Riverside Reception

Reception day, and as expected we started early. The groom had rented a classic Mercedes to be driven around in, and after having picked that up we shuttled his family to the reception venue situated further the bank of Brisbane River.

The party itself was good and very chilled out. The food was nothing like what I've had at an Asian wedding; it was very posh, but not any less enjoyable because of that. The rest of the afternoon was taken up by more speeches and even a dance.

As I mentioned before, I had become the bestman-by-default, and so I did the whole speech thing. I don't think I gave the groom as much stick as I was supposed to, but considering I had a couple of days to do it and don't really know the more... seedy side of him I think I did okay (most of the content can be read here). Of course I spoke too fast and mumbled too so I'm not sure exactly how many Aussies and South Africans actually understood me!

I made sure I alluded to my single status while on the podium (hey, the opportunity was there, okay?) and I gather that I had quite the interest from matchmaking aunties. I even passed my number to some! I suspect that nothing will come about it (mainly due to the lack of time), but who knows?

So yeh, a pretty fabulous reception, and of the kind I'm definitely not used to attending in London. Although some present said that they had been to the same elsewhere, the last ten or so Muslim ones I had been invited to were strictly segregated-arrive-eat-and-leave affairs so this was all new to me.