We didn't have the traditional type of wedding because we're not traditional type of people. It started with having three bright yellow Ford GTs as our wedding cars and continued from there.
I wasn't walked down the isle by my Dad... I didn't want to be. It was not something I had dreamed of since I was a little girl; I had not imagined myself in a giant puffy dress, walking next to my Dad while he held back tears as he proudly escorted me to my waiting beau. No matter how much mainstream media told me I should want for it, I didn't. Not even once.
It didn't sit well with me to be given away as property - even if it is just a silly tradition that holds no weight any more, that's what it felt like for me. I would be a possession. An object. There was no way it was going to happen.
So instead, Map Guy waited at the bottom (or is it the top?) of the aisle for me to arrive, and we walked up (or is it down?) together, to symbolize to our friends and family in attendance that we had chosen to "give ourselves away" to each other.
Because I was acutely aware that my Dad might have dreamed of giving his daughter away, but would never have voiced his disappointment, a few minutes in to the ceremony BOTH sets of parents were asked to stand and "give away" their child - If I had to be given away then he bloody had to as well!
We continued on with the non-traditional by having a somewhat unusual choice of song for our bridal waltz, "Shut Up and Kiss Me" by Fiona Horne and Paul McDermott (yep the guy on Good News Week who always sings), then the bridal party joined us and "Icecream" by Sarah McLachland played. It was definitely very "us". As was the fairy bread the bridal party had between ceremony and reception. What? You know all the best parties have fairy bread!
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| Photo by the divine Jen Regan of Anna Rose Photography |
Happy anniversary, Map Guy. Because we always seem to gravitate towards music, I will quote Spiral Staircase when I say "I love you more today than yesterday, but only half as much as tomorrow ". The past year has been amazing and I would be nowhere without you. I love you xxx
Did you do anything different to the norm at your wedding? Would you do anything differently if you had the chance?
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Glowless rocked the Aussie Bloggers Conference thanks to
Cute. I also didn't want to be given away - same reasons. We had our wedding at home in Australia and all of our guests flew in from NZ. The first thing we did different was get the photos done first. So Me, Darren, Millar and my mum (to look after millar) went to the geelong gardens with our photographers and did the shoot and then arrived home with half an hour to spare reapplying lippy and then Darren and I walked out of our room together to "never tear us apart" by Inxs. got married - both bawled our eyes out through the whole ceremony like the hard core people we are. (embarrassing!) and then got indian delivered for the dinner. I had individual cakes for everyone (all 12 guests), not cupcakes but tiny two tiered wedding cakes.
ReplyDeleteThere was no dancing, so no bridal waltz. We signed the register and all that after ceremony stuff to two kiwi songs. Sway and Slice of Heaven.
It was perfect.Happy Anniversary Mr and Mrs Glap
Happy anniversary! :) Great songs, love that 'fun sized' Pauly D :D
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!! Your wedding sounds lovely and I am with you, no tradition for me. Hubby and I have been married 8 years and our wedding was very non traditional.I'll just give you a few examples and the whole thing was different.
ReplyDeleteWe got ready together that day. We had our photos done before the ceremony, no aisle walking for us either (my dad was secretly pleased), ceremony was in gardens with our guests standing around us (it wasn't long) but we served them crownies and champers to ease the pain. Reception was in a penthouse suite of Melbourne hotel with lots of food and drink. No bridemaids or best man, each of our mums were our witnesses... I could go on but I wont. Suffice to say it wasn't traditional at all. It was heaps of fun and we are still going strong 8 years later. :)
Happy anniversary! I had a fairly traditional wedding (almost 6 months ago!) and I loved it. I love weddings, and all the unique ways people choose to celebrate their big day. I loved looking through bridal mags to see all the new and different ideas people were using. I used to work at a function centre and we did lots of weddings. Sigh, I love the gowns! There are probably a few things I'd do differently but nothing major - it was a great day!
ReplyDeleteHere are a few wedding pics of my own. http://sarahgracethompson.blogspot.com/2011/04/friday-night-fever.html
Happy Anniversary, Mr and Mrs Glow... Map...
Congratulations Mr and Mrs Mapglow/GlowMap.
ReplyDeleteYour wedding sounds like it was gorgeous and very special....
I loved our wedding - it was a while ago now but I did write this post recently.
http://mylifeinthecountrytoday.blogspot.com/2011/04/listography-my-wedding.html
I hope you both have a wonderful day - you made a stunning bride Glowless.
Happy anniversary! we did some stuff different - my wedding dress was purple and orange, we got married on a friday night so photos were before hand, our kids were our bridal party, my mum walked me down the aisle, and my dad didn't even come.
ReplyDeleteMy mum AND dad didn't come! But was probably for the best as they are socially inept so at least I din't have to worry about them but I do get teared up when I see a happy and emotional dad walking his daughter down the aisle - never wanted it but get emotional seeing other people pull it off! Hubby and I walked down the "aisle" (We were on a headland) together, beers and champagne and a big bus (that we were on - with signs that I made saying JUST MARRIED (same motif as invite) made for a v.long queue for the toilet when we got to the reception place!! Best band EVER, loads of laughs and fun and a guest nudity display for the bus ride home (luckily I missed this bit but am reminded of it always!)
ReplyDeleteI love your take on the whole shirking of tradition! You have made your own, and sounds like a special day! You looked so radiant Ms Glow!! Even though I couldnt have imagined my Dad not giving me away (having nearly lost him a few years before) I always love how couples can stamp their day in their own special way xx
ReplyDeleteEven with the Glowy quirkiness, you did still inspire misty-eyedness in me with your dedication to Map Guy at the end. Damn you post-post-post-post baby hormones!
ReplyDeleteAt my wedding, when the minister asked who was giving me away - unbeknownst to me, since I was facing the front and not the guests - both of my brothers jumped up and waved their hands in the air like mad. Cheeky bastards....
And on a related note - one of said brothers is now like my 4th child (5th if you count #1 Hubby), since he is perpetually single and lives next door and can't operate an iron.
Great story and happy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteWe had a fairly traditional wedding - I can't think of anything we did that was original! Not because I'd always 'dreamed of' a traditional wedding; I'd never really thought much about the wedding part, more the marriage part, until I was actually engaged and my mother was bombarding me with questions about every fecking thing related to weddings. I wasn't attached to any particular style, other than wanting a minimum of fuss on the dress. My mother is a born organiser so we pretty much let her take the reins - she also has great style so did a fab job. We were married in the local church, our wedding cars were vintage ones that had been in my family for years and the reception was in my parents' front garden (they live out of town so it was completely private). It was such a fun day.
One interesting point is that my mum made my dress, her dress and the three bridesmaid's dresses. She's that organised!
Happy Anniversary! I loved your description of your wedding.
ReplyDeleteI've been married for 8 years this year and our wedding cars were about 5 hotted up Nissan Skylines. Made a huge noise, looked great in the photos and were lots of fun. I walked into the chruch to 'lemond uni (sp)' which is the theme song for the international rugby union (sydney hosted the rugby world cup that year). We walked out of the church to 'say a little prayer' and came into the reception centre to the theme of 'star wars' with woggy smoke machine too. And our wedding song is 'it's now or never' by Elvis.
The best part of the wedding was right at the end when the skyline we were in did a donutty thing and made heaps of smoke and as we were farewelling everyone the police came out of nowhere and pulled us over in front of all the guests! the video is hilarious, the driver was about to die and my Nan rescued the situation by taking lots of woggy cakes to the police officers as a peace offering. Too funny! It was quiet a classy wedding but fun and reflective of us.
Enjoy your anniversary!
Thunder Maker started dodging any questions about what sort of suit he was going to wear early in our preparations. I just left him alone thinking that he would make a decision when he was ready. In the meantime, one of his good friends got engaged and got married before us. Thunder Maker was asked to be the Best Man and the groom and groomsmen all ended up wearing kilts. Thunder Maker's mind was made up - he was going to be wearing a kilt and nothing I said was going to change his mind. There happened to be a Scottish shop in my home town and I went to visit it one day when I was up there visiting Mum. The guy in there was really good. He showed me heaps of wedding pictures and talked me right around to the whole idea. Thunder Maker ended up ordering himself a kilt from there and we hired all the groomsmen's kilts from there as well. Despite my initial reservations, it ended up looking really good.
ReplyDeleteMum also made my bridesmaids dresses, including one that was made less than a week out from the wedding because one of my bridesmaids came over from Sweden for it. Oh, and Mum asked if she could be the one to give me away because her and Dad divorced when I was three and she was the one who had largely brought me up. I had always dreamed about Dad being the one to do it, but I figure that he has two other daughters, so after discussing it with him to make sure that he was going to be ok with it, I threw Mum that bone. I'm pretty traditional, so I wanted to do the whole being walked down the isle to Thunder Maker thing.
Awww congrats you guys! Our wedding only had a dozen ppl and it was up in the blue mt. I would have loved to invite the friends we have now but we were new in sydney and didn't know anyone yet.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteMy ex and I had a medieval style wedding. It was great fun.
Happy Anniversary. Map Guy is a very lucky man.
ReplyDeleteWe had a surprise wedding at the local dog park. I walked myself down the path (was not an aisle) and we had Miss Charisma's 'naming' ceremony before we had the wedding. We then retreated to my friend's cafe for afternoon tea and champies.
Total cost $3000.
when my parents finally got married, i was 11.
ReplyDeletemy mums dress was apricot that she made herself (she made all of the dresses, and with the apricot, it was the early 90's) and she had a BLACK wedding cake.
they had a ceremony in the park with us kids, 2 witnesses and the celebrant. nit even my grandparents were allowed to attend.
then afterwards, all the family and friends came to the reception, which was a spit roast in my grandparent backyard.
it was simple and done on a budget, also the flowers for the bouquets were orchids from my nan's garden and we had a friend arrange them, and another family member made the wedding cakes. one was black with black tule on it and plastic spiders, which came out first and everyone was shocked, then the second cake came out which was more traditional.
Happy Anniversary! I hope you've got something lovely planned for tonight, or for the weekend!
ReplyDeleteLove that you chose to go against the grain!
Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Toushka - your dress was fab too (been stalking you on FB)
ReplyDeleteGotta have cool songs to boogie to
ReplyDeleteThat sounds perfect Nell! Our venue was at a place called the Melbourne Hotel so I had to do a double take then.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary MapGlow family!
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary to you both! Your wedding sounded wonderful and you both looked gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteMy wedding was a traditional Church wedding to a degree, but I wasn't given away by my Dad.
I was given away by my Nana.
The driver of our wedding car [a boring maroon ford sedan that was driven by our photographer] got lost on the way to the Church and I was late, on top of being fashionably late [by nearly an hour] to my own wedding.
And one of my Hubby's "groomsmen" was actually a woman in a suit.
It was pissing down with rain when we got our photo's taken, and our photographer, despite being paid a ridiculous sum of money took less photo's than anyone else [and they weren't as impressive. One of our guests was a photographer, though, and took all the photo's I wanted as a gift].
We danced a "box waltz" that we learned two hours after getting married, to "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, That's Amore!" Hahahaha.
My reception was in a reception hall with three other occasions being celebrated [christenings] so it looked like I had about 300 guests when I didn't, although they all became drunken friends of mine and Hubby's that night, even posing in our photo's.
My dress was torn after someone steppped on it at the reception, and my honeymoon was spent in the car moving house over 3 hours away :)Despite everything going wrong, it felt so right and I wouldn't change a darn thing :)
Happy Anniversary! Your wedding sounds lovely, and the photo of you and Map Guy is gorgeous. Ours was fairly traditional, although it was at lunchtime. We had the ceremony next to the pool at the hotel, then drinks, then in for lunch. We left after lunch for photos (luckily I didn't spill anything on my dress). When we got back to the hotel after the photos a lot of our guests were still there, having been kicked out of the restaurant into the bar, and so we went back and joined them. Everyone partied on until midnight or so after having been drinking since lunchtime, a few sore heads the next day!
ReplyDeletethat is beautiful and as always you look stunning :)
ReplyDeletethe HFSM always quotes that last one at me - i love it and hope he will always feel that way! LOL - though he may not any more after being referred to as the HFSM in the contet you and i understand....
i didn't want to be given away either so skipped that part altogether..not sure how dad felt about that...hmmmm....
happy anniversary sweetie hope you both enjoy the day xx
Happy Anniversary :)
ReplyDeleteYour wedding sounds like it was a lot of fun.
Oh *tear* such a sweet sweet post.
ReplyDeleteNot married, hope to be one day, preferably soon. Never wanted to be until i had kids, as i grew up with unmarried parents and hated it, why would they be together, and still together and refuse to get married? So i have wanted to for the last 5 years. When we do i have many a quirk that i'd like to add to our wedding, i find unique weddings, a bit different from the norm or traditional are the best ones, especially when they're everything about that couple. Makes it all seem more sweeter. Idk.
Aww!! I love that you walked down the isle together.
ReplyDeleteWe eloped in Broome. Just me, James, the celebrant, the two ladies who organised the wedding and the photographer. We got married in front of Pearl Luggers in a break in the rain.
Well done you two. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the tiny wedding cake idea!. Cool songs too.
ReplyDeleteI love a surprise wedding! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary. Sounds like the perfect wedding xxx
ReplyDeleteAw, congratulations! What a lovely ceremony.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Mappy anniversary. You both look gorgeous on your wedding day xxxxx
ReplyDeleteWe just wanted to have a big party. We had a traditional church service; not because we're religious, but because it's where my parents, and grandparents got married. We found an awesome place for the reception, couldn't fault them at all. The food was awsome. We set up a shared plate scenario, so people passed plates of gorgeous food to each other, kind of like a banquet at their own table.
ReplyDeleteThe music was absolutely important to me. Unfortunately, Bruce Samazan was my DJ. He didn't listen to me at all and played all the wrong songs, but my guests had fun taking photos with a has-been soap star. Our first dance together was to a Smashing Pumpkins song, To Sheila.
I refused to throw a bouquet, or wear a garter. My something blue was my undies. The speeches were kept to an absolute minimum so we could concentrate on the eating, drinking, and dancing. We had an absolute ball.
I only bought 3 bridal mags, I wasn't paying $10 a pop for stuff I could get online - I'm so cheap!
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you AFW, you look divine in your pic... well your back does :)
ReplyDeletePlease tell me your dress was that colour because of your devotion to Four Weddings and a Funeral? I looove that movie and whenever I hear of a dress like that I think this:
ReplyDeleteGareth:
Scarlotta! Fabulous dress. The ecclesiastical purple and the pagan
orange symbolizing the mystical symbiosis in marriage between the
heathen and Christian traditions?
Guest nudity? Now I feel boring!
ReplyDeleteIt's strange what a few years can do, I would seriously consider being given away now after the drama of the last few months... I still wouldn't do it but at least I'd consider it :P
ReplyDeletePost-post-post-post baby hormones? Nahhhh you're just a big softy.
ReplyDeleteA garden reception sounds great! And to have your own free wedding planner would have been awesome :)
ReplyDeleteBurnouts in a wedding dress - I have so much respect for you!
ReplyDeleteI love that your Mum walked you down the isle! And everyone looks hot in a kilt.
ReplyDeleteBlue Mountains, what a great backdrop for a wedding - bet all your pictures are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love themed weddings, especially when all the guests participate.
ReplyDeleteDid you wear a leash? Or was it an off-leash park? Hehehe. Love surprise weddings xxx
ReplyDeleteI know I already said it on Twitter but my friend had a very similar cake, it was chocolate coloured (sounds better than brown) and had 2 headstones on the top with their names on them and underneath it had 'Til Death Do Us Part' and all cobwebs and spiders. Half the guests loved it and half were a bit confused. I thought it was awesome :)
ReplyDeleteI made a delicious roast dinner for us - we don't do proper presents :)
ReplyDeleteThanks chook x
ReplyDeleteMy dress tore at the reception too, the bustle broke but I had a few safety pins and managed to rehitch it - I wasn't upset by it because three people had told me their dresses had been ripped so I kinda expected it and came prepared!
ReplyDeleteI love that your Nanna gave you away, would've been so sweet.
Many a walk of shame the next day I'm sure! If we did it again I think I'd have a lunch time wedding, just so we could party all day like you did!
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see it I can only think of what I said - isn't that awful, I can't remember what his version was! Oops.
ReplyDeleteIt was brilliant, I had a great time and danced all night x
ReplyDeleteI agree Miss Pink, putting your individual stamp on it really makes it your day.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I didn't want to ever get married or have kids until I met Map Guy (vomit)
LOVE IT! Eloping, surprise weddings, they're so brilliant :)
ReplyDeleteCheers, Glen!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kevin!
ReplyDeleteWell I think so... but I would, wouldn't I? :P
ReplyDeleteI've left out bits in the hope that I remember to write those things next year :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Taryn, it's amazing what professional hair, makeup and photography can do :D
ReplyDeleteOMG Bruce Samazan!? I loved him! That's pretty cool, even if he did screw up the play list :(
ReplyDelete