22 Mar A Bush Wedding

Having provided finance advice to Jamie and Peter Raynolds beef cattle operation for the past 15 years, it was a real honour to be invited to Pete’s wedding at “Neringla” recently. “Neringla” is in the beautiful Araluen Valley south of Braidwood NSW.

It was my second Raynolds family wedding, the previous one being Jamie’s third marriage, for which the first wife made the wedding cake! (that’s another story).

The day of the wedding hit a hot and windy 41 degrees’ half an hour before the creek side ceremony began. But with excellent timing, mother nature delivered an easterly breeze which brought the temperature back to 32 degrees just in time for the start of proceedings.

As the bride and groom ambled across the paddock to the ceremonial tree, the two farm dogs marked their territory on the celebrants table in front of an amused crowd. With vows that included wife Anja committing to having ‘as many babies as Pete wanted…within reason’, and Pete referring to his ‘perfect heifer’, the knot was tied.

Post formalities, everyone retired to the old shearing shed for an evening of home grown food, song and dance, and entertaining speeches. I finally retired around midnight to the comfort of my swag, drifting to sleep with the stars in full view, and with Cold Chisel’s ‘Khe San’ emanating from the shed, where the young ones still partied.