The Wedding Part II

The pre-wedding photoshoot. Jared and I are not the poser types and we squirm in front of the camera. Neither of us had ever been in front of the camera for any sort of photo shoot (we didn't even bother with the rigmarole of an engagement series). On top of that, Iman had a minimal intervention approach to photographing us and would only really tell us to "walk over there" or "stand here". So we largely improvised the best we could and tried to just be natural. We ended up with a nice mix of serious and not-so-serious pictures.

The Wedding Part I

Jared and I got married on the 15th of January this year in Haifa, Israel. We flew there just for the wedding. Which means we got ready for it in Sydney where we were living before the wedding. It was a very small, intimate wedding with less than 40 guests. Still, it was pretty tough to plan a wedding from another country. But we did it. Together, we planned every single bit of it. We designed everything ourselves - the invites, his suit, my dress, our rings, the program, the tea party. It was a wonderful way to express ourselves creatively, and everything had a personal touch, which was most important to us. It was our day, afterall. 

All photos are by Iman Ferdowsi, who is a mutual friend of ours and who grew up with Jared in Haifa.

 Jared had his classic 3-piece black and white suit made at Rochefort in Sydney. His silver Tiffany's cuff links, a present from me, have his initials engraved on the front and the date of our wedding on the back. We didn't know at the time but Jared's mum later told us that, unbelievably, she gave his father the EXACT SAME GIFT for their wedding. We rented a car in Israel to drive ourselves around in. He is on his way to pick me up at my hotel. 

His suit has his name embroidered on the inside. Perk of having a suit made for you.

Outside my hotel, about to come up and collect me. Country Road shoes.

Finally! In the background, my sweet best friend and unofficial maid of honour, Haley "adorable" Hoffman.

Overwhelmed. Nervous. Excited.

Marvelling at the absolutely perfect blue sky over the bay of Mount Carmel. We were SO lucky!
I designed my dress with William Lazootin (who was actually a contestant on Australia's Project Runway! ). He handmade it over the course of only a few weeks. It is layers of oyster and blush-coloured silk georgette and a scallop-edged french lace. My engagement ring was from the Bondi Beach markets in Sydney. The designer, Melinda King, uses silver and beautiful fresh water pearls. My purse is a glass-beaded vintage clutch that I bought at Glebe markets in Sydney years ago but had never used.

On the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel, which are actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Trying not to step on my delicate dress.

The most beautiful day in the most beautiful place. In the world.

To be continued.

On Puzzle, Prose and Pros

It is a well-known fact that American's drink terrible coffee. As Jared's Uncle Rick keeps reminding me, I, too, am American, so i will clarify this statement. American restaurants, cafe's and diners largely sell filtered or percolated coffee. Therefore, Americans largely drink watery brown liquid that tastes almost nothing like espresso-based coffee.

This past weekend, I tried a latte at Politics and Prose and it was more on the "very good" side of good. Was it a fluke? I'd like to believe that their sweaty barista, who was working so fast he almost appeared to be juggling, is a man of quality and consistency.

Upstairs, i picked up a 1000 piece puzzle of a drawing by Edward Gorey.

Jared and I smashed it in 2 days. I feel that is an accomplishment worth sharing. It was really hard! It takes up almost exactly half of our dining table, but neither of us have disassembled it as yet. It has been 2 days since we fininshed it. I wonder who will be the first to be sick of the sight of it.

On Different Sames

 P is for PARTY! 

On Watch This Space

For photos of our wedding.

credit: Iman Ferdowsi

On Vogue Legs

On A Gift From Japan, circa 1912

Introduction

(I'm fairly sure) there are two main reasons as to why i don't own a camera and never really have:

1. The act of experiencing is crucial to the notion of a memory, so why compromise it in order to immortalise it? It doesn't make sense in my head. One either experiences or documents. The two are mutually exclusive. 

2. I feel self-conscious taking photos of things. I'm not self-conscious about how the photos will turn out, or anything like that. The thing is, I am very self-aware of the actual act of photographing. I guess this point is related to point 1. above in that i find photography somewhat disruptive, and thus self-conscious about doing it, and so it goes...

Today, i embraced all this and momentarily made peace with it in order to unabashedly document (Iphone stylez) the cherry blossoms around our neighbourhood during a leisurely walk on a perfect Spring day. Embracing my hang-ups about photography involved embracing my hang-ups about appearing like a tourist, too. The results are these: 

3,020 cherry blossoms were gifted by Japan to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the building of a friendship between the two nations

  

Body

At the stage which is photo no. 4, a peculiar thing happened. 

A middle-aged man, who was helping his wife and daughter lug things into a car out the front of their stately home, caught me in the act of being a cherry blossom tourist and commented, "It's lovely, isn't it. Would you like to see it from out on our deck?"

There wasn't much of a pause in anticipation of an answer, because he immediately proceeded to lead us up the front stairs, through the front door, the corridor, and the kitchen, and out onto the deck, where a giant tree covered in snow-like flowers grew from below, giving shade and fragrance and beauty and awe to us visitors. (And by us i mean me--Jared doesn't gush over cherry blossoms).

I politely took a picture, we thanked him for his kindness, and we walked away.

Conclusion

Embracing my tourist moment brought me an unimaginable reward: Neighbourly niceties.