Darran and Sarah's Wedding

I arrived to Canberra from Jakarta on a Friday afternoon. Since Canberra dooes’t have an international airport, I had to take the 3 hour bus ride from Sydney airport to Canberra. I’m not sure why I bother, I’m supposed to be attending a wedding the next day back in Sydney.



I probably knew the groom,Darran since the first year I moved to Canberra in 2004, since I was 18. He’s also the reason why I got to know Greg. Back when we were going to the same church in Canberra, Darran was my Bible study leader, and I used to visit his house often- and Greg was living with him, so it was an important wedding for us to go to.

3 years ago Darran escaped Canberra and went to study in Sydney Bible Collage where he met Sarah. And voila, now they’re getting married!

We left Canberra around 9am to be there at 1:30pm ceremony. I had issues trying to stay awake during the trip since Jakarta is 4 hours behind. But our friend Caroline was with us so she gets to entertain Greg while I helplessly kept falling asleep.

Like most modern wedding, the event was very personalized. In the order of service, there’s a footnote every now and then explaining why Darran picked this hymn and why Sarah picked that Bible verse. And when the wedding was over, they walked out of the church to the “Doctor Who” theme song. All my friends were whispering, “I wonder what he did for Sarah to let him play that song.” Turns out that Sarah loves Doctor Who, AND she also loves watching cricket...



After the ceremony we all gathered at the back of the church for afternoon tea while the bride and the groom have their group photos taken. Then me and some of my old friends went a close mall to catch up before we drive down to the reception venue.



The cnewly weds only had their 2 months summer holiday to organize their entire wedding, finding a place to live, and organizing their honeymoon. It’s totally mind-blowing when I think about it. The theme was pink and black (I think) and they had 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsman.



The entire time we had the wedding, everyone was teasing Darran about his personality. It’s an open secret; everyone who had the opportunity to speak in public will mention it. Darran is a very laid back sort of guy, he's always late to everything and very slow in making decisions. He’s also famous for buying things that he will use ‘one day’. That would all be just another boring fact if Sarah’s personality is not the total opposite! She likes to journal the things she did, and lists everything that she needs to do. She’s very organize and always early to class.

And because of this I became inspired how ocean wide of differences can be a match made in Heaven. I have to admit that my relationship with Darran isn’t always smooth. Like all close friendships, we had our conflict but somehow we made it through and stayed friends. Witnessing his marriage made me think about the things I used to be annoyed at him for. Now I realize that I’m so glad that he is the way he is. I thought about some friends in the past where the friendship grew thin and disappeared because of the little things that I couldn’t stand about them. It’s not worth losing a friend over little things, and in the end I think I may find ways to appreciate them the way they are.



So after a wild night of great food, hilarious speeches and fun in torturing tiny innocent gingerbread men and women (the unfortunate bagged treaties on our table), we finally left Sydney at midnight. It was a struggle for Greg to drive home to Canberra, and I tried to stay away by singing along nonsense with our favorite comedy band. We arrived home at 4am Sunday morning… so the next day we skipped church and just sleeeeeeeeeep….