Perks on Earth

For my whole life, my beautiful Mum and Dad have been my role models. They have taught me all that I am today and more. From my Mum, I have grown up witnessing her patience, her kindness, her strength as a woman and mother, and her independence. From my Dad, his ambition, motivation, humour, and unique ability to make everyone in a room feel welcome and wanted. I hope that throughout my life, these qualities are some I can myself adopt. Perhaps the most special and unique thing my parents have taught me, is love. For as long as I can remember, we have been showered in their love and affection, and have grown to ourselves offer love and affection to others in return. I have also witnessed their love for each other, against all odds and more than thirty years later, the strongest and most supportive bond I have ever seen. I am grateful and blessed to be able to have them as my parents, and through them the lessons they have imparted on us all throughout life. So, it was with such pure delight that we learned they would be renewing their vows on this trip of a lifetime in Australia, in no other spot than the one my Dad got down on one knee 28 years ago and popped a question – in his words ‘the greatest sales pitch of his entire life’.

Sorry for all the cheesiness in this post, but I can’t help it! My parents might be all that I know, but I am so blessed to have witnessed their love, and I got to see my two favourite people get re-married, so I am pretty excited! After landing in Sydney (2 days late), Dad emerged carrying mums wedding dress and announced that on the 22nd of December, 27 years and 6 days after they got married in Sweden, they would be renewing their vows on Topshed hills, where he proposed. After tears and excitement, we all learned that my Dad and Pippa had been planning this event since 2020 (when they had originally wanted to renew their vows at 25 years married, but alas, global pandemic). Pippa’s beautiful friend Ally would officiate the wedding, and we were all given jobs in order to turn a hill on Moorabinda farm into the perfect venue for the event. Arriving at Moorabinda we had to delay the celebrations by a day as a result of rain and threatening storms, but hey! That’s the perks of having a wedding with only your nearest and dearest at Christmas – everyone was always free! Having driven up to Topshed hills on the bikes and Dave’s pickup to do a little rekkie of the area (a little fall by Pip and Ella F en route) we trampled down some of the ragwort and decided the sheep poo actually made a nice addition, so it would stay. Ready whenever the sky was, the next day welcomed us to no more rains and the perfect day for mum and dad to say I do all over again.

Dressed up to the nines, we all squeezed into our cowboy boots and got everything ready and packed into cars. Mum and Dad emerged dressed in the exact attire they had worn on their wedding day (bar Dad’s tie, but his trinity one made a great replacement!). They looked the perfect picture, a flashback in time, Mum’s dress taking everyones breath away with her beauty. Snapping a few pictures, my aunt Pam decided mum needed to be slightly ‘Australiafied’, so a beautiful wide brimmed had and leather cowboy boots were placed on her, and what a call it was! Looking like something out of an Aussie wedding magazine, we packed the soon-to-be renewlyweds (hehe) into the jeep and set off, the rest of us loaded into the pickup truck in our dresses and suits. By the time we got to Topshed hills, we we’re already dying in fits of laughter, setting the mood for the rest of the day. We quickly unloaded and fulfilled Pippa’s amazing vision, a trestle table transformed by a white tablecloth, cheeseboard, flowers, champagne flutes and vines for decoration. Overlooking the hills and valleys, it was perfect. As we all giggled and snapped photos, Mum and Dad had their short walk up the aisle (up to the rock) and as Ally welcomed us all, and the ceremony began. I can’t really put into words the euphoric happiness of it all because emotion clouds the details. Pam read a stunning original poem ‘This is Love’, Clara, Hanna, Alice, Harry and I sang a rendition of their wedding song ‘the Rose’, and Dad spoke beautifully. It was a wonderfully simple yet powerful ceremony, perfect in every way. Throughout the entire thing, we were all laughing and crying, and I was so happy to witness the moment with family and those I love (Ella F is officially family after it all!). We popped champagne and all giggling excitedly we watched as the sky adopted the most spectacular colours, reds and blues dying the clouds. A quick photoshoot later (Dave was quite the photographer, the kind that made me want to take a photo of his moves while he took a photo), we noted an electric storm building on the nearby hills, so packed up and loaded into the truck, no signs on Topshed hills of the beautiful scenes of the prior hour. Rolling down the hills back to the house, we laughed the whole way, and well into that champagne filled evening. What a day.

I haven’t been to many weddings, and have never witnessed a vow renewal, but that evening on Topshed hills was the most perfect depiction of my parents love. Having Pam, Dave and Pippa there, my family, Ella and Dara, and Ally, made the perfect group to share in that love, and I will never forget it. My parents, my biggest idols, said I do all over again in the very spot they got engaged, and I was lucky enough to share in that moment. It was something out of a fairytale. As I wrote to Ally, ‘growing up it’s hard to know what true love is, but being mum and dad’s daughter, I got to see it everyday’.