MOUNTAIN WEDDING

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 6

MOUNTAIN WEDDING

UNIQUE EVENT ON EGMONT BRIDAL COUPLE IN SKI COSTUME. GUESTS SIMILARLY ATTIRED. POPULAR STRATFORD MARRIAGE. A ceremony unique in the history of Taranaki, and probably of New Zealand, took place on the slopes of Mount Egmont, 000 feet above sea level, last night, when John Dixon Carryer and Mavis Collins, from to-day caretakers, of the east mountain house, were married at the house. The wedding was a mountain wedding, as much from the prominent position held in the Stratford Mountain Club by both bride and bridegroom as from the position to which they have been appointed, and a real mountain atmosphere was carefully preserved. The most striking and unusual feature of the wedding was the attire of the bride and bridegroom, who wore the open-necked green' shirts and the ski trousers of the mountain club uniform. The majority of the 70 or 80 guests were similarly attired, and the effect of the uniform was at once novel and picturesque. Heavy mountain boots, in not a few cases, and ski sticks and ice axes, in profusion, all lent colour to the proceedings. Even the three-tiered wedding cake was topped by a realistic miniature of Mount Egmont. The austere bareness of the club room could hardly be recognised beneath the gay streamers in the club colours of green and gold and of fem fronds. The picturesque note was struck again by the huge open fireplace in which a . log fire blazed. The night at that height was very cool. Apart from the unconventionahty of the dress, the ceremony was conducted very much as if in a church. The Rev. K. J. McFarland, Stratford, wore a cassock and surplice. As the bride entered the club room on the arm of her father, Mr. J. W. Collins, New Plymouth, the well-known strains of the “Wedding March” were heard. , The bridesmaid was Miss Mildred Griffin, Levin, and the best man Mr. Brian McMillan, Stratford. They were also in the club’s uniform. After the service the bride and bridegroom marched down the room beneath an arch of ski sticks held by club members. Mrs. R. Carryer was at the piano. “The service is unique in my experience as a clergyman,” said Mr. McFarland at the wedding breakfast afterwards, when he proposed the . health of the bride and bridegroom. “It is the first time in my life I have ever married a bride in trousers. I have been very much pleased with the reverence of the service; the atmosphere has been almost the same as in a church.” Mr. McFarland apologised for having to start the ceremony early, but explained that by law a marriage to be valid must take place between 8 a.m.. and 8 p.m. He expressed the best wishes of all to Mr. and Mrs. Carryer and congratulated them on their appointment. They were beginning their work at an important stage in the development of the mountain, and he was sure they would take a prominent part in that development. Mr. Carryer replied. On behalf of the Stratford Mountain Club Dr. W. P. P. Gordon presented Mr. and Mrs. Carryer with a large chiming clock. The club was sorry to lose Mr. Carryer as club captain, he said.