#rndtheworldn44 - Day 5 - Chelsea's and Troy's Wedding!

Saturday, November 25 dawned bright and sunny and we eagerly dressed and drove over to St. Peter's Catholic Church in Oneroa on Waiheke Island for the wedding.  Troy and Chelsea, Lizzy and Kenny looked wonderful for the ceremony:

After the ceremony itself, we all gathered out front of the church:

David and Lizzy had a sibling hugfest:

Someone mentioned that the Father of the Bride (who shall go unnamed to protect the innocent) had forgotten the sunglass resting on his head as he walked his daughter down the aisle.  We imagine the wedding photos and video will document this endearing moment, but we thought it was truly like Kenny to participate in style!

The reception was at Goldie Estate Vineyards, just around the corner from our AirBnB cottage.  We were the first to arrive from the church, and were ushered to the top of a hill with a beautiful tree and a magnificent panoramic view of Waiheke Island.  The wedding guests started to assemble and joined us in lifting our champagne glasses for a toast to the newly married:

Because the wedding party and the guests all gathered at the top of the hill together, the guests had the unusual pleasure of watching (and participating in!) the official wedding photographs.  Here's Chelsea and her two proud brothers:

After the photos and toasts, we all repaired to the winery reception dining room, where we enjoyed the "longest ever" wedding party - from 5pm to nearly midnight!  More informal photos were in the offing, and we got ours snapped with Troy and Chelsea, thanks to those generous photogs, Lizzy and Kenny's mum Patsy:

Here, Suzanne and Lizzy pose with Beau and Keegan:

Kenny's daughter Liz, her husband Aneurin and their cute little daughter Aria (flower girl in the wedding) were able to come up from Christchurch, and we really enjoyed talking with them about their lives and the family:

Here's a special shot of Kenny's brother Steve, Katie, Beau, Keegan and Kenny's mum Patsy:

Not all was formality, however.  Katie served as ringleader and cheerleader for Aria and some of the other kids in a rowdy game of Jiant Jenga:

However, the biggest surprise of the evening was from Lizzy, Kenny and Chelsea, who got the M.C. to lead the crowd in a rowsing round of "Happy Birthday" to Kathy!

By the time the wedding celebration wound up late Saturday night, we all felt like we had celebrated fully and lustily.  We (and Katie and Megan) were the lucky ones, because we only had to drive about half a mile back to our cottage to fall in bed and sleep the sleep of the well partied until we felt like waking up on Sunday morning.

Once we were all up and about, we joined Lizzy, Kenny, Chelsea, Troy & Co. for a wonderful after-lunch at a grill in Oneroa, then drove over to say one last goodbye to the whole Kiwi family.

Katie and Megan drove us to the Matiatia Bay dock, where we caught the ferry into Auckland, bussed up to the airport, and got a good night's sleep before jetting on to Perth, Australia for our next stop.