Eloping at Warblers Retreat

Covid-19, Day 9 , Friday 3 April 2020

We thought it was a great place to get married before covid-19, but now we think it’s an even better place!  For someone considering eloping, as we were in 2015, it’s private,  hidden away, and now, more so than ever before, it feels very isolated! I thought today was a great way to reminiscent over a great day in our lives, here at Warblers Retreat.

Eloping?

We were wanting to run away and elope, after all we both had been married before , we had ten grown up kids between us and we did not want any fuss or bother!

We had explored options of going overseas to the islands, or somewhere exotic like that.  We came to the conclusion, Warblers Retreat was just as beautiful, it was secluded and private and it was easy!

Natural and relaxing

Not wanting to wait until summer, we got married on my birthday in the middle of July.  The morning was pouring with rain, however as luck would have it, the skies opened up and the sun came out in perfect timing for us to have our wedding ceremony down by the waterfall with the water just pumping, after all the heavy rain.  The sound of the water thrashing its way down the waterfall, the crisp, fresh look of the native bush, not to mention that earthy scent all around us, made it seem very natural and very relaxing.

Keeping it a surprise

We had kept the whole thing a surprise, inviting two couples as witnesses and going under the guise of having a small ceremony to bless the creek and waterfall.  Another couple self-invited themselves to stay that weekend, so our number increased, and by the time we got to the ceremony we felt we couldn’t not invite the other couple living on the property at the time.  So, as many couples discover when planning their wedding,  and even though it was going to be an elopement, the numbers increased!  In the end, we were very happy we ended up with all those who were there.

Celebrant

An old friend of Dave’s was invited to be our celebrant and he pulled the double ceremony off beautifully.  Our friends were sucked in nicely!  They all fell for the blessing of the creek as we went through  the ceremony,  saying some special words and throwing rain water and petals into the creek, and unveiling the sign, Wai-reka.  The wedding ceremony followed on and was short, meaningful and just nice!  A very special moment for us.  

Wedding celebration

As soon as we had finished the ceremony, we headed to our love nest, the Cottage, and the skies opened up;  it poured.  It’s meant to be a good sign if there’s rain on your wedding day!   After that it was down to the local restaurant for a meal with our friends.  A fantastic day.  What about our family, you may ask?  Between us we have a huge family, so we had another celebration later, I will write about that at another time.

Friday wrap up

We have been in isolation for just over a week, it seems like a lot longer than that. Todays numbers were 71 new cases, with the government telling us how they are increasing the testing.  Overseas, it’s getting really bad in many European countries, and America is beginning to be hit hard by it.  On texting some guests we recently had staying from just outside New York City, they were very scared, many of their friends had the virus and the woman was waiting for her test results.  New York is the hardest hit city in USA.

Meanwhile I keep plodding along on my computer and making some good progress outside on the end of the chainsaw, while Dave keeps going with building the foundations for the caravan. 

Generally we are pretty happy campers, the marriage is thriving in this isolation period …here in Pare-dise!