Watsons Bay Wedding

We've just returned from a quick visit back to Australia, spending our time between our old homes of Sydney and Adelaide. I hadn't been back for nearly 4 years and it was SO GOOD to return.  

One of the main reasons for our trip was to celebrate the wedding of our wonderful friends. The gorgeous bride L, and I first met when we shared offices in the law firm we worked at right after finishing uni, and continued to remain kindred spirits through cross-country moves on both our parts. Nearly a decade later, my heart was overflowing with love as I saw her walk down the aisle to meet her beloved under the fig tree by the picturesque Watsons Bay. Just before hail pelted down on us. 

A Basque Wedding

I hope you enjoyed my previous post on Akelaŕe as it was a delight to recap my extravagant and wonderful meal. Now the main reason I was in San Sebastian was to celebrate the wedding of a very dear friend, TTL to her lovely man, X.

The wedding started at noon on a sunny Saturday with a beautiful exchanging of vows, entirely in Spanish. I didn't need to understand the words to know how much love was being conveyed. Oh and it is tradition for the bride to ascend a flight of stairs to meet her groom. This is TTL (in Vera Wang) making her way up the first of many steps:  

After the ceremony, we congratulated the beautiful couple over glasses of champagne and jamon. We were in Spain after all.

  We were also serenaded by a string quartet. 

We then moved on to the reception venue, right by the Bay of Biscay, where there were hors d'oeuvres and more champagne (and beer) in the sunshine.

It was at this point that I decided to take obligatory outfit photos: 

It is also basque tradition to wear cocktail-length dresses with a headpiece at weddings. Naturally I obliged. 

Anthropologie dress and jeweled belt, BHLDN headband, Miu Miu sandals (sim), Alexis Bittar earrings, Padini Malaysia clutch

I also noted how attractive Donostians are:

Apart from these dapper gentlemen, not photographed are the lovely boys of San Sebastian, who were all similarly decked in slim white shirts beneath their dark suits (very nice!)

We then moved on indoors to a 7(!!)-course lunch. 

I didn't wear a watch so I can only assume we finished eating at around 3. Which is when the party began. We danced and danced till way past midnight - which by my estimate is almost 9 hours of non-stop dancing. As most weddings go, the partying continued after we left the wedding venue at the after-party.

Pretty white lace ballerina flats the girls changed into to relieve sore feet!

I have many many photos of the evening as it progressed though there are too few that are fit to be published on a public blog ;)

It was truly a wonderful celebration in a beautiful setting and I wish TTL and X so much love and happiness together! 

I will leave with you the following song which became the anthem of the trip. I first danced to this at the wedding but then kept hearing it throughout, even in Paris! Enjoy!

Indian Summer

Apart from the glorious weather, one of the things we celebrated last weekend was my first wedding in New York, when S' nephew got married at a beautiful reception centre in Long Island. 

The saree-tying took slightly longer than I expected which resulted in a mad dash the block down 34th street to catch the train to Mineola. Oh the stares we got ..

I love weddings - any reason to dress up in a saree really. Otherwise these beautiful outfits end up relegated to the suitcase stored underneath the bed. 

Tasar silk saree, vintage bag

Not that obvious but I had curls put in earlier that day at Saks

No Indian wedding is complete without plenty of food, drink and lots and lots of dancing! 

The bride in green with a smile that lit up the room

If you were keen, here is an pretty good video of how a saree is usually draped (bonus: it's made in Malaysia)!

Hope y'all had a lovely weekend too!