Morning and Pictures
On Friday night, George stayed at our house with Pierre, Peter, and Heath while I stayed downtown at Hotel Andra with Denaye. From all accounts, the boys had a pretty smooth morning. They ran ahead of schedule and arrived downtown well before 12noon. Denaye and I had coffee and breakfast with my mom and George's mum, Pat, picked up the flowers, had our hair done, and had our make-up done. One o'clock arrived quickly!
On the way down the elevator, I was suddenly filled with emotion. George was waiting just a few steps away with his back to me, and I could not hold back tears any longer. We shared a tender moment, and then joined our wedding party for a walk through the lobby filled with our family. It was picture time!
My cousin, Kristi, took this photo from the lobby below during our first look:
First, we went to Kerry Park. It wasn't part of our original plan, but we couldn't pass up the best view in the city on one of the clearest days of the summer. I can't wait to see the photos!! After that, we went to Gasworks to take lots of pictures on the hill and around the equipment. By the time we'd been taking pictures in the hot sun for two hours, we were ready for a rest. On one hand, I wish I would have felt "fresh" for the ceremony, but I think the reduced nerves of having seen each other was worth it.
Ceremony
The guys took on their greeting role while I went to the limo for air conditioning and a lot of nerve control. This was, by far, the slowest part of the day for me. It seemed to take forever for 4:45pm to arrive! Finally, our friend, Theresa, signaled that it was time to line up...so, I joined the parents, lined them up, and prepared for the longest walk of my life. Really - the aisle was way too long. By the time I approached the chairs, I desperately wanted to break into a run...but I resisted.
Our friend, dive instructor, and real estate agent, Fred, officiated over the ceremony. Although Pierre tells me that a nice man in a boat drove by just after the start and yelled "don't do it," I didn't really see anything during the ceremony aside from George's eyes. Fred started with a nice message, which was followed by tender readings by our mothers. We asked each of them to prepare something as part of the ceremony, and they both came through with fantastic and emotional readings. Yes, I lost several tears. From there, George and I shared our surprise declarations of love for each other, said our I do's, recited our vows, and exchanged rings. It felt both unique and like we were joining a large club. I feel even more like that with our shiny new rings. Cool!
Our photographers, Aaron and Meg of Evantide Photography, took control to capture a few (undoubtedly fantastic) photos of the entire group and a collection of family photos. It all went smoothly and more quickly than I expected. In that time, though, the sky filled with beautiful clouds, so George and I called our grandparents and posed for an extra set of photos while everyone else went on to the reception cocktail hour.
Reception
We arrived at Canlis with just a few minutes to enjoy the final round of drinks and appetizers before sitting down for dinner. As usual, everything was fantastic. I was particularly excited by the surprise sangria and the short ribs.
The evening included soup (seafood chowder), salad (Canlis salad without egg), choice of salmon or filet mignon, and fresh pavlova. All of the food was delicious and enjoyed by the masses. We also had pinot grigio and cabernet savignon flowing. As always, Canlis provided superb service. No one had water glasses less than 100% full; the whole party was served within 5 minutes of each other for each course; and each table was served in its entirety at once. They really took care of us!
We had some spectacular speeches as well. Peter was the master of ceremonies, and he did a great job reading the crowd and playing to it. Both of our fathers gave speeches, along with Pierre and Denaye. I laughed a lot, cried a lot, and even put my hands on my face...so it was a great success!
Truly, I felt like the time between arriving at and leaving the reception was five minutes rather than five hours. Everyone told me that it'd fly, and they were 100% accurate. We did, however, get a chance to eat our dinner, so that was a real treat. Now, I just have to find a way for us to re-create having many of our friends in a beautiful room more often!
I'm not the one to ask for a neutral opinion of the day, but I thought it went off fabulously. Aside from not getting to spend much time with most people and having the day go by so quickly, I felt like George and I were really able to enjoy the day. I've been assured that marriage is different than dating or engagement, so I know we'll be in for some changes. Nonetheless, I also feel like we've been seriously committed for a while now, so yesterday was just as much about celebrating that commitment as it was about starting a new commitment.
I look forward to passing along photos and some of the details we included in our special day.
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