Categories: friends
Date: 19 May 2007 12:53:02
A joyous day today: the wedding of two dear friends, Alexis and Frank. Sydney turned on the sun and clear skies, after a rainy day yesterday. A number of photos I took can be viewed here (and many of the links below take you to particular photos in that set).
I met Alexis many years back, through a friend at uni, who in turn I met through another friend at uni. And Alexis and I have been good friends ever since. It was truly a blessing to see her so happy. Frank is a wonderful man, and they are simply a beautiful couple. Many, many years!
The wedding was held at the Anglican parish of St Philip's, Church Hill in the CBD. I'd visited St Philip's on a number of occasions in my Anglican days: twice on Good Friday for the three hour (noon to 15:00) service of readings (based on the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross), hymns and prayers, and the occasional Sunday visit when I wanted a bit more liturgy and formality than my parish offered. The service had the following music (played beautifully on the organ) and reading:
Processional: Canon in D (Pachabel)
Hymn: Joyful, Joyful
Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (which I, after a stumble at the start, got through)
Signing of the Register: Air (Handel)
Recessional: La Rejouissance (Handel)
The reception was held at the Shangri-La hotel, as Vivaldi's Four Seasons played in the background: pre-lunch drinks and food were served, before we moved into the room for lunch -- and glorious views. Lunch was glorious: salmon roulade or seafood plate; pink champagne sorbet; chicken wings and asparagus or lamb with roasted garlic potatoes and spinach; finished with a tiramisu or chocolate and raspberry marshmallow. And the wedding cake! After that, time for dancing -- though as Frank doesn't like dancing, and didn't want to, tradition was pushed to one side and no first dance was had (Alexis and Frank also gave a speech together, which I thought beautiful).
As I wrote above, it was great to see Alexis and Frank so happy and to also share the day with them; as well, I got to catch up with a number of friends, and met some lovely people also.
Many, many years to Alexis and Frank!