Warning: This is another special blog about my daughter Emily's wedding so it is going to be very very very long and with lots of non-food pictures....
My husband says a blog should be short but I can't help it. I just chronicle of Emily's wedding experience anyway as the way I like, hahaha and everyone else can see their official photos!
Well, one week has now passed since Emily and Craig's wedding. They are now on honeymoon to Dubai and then to Bali and my sister and her husband went back to Japan. No more weekends filled with wedding related activities, holiday is over and the rest of us are now back to work ... everything has now more or less back to normal .... what do we do now....
It was a special wedding - it was also the union of not just two young people but also two different cultures, connecting with heritage of Japan and Scotland whilst Emily and Craig was surrounded by people who are very close to them and very important to them in their lives who were all united by this special occasions becoming an extended and global family - Craig's family, Emily's father's family, his partner's family, my family and my husband's family. And don't forget all those people who attended their wedding - many different nationalities coming from different parts of the world, as far away from India, Pakistan, and even from Japan and Australia! And the wedding ceremony was held by a humanist and was inclusive of everyone, uniting all families, cultures, heritage which reflects modern and global society we now live within. What a special wedding, and well done to both Emily and Craig who have thought these all through and planned for the last two long yet also short years - everything came together very well!
This is a photograph of Craig when he was a cute little toddler. Who would have thought that after more than two decades later, he would get married to a girl with Japanese culture and heritage that would come to have so much influence over him ...
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| December 2011 - the very first Japanese food Craig ate in Japan |
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| Pausing in front of Golden Temple in Kyoto |
or pausing in front of camera with "V" sign.
Then Craig's job took him to many different places around the world - such as Norway, America, and then onto South Korea, China and Singapore where he surprised his local colleagues with his use of chopsticks. He even took some photographs of food he ate in Far East for me, contributing to my blogs as Craig's food adventures (see my previous blogs!).
Emily and Craig then went to New York for holiday in February 2013 where Craig proposed Emily, bought a house together in July 2013 when I also first tried take-away pizza from "famous?" Frank's in their back garden under the lovely Scottish sun ...
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| Frank's Pizza!!! |
We lost the count of number of wedding dress shops we went to where she tried many different dresses.... we went everywhere, and guess what?! She found 'The Dress' in the wedding gown shop in a small town where we actually live which is only 5 minutes walk (well, probably by Maria on foot but I would say minimum 10 or 15 minutes walk by me as I don't do walking. I think 5 minutes just about right for me if by car, hahaha!).
It was actually 15th March 2014 when she found this gorgeous dress by Spanish designer - look at her face, she looked so happy and so excited!
We then went to local Italian for lunch and celebrated.
Emily also made Wedding invitations all by herself - all hand-made and designed by Emily
She also wanted to feature Japanese origami cranes as part of her wedding decorations on their wedding day and decided to fold 1,000 origami cranes.
Thousand Origami Cranes or Senbazuru in Japanese symbolises auspiciousness. You may think it's easy to fold 1,000 however it's not as easy as you think. So the next 12 months or so, leading up to their wedding, we were folding cranes. Especially, Emily and Craig, with help from Maria and occasionally me, were folding cranes in the evening after work or whilst watching TV to meet the target of 1,000.
These cranes were to used to decorate wedding ceremony, centre pieces on tables or to incorporate into flowers ....
My sister, Mariko, and her husband Kenji, who came to Scotland to attend their wedding were also 'enlisted' to finish off outstanding 16 cranes to make up 1,000 cranes 2 days before the wedding, ha ha ha!
Even Emily and Craig's cat Bailey was also deployed into this mission!
I should also mention that Craig's friend Fraser who stayed with groom a night before the wedding also contributed folding cranes for their wedding...
Craig was also helping Emily with creating centre pieces for wedding dinner tables ...
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| Can you see origami cranes incorporated into decorations? |
It was a beautiful and calm morning ....
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| View from our hotel room at Airth Castle where the wedding took place ... |
Everyone was up, starting to get ready from 9am - Emily, the Bride, Maria and Gillian, the Bridesmaids were getting make-up and hair done by professionals.
I got my breakfast delivered to our room so that I could eat whilst getting ready by myself before I went up to Emily's room to get my hair done and touched up my make-up...
We knew that we would not be able to eat till late afternoon so someone ordered toasties with chips around late morning. By then I became nervous and could not eat....
There were lovely strawberries and pink champaign for everyone to relax ...
There were lots of hilarity and excitement going on in the room...
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| Maria helping Emily's dress .... |
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| Gillian's Craig's sister helping Emily with her beautiful veil - which is a wedding present from Emily's Japanese grandparents who were unable to come from Japan |
Something blue - pretty Tiffany's bracelet...
and final touch ....
Even Gillian's baby daughter Sophia has her own pretty dress for the special day!
At this point, Emily's father Frank came to the room to congratulate her and to get ready to escort her to the ceremony .... girls got emotional and tried not to cry ....
Flowers were also delivered ....
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| Emily's bouquet ... |
This one is for bridesmaids - can you see tiny origami cranes incorporated?
and for wearing on our wrists - mother of the bride and groom, and also for Mariko... with tiny cute origami cranes ...
Guys also got flowers with origami cranes to go with their kilts ....
Wedding went beautifully well. Emily looked absolutely beautiful, her dress was beautiful, decorations featuring origami cranes were beautiful. One thousands origami cranes, each hand-made by everyone with love, dedication and good wishes, all married into their wedding ceremony - what a lovely idea! I could not stop crying with happiness for both - my waterproof mascara did not work and I had some panda eyes but who cares!
After the wedding, Craig had a surprise, especially to his 'Japanese' family. A week before the wedding, he asked me to translate his special message to my sister Mariko and her husband Kenji into Japanese so that he could read it out as part of his groom's speech. He then practiced every single day and delivered it perfectly on the day, which impressed them so much they were in tears....
For those who were at the wedding but did not understand what he said in Japanese, here is his original message in English...
Mariko and Kenji,
thank you so much for being here on our special day, it means so much to both
of us that you were able to make the trip.
I have only been to
Japan once, but you made me feel like part of your family and for that I thank
you. To me you have been family for years, and I hope you are both as happy and
excited as I am that it is now official.
Once I am fluent in
Japanese we can Facetime more often! I hope you both have a great day and enjoy
the rest of your stay in Scotland.
Thank you again,
Kanpai!
And the speech was done and everyone could relax and eat ....
Tables were decorated beautifully, again featuring origami cranes ....
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| Do you see origami crane drawings on the card? |
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| Mariko showing my mother-in-law Mary how to use chopsticks! |
The next was leek and potato soup ...
For main courses were chicken with champaign sauce (I think...?) but as I don't eat meat, my husband and I had pan fried sea bass fillet, saffron and lemon crushed potatoes and sorrel sauce. (I forgot to keep a copy of the menu on the table, sorry ....)
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| Chicken |
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| Sea bass |
Dinner was over, every one relaxed ... and happy couple, Mr & Mrs Sweeny!
And, everyone danced the night away afterwards, enjoying themselves ...
It was a lovely day. It was a lovely wedding. It was also the day William and Kate's baby girl Charlotte was born. What an auspicious and happy day too!
Later on, Emily gave me a little letter ...
Inside was a message from Emily to me .... awwwww, please, someone brings me a tissue, quick!!!
So, their wedding is now over.... I know this blog is far far too long but it was such a special event for all of us that I had to chronicle as I see it to 'immortalise' their wedding experience which would not go into their official wedding photo album.
Emily and Craig are such a lovely couple. Just look at how they have worked together to prepare their wedding, folding so many cranes .... it's a dedication to each other, that's for sure.
I wish them lots of lots of happiness and love and to support each other and be best friends forever...
That's all forks!
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