Photos: Family, Friends and the Bride & Groom

All photos by Orange Passion Photography!

 

 

Photos: The Ceremony

All photos by Orange Passion Photography!

 

Photos: Before the Ceremony

All photos by Orange Passion Photography!

The Wedding Day!

I have been putting off posting about our actual wedding day for nearly a month now. I have no idea why. It was wonderful, practically perfect and I loved every minute of the day. But for some reason putting everything down into words seems like a huge task. So, instead, I'm going to share tidbits!

Tidbit #1
We were in town for a couple days before and after the wedding, and so, we got to spend time with friends and family. We were so happy to be able to do this! Yes, we were also very busy, but by fitting in our friends and family, we enjoyed our busy days. Here is some proof:

Promptly upon arriving in the city, we met up with A's cousins (pictured above), best man, and the best man's soon-to-be-wife. We immediately went out for drinks and food, followed by more drinks and peanuts. We threw our peanut shells on the floor. We're reckless like that.

Tidbit #2

Our wedding was a definite collaboration by friends and family. We definitely could not have done it without the tons of help they gave us. My mom and one of my maids of honour made the bouquets, our friend took on the DJ duties, A's family made our cakes, several friends drove our wedding party around before and after the ceremony, a groomsmen took care of the music during the ceremony, our DJ saved our butts by making the cd for the ceremony around midnight the night before the wedding, my friend and my mom and stepdad did all the decoarating of the hall, my dad and stepmom took care of the booze (so very important!), etc, etc, etc. The list goes on, but you get the gist! 

We are so grateful for everyone's contributions. It made our day that much more special to know it was a collaboration of everyone we love's hard work! Here's some of the hard workers that we managed to capture on film:

This is my mom and maid of honour hard at work making our bouquets. I was supposed to help... but *somehow* I ended up mostly watching and taking pictures!

When A and his groomsmen arrived at the hall to help with the set up, they discovered a plethora of 'Happy Birthday' balloons hanging from the ceiling. Thankfully, A didn't feel it necessary to call me! The guys braved rickety ladders to make sure our wedding didn't look like a birthday party!

They also had the task of arranging all the tables and chairs. As you can see, they dutifully checked their floor plan handout to make sure everything was in the right spot! Tia then did a huge amount of decorating, although she somehow avoided the camera!

Before the reception, my dad and stepmom put out all the wine and cider while my mom and stepdad finished decorating. Looks like they did a pretty awesome job, eh?

I wanted to add in a picture of our DJ friend hard at work, but he sneakily set up behind the curtain of the stage and therefore avoided photos! At any rate, he did an awesome job and somehow got my shy little nephew to perform for everyone... he's magic!

Tidbit #3
Photobooths are magical machines designed to create oodles of fun! I was originally going to make us our own photobooth (with DIY inspiration from some other blogs) but then our photographers offered it to us at no extra cost because they're just starting to do them. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! One of the best parts is all the extra photos. We even got photos of guests that otherwise wouldn't have been in any of our pictures - so it's nice to have that proof that they were there and that they had a blast! There's nothing quite like seeing your dad kiss your godfather...

(note: this is not one of the professional shots from the photobooth, but I will add some of those in another blog post - so stay tuned!)

Tidbit #4
Our friends and family tore up the dance floor! It was hilarious, fun and exhausting! My shy 4 year old nephew broke the ice by performing a solo dance to Thriller, A's dad got everyone out of their seats by starting a Conga line, one of my bridesmaid's instigated a little limbo action, and in between we danced, danced, danced!

This picture's a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. A's dad was realllly into it!

Tidbit #5
Everyone says your wedding day will just fly by and you won't really remember all the details. That couldn't be further from the truth for us. I soaked in every moment of the day. I remember getting coffee with my dad before my hair appointment (yes, my dad was the one who went with me to the salon!). I remember driving around campus to kill time before the ceremony while my stepmom fed me a granola bar. I remember feeling confident as I said my vows in front of a bunch of people (which was bizarre considering my immobilizing fear of public speaking). I remember talking to each of our guests and really enjoying their company. I remember eating and going back for seconds! I even remember the conversation I had with my dad while we danced. It was not a blur. It was perfect - every second! :)

That's all for now! I'm going to share all the photos by the pro's in separate blog posts, so stay tuned for those over the next week or so!

Homemade Almond Milk

I just tried my hand at homemade almond milk thanks to the tutorial over at Progressive Pioneer. I had been waiting until I got a blender that could handle chopping up the almonds, and my parents just got me one for my birthday, so I was finally ready to go! Thanks to the awesome blender, the almond milk turned out great!! I might experiment with different flavours instead of the vanilla though. I think I have some maple extract somewhere...

Cake Party

A wonderful thing happened in the process of creating our wedding - we created an opportunity for women from all parts of Adam's family to come together and bake our wedding cakes. Not only is it super special that our wedding cake was made by the women of Adam's family, but it was also a family recipe (and a darn good one!).

This is a photo of the cake we used as our official cutting-of-the-cake wedding cake. It's actually carrot cake. The best carrot cake in the world to be precise.

It doesn't get much better than that! Well, actually it does. You see, we had leftovers. So I proceeded to have wedding cake for breakfast and dessert the two days after our wedding as well. Mmmm gluttony!

African Children's Choir

I'm very excited about this summer! I have made a point to plan lots of little day trips and events to make sure we take full advantage of the summer. One such event - going to see the African Children's Choir! They will be in our area next month and I can hardly wait!


Introduction to the African Children's Choir from Max Clements on Vimeo.

On a totally unrelated note...

I want to go back to school. Not the kind of school where you get a degree or a master's and then end up unemployed forever - I've already done that. I want to go back to school to get a certification that can get me employment straight out of school. I've narrowed it down to 3 different options:

1. Hospital Unit Clerk - takes 5 months to complete - salary is approx. $20/hr
2. Licensed Practical Nurse - takes 12 months to complete - salary is approx. $23/hr
3. Montessori Lower Elementary Teacher - takes 9 months to complete - salary varies, may be approx. $15/hr

They all cost the same amount in terms of course fees and materials. The Unit Clerk option is 5 months of part time study in the evenings and on weekends. The Nurse option is full time for 12 months including a few segments of practicals that might require me living in another community for 3-6 weeks at a time. The Teacher option is all on my own time, so could potentially take less than 9 months to complete.

I would do them all if I could (and I might over the course of the next 30 years - who knows!). But for now, I need to choose one and I need help!

Any thoughts?

Bridesmaid Gifts

Well we're on the theme of gifts I can now tell you what we got my bridesmaids! I love the elegance of pearls, but didn't think a plain white pearl necklace really suited too many of my bridesmaids and I wanted them each to get a gift that was unique to them as well. So, a few evenings spent browsing on Etsy and I discovered the perfect jewels for my ladies!

I ended up wearing the double stranded bracelet myself, and the necklace was a gift for the groom's mom. Then three of my bridesmaid's got earrings while one got a bracelet. Hopefully they will find another occasion to wear their pearls!

Groomsmen Gifts

As you might remember, I was having trouble deciding what to get our groomsmen as gifts. Well, we ended up buying each of them a funky new tie. At first I was planning on getting some fun Amy Butler fabrics and making them myself. That plan didn't last long. Next I delegated the task to my mom, who is much better with a sewing machine than I am! However, it wasn't long before I realized I could buy them for a better price than all the fabric and save my mom some grief. So, we went shopping and found each groomsmen (and the groom) a unique tie!

Now, if someone had told me how much work all the groomsmen (and bridesmaids, and family members) were going to do to make our wedding happen perfectly, I would have multiplied our budget a million times to get them gifts that would truly show how grateful we are for their efforts. Well, it's too late for that, but somehow I will figure out a way to thank them (probably over and over again) for all their work!