Wedding day

Healesville, Victoria, November 10, 2012—

THE BIG DAY finally at hand, we feasted on Viennoiserie at home for breakfast. Then the women got to work making bouquets, braiding hair, and putting finishing touches to frocks while the men strained into their suits, and we drove out to the wine countryside for the wedding.

The first reception involved cucumber sandwiches and sparkling wine in a park on a glorious afternoon. That was followed by another, with canapés and (in my case) Pinot grigio; and then a three-course dinner at the hotel restaurant: smoked local trout on a Niçoise salad with tarragon and lemon aïoli; roast lamb and confit of lamb shoulder with roasted fennel caponata and olives; hazelnut and pear tart with honey ice cream. I thought that for a small country hotel, serving perhaps eighty guests simultaneously, the dinner was remarkably good — but the circumstances were so splendid almost anything would have been fabulous.

Riesling; Cabernet sauvignon; sorry, didn't get the details

• Healesville Hotel, 256 Maroondah Highway, Healesville 3777, Victoria; 03 5962 4002