Our Bali Wedding
August 6th 2005
Indus, Ubud
(Link to the photos at the end!)
Well there is just too much to say about the best day of our lives, everything was just perfect !! The Bali Gods gave us the best weather and a gorgeous sunset.
The night before the wedding I stayed at Tegal Sari and the Groom (Mark aka Gingerbread Man) stayed at Kajane - Toya Uma. Was woken to the sounds of 'Bali Bride, Bali Bride' (that was Tina) got up and said hello to everyone, then had breakfast with Jules on her balcony (thanks for the vegemite) It was only 9am so needed to fill in the day, so headed off to the Ubud Market with my Dad, Aunty Pauly, Toby (my brother the Best Man), Kelly (Bridesmaid), Bridgette (Bridesmaid) and her fiancé Jason. Back at Tegal Sari had some lunch on the Balcony, quick shower and makeup and hair lady was ready to commence.
Angie and Nyoman from Bali Paradise Weddings arrived with the most gorgeous of Frangipani bouquets you will ever see ! Absolutely loved it ! They also had the buttonholes, hair flowers, Bridesmaids wrist corsages, Corsages for the Mothers and for the Witnesses.
Bridesmaids had their hair done first, then it was my turn, took a few attempts to get it perfect, a thousand bobby pins and a few cans of hairspray later it was :-) then time for the warpaint - 4 layers of foundation, eyeshadow etc etc etc much more than I have ever worn in my life, even for Jazz ballet concerts LOL Girls promised me it looked good and was needed for the photos ;-)
After cruising all afternoon we were now running out of time !! The photographers had just arrived, ran down the stairs in my sarong, heels and makeup, whacked the dress on, took a deep breath and the girls zipped it up. Had some photos taken at Tegal Sari on the balcony, soon got used to the photographers directing me to stand, sit, tilt your head this way, look here - well it was worth it, we more than love the photos they are just beautiful - we got two gorgeous albums and all of the photos taken on two discs so we can reprint as much as we like.
Off to Indus with our driver Wayan in his luxurious Kajane - my dress took up half of it ! Arrived at Indus and saw all of the decorations they had placed everywhere ! They went all out, there were petals EVERYWHERE ! girls placed the veil over my head, hung on to my Dads arm and started the Loooong walk down the first of many many many stairs ! reached the bottom, got into order and heard the Bridal Processional start (Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This, you can google the lyrics if you don't know it) Bridgette walked in, followed by Kelly then it was my turn ! walked down the last few stairs, turned left and saw Mark with a big grin staring back at me awwwwww got a bit sniffly, Dad walked me over to him, flung the veil back, gave me a kiss and when the minister asked 'Who gives Jessica to be married to Mark' he proudly said 'I Do'
Wow this was it - we were getting married ! hooray, parents were called to light the Unity Candles which gave me a few moments to blow my nose (was all the held back tears!) then we were facing each other for the vows. Was all very romantic gazing into each others eyes offering our hands, hearts and souls to each other forever awww then it was time for the rings and then it was time for Mark to kiss his Bride (smoochies) Then came the signing of the register. Our gorgeous Witnesses - Julie and Tina did an excellent job, they had both been practising their signatures :-) Time for more excitement - the Indonesian Civil Registrar started his part, made me giggle with his formal voice and the way he pronounced my name, he had a wooden box with a wooden mallet which he whacked (loudly) three times on the box - on the third whack (bang!) that's when the marriage is official (woohoo got to 'Kiss the Bride' again) oh and we got to sign again ! Turned to face the guests and were softly pelted by many rose petals (Thanks Tina) made for some lovely photos. A few quick congrats and we were off to the ricefields for some photos.
Drove to nearby ricefields and were instructed to remove our shoes and walk through the mud - ah well all in the name of a good photo ! the mud was squishing between our toes, once back on dry land, Wayan (our driver) offered to wash Bridgettes feet in the little channel beside the rice field, she stuck her leg in the air for him to clean her feet and I had to remind her that she didn't have any undies on LOL We then drove to the Bridge café in Ubud and have photos on the Bridge.
Back to Indus for the reception. The place looked gorgeous, candles and decorations everywhere (we had the lower level to ourselves) had bought little wooden kissing statues and tied peoples names around them for the placecards (Thanks Tuberose) There were a few cards on our table from friends back home (Thanks Geri, Ting and everyone that was at the Melbourne Forum Dinner) The Band fired up, everyone just loved them, they were so great and made the night so much more special. My friend Claire got up and sang a few songs with them, when we saw the band the following week they wanted to know where she was so she could sing with them again!
Speeches were funny, my Dad gave a lovely speech - didn't make me cry, followed by Mark - didn't make me cry, then my brother Tobys speech - the last thing he read was a telegram from the Cattery from our cats well that did it, a few fat tears rolled down my cheeks hehe
The food and drinks (cocktails) were yummy, we had shared entrees and then a choice of mains off a menu we had selected. Time for the cake, well you know it's a Bali wedding when the cake arrives on a cake stand on top of a ladys head ! in Melbourne we had a cake shop make Bride and Groom cake toppers to look like us and also our pussy cats, got all teary again when I saw them on the cake (even though they were plastic)
Had our first dance, a few more dances then a conga line around the tables. The Best Wedding Band in the world then had to stop playing due to noise restrictions (that was a bugga) then it was time to leave !Our Kajane van came to pick us up, waved everyone goodbye and the new Mr and Mrs Lee were off ! Kajane had also gone nuts with the decorations, there must have been a few naked Frangipani trees in Ubud that night ! petals galore !! on the bed, on the floor, around the pool, in the bathtub..... loved Kajane so much we stayed on a few extra nights.
Last Saturday we had a 'Wedding Replay' in Melbourne where we dressed up again and watched the wedding video, which we love they really did an excellent job of capturing the whole day. Lucky me got to wear my wedding dress twice !
Gigantic thank yous to Angie and Nyoman from Bali Paradise Weddings who made it all so easy and made everything so perfect.
So that's it !! The best day of our lives :-)
Will continue the Sabah honeymoon and the rest of our holiday in the next JBR.
Mrs Jess of Oz ;-)
PHOTOS - http://community.web shots.com/user/balijess
When pasting the link remove the space from Web shots....
(Thanks FA for letting me post)