So, about two weeks ago now I took Friday off from work to fly down to Melbourne, for the wedding of Paul Jenkins & Natalie Elbourne out in the Victorian countryside – Nat’s home town of Drouin.

You can read the rest of story, or just go straight to my photos from the wedding. (They’re higher quality than the versions shown here too)

The flight was reasonably okay – although the flight out of Sydney was delayed by about 30 minutes, due to Sydney Airport having only one operational runway. As it turns out, I had allowed enough time so that I ended up arriving at Melbourne’s Southern Cross (formerly Spencer Street) Station on time.  From there I slept on the train out to Drouin, waking up about a minute before we pulled in to Drouin station.

Paul met me at the station and we wandered back to Nat’s parents place - a literal hive of last minute planning activity. Parents and relatives running around organising things, and Nat and Paul visibly stressed out from the weeks of preparation.

Ryan (Paul’s best man)  and Paul dropped me off at The Royal Drouin Hotel. Where the entertainment was certainly laid on. I’m not talking raffle night here folks – they had “proper gentlemans entertainment”! Yep, that’s code for strippers!  

Now, before you get too excited… I didn’t stick around for the show, the one stripper I did see who came down from the rooms up-stairs was, well… lets just say she wasn’t  exactly Parisian Cabaret Show material.

I’ll spare you all the details about how small and icky the room was and how the strippers spent ages practicing moves or something up the hallway from my room…

I got a lift with Andrew & Amanda out to Glenfyne, where the service and reception was being held. There’s not a whole lot I can say except that the day went really well. I took a heap of photos, everyone looked great and had a good time. They really lucked out on the weather too.

Nat and Paul really do make a great couple, and they both seemed to have a good day. The slushee machine was a hit, especially with those of us that stuck around to help pack up at the end. Several of us were getting stuck into the remains of the slushee mix.

So, Congratulations to Natalie & Paul – Best wishes for the future.