Sunday, July 12, 2009

Wedding Story: Part IV


I'm very impressed that I was not targetted in R's post about food addiction. Then again, he's stuck living with me and not Giz. So, it's probably a wise move.

R has now progressed to planning a mass intervention for Giz and everyone who commented in Giz's favour on the last post.

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This post is the post you've been waiting for. The wedding day post and pictures. I'm skipping over the Sunday events, another graduation ceremony and a brunch with all of the out of town guests. Sunday night was consumed with last minute preparations: cake and cupcake baking, flower arrangment and last minute knitting.

Despite Kat's warning, I was up half the night finishing my shawl. I had worked too hard and too long to not finish it. Sorry for the cut-off head, but I think this pictures shows the shawl well.



What a relief to finish it! But, the 6:00am hair appointment came way too quickly. With only 2.5 hours of sleep the night before, I was half asleep while getting my hair done.

I gave the hairdresser this picture as inspiration:


I was honest with the stylist and told him that I wasn't sure I liked it. Maybe I had an idea that it would look more like the picture. But, our hair colour and length is different and my face is not as long as hers.

Giz's hair is usually very curly. I'm not sure the stylist liked my "you look like Roy Orbison" comment part-way through the styling. In the end, it was quite nice.


We got married at City Hall. I can't say that I enjoyed the experience. R and I wanted a completely private ceremony, maybe on a beach somewhere. But I guess it's a compromise, somewhere in between a ceremony with all guests and an entirely private one, somewhere romantic.

After the ceremony, we rested for a bit and then finished up preparations for the ceremony. We had arranged for a professional photographer and had to go meet her a couple of hours before the wedding. Since the weather here had been so unpredictable and rainy (still is a month later), we started to panic about getting rained on. By some miracle, the sky cleared up -- maybe even too much (I really shouldn't complain though).

From the beginning of wedding planning, we knew that having professional photography was a must. If having quality photos of your wedding is important to you, get a professional photographer that takes the type of pictures you like. Meet with him/her/them ahead of time to talk about packages and the style of pictures you would like (we wanted more candid/natural shots). We went with Fleischer Photography and are quite happy with the final product. Kathy took our pictures. We went with the package to keep the digital images.

Here are some of the professional shots (we have over 500 of them to choose from):




The reception was held in the Courtyard Restaurant, a stone-brick heritage building that is a common wedding location in Ottawa. They set up the room to your specifications and are clearly very comfortable with overseeing the evening.






One of their features is a personalized menu that is given to each guest at the beginning of the night. Guests can order for a selection of dishes (here's the post about our tasting).

The soup was a carrot squash soup (no pictures because mine are blurry). I warned the restaurant about 5 times that it HAD to be hot. They probably thought we were crazy. In the end, it worked though because it was hot. I would have to say that the soup was good. It seems a bit strange to me to have a butternut squash soup at a June wedding.

The next course was the salad.

I was warned that the salad wasn't great. It tasted like they had dressed it about 15 minutes prior to serving. The dressing was practically non-existent with the exception of the softening effect it had on the lettuce. We requested more dressing.

Apparently the highlight of the evening was the steak:


I had the chicken, which wasn't bad. Not mind-blowing either.


For dessert, I had some maple pie. It was quite sweet, but good.


Toward the end of the evening, we had cake and cupcakes (Giz did a super job on these -- everyone was very complimentary and I did not miss have a professionally done cake).


We were also very happy with the maple syrup giveaways.


So - that's the wedding day. It was small (35 guests), pretty low-key. I felt that it was a good number in terms of the room size and in being able to actually talk to all of my guests but sit down and eat dinner too. I certainly would not have been able to get it all done without Giz's help. Next week we have another reception in my hometown for friends and family.

I must say, I'm relieved that it's done. I enjoyed most of the process, but am quite content to not be planning my wedding anymore.

On to the next...HOUSE SHOPPING! R and I almost put an offer in on a REALLY NICE place today. We decided to bail though. I'm sad about it, but know it was the right decision. The upstairs only had two bedrooms (another bedroom on the main floor and one in the basement). We hope to have a couple of kids -- so we felt that it was important to hold out for a place that had more than 2 bedrooms on one level. I'll get over it. But I really loved the kitchen. :(

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19 comments:

Julia said...

Lovely, lovely, lovely! Congratulations again. Thanks for sharing all the wonderful pictures and stories.

The shawl looks great!

Amelie said...

Beautiful!!! Love the pictures, the shawl, the setting at the restaurant, everything! All your planning sure played out gorgeously!

kat said...

Beautiful pictures! I got a good laugh out of you finishing your shawl the night before, though I'm sure it wasn't funny then. Good luck with the house hunt

grace said...

thank you so much for sharing your story with us! this post will be a good way to remember some of the little details. :)
meanwhile, i want some maple pie.

Steph said...

I loved your wedding story. Thanks for sharing all your photos! Good luck with the house hunting.

OhioMom said...

Oh Psychgrad I love your photos, thanks so much for sharing them with us. Your shawl was perfect!

That Girl said...

The pictures are gorgeous, but the wedding looks absolutely beautiful! Everything came together so well!

Heather S-G said...

Everything was simply beautiful! Congratulations you two :D

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I am sure it was a memorable day Psychgrad. In the end what is most important is being surrounded by your family and friends.Well done....and yes hubbie is right we may all need an intervention soon:D

♥Rosie♥ said...

Congratulations!!! Thanks for sharing all those wonderful photos and I adore your shawl :0)

Maria said...

The pictures are beautiful...Congratulations! Everything looked wonderful.

elly said...

Congratulations! I really liked looking at the pictures. Even though our wedding days will always be perfect to us, I still think we are usually glad when they're over. ;) Happy househunting!

Beth said...

Belated congratulations on your wedding day – you (and your shawl) look lovely. Great pictures.
And best of luck with the house hunting!

Dharm said...

Congrats, Congrats, Congrats! My very first attendance at a cyber wedding!! Love the pics and LOVE the shawl!! Congrats once again with lots of love from us all in Malaysia!

T said...

lovely pictures! It looks like it was a great day! The cup cakes look so yummy!

Nic said...

Fabulous, looks like a great day and the food's delicious but those cupcakes are the best!
Best wishes for the future.

rented life said...

LOVE the pictures. Beautiful. and glad to see the shawl.

You're right to hold out with the house. Where we live now we can't have a kid unless we hang her from the ceiling. (plus we're finding the neighborhood isn't as safe as we'd prefer).

Lori said...

Coogratulations. The couple photos are very nicely done.

The Casual Perfectionist said...

Congratulations & Best Wishes again! Sorry I'm a bit late to the comment party...

The photos look great, and your shawl is beautiful!

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