A Cure Fan Wedding, Part 1

This is the story of a friendship, and how it's grown throughout the years, and how that friendship would have been impossible without the Cure. It's also the story of one awesome Cure fan's wedding for those that know and love him and weren't able to be there.

In the beginning...

The three Cure-sketeers

So, for many years I was a hardcore Cure fan, but didn't really know any others (with the exception of my wonderful husband) who were really as into the band as I was. Somehow, even though I'd been online for years, it didn't occur to me to actually go looking for other people who shared that particular passion, even though I read Chain of Flowers on a pretty regular basis.

However, some time very early in 2002, I discovered there was a Yahoo group dedicated to the Cure (called Procure) and joined it, discovering that there were regular weekly chats, (This being the origin of Friday Night Cure Chat in my world) and started participating. Sometimes there were a lot of people in the room, but many nights, it seemed to come down to just three people, myself, Fuji and Miss Throwing Shapes.

We chatted together nearly every week and began shaping this friendship bond between the three of us, which we all share very strongly to this day. In 2003, we were able to meet Shapes and her hubby at the Inland Invasion show in California, and in 2004, Fuji traveled to the US with his new girlfriend to attend several of the Curiosa tour shows, and this was our first introduction to Fuji in person, and thankfully not the last. For many years, these two people were my only "Cure peeps", but fortunately that changed last year, and how!

More Cure peeps...

Skipping ahead a few years, I've already blogged about how the Chain of Flowers blog comments became a way for fans to meet each other, and many friendships have been started because of that specific forum. It has been so great to have a huge crowd of Cure peeps to travel with and experience shows with, and it's been amazing to meet so many wonderful people over the past year or so. However we meet each other, it seems to me that Cure fans can form a special bond through the mutual appreciation of the music and meaning of The Cure, and this past year's experience is no exception. This bond was one of the ways that many of us were able to travel to the NME awards shows and the Las Vegas show, (photo right, CoF peeps at the Las Vegas sign in April 09) through mutual assistance and sharing of resources such as accommodation and transportation. It's wonderful to be a part of such a caring network of people, and it was obvious throughout the many shows that we shared that generosity and love are the norm for most fans (which is part of why it shocks me so tremendously when I see people acting selfishly and aggressively at Cure concerts, it just doesn't jibe with my experiences)

Fuji and the Bride

One of the most generous and dedicated fans that I've ever met is this Australian fellow called Fuji. Those who have met him even once are always in awe of his love for other fans and the way that he can instantly make anyone feel at home. He is the person who has said to me repeatedly "Cure fans are the best people in the world", and then been the one who embodied that quote the most. He is one of the best people in the world, and as one who is privileged to call him a friend, I was completely honored to be able to participate in one of the most important days of his life, his wedding, to his beautiful and serene Bride, Melanie. I can honestly say that she is the calmest, most unruffled bride in the whole world, and Fuji is a lucky man for attracting someone as beautiful in spirit as he is. It was also such a blast to get to spend a week with some of the other best people in the world, fans like Elise, Shapes and Wendy and Chanell.

The Wedding Week

If you really know Fuji, then you know that AFL or "footy" is his other great love besides his Bride and his music, so miss Shapes decided to land a bit early to take in some of the festivities around the Grand Finals (the AFL super bowl) and I followed shortly after, landing on Saturday, the day of the big game. His lovely bride greeted me at the airport and then we went to a GF watching party where the Geelong Cats won against St. Kilda which apparently made Fuji happy (don't ask me, I'm not a sports fan!) but Shapes was rooting for St. Kilda so she wasn't as happy. Then we retired to the Fuji and the Bride's homestead for just a little bit of Trilogy played on his massive home theater (sorry Kel, it was only three songs!) and the ceremonial Yank Vegemite initiation, which I flunked but the lovely miss Shapes did not, and then off to bed we went.

We woke up on a rainy wet and cold Sunday and went off to downtown Melbourne for a peek at the first Costco in the Southern Hemisphere and then a tram tour of the city. Because the Costco had only been open for a month, there was a huge line to get a membership. We also walked around downtown Melbourne a little but it was too cold, windy and wet to do much touristy stuff, so we left downtown and went to a grocery story to stock up for favorite foodstuffs and piles of Aussie candy and of course Tim Tams. So basically, on Sunday we shopped. Then finally on Sunday night, Elise joined us at the homestead so it was a big Cure fan slumber party for the rest of the week that only got bigger and bigger as time wore on.



On Monday, we went off to the excellent Healesville Animal Sanctuary and drove through some of the most beautiful rolling green hills that you can imagine to get there. Healesville is an amazing place and we were very lucky to get to see some amazing animals here. In particular we were blessed with a visit to the koalas enclosure where we got to see a baby koala and his mother interact and feed together. This video is from Fuji's camera.



Following the sanctuary, we went to a local winery for some wine and cheese and then finally a drive through Fuji's home town of Eltham and dinner at Mexicali Casa before heading home.

Tuesday dawned a bit warmer and brighter than Monday had, and so we went off to St. Kilda Beach after a few wedding-related errands. St. Kilda Beach is the home of the historic Luna Park which originally opened in 1912 and although we didn't go inside the park, I had a great time photographic it's scenic wooden rollercoaster with the palm trees all around it. I also got my first taste of the Australian dessert favorite, pavlova , with many thanks to Sarah from India for this recommendation. It was yummy! Kel was supposed to arrive this day, Tuesday, but that is her story to tell someday about her adventures in getting to Australia and her trip through Fiji.

On Wednesday we added a few people to the wedding cohort when Wendy and her daughter Chanell arrived from Sydney and we moved from the homestead into the Plum apartments in Southbank, in downtown Melbourne. Two three-bedroom apartments on the top floor of an apartment block were now stuffed with Cure fans in anticipation of the big day. We got settled in and then met everyone for a big dinner on the riverbank and got our first introduction to the insanely cool fire fountains on the riverwalk. Yes I said FIRE FOUNTAINS. They are very cool and there are five of them which go off in synchronized patterns. Here's a youtube video I found that shows several of them.



We woke up very early on Thursday morning and went out on a tour of the Great Ocean Road which is an extremely windy road that hugs the coastline of Australia west of Melbourne for 243 km, and which encompasses some of the most scenic views that this area has to offer. One of the biggest attractions on the Great Ocean Road, besides the quaint villages and breathtaking coastline views is the limestone rock formations known as the 12 Apostles. Unfortunately there are a few less than 12 now due to erosion, with one falling only the week before we arrived. We had to cut our day a little short and get back to Melbourne quickly, as there was a special treat due at the wedding and a rehearsal was in order! During the rehearsal, Kel finally arrived in Melbourne after her epic journey across the Pacific and so we were able to welcome the last Cure peep to the cohort.

Friday was filled with the final preparations for the wedding and a short visit to the famed Queen Victoria's Market in downtown Melbourne. After collecting everyone together underneath the clocks at Flinders Street Station in downtown Melbourne and seeing the Robert Smith mural that Chanell had discovered in a vintage clothing store, we went off to the market. We wandered the stalls in search of souvenirs to take home and then struck off after the market visit in different directions each according to our own tastes and needs. Shapes and I went over to visit the famous Lightning Ridge Opals store which was very hard for me to leave due to my obsession with black opals. Finally, it was time to go back to the apartment for drinks and then over to Southbank again for a final pre-wedding dinner for Fuji.

Photo courtesy of Kelly (KellyR Photography)

You can see all of my pictures from this adventure here in the slideshow or just click on through to Flickr.

Part 2 coming soon!