It's all about family and food: The Wedding!

Last weekend on Saturday we got a new sister-in-law when Dons little brother Marcel got married to the very lovely Rebecca...or Bex as well know her as. It was held up at the Leigh Sawmill Cafe which for those of you who don't know or live in Auckland, is about an hour and 1/4 drive away. They had booked out all the accommodation up there so the whole place was filled with family and friends for the day and night. It as great to not have to drive anywhere either which meant that we were able to drink alcohol and not have a designated driver.

It was a magical and fantastic day filled with family and friends, lots of laughs and wonderful experiences. Marc and the groomsmen looked very handsome and Bex looked stunning as did the bridesmaids. Harry was one of the pageboys and 3 of his other cousins flowergirls. Of course Harry took his role very seriously and did all that was expected of him...and looked so gorgeous doing it. I think there is nothing like seeing your son in a suit for the first time! The day was a stunning sunny day as well so it really could not have been more perfect. All the little details had been thought of to make the whole day unforgetable. The food was delicious and there was plenty of it as well as singing for Marc and Bex from his side of the family and an amazing Haka performed by the boys and men of the family. The kids all ran in a 'feral' mob and had an absolute ball. In fact we had to drag Harry away from dancing and playing to go to bed at 1130pm. No wonder we were all so tired the next day especially as we had been going from early that morning and drinking bubbly from the early afternoon!

Our gift for Marc and Bex was the wedding cake. Talk about stressful! The stress is mostly in knowing that it is for such an important occasion and the desire for it to be perfect is huge. However I think it turned out pretty well. The top and bottom tiers were chocolate with a ganache and the middle tier was banana and coconut with a passionfruit buttercream. I did have a couple of 'moments'...well actually tears and tantrums when after night shift and having no sleep, I couldn't get the fondant to stop tearing when I put it onto the cake. As I was running out of Ivory coloured fondant I was panicking that the cake would be a disaster. I tried a different method of rolling the fondant and putting it onto the cake, (also known as the 'Wilton-way') which finally worked really well. As well as that I was worried that it wouldn't stack well with the porportions or look like I thought/planned it to look. I needn't have worried as it all worked out pretty well in the end. In fact I think it looked really beautiful so all I needed to do was ignore the mistakes only I could see and be glad that things worked out and that they loved it. So thanks to May Clee-Cadman whose book had this design in it with clear instructions on what was needed for this cake.

Anyway here are loads of photos from the day starting with the cake...