REAL update!! :)

Now that i have FINALLY uploaded all the pics (well a select few anyway!) i can tell you all about my day and my holiday afterwards!! unfortunatly the photos took forever to upload as the server i usually use wont work for me and im so bad at computers i dont know how to fix it! lol so the old way it is!! anyway, here goes :)

On Friday the 10th Jo, Chris and Rhian arrived, i loved having them, and they know they are more than welcome to come back at any time!! :)

on Saturday we had a lovely BBQ here for everyone, we had about 40 people at our place, it was so nice and relaxed and I didnt end up doing anything, not even dishes! lol everything was taken care of! just lovely! gave us a good chance to mingle and talk to everyone and make sure we had got around everyone!

Sunday the 12th of February i hardly slept really, had all these "what ifs" go through my mind, things forgotten, things going wrong etcetc, then Kaylee woke up at 6am so we brought her back into bed with us for a while as we didnt want her to wake Rhian who had been quite sick all night, poor wee thing. anyway i got up and dressed and over to my neighbours (who is my hairdresser) at 7am and Belinda arrived with Hot Cakes for brekkie a wee while after that, got my hair done, which i LOVED it looked so cool! and then i tottled on home again while B had her hair done, laxed out at home for a bit, mum came to pick up Kaylee to take to the ceremony and we just waited for the makeup artist to arrive, nice just blobbing, i was SO relieved that the weather fine!! i was so worried that it would rain!!! the make up artist came and my photographer arrived to take a few pics of us getting ready, before we knew it really the time crept up, the photographer left to go to the venue and i was getting into my dress! the bridal car was in the driveway, my neighbour (the hairdresser one) brought her two girls (nearly 4 and 5 years old) to come see me in my pretty dress, finishing touched were made, earrings, shoes etc and off we went!

B kept asking me "are you excited?" "are you nervous?" etcetc i told Darryl afterwards that i didnt feel anything, obviously a little excitement, but no nerves or anything, it just all felt like a natural thing to do, i was very relaxed!! we got up to North Head at 11.15 on the dot! ( i told everyone i would be there at 11.15, noone believed me! lol) and we got married!

i found it hard to keep the tears away, so did Darryl, it was an amazing ceremony, just beautiful, as you can see from the photos we had a beautiful background and georgous weather!

"Enjoy every single moment of this journey and i can not say that enough to you... enjoy even the little changes you may need to make along the way and, as you know, there perhaps will be changes or adjustments that need to be made at times... for it is all there as an invitation to you to refine and deepen this love and commitment even further......"

This is the reading my sisters wrote and read for us at the ceremony

A TRIBUTE TO CARLA AND DARRYL

He never leaves the seat up
Or wet towels upon the floor
The toothpaste has the lid on
And he always shuts the door!

He romances her and dines her
Home cooked dinners and the like
He even knows her favourite food
And spoils her day and night!

She's thoughtful when he looks at her
A smile upon his face
Will he look that good in 50 years
When his dentures aren't in place?!

He says he loves her figure
And her mental prowess too
But when gravity takes over
Will she charm with her IQ?

She says she loves his kindness
And his patience is a must
And of course she thinks he's handsome
Which in her eyes is a plus!

Though their not completely flawless
But who are we to judge?
He can be tenacious
Where as she won't even budge....it! (budget!)

All that said and done
They love the time they spent together
And i Hope as im sure you do
That this fine day will last forever

He'll be more than just her husband
he'll also be her friend
And she'll be more than just his wife
She'll be his soul mate 'till the end

This tribute for Carla and Darryl
A married couple now
Is a token of the love they share
And the thought behind each vow

This cracked everyone up and at the same time was just lovely, we were so rapt with it!

Then straight after we signed the register we had Kaylees Naming ceremony :)

again a lovely ceremony, she didnt care though! she just wanted to get down and run around!! Kaylee was sooo good all day, she didnt stop running! but we were amazed at how well behaved she was and we hardly saw her all day!!!

"Today, then Kaylee Brooke Stokes, we name you and welcome you to our hearts. You will grow up knowing how much you are cared about and loved and whatever you may encounter, you’ll always be full of confidence and hope because you will know how much your Mum and Dad believe in you. You will always know that you can find safety and comfort in their arms; hope and strength in their caring hearts; and acceptance and love in their smiles."

"Kaylee... may lifes richest joys and blessings be yours"

after the ceremony a lot of people had a wander around North head, we had the group and family photos done (half without Kaylee, who wouldnt keep still, but then i wouldnt expect her too either, poor wee thing was pooped!) then everyone else was left to their own devices while the bridal party (again without Kaylee, she was stuffed!) went and had all the photos done we had a great time doing the photos, i cannot wait to see them, i think they will be another week or so away at least but thats something we knew and expected.

then off to the reception we went! hmmmm thats where shit hit the fan!!!

our reception SUCKED!! it was CRAP! we left there SOOOOO angry its not funny and Darryl and his Dad are going to do something about it i think, im keeping out of it as i left emotions control my head and become very irrational! (there are contracts involved between the venue and Darryls dad, so we will see what happens!) most people we have talked to said they enjoyed the reception, the mingling and the food was nice, which was great, i was so glad that there only seemed to be a few of us who saw all the bad stuff!! where do i start!! When we arrived, we went inside first to do a mock cake cutting for the photographer, the guy we were dealing with for the reception came out with a knife, didnt congratulate us on our wedding, didnt even say hi, just brought the knife out! we thought that was really rude! then we went out to the garden to mingle with everyone and chat and drink etc, but it started to rain a bit, so we all went inside (actually Darryl and i came in last, we were wondering where everyone was going! lol we were under a tree so didnt feel the rain! the food was over an hour and a half late (the agreed time for the food was about 2pm, it was 3.30 before most people had got their food!)..... they blamed us saying we shouldnt have gone inside so early, um... it started raining outside, where else were our guests to go! lol there were plates of finger food starters going around, which totally MISSED two tables entirely!! i was SO embarressed at that! and not only that, but the bridal table (yep the most important table of all!) kept getting served the starters last where there was only a wee bit left!! Water wasnt put out on any tables, my bridesmaid and my cousin in laws wife (make sense? lol) put the water out to every table, and the water was WARM! the water chiller wasnt even turned on!! they only had a couple of waitresses, for 60 odd people, they decided to not use the EFTPOS at the bar!! so most people didnt buy drinks as they didnt have cash on them (we only had a limited bar tab, couldnt afford much) the bar tab we put on covered a bottle of champagne for each table for toasting, well.... they tried sharing out a few bottles to all the tables! some of the glasses werent even filled! we had PAID for a bottle per table! it was so embarressing as it looked like i hadnt planned it very well, when in actual fact i had worked my ASS off on this wedding only to have all this happen!! we cut the cake just after we ate so that the cake could be served with dessert, when dessert was served it wasnt served at our table like it was meant to be, so we (the bridal party!) didnt know dessert was up until some people walked past us with it! we wandered on into the room only to find dessert was all gone!!! he brought another platter of pudding out but it looked like crap (not ncie like the rest looked!) and so we forfitted it! the cake finally come out cut up half an hour later (how long does it take to cut a cake!) after most people had gone home!

it just went sooooo wrong, and im still pissed about it, as is Darryl, but we had a fantastic morning, a beautiful ceremony and a great bbq the night before, so we were happy with that.

We got home and just blobbed for the rest of the night, i pulled a million bobby pins out of my hair! and we were just shattered! the next day we had a tonne of visitors in the morning (my family as mum and Adele were staying with Kaylee for the week) the celebrant popped over for a bit and then Darryl and i packed up and tottled off to Langs Beach,

OMG Langs Beach is so beautiful! the house we stayed in was so beautiful! we were the only guests and as you can see in the Langs Beach pics i had CRAYFISH!! i was so spoilt they treated us so well, the views were amazing and we could of easily stayed there for a week, it was like a tropical island holiday, but just down the road almost! in Waipu they have a place called "Pizza Barn" YUM! the food was so nice! snack sized pizza which is well enough for a meal for one, and both nights i had the tandori chicken, pineapple and avocado with drizzled yoghurt one, totally not greasy at all, and just devine!! after 2 nights at Langs Beach we went up to Paihia, i was told Paihia/Waitangi/Russell were quite tourist orientated and very money hungry (just something i was told, i had never been there before!)

i LOVED IT! we had a blast there! sure there was a TONNE of tourists, but it was such a beautiful place! i have a lot of family history up there in Waitangi and Russell, so it was nice to do a wee bit of reasearch and learning about my ancestory, the day we got to Paihia we decided to go straight to Waitangi and the treaty grounds, another beautiful place, it was so calm and peaceful, hard to imagine people fighting and killing up there, but it did happen! the food in Paihia was so good very reasonably priced with sooo much choice! the next day wewent to KeriKeri, another lovely township, found the stone store, was closed unfortunatly as was the old house beside it, otherwise we would have gone into them both, found the Makana Chocolate factory! the Living Nature factory and a lovely winery and a car muesem, then we took the car ferry to Russell, wandered around, went to the muesem there and back to the motel again.

we had a great time, we REALLY missed Kaylee but knew she was so well looked after! i dont think she missed us at all!! speaking of which, good timing!

lol she has just woken up, i have spent, would you believe over 4 hours putting the pics up and writing this, so ya better have enjoyed it! lol just joking!!