A Garden in Stirling

Jessica Anne Jenkins dressed for her wedding in her parents' house in Panorama. Her mother, Elizabeth, spent most of the morning on her knees with a needle, repairing a hem on one of the bridesmaids' dresses. Her grandmother, Margaret Thompson, who was seventy-nine, sat at the kitchen table and offered corrections. The house was crowded with garment bags, an ironing board that was never folded away, and relatives who arrived early and did not know where to stand.

Karl Jenkins had flown in from Hobart the afternoon before. He arrived at the house in a dark suit well before he was needed and spoke little. Before the cars came, he gave Jessica a pocket watch that had belonged to their grandfather Thompson, threaded on a length of ribbon so it could be tied around the stems of her bouquet. It was the only gift he brought, and the only one she carried down the aisle.

The ceremony was held in the gardens of Hallett House, a private estate in Stirling hired out for weddings, under English trees just coming into full leaf. One hundred and twenty chairs were set out on the lawn. Jessica's side was filled with nursing colleagues from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Jenkins and Thompson relations. Michael's side held the accountants and investigators from his firm and a large Turner family from the eastern suburbs. The two families had met in full only twice before, and the seating made the difference between them plain.

Michael Turner waited at the front with his groomsmen. Twenty minutes before the start, his younger sister, Rachel Turner, realised she had left the rings in her hotel room in the city. She drove back down the freeway and up again and reached the garden with them as the string trio began playing. The start was held for eight minutes. Several guests on the Jenkins side noticed. Several on the Turner side noticed them noticing.

The celebrant, Patricia Hollis, kept the ceremony short. Jessica and Michael read vows they had written themselves, from cards, and both lost their place once. Jessica's voice faltered on the promise she made about the years ahead, and she waited until she had it steady before she went on. Thomas and Elizabeth Jenkins sat in the front row. Daniel Jenkins filmed most of the ceremony on a borrowed camcorder from the end of the third row, and lowered it when his sister was kissed.

The reception was held in a marquee on the lawn. Michael's father, Graham Turner, had been unwell for most of the year. He stayed for the first hour, shook hands with everyone who came to his table, and was driven home by a nephew before the meal was served. Thomas Jenkins, who disliked speeches, ceremonies and suits, gave the father-of-the-bride speech in under three minutes from a sheet of paper he did not look up from. It was received warmly, and he did not acknowledge the applause.

The Turner and Jenkins relations kept largely to their own tables through the meal. An argument between two Turner uncles over the seating arrangements was settled quietly by Elizabeth, who moved one of them to a table of nurses. The nurses found him entertaining. The uncle did not return to his original seat.

Karl left before the first dance to catch the last flight back to Hobart. He found Jessica at the edge of the marquee to say goodbye, and the two of them spoke for several minutes away from the guests. He did not stay to explain his departure to anyone else.

The dancing went on until after eleven. Jessica and Michael left without a formal send-off, carrying their own coats to the car, Jessica barefoot on the gravel with her shoes in one hand and the bouquet, the watch still tied around it, in the other.