Anna + Albie Proof 2

Anna + Albie

Anna + Albie FEBRUARY 20, 2021 N E W Z E A L A N D H I G H C O U N T RY, Q U E E N S TOW N

Albie’s Vows Anna, you are my best friend and the love of my life. From our first date drinking terra sancta at Busta Crabb we have been inseparable, and I cannot imagine my life without you.

I was struck by your intelligence and sense of humour. As we got to know each other I saw how caring you were and the kindness and generosity you showed to everyone in your life. You are honest, loyal, and determined. You are my perfect woman.

We have already started a wonderful life together. We have a house and our wonderful pets. This marriage is just a step on our journey of our relationship together.

As your husband I promise to support your dreams and ambitions.

To support you through lifes ups and downs.

To listen to you and value your opinion.

To compromise.

To treat your family as my own.

I promise to do the dishes and clean up messes made by the pets.

I love you and cannot wait for our future together.

Anna’s Vows Albie, you are my best friend and I love you.

I feel that I am so lucky to have you in my life forever, and know that you will be by my side every day. I will continue to tell you of my love for you every day, as I continue to fall more in love with you every day.

Today as I take your last name, I also take your identity by sharing all the same initials and surname. I promise to try not to open your mail or take your credit card by mistake. I promise to always hear what you have to say with an open mind, and consider wisely your position in an argument before coming to the conclusion that you are indeed, incorrect. By doing so I promise to continue to challenge and frustrate you, knowing that you secretly love to argue with me. I promise to always love you – through the good and the bad, and to stand by you through this. To encourage you, to inspire you, and to have faith in you. And to always support you and be there for you, when you need me. Albie, loving you is equally the best and easiest thing I have ever done. And I promise that our lifetime together will be our best adventure yet and I am so excited to finally call you my husband.

Bridal Party BRIDE

ANNA GOBLE

G RO O M

ALBIE FORD

MAID OF HONOUR BRIDESMAID G RO O M S M E N

K AT H R Y N B U T L E R

ELIZABETH CLARK J AC K + H A R RY F O R D

Elizabeth Clark Known to her close friends as Biff, her workmates as Liz, a friend of Anna’s since Year 9 at James Hargest. They have been friends ever since and flatted together for a couple of years in Dunedin.

Recently engaged herself, you will spot her rating the food, making some notes for her own wedding and judging everyone's dance moves.

Kathryn Butler Kathryn and Anna have been good friends since their days at St Theresa’s primary school. She managed to escape the UK when COVID hit early last year, just in time for the wedding year. A Speech and Language Therapist by trade, everyone has high expectations for her speech later tonight.

Jack Ford Jack is the baby brother in the Ford Family, who has inherited his Mother’s taste in wine.

Jack has been a Second Officer with Cathay Pacific, a First Officer with Air New Zealand and more recently a receptionist at Cruickshank Pryde.

Harry Ford Harry is the middle brother in the Ford family. He has taken time off his busy schedule driving Fonterra tankers to get a haircut and shave, to appease Anna for the wedding photos today. Keep an eye out for Harry when Wagon Wheel starts to play.

Albie’s Speech Welcome everyone and thanks for braving the bus ride here. It has been an amazing day and we appreciate you all for joining us to celebrate. COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works when planning this event; for most of 2020 and a good part of this week. Despite this Anna with help from Judy and others have put together a beautiful wedding. I don't think I can claim any of the credit. Maybe the menu. Then there are the friends and family overseas that could not be here today. They are in our thoughts, especially Anna’s brother Chris. My original best man and groomsman are stuck in the UK but I have had the honour of having my brothers Harry and Jack stepping up to be by my side.

I have elected neither as the best man, despite what they both might tell you. I’m sure Jack will also make mention of being second choice in his speech however he did get a free suit out of it. To my darling wife Anna. We made it.

You look amazing. I was blown away when you walked down the aisle. You have the week from hell leading up to this wedding but have taken it all in your stride. I'm incredibly proud of you and honored to be your Husband. Kathryn and Biff. You both look wonderful in brown. Thank you for being by Anna's side and helping her plan the day during a pandemic. To David and Judy. You have welcomed me into your family since day one and treat me as one of your own. David didn’t even say anything when I accidentally sat in his chair on my first time over for dinner. You are both incredibly kind and generous and I now know where Anna gets it from. I look forward to being part of the Goble family. To my parents, Lynda and Des. Thank you for the lessons you have taught me and the values you have passed on. Your long and happy marriage is a blueprint to the one I hope to have with Anna. Thank you. Can everyone please raise your glasses to my new, wonderful wife Anna. I will remind you that only some of the stories you will hear about me tonight are true. Thank you all again for coming and I hope you enjoy your evening.

Jack’s Speech Good evening everyone, it is fantastic to be here tonight as Albie’s second choice of groomsman, although after the events of this last week he very nearly had to move on to his third choice. For those of your who don’t know me, I am Jack, Albie’s unofficial best man and favourite brother. Now, I wont take up too much of your time, I’ve been told that I have to limit my alcohol intake until after I have finished the speech, so that’s a good incentive for me to get through this reasonably quickly. I would just like to start off by congratulating our newlyweds on their vows and their beautiful day. I would also like to say how great it is to see so many of Albie and Anna’s friends and family here, and we will be thinking of those who unfortunately were not able to make it here from overseas. I would also like to point out how beautiful our bridesmaids look tonight, only to be eclipsed by our gorgeous bride Anna who looks absolutely stunning. Now having known Albie for all of my life, I think its fair to say that it would take a very special person to be married to him, and I can’t think of anyone more perfect than Anna. From being very organised, being a great cook and most importantly being a lawyer, Anna is one of the few people who is able to beat Albie in an argument. I think it is fair to say that Albie has found the person that not only completes him, but also completes all of the half-finished projects around the house. Before meeting Anna, Albie had only one side of the house painted, a hole knocked through the wall between the kitchen and lounge (which was due to be plastered up “at some point”), paving stones piled up the driveway, along with several other jobs that had been started but never finished. Then within six months of meeting Anna, all of a sudden - the house was painted, the wall was fixed, as well as the laundry, kitchen and bathroom being renovated. I think Anna organising outside help may have also been a factor. While you may be a good engineer Albie, maybe the DIY is best left to the professionals. Now one thing about Anna, is that she knew what she was in for with Albie from the first time they met. Right before Albie and Anna had their first date, Albie had become an avid mountain biker. This was just like how he had been a keen surfer, or DJ before that, or a vinyl collector before that. Well, the very first time that Albie went out on his new bike he fell over the handlebars and ended up breaking his arm. This meant that Anna spent their very first date cutting up all of Albie’s food for him. Anna, unfortunately I think that this could be an indication of what married life with Albie is going to be like. I’d also like to point out that the mountain bike is still in the garage, right next to the surfboard, having never been ridden again. Now, early on in the relationship, there was something else that Anna had to contend with, that being the rest of the Ford family. Now, due to our family being the way that we are, when Albie started seeing Anna, he didn’t exactly give us a lot of details. Harry decided he was going to figure out who this new girl was, by going through Albie’s Facebook friends and reading out all of the girls names while looking at Albie’s face for a reaction. Now with Anna’s name starting with an A, it didn’t take many names before hers to come out and it was quite clear from Albie’s expression that this was the girl. This resulted in several members of the Ford family sending Anna friend requests on Facebook, despite the fact that she had only been on a few dates with Albie. Anna, I am glad to see the Ford family didn’t scare you off, and in our defence, we always knew you were the one. And on a serious note, it was clear to all of us that you were a perfect fit from the first time we met you. The way you bounce off each other, the fun and the jokes that I always see between you, it was always clear that you were meant for each other. Anna, it is so great to be welcoming you to the family and I am so happy to not just have you as a sister-in-law but also a friend, who I probably talk to more than Albie. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of your special day and I wish you both all the happiness for this new chapter of your lives. Now, I would like to ask everyone to raise a glass and join me in toasting our bride and groom.

Kathryn’s Speech Hello everyone, my name is Kathryn and I have been given the very important job of standing by Anna’s side, today with Biff here. Now, I’ve known Anna for nearly 20 years. We went to primary school together where we bonded over a love of Singstar and Harry Potter. We used to spend hours behind those microphones on the weekend, vying to be declared a Singstar. Honestly if Anna and I were in lockdown together with Singstar 80’s - I don’t think we would have had to hire a band tonight. Between singing songs all day and being waited on by Judy’s five star meals and baking, it almost felt like we were a professional girl band at the time. Those days are long behind us though and Anna has achieved a lot since then. She’s travelled the world, become a mother to Pippa, Louis and Harvey, become a big shot lawyer and probably her greatest achievement of all … met the lovely Albie! When Anna met Albie just over four years ago, I think they both knew that there was a special connection early on. I got the first text update saying “date one went well”. And then date two, three and four proceeded very quickly! Four weeks later, Albie had obviously fallen for Anna’s charm as he declared his love for her at work by sending a bouquet of roses to her on Valentines Day! From what I heard, it created a lot of excitement for the ladies at Council, where Anna worked at the time. A few years later, Albie got his knee dirty in Sydney and asked the big question. Which, let’s be honest, is a very exotic location to be proposed to, these days! Thankfully the ‘meet the parents’ and friends events went well on both sides, and the rest is history. Anna’s great cooking and eye for home decor truly make her the hostess with the mostest and after a few very competitive games nights at Trent Street, we have all gotten to know each other very well! Now, I would like to acknowledge that today isn’t quite the wedding that you both had in mind originally, with friends and family unable to make it today. We are all feeling very lucky to be here today and I know it was very stressful for these newlyweds trying to plan a wedding when it felt like all weddings were being cancelled at the time! As always, Anna’s planning has been impeccable and it was all meant to be. So before I finish today, I just want to leave Albie with some advice for his future with Anna. This advice may, or may not, come from personal experience. One - Don’t take Anna on a skiing holiday.

She may have a tendency to fall over and injure herself before leaving the carpark and even touching skis. Two - Don’t let Anna drive a boat with a Priest on board, for she may just crash the boat. Three - If you want Anna to impress your colleagues at a work function, you should play ‘Everybody in the club gettin tipsy’ as she knows a great hip hop dance to it. On behalf of Elizabeth and I, we are so glad that the two of you have found each other and cannot wait to see what the future holds for you both. Cheers everybody, to Anna and Albie.

Anna’s Speech Thank you to Gemma and Luke for saving the best for last! Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you for celebrating with us today, and travelling to Queenstown. It’s a pretty incredible feat to have all of our favourite people in one room and for that we are truly grateful. Thank you to Dr. Ashley Bloomfield for making this possible. If you’d asked me a year ago how far people would be travelling to celebrate with us – I could list eight different countries. Instead, we got to plan a wedding during a time of global pandemic, which many cannot claim – and for that I envy them! Thank you to Brenton who live streamed our wedding ceremony across the globe to all our international guests. You may not have realised but we had friends and family in the States, UK, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong and Australia – dressed up, drinking bubbles and celebrating with us. For most it was the middle of the night – but their unwavering friendship had them up all hours to celebrate. For me personally, it was a pretty hard pill to swallow that my brother Chris is unable to be here today as he is in London. However, we received what I have been referring to as “COVID 19 telegrams” and our friends across the globe had sent us a lot of videos which I stored away as a surprise for Albie and he watched them this morning as he got ready. Thank you to my lovely cousin Amy who has made us girls look presentable for our big day, an early start and difficult canvases to work with - she has done an amazing job! To Amaia - our princess, thank you for being our little flower girl and helping me walk down the aisle today. You were wonderful! To my old friends, Luke and Gemma - you have been fantastic MC’s and I promise your role is nearly over and your can have a few more drinks and relax! To Jack and Harry, thank you for stepping up to fill in the shoes of Isaac and Kane – Albie’s original groomsmen who are trapped in Nottingham and Edinburgh. Jack and I actually first met back in High School when we were both local government geeks at a conference in Porirua. Fast forward ten years and we are now great friends, we have great taste in wine, Netflix shows and love to travel – we both enjoy drinking cocktails from buckets and attempting to get medicine for spider bites in foreign countries. As for Harry, he added me on Facebook after Albie and I had our first date. Obviously keen to be my friend, we bonded over some political – sometimes controversial - discussions, our love of animals and joking around. I am incredibly honoured to have you both as my brother-in-law’s. To Kathryn and Biff – thank you so much for standing by my side today and for the last few decades. I am so lucky to have you both as friends and for assisting in curing the wedding day nerves. The power of orange juice and champagne is amazing. I look forward to many more years of wines, platters and games nights. But more importantly your unwavering love, support and guidance. I also now have a new set of parents – the inlaws. Contrary to all the horror stories, mine are amazing – Des and Lynda love a wine, or five. But more importantly they love their children and one another. They have raised a wonderful family, and I feel so lucky to be joining them as a new Ford. From the moment I first met them they have been so incredibly warm and inviting. I truly cannot express how grateful I am to them. To my parents, Judy and David. I cannot let this occasion pass without mentioning what a wonderful example my Mum and Dad have set for me. Besides their loving devotion as parents, they have demonstrated an unfailing devotion to each other. I hope to have a marriage as wonderful as the example that you have set for me. You have both been my counsel, my chauffer, my secretary, my banker and my best friends over the years. Thank you both so much for all your contributions to today – it has truly been the best day. Finally – my dear Albie. When I was at the Invercargill City Council I had written a subdivision bylaw. Albie, the outspoken know it all, turned up at the bylaw consultation with a list of flaws and issues with it. As everyone knows – I hate to be wrong – so his feedback certainly was not appreciated. Fast forward six months to us sharing a bottle of Pinot Noir at Busta Crabb and I decided he was better to have on my team than to work against me – our unwavering desire to always be right meant that it was best we would work together. And that is what we have done and will continue to do! We make a great team in both our relationship and life. I like to think that we have both made each other better people – perhaps I am less stressed and highly strung, and perhaps you are less of a ‘know it all’ and more of a let me ‘check with my know it all wife and come back to you’. I digress, Albie – as you know I couldn’t live without you – the cupboards in the house are too high for me to reach and its a real blessing knowing you’re there to help. Thank you for being here today – I know public speaking and large crowds are not your favourite thing but today truly has been wonderful, and I hope the rest of our marriage is just like today, except less expensive. I have been trying hard to come up with something original that would sum up everything that I feel about Albie, and how much this day means to me. But nothing quite expresses what I wanted to say, so let me keep it old-fashioned and say, in front of all our family and friends: I love you. Anyway, as you all know I have a sweet tooth and dessert is waiting for us – as is the dance floor. Before you all go and check out the cocktail and whiskey bar – which I actively encourage you all to do, I would like to make one final toast of the night and that is to all of you. It may be some time before we meet up again - living in this COVID world we can never be too sure - so I would like to propose a final toast for the day. This is my toast to you; to all our friends and family, old and new, I drink to your good health, happiness and love.

May we always have each other. Cheers.

Kane’s Speech Hi Everyone, I’m Kane, the back-up best man. Whilst I was incredibly honoured to be asked to stand alongside Albie today unfortunately I cannot be here in person. I had the pleasure of meeting Albie sometime in 2006, and what might appear to be a reoccurring theme today, I wasn’t immediately fond of him. Perhaps it was reassurance from his best man Isaac, that he wasn’t a bad bloke, (most certainly not the type of guy to push his friend into a ditch to secure a questionable “shotgun” and then proceed to leave said friend locked in the back boot of a car for six hours), or perhaps me being partially deaf just paired well with his booming voice, but we soon bonded over our love for Gin and Milk and the dance music sensation Cascada, and as they say the rest is history. Those who know Albie are aware he is more academically inclined than athletic. He once managed to break both his wrists skipping through an open doorway, just take a moment to think to yourselves how difficult that is. Years later those same wrists were rebroken whilst attempting a backflip on a mountain bike trying to keep up with cousin Richie. I’m not sure Anna fully expected to have to cut and feed Albie his dinner on their second date. Best to stick to the books Albie. Jokes aside we’ve had some great moments together Albie, perhaps the biggest test of our friendship was the day we walked the Kepler together. A few years ago Albie and I set out on a poorly planned and poorly executed hike. Walking 60km and climbing 2,000 metres over a 14 hour day whilst chugging down pre workout is definitely the stupidest thing we’ve ever done together. Late in the day with the sunlight fading, I checked the GPS and wrongly informed Albie that we were just 3km from the finish line when in reality we were about 10km. Rather than owning up to my mistake as I thought that this would quite literally have broken him, I decided to try and convince Albie that what he thought was 1km was merely 300m. Albie eventually figured out I had been lying to him about 2km from the finish where we walked the rest of the way in silence.

Albie, congratulations on landing someone as special as Anna, I remember when your default choice of conversation suddenly changed from “Roads” to Anna, it was a day when you changed for the best. Anna, your husband is definitely one of the most dependable guys I know. He’s gone out of his way to help me out on many occasion and he’s as loyal as a friend gets and I know he will be a model husband. Yvonne and I wish you well and your own happily ever after. Hopefully, if the situation allows we will have you both present at our own celebrations later in the year. So then, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you all to stand and raise your glasses to toast the new husband and wife! Cheers!

Isaac’s Speech Hi everyone, I am an old friend of Albie’s and was going to be one of his groomsmen today. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this great celebration thanks to some bloke who decided to eat a raw bat. Luckily, Albie’s got one reliable brother, and Harry, to step up and do the job today… Cheers boys. I am so pleased this day has come. Knowing Albie as well as I do, I had my doubts he would ever be able to lock down ‘the one.’ I’m sure you all know that Albie has a talent of always being right. When he’s not right, he has a talent of speaking louder than you until you come around to his way of thinking. That was until Anna came along. A successful lawyer. An intelligent woman. A professional at winning a discussion. He’s met his match. My friendship with Albie didn’t get off to the best start. It was 21 years ago. Both new starters at Hauroko Valley primary school when one lunchtime us boys decided to have a bark chip war on the playground. Friendly enough of course, until Albie “accidently“ threw one right in my eye. He was left celebrating his victory and I was left crying. We’ve been friends ever since, and I now wear glasses. I had the pleasure of living with Albie back in Invercargill for a few years. Albie was a quiet bloke Monday to Friday, went to work during the day and often studied at night. Pretty low key. Pretty boring. At the weekends however, Albie would travel up to Dunedin and live the party life. A completely different person who we named Dunedin Albie. Dunedin Albie was heavily into dub step music, so much so that after one weekend in Dunedin he returned home with a full DJ set of equipment to start up as a DJ. DJ Albatross was born. Now, if none of you have heard his beats before, I’m hoping for your sake that DJ Albatross isn’t jumping on the decks tonight and you can all enjoy your evening. Finally, I would like to say - Anna and Albie, you are perfect for each other - Have a wonderful day. I have no doubt that you will have a long and happy marriage, as long as Anna – you let him win one every once in a while. Terri and I can’t wait to celebrate with you, in 2024 - when we are finally allowed out of lockdown and can come back to New Zealand. Cheers to the happy couple.

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