Chuck and Helens wedding was something we had been looking forward to for a long time. I have been friends with Chuck for 35 years and have shared many great moments with him over this period. Some were incredibly sad others full of joy and more often than not a few beers were enjoyed so it was fantastic when he said he had met Helen, he was very much in love and it was obvious very early in their relationship that this was a very serious romance.

Regardless of where we were working we were never going to miss this occasion and as luck would have it we were on holidays in between jobs. We drove to Melbourne from South Australia and had left our van at Rod and Lorraine's place, we arrived a few days before the wedding. Happily Melbourne was turning on some great weather and the days were warm just the way I like it.

I had moved from Melbourne to Queensland 20 years prior and as a result had not seen some of my old friends since that time who were also attending the wedding, so some major reminiscing was a certainty.

We caught up with Chuck and Helen 2 days before the wedding and had a delicious BBQ at their place, they were starting to get a little nervous as the big event was almost upon them but had put a lot of work into the preparation and were confident everything would be fine on the day.

The big day arrived and off to the Church at Mill Park we went, Helen did the traditional Bride thing and kept the Groom waiting for maybe 20 minutes. He was getting a little edgy and I could see the beads of perspiration running down from the top of his head, his fringe has now receded to the back half of his scone.

As was expected the bride did arrive and we were treated to a beautiful ceremony. At the end of proceedings Helen who is no slouch in the singing department declared her Love by singing (the song title now escapes but I am pretty sure it was a Whitney Houston song, oh I hope it was) to Chuck and in fact the whole lot of us. She did a splendid job well done Helen.

The ceremony was held at the Moonee Ponds Bowls Club, the food, entertainment, ambience, cold beer and company were all great a fantastic time was had by all. Stories of days gone by and often forgotten were shared and lots of laughter filled the room. Phone numbers and email addresses were swapped and despite the bad wrap social networking receives (and I feel a lot of it is justified) lost friends can now again become a part of our lives.

All good things must come to an end and the night seemed to go by in a flash, we all gathered in a circle and bid farewell to the newlyweds as they prepared to depart for a honeymoon in South Australia. Best wishes to you both, may you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live.

Remember it's nice to be important but it's important to be nice.