Keep It Sweetly Simple!

Simple easy service with one of Canberra's most experienced celebrants. (I have married over 1400 couples.) Your beautiful, memorable and personalised alternative to a Registry Office wedding. Only one one-hour meeting required and the next time we meet, it's your wedding day!

27 June 2012

Abundant birds and a beautiful bride brighten the wintry Heart Garden


Hello, and welcome.
Galahs, and a cocky having fun
Crimson rosella
It must be that birds are attracted to love. 
I love our garden - can my feathered friends sense this? Couples come here to declare their love for one another and make their vows of marriage - does this attract love birds? 
     Or is it that there’s always a plentiful supply of food and water here for many types of birds? Whatever the reason, birds flock to the Heart Garden at all times of the year but lately they've been more abundant.
King parrot at the feeding tray
Cockatoos
     At recent weddings, we’ve had visits from rosellas, parrots, peewees, sparrows, crested pigeons and cockatoos. Personally, I discourage the cockies. They’re raucous and very destructive. Last week though, the mother of the groom, who’d flown from Florida for her son’s small private wedding in the Heart Garden on June 15, was thrilled to see and hear the cockies. Of course she took many photos. 
     (I realised afterwards that up at Fetherston Gardens at the top of my street, there are always families of kangaroos. So if you’re planning a Heart Garden wedding and you’ve got guests from overseas, I can show you where the kangaroos often gather.)


     Yesterday Wen and Dehai were visited by rosellas during their wedding ceremony. 
     We held the wedding inside where it cosy for Wen in her beautiful classic wedding frock. We also got lots of lovely photos outside as the weather was mild and the temperature didn’t drop until around 4.30 when the sun was sinking rather rapidly in the west.
     If you marry in the Heart Garden in springtime, you’re likely to be serenaded by our resident blackbird. He likes to sing morning and evening, I guess when he’s calling for a mate. I can’t guarantee his timing though. I hope you’ll be lucky as he sings the sweetest song.

ACT Registry Office Wedding Alternative

     It brings me great pleasure to offer a weekday alternative to registry office weddings. It was in the mid 90’s I think that the last wedding ceremonies were held at Canberra Registry Office, but this fact is not widely known. 
     I appreciate that Google sends enquiries my way when couples are looking for a small quiet weekday wedding. 
In my Heart Garden a bride and groom can have the added pleasure of a very beautiful setting, maybe with several feathered guests. They can bring bubbly (including non-alcoholic) for celebration afterwards and spend time taking photos as they linger in the garden. 
      It’s good to allow a couple of hours it seems, as recent visitors have enjoyed staying this long. Some weddings take half an hour from arrival to departure and if this fits with the timetable the bride and groom have set, I am happy to co-operate.

A local love dove service

     At a small family wedding this month, held at Nara Peace Park, the loving couple had hired the services of Doves Away so they’d have two doves fly symbolically above their wedding site then fly off together ‘into the future’. I can’t show you photos of the couple because their wedding was private, but here they are holding the doves:

     The doves were beautiful and co-operated very well. Their owner is Helen, and if you’d like her doves to feature at your own wedding, you can contact her here. As always, I have no financial arrangement with this local provider of a wedding service that I personally endorse and want to let you know about.


If you’d like me to be your celebrant

     If you’d like me to be your celebrant, at a small simple (but still special) Heart Garden wedding, or at a larger wedding at the weekend (or during the week) I’d be delighted to be there for you both. You’ll find lots of information about the full service I provide in the Wedding Pages on the right. 
     I include detailed information about getting married in general, along with the notes about the service I provide. For easier reference, if you'd like all this information printed as a 12 page booklet, along with a Notice of Intended Marriage (obligation-free, of course) just email me with your address and I'll post them to you.
     To make a booking enquiry, please phone me (any day between 9am and 9pm) or use this email contact form, and I'll get back to you very soon. (I spend a lot of my day at my computer, and I access it most evenings as well.) 
     I invite you to phone me with any questions you may have, or use the contact form, or text me, or we can talk on Skype if you wish. My mobile is 0406 376 375, my landline 02 6161 0718. Please note here that I am available for meetings only with couples who have booked me as their celebrant.


If you’d like to marry in the Heart Garden

Our winter-flowering apricot, prunus mume
'The Geisha' flowers from mid-June to
mid-August. It's a favourite perch 
for many visiting .birds. (See above)
     If you’d like to marry in the Heart Garden, you can see what’s in flower at any month of the year by visiting my blog Come To My HeartGarden where you’ll find a list of months with links to photo albums. The albums can all be run as slideshows. 
     If you choose to marry in my garden, I’ll be here to welcome you and help you make your wedding a joyful memorable event (even if lowkey). And who knows how many birds will fly in your the happy occasion?


     Till next time
     
     Sincerely
     Michele

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love this blog !!!Marriage celebrant Gold Coast

Michele the Celebrant - Michele Bolitho said...

Helen, thank you. Seems we share the same enthusiasm for our work. Haven't we got the best job in the world?! Great website. I especially like the way you wrote 'People of all faiths and ages warmly welcomed'.