A bridal party at a mansion

From Wendy

My niece Megan and Sam were married at Los Vegas in January, by a celebrant dressed like Elvis Presley. The wedding reception for us relatives and their friends was held on Saturday night, the venue the Pavilion of Werribee Mansion Hotel. Megan and Sam had flown to USA, got married, and spent a week at Vatulele resort in Fiji on the return trip. She told me Votualailai but that's a village where a pig-hunter friend comes from so that wasn't the place.

The venue for the party was a renovated mansion, once a Catholic seminary with small cells and long stone corridors, now transformed for about $400 a night visitors (less if booked on the internet I'm sure, and promoted this week for visitors to the Commonwealth Games).

Werribee is renowned (by us in Geelong) as the final stage of Melbourne's sewerage system, but don't mention that to tourists of course and all the farms in Werribee area flourish. Werribee Park includes the Chirnside Mansion, the Mansion Hotel, a zoo, an Equestrian Centre and a golf course.

One proviso of the party invitation was that guests dress as brides and grooms, so what a sight it was to see about fifty women wearing white gowns with trains, sparkling jewels, much bling, pearls, veils and long trains, and even little girls dressed up. I thought of Catholic girls and their confirmations, or even novice nuns taking vows! Some of the guys wore Masonic lodge penguin suits, or Al Capone suits. My guy wore a blue bula shirt and pants and I wore my maroon hibiscus floral muumuu, once given to me by a relative in Nawaka Nadi! Two 'brides' wore black, and one looked like a sweet Guinevere. The food was gorgeous, and it was great to mingle with nieces and nephews amidst many strangers acquainted to the bridal couple through work (medical), squash, and the southern Italian side of the wedding.

The music started up with some technorati busy with the bass rhythm so that CDs now became insistent thumping and the dancing started with the ladies holding their trains and dancing rock and roll. A sight to behold. The bride wore a lovely white bared necked frock and their four children looked gorgeous as well. Ah, I wish some of the older generations - now gone - were there to behold the occasion. The ghost of Megan's Dad, my lovely brother Doug, was surely there.