Bintan

After the 'legal bit' and some nice eats at the Halia Restaurant, it was off to Bintan (via home to collect our bags and say goodbye to the cats) for the second leg of the 'Robinson-Hargreaves' Wedding Tour'.

There was some funny looks at the ferry terminal when the wedding party arrived - especially when the bride was still in her white dress, but with a black back-pack strapped to her back! After practising some pigeon-french on our poor, but French, photographer, Gilles, we duly arrived in Bintan and Sarah (or should that read 'my wife'?), Pete and Pam (or should that read 'the out-laws'), plus my sister, Laura, checked into our fabulous villa.Not only was it nice to stay in such a place - but it also meant that we had a place for people to drop by to during the day and the night!The place also came with a buggy that Laura was hardly out of. In fact, even when Laura was out of it, she was in the buggy!I think over the four days in Bintan, Laura must have ferried anyone who visited our place - and loads more guests following the main bash on the Saturday. And I know from my bosses, Ron and Trace (see in the photo below - though that wasn't the outfits that they wore to our wedding!), that Laura drove them back early Sunday morning, in the pitch black, and at full speed!.

Msgs: Matt, Lace and Magnus

Although Matt, Lacey and Magnus could not make it over for our wedding, they did take time out to record a little homage to Damian's tattoo.

As they made thier film in one of the loudest bars on the South Bank, you may need to adjust your speakers/hearing somewhat. It's still quality, though.Cheers, guys.

Cross-Dressing

There must be something about weddings that make men want to get in touch with their feminine sides.

Not only did the groom wear a dress, wig and false boobs on his stag, and shed a tear at his wedding, but another male member of the wedding party got into the (drag) act.

So guess who’s wearing Pam’s shoes? And for Pete’s sake, there will be no clues!

Sarah & Damian Legally Get Married

On Thursday 20 July, Sarah and I legally tied the knot at the Old Bandstand in the Botanic Gardens.

Andrew and Esther were superstars in putting Damian up (and his pals, Mark and Tan) and getting him to the Gardens on time. And, Sarah was in the safe time-keeping hands of Pete, Pam, Laura and Holly.

The weather was lovely, the bride looked gorgeous, the groom shed a tear (due to his hay-fever, apparently) and all the guests were well-behaved (as well as well-watered and well-fed at the Halia Restaurant afterwards),

Anyway, here are few photos that give you a small taster of what happened.

Last Minute Dot Com

Anyone that knows us, will soon realise that Sarah likes to get things done correctly and straight away. While I see no harm in doing something until it's actually required.

A case in point was the seating plan for the Saturday.Now I was tasked with a) coming up with a suitable theme for the table plan, b) getting them drawn up and onto cards, and c) also write a brief story/reason behind each of the table names.

I asked two pals, Henry and Elaine, from my old advertising agency to help out. And, as can see from all these images, they duly came up trumps. However, because of me leaving things to the last minute (ie the day before the Thursday ceremony!), Elaine being stuck in an all-day meeting and Mark and Tan arriving at 5pm, there was a certain level of stress/anxiety to be found in our house that day.

What made things a tad worse, was that everything had to be done by Wednesday - as we were off to Bintan straight after Thursday's ceremony!..Anyway, Elaine was a star for drawing up the table plans and then passing the image files to Henry, for him to print out and paste onto A3 boards.

Henry then kindly brought them over to me in Clementi (as I was now with Mark and Tan, plus Esther and Andrew - who were putting us all up for the night) at 10pm - just 13 and a half hours before the legal ceremony.The boards all looked great - except for three typos....If it were left to me, I would just taken the boards as they were - for most people would probably have never noticed the mistakes. But Sarah is not most people - so what to do? Well, Esther being Esther was very cool, calm and collected. She asked if there was anyone who could bring some cards over on Friday/Saturday. Thankfully, Nicole was arriving in Bintan on the Saturday morning.So Elaine amended the files on the Thurday and passed them to Henry. He then printed them out and pasted them onto A3 boards, and then went even further out of his way to pass the boards to Nicole on the Friday..
Nicole brought the cards over with her on the Saturday and they were passed to us about 2pm on Saturday. Just three hours before they were needed - which was in plenty of time don’t you think?

PS

Two days before our wedding, a gaggle of us went out to dinner to the PS Café (near Dempsey Road).

Pete and Pam led the way (and kindly paid for the entire meal too, btw), with my kid sister, Laura, not far behind. Also in attendance were Mark and Kim (who flew in from the UK that weekend) and Nat (who only arrived from Lan-dan that morning). And Sarah and I, of course.The food was good – but, boy, the service at PS sucks. And the sad thing is that they just don’t give a damn as the place is that busy.

A quick look at their website will show you what PS think of their customers. Nothing.

The place should be re-named BS!

Hen Do - Singapore Leg

A week before the Big Day, and on the same night that Damian and Pete were being 'looked after' by Andrew, Charlie and a cast of fives down at the Beer Cellar, Sarah had her second hen do. She was in the safe hands of Esther and Nicole.

From the pix, it certainly looks as if the gals had a great time! And Sarah still has the t-shirt to prove it!

As well as being a superstar hen do co-organiser, Nicole found the time to pen a few words as to how Sarah's night went:

Sarah’s Singapore Hen’s night kicked off in style on Saturday 15th July, 2006. The girls – Nicole, Esther, Jayne, Viv, Evelyn, Georgie & Simmone – arrived at the hen roost – the private room about Dharma’s café at Boat quay – at 7pm to prepare for the entrance of Pam and the hen at 7:30pm.

Preparations including everyone donning a specially-made Hen’s Night t-shirt downing a glass or two of wine and standing ‘quietly’ in the dark in ‘surprise’ position. True to Hargreaves’ form, Sarah & Pam snuck up on us instead, so with champagne in hand, and the hen decked out in her own special t-shirt, the night got underway.

Knowing Sarah’s penchant for a boogie, a fully costumed belly dancer entertained us just as the shots started to kick in, or should we say that Sarah entertained us with her very own belly-dancing style – whilst the professional dancer was relegated to back of stage position.After that burst of energy, it was time to play ‘pin the penis on the man’ (there has to be at least one game like this at a hen’s night!) The poster of Brad Pitt as the ‘man’ was snubbed as we realized we had a much better pin-up – Damian – on posters on our walls. Various sized and coloured penis’s were strategically placed on (or near!) Damian’s body by blindfolded party goers and of course the hen. The game reached a climax (?) when the last penis was placed on Damian’s face!Enough private frivolity, the party then went public at the New Asia Bar. All hen-goers and especially the hen herself embraced the face that the games were now no longer contained to the smaller private group. Photos and signatures on dare cards (reading, for example “Ask someone at the bar with a fresh pint if you can lick the head off their beer as it’s your birthday”) bear witness to this exhibitionism! No one knows for sure what time the party ended or why Sarah woke up (almost) fully clothed but we do know that we had a great time, as we looked forward to doing the same at the wedding the following weekend.

Stag Do

When it came to my Stag Do, I said to Andrew (Best Man - Singapore Leg) that I didn't want any fuss and a quiet drink with the lads would suffice.

There was no need for any foreign trips or elaborate plans - especially as the majority of the lads (including Andrew and I) were all off to Hua Hin in Thailand for a long golfing weekend at the end of October.

Anyway, Andrew was good to his word (ish!). After a hearty lunch/brekky at Boat Quay, he picked Pete and I up around 3:40 pm for a quiet beer at the Beer Cellar.

With the father-in-law-to be there, I felt relaxed knowing that they could not too much to me.

Wrong!

As you will see soon enough, they had me in a very unflattering dress, red wig and false boobs by 5pm. And, I can honestly say, that I looked like the worst cross-dresser in history. Think Pete Burns, with:
* a 2-week old goatee
* a week's worth of stubble
* an ill-fitting wig
* hairy legs
* and the sort of dress worn by one of Les Dawson (RIP) 's characters!

[I will post a suitable picture up soon - but it should only be viewed after the watershed.]

Anyway, the rest of the night was a bit of blur - actually I am unable to divulge what happened, where we went, who was up on stage dancing with go-go/lap dancers. But I can say that Pete (and I) did very well to last until 4 in the morning!

Though according to the Beer Cellar's in-public-house- poet laureate, Andrew, the evening went something like this:
Damian said:
"For my stag do I would like a quiet beer,
I do not want to feel fear.”

Of course, he is the boss and his will must be done,
But his friends, they wanted more fun.

“We should send him abroad” they all said,
I thought, “if Sarah finds out, I am dead”.

To his friends a compromise I needed to impress,
And we settled on a bright orange wig and a dress.

To the BeerCellar we all made our way,
And for the kitty 50 dollars we would pay.

Damian started at pace, got off his face,
And, Jesus, in that dress, he looked gay.

As darkness descended on the equator,
The Best Man (Singapore leg) turned traitor.

Damo said: “you promised me a sober affair”
“and these promises turned out to be poor”

I said, “what d’ya mean, why’d you say that?”
He said “I just lap-danced for my father-in-law!”

Jaffy and Halia

Although, they were unable to attend the wedding, both Jaffy and Halia, helped in as much as two pesky cats could in the run up to the wedding.

Jaffy was especially helpful in ensuring that Sarah's tops were ironed. [The tops were also covered in cat hair, but they were ironed nonetheless].And Halia was great on checking that all the mirrors worked okay!

Hen Night - London Leg

One of Sarah's good pals, Holly, was kind enough to share with us all her account of Sarah's Hen Night (London Leg), back in July:

Sarah’s London hen do was a fairly laid back affair and was actually more of an opportunity for Sarah to catch up with lots of good friends in one day. Luckily, Sarah brought plenty of sun back from Singapore – activities are so much easier to plan when the sun is shining!

The day started at a festival on the South Bank next to Gabriel’s Wharf and the Oxo Tower with Sarah, Pam (hobbling from the latest Hargreaves’ shopping trip), Rachel, Nila, Kimberley, Tan, Michelle, Lisa and Holly. We spent several hours eating, drinking and chatting amongst kids in face paint and a man dressed as a giant cockroach.

We then moved on to Vinopolis for a wine tour (unfortunately having said goodbye to Lisa and Tan) where we drank our way around the world whilst pretending it was educational.We learnt that Macedonian wine tastes like crap – so it was a bit educational. And Pam managed to score us lots of extra drinks along the way and we finished the tour drinking gin cocktails, having wisely avoided the absinthe-tasting bar (where it would have all have ended in tears!).

We had a couple of substitutions at this point – losing Pam, Michelle and Kimberly but gaining Cassandra. As the vegetarian to carnivore ratio had suddenly shifted we headed to Mildred’s, a veggie restaurant in Soho where we attempted to soak up the wine whilst topping it up with champagne.
At this point the night sped up and before we knew it, it was closing time and we were being kicked out of a bar somewhere in Soho!

A good night was had by all and we even managed to get Sarah back in one piece!

A summary of what happened...

While I get around to sticking some pix/stories up from the wedding (not to mention the hen/stag nights!), here's a pictorial overview of those four days in July:

Why you should always get married in a church...

Look closely at this picture and you'll soon see why!