Blogger Blakeborough Married

Surprise Wedding Bells at Country Music

Hauraki Country Music Club members and members of the public attending a country music day in Ngatea, New Zealand, recently were in for a surprise when two members, Winifred Webb and Peter Blakeborough were married on the stage part way through the program. Members were expecting to hear country music entertainer Graeme McCardle. 

Winifred Webb in the audience
 before getting hitched

Peter Blakeborough as MC
early in the program 

Invited wedding guests were seated in a separate reserved area in case someone let slip that something special was about to happen. Guest artist, Graeme McCardle from Helensville, had completed his first three numbers when the curtains were drawn and a solo artist played in front of the curtain while the stage was quickly reset.

The abandoned bride

The groom walking onto the stage at gunpoint

The secret was so well kept that when the ceremony got under way some members thought it was just an act. It certainly looked like an act when the bride, dressed in country attire, stood alone and forlorn on the stage. The groom had failed to show up and had to be rounded up by a gun toting Sheriff Geoffrey. Eventually, Peter walked onto the stage with his arms raised followed by the sheriff and agreed to go through with the marriage.

Marriage celebrant, John Sanford, had a gun pulled on him (a smaller gun than the sheriff’s) just to make sure that he conducted the ceremony to the groom’s satisfaction. The vows and rings were exchanged and the register signed in short order and the bride and groom’s cowboy hats fell to the floor when they kissed.

Peter then sang, tongue in cheek, Put Another Log on the Fire backed by Ian Colhoun on the keyboard and Graeme McCardle on the guitar, while Win made suitable expressions of surprise and mock distaste before heading for the stage door arm-in-arm with her witness.

The ceremony ended with the cutting of the cake while Graeme McCardle sang a tribute to the happy couple.

The happy bride

She's not sure what to do with
the cake knife

           The happy couple

Graeme McCardle dedicating a
song to Win and Peter