Bay Yacht Club served great food and had a better ambience in the function room…

Overall, after two weekends of looking at venues we have two serious candidates. Neither is by the beach. One has great food and views. The other has lakes and beautiful gardens. Don’t want to jinx them, so they’re a secret for now!