One night in Boomrock

Back to this beautiful place yesterday. I first wrote about it here and it is now my fourth time at this venue but it never gets old. I was very excited to be returning to see some friends get married and to soak up the lovely food and atmosphere. I won't share images of the happy couple or put up any identifiable images of any guests out of respect for them. I didn't even pull out my phone to take photos of the ceremony; I just wanted to enjoy the service and imprint it on my memory. When all eyes seem to be on the bride, I look at the groom's face.  I love the moment when the groom sees his bride for the first time. It's magical.

Even though the wedding was held here in Wellington, most of the guests had travelled from Australia so it was quite nice to sit and chat with some of them and hear how much they have enjoyed being here for the past few days. They could probably relate to some dry, brown grass. Admittedly the weather over the past week has been incredible, and a city always looks nicer when bathed in fine, calm weather. 

The Cook Strait with the South Island visible in the distance

Having only ever played around with my brother's (empty) slug gun when I was younger, I was quite keen to try claybird shooting. Plenty of guests made it look very easy, and then I stepped up and missed all but my second-to-last shot. I wasn't expecting how forceful the kick back would be on my shoulder. I am sporting a bit of a bruise, but I am pleased I got a chance to do it since I missed out on the experience at my own wedding at this same venue 10 years ago.

See that black dot? Yeah, me neither. I shot one clay bird out of five.

As the light began to fade, my husband and I went for a walk around the hills to take some more images. I don't know when or if we will be back here, so it was nice to have a chance to do this. It's simply a stunning location, I really cannot overstate it.

I've often thought of my own wedding as being un-toppable but this day went very close. We did not know any of the other guests at all and yet being with strangers at such a happy event, it's impossible not to have a good time. I have never laughed or cried so much at a wedding reception, the speeches were off-the-chart good. I could even see the very discreet lodge staff laughing during the hilarious moments (and there were many).  It was such a lovely, relaxed occasion otherwise I would never have been comfortable enough to kick off my high heels and swap them with jandals. I am glad I brought them with me, it was so much easier to navigate the terrain.

The evening was perfectly still, and gave us a good opportunity to try out light trailing. Backstory: Imagine me dressed in my wedding finery, crawling on my hands and knees on the dewy lawn in front of the guests at the lodge hastily scrawling words and hearts with a sparkler while my husband tried to capture this shot. We only had four sparklers so not much opportunity to perfect the imagery. Not a bad attempt, but clearly, we have a long way to go.

Perfect venue, perfect day. Thank you L and K for inviting us to share this day with you. It brought alive so many happy memories for us. The best man mentioned a little known condition in his speech so I thought I'd add that if anyone suffers from the affliction that is termed Inner-Happy-Outer-Grumpyitis, Boomrock would almost certainly be the cure.