Fav pic of the recent holiday

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Originally uploaded by Neil Stone.

As Neil said, you can take the boy out of Newcastle, but you can't take Newcastle out of the boy.

Both Tonks and Neil finally got their photos uploaded, so check them out.

JB and Susans Wedding

We were honored to get an invite to JB and Susan's wedding last weekend in Tulum, Mexico, so headed down there with a bunch of friends to celebrate on the beach with them. There were the usual shenanigans, a corking best man's speech, and loads of people from around the world to help get through Mexico's supply of tequila (we failed) and dance on the beach into the wee hours (we succeeded).

As you could see from the previous post on the trip, Al Brown made an appearance with his dancing shoes, although the prize for the most dancing of the night had to go to Lindsay who didn't appear to stop at all. Pete took a load of high quality pics as usual, and Nixta was the reddest I've seen him in a long time.

Other noticeable events - Neil managed to keep his hair decorations in the whole wedding night, and I managed to snap my favorite shots so far of Lauren and Ally.

And I danced. A lot. But survived.

Mr Flannery and Kelly couldn't make it due to the recent addition to the family (Hi Tessa) so I made a (pretty poor) attempt at the famous Flannery Fly By approach to wedding videos....

More Wedding Footage

Courtesy of the video machine that is known as Flangio (you can tell by the giggles in the background on every video he shoots). This was a late night official group shot (can't wait to see how it came out), with a brief Aussie sing song thrown in for good measure

Tonks and Aly Get Hitched

So, it actually happened - the wedding went ahead without a hitch, the weather held out for the top of the mountain, and everyone had a complete blast. So many stories, so little time, but maybe the pics will give you an idea of how much fun everyone had. Of course, Mr Batty managed to take a few as well (and even had the ceremony ones ready by the cocktail hour, which was pretty damn impressive). The reception ones from him are here....

I survived my MC'ing duties for the night, and luckily didn't feel the urge to break out the MC Hammer impressions (and the boxing approach to introducing people got nixed the night before). Everyone who spoke did a pretty amazing job - I was worried for Sam when I saw him before the speeches, as he looked like he was about to die, but to be honest, when he got going, he managed to make probably the best speech I've ever heard. Ash and Nick also did a great job, and the girls (who had to follow Sam) had obviously done their homework and pulled off the synchronized speech to a tee.

Obviously, being Mr Tonkins wedding, there was a couple of drinks consumed during the day/night and then everyone hit the dancefloor in a big way. Many highlights (Tartleys dive for prime spot in the group photo, Sam's 8 drinks at last orders, Glenns 4 and complete panic that he might have to drink them, Ted shouting out of the balcony window until 3am when Heidi decided to join in and abuse him until he shut up, Nicky offering to get naked if the DJ would play just one more song etc etc), but seeing Aly and Adam smiling the whole night made the hangover worth it.

There's one more video that needs a little touch up before I can post it, so stay tuned for that later in the week - if you weren't there, it'll give you a great feeling for how good it was, and if you were, you're probably in it ;-)

Now, if I can just kick this hangover thing, and stay off the booze for a couple more days......

Wedding Fly-By

When you're drunk, you sometimes forget some of the things that happened during a night. This is especially true of weddings, where free beer (and gin, and vodka, and red bull and then whiskey) is in abundance. This video was one of those things (at least my appearance in it anyway).

See if you can spot to people more used to being subjected to Mr Flannery's fly-bys than the innocent bystanders caught in shock.

Lance and Steph Get Married

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Originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

And we had the pleasure of attending, along with a lot of other smiling happy people. It was a great night, we even got there on time (just...), and despite the weather not co-operating at the last minute, everything went off without a hitch (that's what it looked like from where I was sitting, anyway).

I did manage to take a few photos, so they're here, and the video below when they were all arriving (9 groomsmen and bridesmaids - a new record for a wedding I've attended).

Caught in the act

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Originally uploaded by ebatty.

Guess there's no way I can deny it - anyway, this is just an excuse to say that Pete posted his wedding pics here...

Neil and Lauren Get Married

The Wedding Party
Originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

Well, it was as expected - a perfect day. It seemed like everyone had a blast (and I know we did), and some of the dancing towards the end of the night bordered on the spectacular.

I made a point of trying to take plenty photos during the day, only to realize that I hadn't managed very many of Neil and Lauren together when I came to upload them.

Anyway, the rest of the pics are here (and if other people have any, let me know so I can add in the links). Now I just have to work out how to get rid of my hangover (but it's not as bad as Thompsons ;-)

Wedding Season is Almost Upon Us

This summer is going to be a bit of an epic, now that last years engagements are coming to their natural fruition. Not only are the weddings going to make for some great weekends, there's always the trips to Vegas, or Pub Crawls (I'm sure literally) along Colfax to test the liver performance (not to mention the influx of friends from various continents to join in the celebrations).

So first up is Neil and Lauren (June though, so still a bit of time to try and get the belly small enough to fit into the suit), so in honor of their unusual obsession with music (and because I know they're the other readers apart from my immediate family), I've dedicated the following to them.

Lauren's Bachelorette Party

Last week was Lauren's bachelorette party, and as I'm a boy, I know nothing about what happened - my role (no, not stripper, although of course I volunteered) was kept as designated taxi driver for the wife and sister for the night, ,which was fine by me - I got a night on XBox, accompanied by my faithful servant, KFC for one.
Anyway, it sounded like everyone had a blast (and Lauren avoided doing too many shots). Heidi posted some pics on Flickr if you want to check them out.

Hair Wig Out (Bigtime)

If this is real, it's ridiculous, but makes me glad I married the girl I did.

Thanks to Tonks for the link, although not sure what he's doing checking stuff like this out.

All the fun starts a minute or so in - and glad to see the bridesmaids being so supportive ("if you laugh one more time, I won't be your friend anymore")