a site for sore eyes

Upon further reflection (have we had enough already of the lengthy/wordy posts?!) I realised I haven't really shared with my lovely readers where it is exactly we will be holding our wedding reception. I know, how rude! Especially seeing as though almost a year ago I said a post would be coming with the possibilities for marquee sites. Bad blogger.

My initial reaction after getting engaged was that we needed (yes, needed) to have a big fat marquee wedding in the middle of an open paddock - I had just the paddock in mind on my grandparents farm, our original farm here in Thorpdale, 'Ballina Park'. Perfect - a sense of home, history and a killer view.

Upon closer inspection this site was determined far too steep, I had convinced myself in my mind it was flat...in Thorpdale. Ha! The site was also a good two paddock drive from any road, making access a nightmare, not to mention power, toilets and if it (heaven forbid) rains on our wedding day. To say I was crushed would be an understatement. Sad bridezilla.

Site possibility #2 was above our 'gum tree paddock' - it was certainly flatter than site possibility #1 but it would still need the help of an excavator and still had access, power and toilet issues. Ugh. We originally envisaged getting married under the gum trees, that was until I decided the threat of bad weather was too much for my brain to cope with (and we also wanted a more intimate ceremony indoors and with religious aspects) and headed to our local country chapel. The issue with site possibility #2 was that this paddock would be sown down to potatoes at the time of our wedding. Great! Was my first reaction, the idea of a marquee in the middle of a flowering potato patch sounded pretty amazing. Then the sensible Mr M pointed out to me the nightmare of no parking in the paddock for guests and the ground all being cultivated. Imagine if it rained - mud pit! 

Cue sad bridezilla again. Where oh where could we put our marquee which was flat, close to a road, not in a paddock with spuds in it so people could park and had access to power? We sat in our study one night earlier this year perplexed...until I looked out the window...

Admittedly it did NOT look like this at that point. It looked more like a demolition site full of rocks and sticks and roots and the remnants of 17 cypress trees and 39 stumps (go here to see it once we had removed all that, smudged it, ripped it, spent about three weekends straight picking up more rocks, sticks and roots and then finally sowed it). We had only just established the fence and the rest was dirt, no lawn, not even a patch of paddock grass beyond the fence due to the ripping out of the trees and machinery churning up the earth. But it had everything ticked - flat (relatively, or easy to make flat), next to a house so no trouble with power or toilets, the caterers could even use our kitchen. 

It had the big gum trees which were a must for us, a water view over the dam at sunset, the paddock across the dam would be in flower with potatoes in December and guests could park in the paddock surrounding the ramshackle farmhouse. Talk about a lightbulb moment!

So that is part of the reason we worked so hard on getting the new west wing of the garden (which used to be paddock) underway, flattened and sown down to beautiful flat lawn. And isn't our garden gate cute? It will be an access point from the marquee to the house for guests and the caterers (who are actually going to set up shop in our carport = perfect). 

The big bonfire needs to be burnt and cleared - it contains all the cypress trees we pushed over as well as ALL the plants/shrubs/trees that we pulled out of the jungle garden. The big logs we stacked there for firewood also have to be moved, as well as the old red bricks from the hothouse which we demolished. (Love me some old red bricks, we planned to do red brick paths around the farmhouse - obviously now those plans are no longer! So many plans are no longer...)

Mr M is going to mow the marquee site regularly in the weeks/months before the wedding and under the trees where our pre-dinner drinks and canapes will take place. We will probably fence it off from sheep also from now on, as the marquee site is essentially in a paddock outside our house yard.

So what do you think? Isn't it always the obvious solutions that are the best? Any lightbulb moments going on for you?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella