won't you come out to play?

here it is! the big rbp post! i’d like this to be a post that will help me to remember the day, because i’ve never had such a lovely one in all my life.

all photos are taken by friends, and each one is credited in the flickr set linked below.

sajee and i put our dresses, and various other supplies for the weekend into the car on friday morning and drove up to glen harrow.
when we arrived at our cottage there was swing music playing, essential oils burning, and a fire crackling happily in the grate. it was just like stepping back in time. we unpacked...



... and then went up to the barn, where marg was working away in the kitchen, and where big trays of the most beautiful flowers in the world were waiting for us to play with. they came from chamomile farm, a herb and foliage farm that supplies to restaurants and naturopaths. the posies and tuzzie muzzies were full of fragrant herbs, rosehips, and delicate little flowers. i was just in love with them. we fished out all the lovely antique bottles, vases, inkwells and tins that we had been collecting, and then set to work with our nieces arranging the flowers in them. it was marvelous fun - i hope they remember it when they're older.



when we were finished, we put a muslin runner on each of the long tables, and then placed a few flower arrangements on each one. the effect was charming. even nicer than i'd imagined.



when we had finished, we briefly went to visit my mummy (who lives 1 minute down the road), and picked up the vegan friands that she had baked for two of our vegan guests – we had lots of vegan food organized for the day, but we wanted to make sure there really would be plenty, so mum agreed to help us out with that because she is awesome. after that we went back to our cottage for a bath, some quiet time, and a relax before heading out for a lovely family dinner with our parents and siblings. we followed that up with a nice big sleep.

we were up bright and early on the morning of the 18th (a bit earlier than we would have liked!), and went to the hairdresser with mel (sister-in-law), and our mums. it was fun to spend that time together, and rhea at harrison’s was so bubbly and enthusiastic that she soon perked us up! she got the job done quite quickly, which was good, because we still had to pick up sajee’s best friend jennie (a gorgeous girl, and professional makeup artist), decorate the cake & gift boxes and get dressed. we managed the decorating...



... and when it was time to do makeup and dresses my best friend, bridie, came to get ready with us too. She helped me get my dress on, and pretty much kept us giggling the whole time. the four of us getting ready together was a really special time.



then it was party time!



we greeted all our guests casually in the barn, and sipped strawberry champagne cocktails as we milled about chatting cheerfully and exclaiming over everyone’s amazing outfits...



before we knew it, it was time for the ‘formalities’ of the day. because same-sex marriage isn’t legal in australia, we were pretty free to make this up for ourselves (an upside to injustice and discrimination...? hmmm...).

we'd asked our gorgeous friend siobhan (baroquestar) to be our m.c. for the day. she is so graceful and articulate, so we were thrilled she agreed. she directed all our guests to their tables, welcomed them, and introduced sarah (maclabhrain). sarah is an old friend from uni, who now works for the registry of births deaths and marriages, so she was the best person to explain what the relationship register was. she was careful to make it clear that this didn’t mean we were married, and we still had a long way to go before we had equal rights, but she gave a good idea of what being on the registry meant, and also said some personal words that were really lovely. next, sajee and I said some words to each other. i went first...

sajee, you know i love you because i tell you so every day, so today i wanted to tell you, and the people who care about you, about the kind of love i have for you. that’s a very difficult thing to express in words, and in the end i had to turn to a better poet than myself, who described my love when he said:
“love is not love that alters when it alteration finds
or bends with the remover to remove
it is an ever fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken
it is the star to every wandering bark
whose worth’s unknown, although it’s height be taken
love’s not times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within it’s bending sickles compass come
love alters not with brief hours and weeks
but bears it out even to the edge of doom...”
sajee, i want you to know that come tempest or the edge of doom, i’m your partner and your person. i’ll stick by you, and i will love you fiercely, because you are magnificent.
thank you for trusting me with your heart, and thank you for being trustworthy with mine.

then it was her turn...

as many (if not all) of you know, esther and I met through a love of music, i.e. choir. and we both love music. sharing music is very important to us and it is something we love doing. so, in honour of our mutual love of music, i turned to some of our favourite musicians to help me express what i love about esther and us and our love. it's like a very short mixtape.

the book of love has music in it.
in fact, that's where music comes from.
some of it is just transcendental. some of it is just really dumb.
but i, i love it when you sing to me. and you, you can sing me anything.
- the book of love, the magnetic fields

we sing. all the time. random little songs about making tea, sitting on the couch, checking our email, anything. i'm so thankful that I found someone who doesn't want to throttle me because I never shut up. and someone who loves to sing with me. and you can sing me anything.

i will have you with me.
in my arms only.
for you are only
my love.
- in this heart, sinead o'connor

we compliment each other so well - she makes the quilts, i snuggle under them. i bake the delicious things, she noms them (well, i do too!). she's my love and I'm hers and we fit, we go together.

if there's one thing that i've learned in my life, love is good.
and if you give it out, comes back to you ten times, love is good.
- love is good, jigzag

loving esther and being loved by her has taught me how to love, to love more and better and more constantly and openly. thank you.

so, in conclusion, esther, you're my most special, my precious, the caprica six to my gaius, the susan to my david, so let's find ourselves a leopard and going looking for an intercostal clavicle. you are my love. forever.

we signed the register, which was witnessed by our two besties, and as we did, nix (nixwilliams), dan (daniel_bethany), and esther grace (johnnypurple) played us the most beautiful song which nix had written especially for the occasion:

'you must be tired of sailing,' she said
'pull down the rigging and come back to bed.'
but through the porthole the stars called me on
and in the morning both they and she were gone.

and i've been all around the world
across the oceans
and i learned that raw emotions
are more trouble than they’re worth

'you must be tired of flying,' they said
'come inside and rest your pretty head.'
but through the doorway i heard the owl cry
went out the window and vanished in the night.

and i've been all around the world
across the oceans
and i heard that raw emotions
are more trouble than they're worth

you must be tired
you must be tied down
you must be tied down
you must be tired

you must be tired
you must be tied down
you must be tied down
you must be tired

'you must be tired of racing,' she said
'why not slow down and walk with me instead?
you can't always be running away,
but i'll come with you if you don't want to stay.'

so we went all around the world
across the oceans
we went all around the world
and we went all around the world
across the ocean
we went all around the world

lyrics by nix williams: website | last.fm

our parents spoke then, and each of them had words of pride and support to offer us. we felt so lucky to be able to share this with them - we know that a lot of other queer people have to persevere without the support of their families, and we were so grateful for ours.



finally it was time for a toast from siobhan, and the cutting of the cake. my auntie had made the cake especially - it was a super-rich, organic, gluten free chocolate cake with tia-maria infused icing - and it was so dense that we could barely get the knife through it!



as we cut the cake, nix, dan and esther grace played us another song - it was an awesomely hilarious mash-up of "i kissed a girl", "owls", and "my name is potato", which are all songs that the five of us are particularly fond of. it was genius - those guys are hilarious.

"... you’re fond of her, she’s not an owl, you kissed a girl and you liked it..."

we then thanked our friends, and those who had helped us organise the day, and it was time to eat. the food was utterly divine:
♥ whole ‘shadows of blue’ cheese with marscapone-stuffed figs and Syrian spices
♥ whole ash-rolled cheddar & king island brie with selection of fruit and crackers (some gluten free)
♥ asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing
♥ hand rolled vegetarian nori rolls
♥ hand filled inari
♥ baby filo quiches with pumpkin, goats cheese and onion
♥ salad of baby spinach, fetta, caramelized onion and pumpkin
♥ french-cut cucumber sandwitches, and tofutti and gherkin sandwitches
♥ flourless orange and almond cake
♥ layered light and dark chocolate mousse cake
♥ selection of gluten free cupcakes (including hummingbird, berry and others)
♥ merinues with rose cream and berries
♥ scones with homemade strawberry jam and frangelico cream




as the food was being nommed, we went and had some photos taken with just the two of us and then with our family. that was possibly the only mistake we made that day - our timing meant that we hardly got anything to eat! but we have some amazing shots of the day (mostly courtesy of amanda aka piecesofalice, and nett aka bondchick_nett), and they last longer than a full tummy!




the rest of the afternoon was spent in conversation with friends and family, listening to music, enjoying the setting, and generally having a lovely time. our dear jojo played a set for us, which was a joy and a delight (especially when some of our more coordinated friends busted some awesome moves on the dance floor).

the other activity that took up a large portion of people’s time, and created a lot of giggles and conversations, was the guest book. sajee had the brilliant idea of getting a bunch of blank album pages from bookbinders, and setting up a craft table with coloured paper, stamps, fabric, glue, ribbons, pencils, etc., so that people could make their own guest book pages. we asked jen (binka_boo) to organize it for us, and to encourage people to participate, and she handled the job like a pro. the things people came up with were wonderful! there were cartoons, treasure maps, patchwork-style collages, and all manner of things in between. every single one had messages of love and support, and we have this amazing memento of the day now. it’s so precious. sajee is going to scan some of the pages soon, and we’ll upload the images as a flickr set.




it was all over so quickly - it was a whirl of loveliness and happiness.

that night we ordered thai food and stayed in at the cottage. bridie hung around for a while, mike and mel dropped by - it was just a lovely winding-down time, after a beautiful day.



here is a link to my favourite photos of the day: CLICK #1.
and here is a link to the flickr group with all uploaded photos: CLICK#2.

by doing so herself, my friend lu has just has just reminded me that it's time i did a bit of a friends cut. i have a very busy life, and i don't always have time to keep up with a giant flist (these things are relative, but 107 is a lot for me). i want the people on my flist to be people i can interact with in a genuine and meaningful way - and that goes both ways, i.e. i want you to be able to get as much love and support from me as i get from you. to me, this pretty much means that we read each others entries and comment more often than not. so, with the word 'friend' somehow incorporated into your subject line, leave a comment to this post if you would like to stay, and know that if you opt out there will be no hard feelings on my part. unless you're sajee, jonathan, dan, esther, shiv, amanda, erin, liz, jen or nett, in which case i'll be on your doorstep in tears, begging to know why you don't love me any more. and that would be particularly awkward in sajee's case as her doorstep is also my doorstep, and it would be peculiar for me to be crying on it... ok, done now.

hiiiii! we're in LONDON! hahahaahahah!!!

we're staying with daniel_bethany's family, and it is really lovely. we had intended to be on our way to goring by now, where j, d & sj will begin thier walk tomorrow, but saj's bag was lost by the airline and we have to wait for it to be delivered here before we can move on. we are hoping that happens this afternoon. cross your fingers for us!

in the mean time it is very lovely to be here. our hosts have the most beautiful home, and it is very english... ( look )

yesterday, since we arrived at around 7am we decided that it would be bad for our jet-lag to go to bed, so j & d too us on a little trip to hampstead heath, ( and i think you'll agree that it is prettier than anything... )

after all that we stopped at a tea house for, surprisingly enough, some tea, and went to see keats' house (yes, the actual keats - i fucking love this country) which was closed, but still there to be gawked at from the outside.

i was convinced i was finwe and that jet lag wasn't going to hit me, but then i curled up on the couch and was pretty much instantly unconscious.