The Ceremony

The venue 

When our first choice of venue fell through only a couple of months before the ceremony, we were in a serious panic until we were lucky enough to find the Rimutaka Incline. I can't recommend these guys enough - really great to work with, ven though we had some pretty weird requests. 
This lovely short film sets the scene admirably. 

Preparations

We went out for a couple of initial reconnoitres, including one with our photographer, so that we could decide which spaces to use, and how to photograph it. 

On the Thursday night before the wedding, we had our rehearsal onsite, and decided where everything would go when the guys arrived on Saturday and set out the chairs. It's really weird, pretending to walk down an aisle when there IS no aisle. 

The Ceremony

The guests were all picked up at the train station, and loaded onto the English Rose bus.

Of course, there's always something that goes wrong on the day - it turned out that the dog had escaped as George and the guys left our place, so they were running late. Luckily, the bus driver was able to delay the guests' arrival, so the guys got to the site first, and got things all set up in time.

The guests were able to get on the train and ride up and down the short segment of track when they arrived.

The trip from the Wellesley to the Incline was a bit stressful - I definitely wouldn't wear the corset, in future. It's not a great thing to wear in a car seat, that forces you to lean backwards! Still, we finally arrived - and it was HOT by then. I definitely needed a hand to get out of the car, so I was really pleased to see Ciaran.
It was so hot that our celebrant was sitting in his car with the air-conditioning blasting. I guess the jacket looked great, but it must have been pretty warm under there!

A few yanks on the corset, a quick tidy, on goes the veil, and it's time to get married!

Once everyone was ready, and we were just waiting for the signal to start walking, it was actually a really peaceful moment for me. I get terrible stage fright, so I'm only really happy once I start walking out of the wings - and it was finally time for that to happen, after months of planning. All my nerves fell away, and I started to enjoy myself at last.
I clung to my brother's arm, and tried to manage both my skirts and my bouquet, and followed my bridesmaids towards my husband-to-be. All I could think was how much I wanted to see him.

My niece, Roxy, and my nephew, Culain, led us in. Culain's job was to give the key to the Ring Box to Uncle George, and he acquitted himself admirably.

After the kids, the bridesmaids processed in, to the sound of Peter Baillie's arrangement of Europe's 'The Final Countdown' and Wagner's 'Bridal Chorus' from 'Lohengrin', which he played live for us on the organ.

Each bridesmaid performed a little curtsy to suit her persona and her personality as she entered.

And then, here comes the bride :)

I have to admit that I don't really remember much beyond that feeling when I finally joined hands with George. It was a huge relief, and everything after that just... happened.

We were lucky enough to have several friends who were willing and able to perform readings for us, which allowed us to include more of our special people in the ceremony.

And of course, there were the actual vows and exchanging of the rings:

We processed out through the shed to the train.

The guests did their best with bubbles as we rode past on the jigger, then we all boarded the train for another short ride.

​​The ladies from Wellington City Chorus had their delicious afternoon tea all set up on the train after the ceremony, so everyone was able to relax and have a snack before the photos.