Reece and Julie Stratton on their wedding day, a few days after the funeral for Julie's dad Richard. Photo / Supplied
Reece and Julie Stratton on their wedding day, a few days after the funeral for Julie's dad Richard. Photo / Supplied
When family and friends said their final farewells to Richard Bright, there were jokes asking if the funeral celebrant also did weddings.
The much-loved bar owner's youngest child Julie hadn't been planning to marry fiance Reece until next year.
But everyone was already gathered in Cambridge last week to saygoodbye to Richard, one of the five men killed when the Enchanter fishing vessel capsized last month.
So the celebrant joke soon became reality - after last Wednesday's funeral, the dress was chosen on Thursday, the marriage licence arranged on Friday and the wedding held on Saturday at a family member's home.
The ceremony for Reece and Julie was pulled together in just days, and held in a relative's back garden. With Julie's children, Charlotte and Emerson. Photo / Supplied
"It was really cool. Everyone pulled together and did what they did," said Julie's mother and Richard's widow Brenda.
Richard, 63, was one of 10 people who were aboard the Enchanter, skippered by Mangōnui's Lance Goodhew, when it was battered and flipped in heavy weather near North Cape on March 20.
Five people were found alive immediately after the incident, including Goodhew.
It took search and rescue staff about two days to recover the other five men. All had died.
They were Geoffrey Allen, 72, Mark Sanders, 43, Michael Lovett, 72, Mark Walker, 41, and Richard, all from the Cambridge and Te Awamutu area.
While Richard was unable to walk his daughter down the aisle on Saturday, he was still in attendance at the wedding - his eldest child carried his ashes at the ceremony.
Cyril Bright, 93, holds his son Richard's ashes at the wedding, and talks with widow Brenda. Photo / Supplied
Those ashes were placed alongside pictures of his mother and Brenda's mother, both of whom have died.
The wedding had originally been planned for March next year. Prior to getting engaged, son-in-law Reece had asked Richard for Julie's hand, which he granted.
But without Richard to walk Julie down the aisle, his brother David did the honours.
When Julie learned her father had died, her thoughts went to her upcoming wedding, Brenda said.
"It was probably one of the first things she said when she found out her dad had passed away that he won't be walking her down the aisle."
Brenda Bright, with a photo of her husband Richard, at the bar he loved. Photo / Mike Scott
Saturday was the first time in 21 years that Richard and Brenda's bar had been closed for the weekend.
That was in part due to the wedding but also because some staff had been struck down by Covid-19.
"Richard always wanted to have a bar," Brenda said.
After stints as a hunter, deer farmer and freezing worker, the pair took on Group One Turf Bar on Commerce St in Cambridge.
The function held after his funeral was just as Richard had intended, Brenda said.
"He always said if something ever happened, to drink the bar dry.
