Honeymoon - Hamilton Island

After uniting in a spot of holy matrimony, Jo and I went on honeymoon. We selected Queensland as an ideal place to unwind, bask in sunshine and maybe partake in a bit of snorkelling. We figured that the beauty and luxury of the Whitsunday islands would be a perfect way to facilitate this after a quite mental few weeks of wedding prep and run through.

Enter Ului stage right.

Yep, not only did we have the worst hail storm in 50 years to deal with on our wedding day, but we also had a tropical cyclone hit our honeymoon. And it had a daft name. I've never met anyone called Ului.

Still, we were on holiday and not at work so all was well. We didn't have great weather for the first week on Hamilton Island so we couldn't sunbathe and the snorkelling was cancelled, oh yeah and the seafood restaurant we had been looking forward to dining in every night was closed for refurbishment, but as always the missus and I managed to amuse ourselves. We hired a golf buggy and hooned round the island, went on a bushwalk, tried out the golf driving range and shooting range, drank wine and beer, played the pokies and ate like ponies.

Enjoying some rare sunshine and the novel vehicles. Oh and I was pretty happy that I didn't kill anyone whilst firing some heavy guns.

So onto Hayman, which is an expensive but wonderfully luxurious resort. The room was a cracker, it had two showers, one of which was in the little private garden. By this time we were checking the forecast regularly as Ului was on the horizon and predicted to head straight for us. It was category 5 which is the highest strength and although it was likely to reduce strength as it made landfall we were pretty sure the weather was going to be rubbish regardless of whether it hit or not. So after just one night we decided to leave the island disappointed but safe and vowing to come back one day.

We ended up in Brisbane for the weekend, which was good. More on this to come...

Mr and Mrs McKelvie

I now write these blog entries as a married woman!! Yay!! Our wedding on 6th March 2010 is full of many fabulous memories, some planned and some unplanned.

The day started off as a clear, sunny, beautiful morning. Everything and everyone was coming together fantastically. The florist was great, hairdressers and make-up was fun, dresses, jewelery, everything organised. Al was in the city with his groomsmen at his parents apartment getting dressed. The photographer called in on Al first to take some preparation photos and would follow with dropping into our house approximately one hour before the ceremony where I and the bridesmaids would get photos taken.

At approximately 3:30pm, one hour before the scheduled ceremony the weather did a back flip and turned ugly. Without much hint of what was to come, it began pouring with rain. Now, having lived in Melbourne for almost 15 yrs I have come to know what to expect of the weather here. Rain here usually lasts ten minutes or so and then stops, its very patchy. But this was something else. The drenching rain turned into a freak storm throwing hail stones the size of marbles/golf balls down.

So, the photographer was running a bit behind in arriving to my house. I was thinking "oh well, a bit of rain, thats OK, he will arrive at some point and the ceremony will be inside so all is fine". Little did I know (thanks to my bridesmaids taking secret calls to others at the ceremony location and to Al in the city and not telling me about the disruptions) that this was a little more than some rain. The storm caused serious flooding which was preventing Al from getting out of the city. It wasn't until the photographer rang me to say "ah, their are cars floating around the city and I am having difficulty driving" followed by a call from the MC saying "the boys are stuck in the city and they cant take public transport because it has shut down" that I learnt of what was happening.

After 2 hours, Al finally managed to get his hire car (thankfully there was a car hire place right next door to them) through the streets and to the ceremony/reception location. I got the call to leave (being only a ten minute drive away) to come. Although there was some shock on hearing the news that the guys were stuck in the city due to flooding, that there was a two hour delay and that the reception centre had to move the ceremony inside onto the dance floor (yes, you read correctly, we had to get married on the dance floor...."its marriage on the dance floor"..lala) I have to say, we were not upset (as some bridezillas would be), we were just so happy that everyone made it safely and we could now get the show on the road. I think some pre-ceremony champagne helped with these feelings too :p

We had such a fantastic time and it is true what they say, the day/night goes by so quickly. All of the planning was certainly worth it. There was a lot of dancing which was great. The Scottish tunes and jigs went down a treat and we are so happy that so many of Al's family members could make it over from Scotland to attend.

So, despite the unexpected weather interruptions, it was a very happy occasion for both of us.

Signed Jo & Al McKelvie :)