Thursday, October 11, 2007

Tasmanian Wedding Re-celebration Pics !

On September 8th both churches in the SPC (Launceston and Hobart) threw a wedding re-celebration party for Martha and me. The re-celebration was a kind of second wedding reception.

The reception was held in the Tasmanian midlands at the town of Ross. Ross is an old town that is home to the oldest convict bridge in Australia. The bridge has several portraits carved in its stone and the Ross museum claims one of the portraits is of "the Protestant Philosopher" John Calvin. Ross is also a bit of a touristy town with an old church, some preserved homes, and the former "Female Factory" or women's prison.

The re-celebration was held in the Ross town hall.

We had a truly blessed time of friendship and fellowship that truly made us feel at home and part of the family.


Here we are outside the town hall. It was a little chilly so I loaned Martha my suit coat.


Here we are outside an old church in Ross, which sadly, is really just a relic for tourists.



The inside of the church is beautiful and especially so with my bride in it!



From the church we entered the hall to a large reception of friends and church family. Then we sat down together and all watched a DVD recording of our wedding ceremony projected up on a screen in the town hall.



Pat Connors, an elder from the Launceston congregation, was the MC for the re-celebration. The Lord has given him a mind, personality, sense of humor, and amazingly good looks necessary for the task.



My counter part in Hobart Pastor Iain Smith gave a devotional message to us from the Word. He was only given about 3 minutes notice by the MC, in true Tasmanian fashion.


The Lorraine Ten Haaf, a friend and member of the Laqunceston congregation, read apoem for us she wrote for the special occasion.


There was plenty of wonderful tucker (Oz for food)





During the meal they projected all selection of wedding and reception pictures on the screen.



The wedding cake was a traditional Australian Fruit Cake. I had fun opting for an alternate way of cutting the cake.


But we settled on the traditional approach.


Cup of tea with cake



After cake it was present time. One of the many lovely gifts was a painting given to us by the whole Hobart congregation. The painting is of our home "the Montifiore Manse" and it was done by a well recognized artist, and member of the Hobart congregation, Mollie Tomlin.


There was a whole table full of gifts and cards.



As we were about to leave confetti was tossed.

We found our car had been decorated while we were opening gifts.


Pulling out and rattling as we go.


Notice the little dog chasing us. He followed us almost all the way out of Ross. He was amazingly cute.


The dog is still following.


And he is still following.

4 comments:

Mrs. P said...

What a wonderful welcome for Martha! She got to wear her dress twice too. Way cool!

PEM Cell Hydrogen said...

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you really are at home now.

steveandjanna said...

I think this is a very clear sign that you need to get a dog.

Peter & Amanda Lipsy said...

Great to see you enjoying another reception...with another part of the Family!