My Very Small Contribution to Neighbours Wedding History!

Just over three months ago on Neighbours there was an absolutely gorgeous scene between David and Aaron at the beach where they both proposed to each other with engagement watches. A week after that aired on our tellyboxes I received what will go down in history as the most exciting text message of my life...an invitation to come back to the Nunawading Studios to work as part of the Neighbours Art Department for a couple of days!

I was planning to head on over to Sydney that week but obviously I cancelled all my existing plans because this is what my whole entire life has been leading up to, an actual real opportunity to make a small contribution to the show that has given me so much joy and laughter for as far back as I can remember.

I rocked up at Reception where I was greeted by the lady who had looked after me so well the previous time I was there. She told me they had asked me in because they needed an extra pair of hands to help set up for a wedding...as in THE wedding...as in David and Aaron's wedding...as in the first EVER same sex marriage that was going to be broadcast on an Australian drama since their government finally got their shit together and legalised it!!!

To say I was absolutely over the moon to be a part of such a historic piece of Neighbours history was putting it mildly and I was soon putting up fairy lights and festoons around the Pavilion which was where the ceremony took place.

I also made up lots of little boxes of wedding favours which comprised of the most delicious datey ball things I've ever tasted (I may have tried one or two of them as there were far too many compared with the number of boxes available. FYI, this is without a doubt the best perk of working in the Art Department...on one film I worked on, the entire Art Department had many a sit down banquet made up entirely from the left over food props that had to be eaten up before they went off!)

Day two involved blowing up hundreds and hundreds of balloons...well technically there was a machine to do the blowing up part but my poor little fingers had very little skin left on them by the end of the day due to the fact that nobody has invented a balloon tying machine yet! We made two balloon walls that went either side of the alter and a rather extensive balloon arch to go across the front beams of the Pavilion. After we'd finished we all had a new found respect for why events companies charge so much for balloon art!

So that is my little story about the two greatest days of my life...blowing up balloons for Neighbours' and Australian television's first gay marriage and assembling boxes of wedding favours. I will never forget this job as long as I live and how welcoming and friendly the rest of the team were towards me.

Watching Aaron and David getting hitched on Monday was the proudest moment of my life and I just hope that in due course they'll bring out a Births, Deaths and Marriages vol 2 on DVD so I can whip it out on all family gatherings and bore everybody to death with it just like Hannah Martin did with Scott and Charlene's wedding video!

All images in this blog post are courtesy of Fremantle Media.

Backstage Tour of Nunawading Studios

In the real world, when I'm not being a stereotypical Travel Wanker, I work as a Set Dresser/Art Department type for television and film productions.

The top most item on my life long bucket list has always been to work on Neighbours and a very big reason why I've put my life on hold for a year is to try and finally make this happen. A few weeks after I landed in Melbourne I managed to successfully get in touch with a couple of people who work within the Art Department on Neighbours and they very kindly invited me to their Nunawading Studios for an access all areas tour, which is the main reason why I haven't actually gone on the Official Neighbours Tour yet...although obviously I still might do that because you can never have too many Neighbours related things on your once in a life time trip to Australia!

So off I trundled to Nunawading Studios with my glue stick (it's a reference from the wonderful song my friend wrote for me) and hoped that I wouldn't come across as too much of a fan girl whilst I was there.

Just hanging out at the Neighbours studio with my glue stick...as you do!

Because I was trying to make a good impression infront of the people I desperately hoped would invite me back to work for them in the future, I was trying to play it cool and didn't take any photos as I was being shown around but inside I was more excited than a kid going to Disneyland. I had a pretty extensive tour around all the exterior sets including the backyards and inside the police station and Lassiters and the Community Centre etc. And then they had organised for me to sit in the studio whilst they were filming so I could watch the last four scenes of the day being shot which was super amazing.

I have been sitting on the knowledge that Ned Willis comes back and Toadie gets sprung with a surprise baby as an offshoot from his one night stand with Fake Dee in London and also that Aaron and David have wedding dance lessons from Dipi for three months now and it was extremely exciting to see these scenes being played out on the show last week.

Despite my earlier reluctance to take any photos, I was forced to pose for photos inside the interior of Harold's and also the Brennan household . Also my claims to fame from that day were carrying the plant that lives by the front door of the Brennan house into the studio and also wheeling the buggy of Toadie and Fake Dee's lovechild from the studio back to the Art Department storage room at the end of the day...Baby's watermelon carrying has nothing on me!

I'll have a Fiji water please!

Rearranging the fruit bowl

This couch smells of Brennan

Washing up before Mark's OCD kicks in.

A photo of all three Brennan boys...all fully clothed at the same time!

I had such a wonderful day at the studios and I will be forever grateful to everyone in the Art Department who really looked after me and made a random Pom who is a bit too obsessed with their show feel extremely welcome!