Alphabet 2020: E is for Ed and......

The first time I remember hearing Ed Sheeran sing it was on MTV. I don't know if it was the first time he came to Australia or not, but there was a short clip of him standing near a beach in Sydney with a few girls around him while he sang a few of his early songs, so I guess it was about 2011.

Since then I have listened to so much of his music, I have also seen him live in concert twice which has been amazing because of the way that he just builds his layers of sounds using his guitars, the loop pedal and his voice. And I will totally go again next time he comes to Australia.

I also enjoyed his appearance in the movie Yesterday. If you haven't seen that movie it is such a lovely feel good movie with a fabulous Beatles soundtrack.

I even danced my first wedding dance to an Ed Sheeran song when I got married 6 months ago today and when we had our wedding celebration a month after that. In a way, how it came to be that song is  kind of a fun story.

I had never been that girl who dreamed of her wedding day which is lucky seeing as it didn't happen in my 20's, 30's  or early 40's. I never had a wedding planned out at all. I had started thinking about it when I first met my ex but that didn't last very long really. The only thing that I ever knew about what would happen IF I ever got married and that was the song. Since the very early 2000s I knew that my song was going to If You Say Nothing At All by Ronan Keating from the movie Notting Hill.

That was a constant for about 15 years until I first heard the song Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. Within days, my wedding song had changed, even though there was still no sign of a husband. I loved that song so hard.

So imagine my surprise when my song changed again when the song Perfect was released a couple of years ago. This time though, there was something else different in my life. There was a potential candidate in my life. And so it was that 6 months ago today, I married my lovely, lovely husband.

We actually eloped to a resort in Vanuatu called Erakor and it was amazing. It seems a bit funny to think of our wedding as an elopement because it was nothing like a quick trip to Vegas or a historical romance elopement. I mean there was no dash for Gretna Green after being caught in a compromising position with an angry father or brother chasing us all the way. The other thing that the word elopement suggests to me is that it was a sudden decision but really we pretty much organised our wedding seven months prior to the wedding day and then we waited for the time to come. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we had started organising our wedding before we even got officially engaged so not particularly rushed.

So at our wedding, there was us, the celebrant, the photographer and a couple of staff members from the resort and that was it. Oh, and the warrior escort that were to become known as the bridesmaids  later. And it was amazing! Arriving on the beach to be escorted by the warriors to the sound of the conch horn, seeing Robert looking so handsome waiting for me under the canopy on the beach.

The morning that we were getting married the chef from the resort came to talk to us about what we would like for our celebration dinner. After discussing what produce he had available, decisions were made. After the ceremony and photographs, we changed and then made our way to the over water hut and had the most amazing dinner and champagne.

There was a guitarist who was playing songs all through the night at the resort restaurant which along with the fairy lights provided ambience, but there was a moment when the time was right to just have our Perfect moment. We chose the version of the song which features Andre Bocelli because Robert loves classical music and this version of the song gives me all the feels, even now. Or maybe even more now!

So really today's post could have had an alliterative title - Ed and eloping to Erakor.

And six months on....what can I say.....we're still newlyweds really!