Hamilton Island holiday, Day 3 – the wedding

This is post 3 out of a series of 8 posts (the full list is at the end of this post).

The wedding
Friday was the wedding day! The wedding ceremony was held at the island chapel. It took the bride and groom around 15 years and two kids to get to this happy day, and we were all chuffed to share it with them. :)

The chapel

The chapel - entrance

This is the view from the hill the chapel is on. We took lots of photos out here in front of the view, as well as outside the chapel. I also took a video of the ceremony on my camera, which I’ve since passed on to the bride and groom.

The view from the chapel hill

After the ceremony, the guests got into their golf buggies and made their way back to the holiday house (mentioned in the Day 1 post, with Krispy Kremes and a kookaburra) for drinks and finger food, while the bride and groom were whisked away by the photographer for more pictures.

This was the wedding cake- a small cake at the top, which was what they cut into when they did the whole cutting the wedding cake thing – and vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, enough so each guest could have one. K’s mum J made the cakes – long-time TFP readers may remember J’s previous cake creations, including these fairy birthday cakes and this Thomas the Tank Engine cake. J made the cupcakes on the island in the couple of days we had before the wedding. J is multi-talented – she also made K’s wedding dress.

Wedding cake and cupcakes

Bride and groom figurine

Wedding cupcakes

I made myself known to the caterers Brett and Heidi so they’d understand why I was hanging around with my camera. I told them about this site and explained a food blog is (as it turns out, Jac had already given them the whole spiel! She’s a good woman!). My tummy growled hungrily as I watched Brett in action in the kitchen and breathed in all the delicious smells. These are the sauces for the various hot buffet dishes.

Sauces

The first dish to be served was this antipasta platter, left on a table for guests to graze on. My favourite items were the cabanossi sausage and the twiggy sticks.

Antipasto platter- cold meats, cheeses, olives and dip

This was rare roast beef served on sushi rice, topped with chopped fresh chives, mayonnaise and wasabi, with soy sauce for dipping.

Rare roast beef on sushi rice

The beef was delicious, sushi rice perfectly seasoned. It was a little messy to eat, though – as soon as I’d dipped my beef and rice into the soy sauce, it began to fall apart as I brought it up to my mouth. I was lucky not to get soy sauce and sushi rice all down the front of myself! :) Perhaps the mayo and the wasabi needed to be under the beef to help it stick to the rice a little better (but obviously, the wasabi and mayo hidden underneath the beef wouldn’t be so good for presentation – there’s be nothing for the chopped chives to stick to).

Rare roast beef on sushi rice - close-up

The chicken sticks were Jac’s favourite of the finger foods. The chicken was rolled in peanuts and served hot, moistened with a caramelised lime and palm sugar dressing. The chicken was beautifully tender and flavoursome. Jac loved this dish – every time I’ve talked about the wedding food she’s raved on about the chicken sticks! Apologies – I took this photo in a hurry and it’s not the best.

Chicken skewers

These sweet chilli meatballs were moreish – I think I ate four or five of them!

Sweet chilli meatballs

This was Jac’s other favourite – the smoked salmon sausage rolls. I’m not a big smoked salmon fan, but these were delicious. Must be the magical effect of puff pastry! That first bite into the hot flaky pastry and the chunk of fish inside was unbelievably pleasurable.

Smoked salmon sausage rolls

The dining table was set up on the balcony. There was a separate table set up for the kids. Instead of the usual wedding sugared almonds that no one eats, each guest had a personalised stubby holder or a wooden fan. Jac got the stubby holder, as she’s a beer and spirit drinker. I got a fan, as I’m a non-drinker. It came in very handy as the sun was quite hot as we sat down to eat.

Table setting with Jac's personalised stubby holder

This was a whole cooked red emperor, served cold. The fish was delicious with the creamy homemade tartare sauce.

Whole red emperor

I call this photo “A face only a mother could love”.

A face only a mother could love

I chatted with Heidi as she cooked the garlic prawns on the barbie.

Prawns on the barbie

Prawns cooking on the barbecue

There was a lovely selection of salads. This was my favourite, the chargrilled vegetable salad, with pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini and sweet corn.

Chargrilled vegetable salad

This salad consisted of Chinese cabbage, carrot and mixed greens with an Asian-style dressing.

Salad with Asian-style dressing

This was a Greek salad, with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, olives and cubes of creamy feta.

Greek salad

A pile of fresh bread rolls was placed on the table.

Fresh bread rolls

This was the butter we spread on our bread rolls.

Herb butter

The buffet table

This was marinated butt of beef, which was very tender – I was surprised at just how tender it was. The barbecued prawns were served next to the beef.

Roast beef and barbecued prawns

There was potato bake, and salt and pepper calamari. Our family and friends have very high standards for potato bake, having eaten K’s fantastic potato bake. I enjoyed this one, which had sweet potato as well as potato in it, but with respect to the caterers, I’m afraid K’s potato bake reigns supreme! Pattycakes and I especially enjoyed the calamari, which we ate with lashings of sweet plum sauce. Jac and I were most impressed that the battered calamari was crisp on the outside, despite being served in a bain marie. And even better, the squid inside the batter was lovely and tender.

Potato bake and calamari

This is the Bride’s place setting, with her bouquet, and a wooden fan on the right.

The Bride's place setting

This was one of the bride and groom’s presents. :)

Ball and chain

When it was my turn to hit the buffet, I didn’t hesitate to load up my plate! Heidi stood at the table and carved slices of red emperor for everyone. I really enjoyed the food. That fish was delicious! My only criticism was that the mega-efficient catering staff cleared the food away really quickly, and I didn’t get a chance to raid the buffet table a second time. :) They did place little bowls of calamari and prawns on the table so we could continue eating those (and we did!). There was a lot of food left over, which the caterers GLAD wrapped and put away in the fridge. I did sneak in a couple of rare beef sushi later on – well, sushi’s always best eaten when it’s fresh, right? Heheheh. :)

My plate

I thought the food was great, the service excellent, and the caterers very friendly. The company is called Catering Whitsunday (telephone: (07) 4946 1930, email: twowards@mackay.net.au), and they cater all kinds of functions, from weddings to birthdays to christenings to corporate parties, from canapes and finger food to hot and cold buffets, to fancy gourmet barbecues to banquet dinner parties. No, I’m not getting any referral fees, but I do believe in supporting good local businesses.

The bride and groom posed with their cake(s) shortly after I took this photo. They had an official photographer to take wedding photos – I was just one of a number of amateur photographers present.

Wedding cake

Wedding cupcakes

The sun was very hot by the time we finished eating, and most of us didn’t hesitate to jump into the pool to cool down. I had another reason to get in the pool – I wore a dress to the wedding and was eager to get into my more comfortable bathers and board shorts.

After my dip in the pool, I had one of the vanilla cupcakes. It was a perfect sweet little morsel after all that delicious savoury food.

My vanilla cupcake

This is the view of the sunset from the balcony at the house – beautiful, isn’t it? There will be more beautiful sunset photographs featured in the posts to come.

Sunset

I did take lots of people photos throughout the day (and indeed the whole holiday) – family may login to Flickr to see the complete Hamilton Island photo set (people, as well as food, scenery and animals).

The full list of Hamilton Island holiday posts, in reading order

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