tumbling waters retreat wedding

bek and alex

It would be so easy to just write about what this one looked like.

A riot of colour. A recreated vintage wedding dress from the 1950s. Giant handmade cardboard flowers on the arbour. Iconic fashion pieces re-imagined with some local colour (see if you can some spot some Georgian peaches as a nod to Alex’s heritage). It was creative. It was resplendent. It was the definition of fashion and style as a form of self expression. It was, simply, magnificent.

But however good it looked, it felt better. It felt bigger. It had moments of transcendence closely followed by moments of complete irreverence.

There were two moments that stood out to me. One at the end the day - after all the words had been said, after Alex was given a ‘flap’ dance by friends dressed up as different birds, after toasts were drunk and tears were spilled and spontaneous Mariah Carey singalongs were sung - where every last person in attendance swarmed the df for a group hug. The other was the sight of their wedding party aligned in a semi circle them during the ceremony, no delineation between who was friends of who, all resplendent in their own spin on a theme, arms around one another - literally and figuratively supporting one another - laughing and crying and interjecting as it went. These two scenes whisperered what the whole day screamed.

That this was about chosen family as much as it was about blood. That these are two people who have spent a long time building an incredibly close knit community. That these are people who manage to simultaneously take life incredibly seriously (see getting married, having a daughter, both having ludicrously successful careers) and at the same time not (see all their friends dressing up as birds and having Alex guess what they were whilst Bek sneaks off and dons a giant homemade ostrich hat). That these are two people who are full of creativity and self expression but who recognise that it’s relationships above all that give life its meaning. That this was them saying its about all of you just as much as its about us.

At the glorious @tumblingwatersretreat, and both organised and presided over by the stupidly wonderful Nat aka @eventzenau who both planned and celebranted the whole affair.

Enjoy

Dane