The Wedding!!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm still way way way behind on the blog, so apologies for anyone who has been waiting anxiously to look at the wedding pictures. Drea just left New Zealand yesterday to start her job in Portland, Oregon and I've got two more weeks here before I head out so I intend to get a lot of blogging done between then and now. Anyway, imagine for a moment that it's October...

To start, thank you to everyone who helped us out along the way to getting married. Planning a wedding in California when you live in New Zealand requires asking a lot of favors and we really appreciate everyone who stepped up and helped out. We couldn't ask for better friends and family.

We arrived in California a week before the big day and set straight to work...

Starting with about 20 pounds of imported New Zealand chocolate drea started baking the cakes!And every good chef has to taste a tiny little bit of their work to make sure it's turning out right. Drea is just that much better of a chef!

The rest of the week we took care of all the little last minute details that always pop up before a big event. But we were able to have some fun running some of the errands. We went to our favourite (could be the last time I spell that with a 'u') wine tasting room to pick up wine for the wedding. We can't recommend this place enough for those of you in Sonoma county. Drea and I are pretty excited to be back in their wine club.

This is actually from the wine tasting after the wedding but is a good picture of the two moms. Thanks Moms!!

More cake baking frivolity! With, of course, more sampling of the goods!

The big day came and was absolutely spectacular. It was a blissfully warm fall day with a light breeze and the Burke ranch overlooking the neighboring wineries was just gorgeous.

The wedding procession started with our 'kid parade'.

Will Tams was an absolutely fantastic celebrant for us and we can't thank him enough.

I think my fingers may have swelled up a bit.

'You may now high five the bride!'

As part of our ceremony we really wanted to add lots of surprises for everyone involved. About two months before the wedding we were inspired to do a little dancing at the end of the ceremony. Thanks to our bridesmaids and groomsmen that were such good sports! A video of the dance is on Dave's facebook page, but eventually I'll get the video on here after I get back to the states. Here's a few pics of the dance..."I gotta feelin'!"

"That tonight's gonna be a good night"

"Yeah, tonight's gonna be a good night!"

The happy couple!

Above are a couple shots during the professional photoshoot. Our photographer has had some family issues recently, so we're hoping to have to pics from him in the next month or two. I'll try and post the best of those on here later as well.

The dinner was an absolutely delicious spread of vegetarian dishes. The goat cheese and sundried tomato tart was especially fantastic! Here's a couple pictures during the dinner and cake cutting...




The cake was made by Andrea and her brother Mark. Mark finished up the decorations about 5 minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start, but what an incredible job! Hey Mark, time to think about a new line of work!




The dinner and cake was followed up by some old time country line dancing on the Burkes back deck. The dancing was incredibly fun and the band did a great job getting people out dancing. The only problem was the dance floor was a bid slippery for the bride...

This is right when Drea took a fall during the dancing, I think the expressions in this picture are priceless. For the record, that's Drea's brother on the left pointing and laughing. Real nice Mark. ;-)

I also have to give massive kudos to Andrea's Unkle Klaus. Who outdressed us all and danced the pants (or leiderhosen) off of everyone!

Also big thanks to our very gracious hosts, Mike and Rebecca Burke! Thank you so very much!

It was a perfectly magical day and Andrea and I will treasure the memories forever. Thank you to everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us. More pictures are sure to be forthcoming.

Love,
Dave and Andrea