Didn’t Betty Look Radiantly Beautiful?

I thought I’d flick up some pictures from the wedding of my lovely cousin Ashleigh and her now-hubby Justin.

Beware all ye who enter! The following contains an absolute mishmash of photos taken from various cameras and (heavens forbid!) phones. Most photo credit goes to Ariel and Andrew M.

Chronology is lost, colours are confused, and many of the dance moves captured below should not be tried at home.

Welcome to my family guys!

The wedding was an evening affair, as the bride and groom chose to have a simple town-hall style ceremony during the day, with the focus on a laid-back gathering of friends and family at night.

So, after a morning of pie-eating and cheesymite scroll face-stuffing, Ariel, Mother and I spent some of the afternoon putting on our makeup… and then a significantly larger portion of the afternoon trying to keep it from all dripping off again in the 40 degree heat.

We wanted to get some nice group photos, but it was hooooottt.

And, to be honest, one of the party was not quite as well behaved as she could have been…

Merkel!

A pose appropriate for all occasions (come at me Trump!).

I just felt sooo darned pretty!

For those of you playing at home, the guy in the picture is my cousin Kym, the bride’s brother, and my mother’s sister’s kid.

Here’s the four of us together, including the bride (and my first-cousin once removed or something, a.k.a, Kym’s kid).

Did I mention that whole Radiantly Beautiful thing? I feel it bears repeating.

Also, can you spot the family resemblance? Ash, Ariel and I spent a fair amount of time together as kids, and a significant amount of that time was spent with Ash being mistaken for our sister.

Maybe it helps if you see it all from a different angle?

Given that this is a wedding and all, you probably should probably also meet the groom.

Here’s Justin.

The bride and groom entered the hall to a bridal waltz (the Groom’s idea), danced to the musical version of ‘One Day More’.

Which, incidentally, is a song coming from the-three-hour-musical that is Les Mis, that Ash and Ariel and I spent a pretty large part of our childhood singing.

If you must know, I was Gavroche, Ariel was Eponine, Ash was Enjolras. When they don’t give you strong male characters, go drag!

Given the complexity of the cast (and our burning desire to not only sing, but usually also dress up and act out every part of the three hour long musical), Ash also doubled as Valjean, and I would step in for Javert. Which made for an excitingly dynamic ‘Confrontation’, especially given that one of us* is fairly tone deaf.

*(it is me)

I got Marius to Ashleigh’s Cosette, and we all argued over who would be the Thenardiers.

Anyway, back to the wedding.

My mother’s sister, a.k.a, Mother of the Bride, looked rather beautiful and magical, and I’m a bit miffed that I didn’t get any photos with her during the night.

^With her husband Paul/Pablo.

Our family (or at least the lot who live in Perth), is not particularly large, but they tend to gather in swarms.

Meet Andrew (left) and Sam (right), my dad’s sister’s kids, with bonus appearance from the lovely Claudia (Sam’s wife).

Plus Diesel (Lethlean) and Rowie (Alan), their folks. Turns out a fairly large amount of my family uses names that are not their own (my dad is traditionally ‘Uncle Big Nose’ to small children). Mostly because the family keeps calling people by the maiden name of their parents (Lethlean), or just names everyone Andrew.

At least I know what I’ll call (all of) our kids! ^

^Rowie and I on the end there are doing American Gothic. Because we are Classy like that.

Given that this is a wedding, there was a bit of dancing…

..the most successful of which was of course the Time Warp from Rocky Horror. Here is us at the very end, mid collapse:The Nutbush, performed in entirety by the Bride and her brother, was also a massive crowd pleaser.