A Wedding in the Family

My brother is getting married. It's pretty exciting, since he managed to survive 50 years without tieing the knot. It's funny that no matter what age one decides to get married and actually has a full blown wedding, the clueing in to who does what and in what order becomes totally overwhelming. Since the rest of us in the family (i.e. the nuclear family) have been married at least once - some twice - we became the "experts" at putting on weddings. The family meeting was called. We all knew what we were in store for so we opted to tell brother dearest that if we were going to be "on the hook" for a pile of work, he was taking us all out for dinner. He did.

We chose a local Trattoria - a regular family neighbourhood haunt where were usually have pretty good luck with meals and service. This particular restaurant is well known for its wood stove pizza - two of our party ordered it and true to form it was spectacular.



We ordered a bottle of Pinot to go with it against our server's better instincts. Note to self: On my bucket list I have to learn more about wine and food pairing. I admit it - I only know about two types of wine - red and white, everything in between is a bit of a mystery.

The wedding boy who is probably the most health conscious member of our family ordered the roast chicken dish. He was very patient with me while I photographed his dinner and finally said "do you think maybe you'll get one good shot out of the 30 you already took?". Geez....temperamental - I guess only bloggers understand the importance of getting the shot just right.



The trattoria had on their specials list for the evening a canelloni dish that the server said was exceptional. It was probably the first time I've ever sent anything back to the kitchen. It looked okay but on tasting proved to be overly sauced and just far too rich.



The chef came to the table and asked for feedback - thought that was pretty decent and offered a replacement. I opted for the Spaghetti Bolognese - a tried a true for me and it was very flavourful - loved it.



We now are very clear about expectations. My brother is marrying someone from France and the entire French family (none of whom speak English) will be coming to the wedding. Some will be making a vacation of it and expect to stay in Canada for approximately a month - and would we mind terribly opening up our homes to the new family. Don't get me wrong - I would do anything for my brother but how long is charades fresh? Apparently there will be a series of meet and greet events to welcome our new family from across the pond.