The Melbourne Wedding...

We travelled down to Melbourne on Friday and had a extreme weather shock! We were prepared for the cold but not that cold, haha, it was freezing. We checked into the Novotel in St Kilda and the sun was setting as we were heading in, casting beautiful colours over the city and the beach.

View from Bolte Bridge (my photo)

Sunset over St Kilda beach from the Novotel (my photo)

We caught up with FH's brother and went out to dinner on Lygon Street to a place called Il Cantina (I think that's right) meaning The Dark Horse. It was good Italian food. We shared calamari, bruschetta and mussels for the entrée and I had a Fettuccine Gamberi with prawns in which was rather buttery but very nice. Topped off with a few glasses of Moscato De Asti, a very yummy Italian wine. 

South Bank (my photo)

We then went for a mission to find dessert and walked down Swanston Street in the freezing cold unsuccessfully and ended up on the South Bank at the Lindt Cafe where FH and his brother had Hot chocolates, waffles and chocolate cake and I had some yummy macaroons which were champagne, cherry coconut and strawberry. Rather scrumptious. We called it a night after this and went back to the hotel to defrost.

Yummy Lindt Macaroons (my photo)

Saturday morning was the day of our friend's wedding and we woke up after a small sleep in (decadent) and headed out to Brunswick to have breakfast with FH's brother again. We went to a cafe called Minimo which was rather cute and extremely yummy! It had a cute little scooter out the front and was nice and warm inside.

Outside of Minimo cafe in Brunswick (my photo)

Inside Minimo Cafe (my photo)

My yummy chai latte (my photo)

FH's breakfast was baked eggs on pork belly - rather nice I was told (my photo)

My breakfast was Waffles with berry compote and marscapone (my photo)

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. I stupidly had the bright idea of having my hair curled at a hair dresser in St Kilda and she curled it differently to what I liked, sort of back to front, and I was wishing that I'd actually took the time and curled it myself. But I managed to get back to the hotel, put some make up on, and chuck my dress and shoes on and walked out the door on time to catch a taxi to Mordiallac where the wedding was being held.

The boat canal behind the hotel - very picturesque (my photo)

The Bridge Hotel in Mordiallac was beautiful. It had a function room area where the ceremony was held which was decorated simply by a red carpet, white chairs and a couple of pedestals with lilies on them. Very  lovely. We said hello to the groom, FH's friend, while he was waiting and he was so nervous, it was very cute. The bride looked absolutely radiant and her dress was amazing.

The Ceremony Set Up - a sweep attempt (my photo)

We then moved into another area where we had pre- reception drinks until 6pm and then headed back to the same room which had been set up in a cocktail set up and looked lovely. We had a great time eating canapés, drinking moscato, listening to the speeches and watching the bridal waltz. Just beautiful! They had a photo booth which was soo much fun. 

Our strips from the photo booth (so much fun) (my photo)

I kept thinking to myself - if my wedding day is half as fun as this, it's going to be a blast. We ended up on the dance floor for most of the end of the night dancing to all the fantastic old 80's music. Absolutely bucket loads of fun.

Novotel, St Kilda (my photo)

We checked out this morning, feeling slightly seedy and had a good post drinking feed of McDonald's and then flew back to Sydney to pick Bella up again, who was staying at Aunty S's and the dogs place. She is now best friends with the dogs and we were told that one of the dog's was actually pining for her last week. So cute. At least now we can leave Bell's there without worry when we go on our honeymoon. She is such a funny little creature, you never know how she is going to tolerate a situation. She's been all sooky again, so we'll see how long the niceness lasts before I get beaten up by her again.

It was such a good weekend, now I get to relax and continue finishing the final details on wedding :)