Fradam

And it was alright! Josh and Binh’s wedding … phenomenal. First of all, I have never seen so many people gathered in one spot at 6 am. The fact that so many people were willing to do so, some travelling from other parts of the country, and some from other parts of the world.. wow. The location was the Coast Gold Course, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, the aim was to have the sun rising between the two of them, surrounded by amazing greenery, sand and waves not far off at all. There was a minor hiccup with rain deciding to spit in our general direction right around the time we were due to setup outside, but as evidenced by Elisha’s (thanks!) photo above, it had long subsided by the time the action started.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I love weddings. Someone asked me the other day if I got tired of them. What?! In all honesty, I have only been to a few and feel compelled to talk incessantly about them. Sure, there are similarities between them - I mean, one of my favourite parts are the vows, which tend to feature in a lot of weddings. That doesn’t in anyway diminish from them though. Hearing people declare their love is such a beautiful act.. I don’t think I’ll tire of it. I can’t wait to be writing my own one day!
So aside from starting at 6am, this union also carried cultural bearing — the bridal party was garbed in traditional Vietnamese fare, which was certainly something new for me to witness. I guess I’m used to the groomsmen obsessing over the groom’s hair in the lead up to a wedding (particularly where my brother is involved). Between Josh’s head-full of long luxurious locks and the traditional headpiece he wore, there was a sense of participating in something long steeped in tradition (of which Western weddings naturally do too), but something just a little bigger.

For example, there was a part of the ceremony in which the couple served their parents tea. A simple gesture, but laden with great respect. I recognise that often, the reception speeches acknowledge and thank parents for the immense role they played in an individuals life, but I found this little part of the ceremony really resonated with me.

The rest of the morning passed quite smoothly - a bit of singing, dancing, someone almost getting knocked out by a golf ball, music and the speeches which as always are a delight to enjoy.The bridal party eventually left to take photos on their bridal (golf) cart, and suddenly, the entire hall needed to be cleaned and shaken up in half an hour. The Golf Club were opening for business that morning and we had to leave no trace of ourselves in their facilities. This was probably one of the most amazing parts of the morning: seeing literally everyone that was able, stepping up, lending a hand and working hard to return things to the state were in. I was so encouraged by that

Huzzah for weddings!