Once upon a time, Alanna and I worked together as travel agents.
Back in the days when we were Figuring-Out-What-We-Wanted-To-Do-With-Our-Lives.
We dealt with students wanting to see all of the world with minimal funds.
We nodded and smiled as irate customers berated us for missed connections.
And we never sold any tickets to Mumbai. No matter how hard we tried.
We listened to cool tunes and ate lots of hot chips.
It was kinda like the travel agent version of Empire Records.

One day, Alanna met Sid.
Sid does amazing things with food.
And he likes puns.
They’re the coolest, sweetest, most easy-going and enthusiastic couple. In the history of couples.

They asked me to be in charge of decorations for their wedding.
The brief was yellow, red and Wes-Anderson-inspired.
AKA Best Brief Ever.

A perfect excuse for quotes from Wes Anderson films in embroidery hoops.
You know I have a thing for embroidery hoops, right?

And then it kinda went like this.
Me: “You Guys! What about pom poms and twigs wrapped in wool?”
Them: “Yes!” (accompanied by gleeful squealing. Or so I’d like to think.)
Them: “We need a Welcome sign. But don’t worry about it, if you don’t have time.”
Me: “Can I use tissue paper?”
Them: “Yes!” (Accompanied by more imaginary, gleeful squealing.)
Them: “What should we do for place cards?”
Me: “Why don’t you print off some of your Instagram pics from this company?”
Them: “Yes! Totally!” (See what I mean about them being easy-going and enthusiastic?)

We are an iron-deficient household. Our iron supplement comes in these very cool, brown bottles.
When we finish off a bottle I just can’t bring myself to throw them out.
I knew I was keeping them for a special occasion.

And those little yellow teapots were table decorations at my wedding.
It pleased me to no end to see them used again at this wedding.
Mainly because it justified my hoarding.

I used this tutorial to make the tissue paper pom poms.
One must always match their manicure to the pom poms. It’s one of my life mottos.

The sun shone.
The harbour sparkled.
The kookaburras laughed.
The celebrant, resplendent in pink, incorporated a hug break into the ceremony.
A Roald Dahl quote was read.
Sid and Alanna got hitched.
May they live happily ever after.

If you ask me to decorate your wedding, it will become a pom-pom-vaganza.