a vanneste is born

So about Rach's wedding. It was fabulous! No bridezilla to be seen, and yet almost all details were taken care of. After some stressful weather "patterns" (no patterns, just total randomness SK style) and an agressive, full military assault by the genetically enhanced mosquitoes it was decided the ceremoney would be held indoors. Slightly less pretty, hugely more comfortable.

Us girls drove into PA to have our hair and make up done, and to pick up the flowers. A big yay to Jan Richards salon! They greeted us with coffee and then made us all look fabulous. Which I consider to be no small feat anytime in the am. We almost had a small incident when the lily for Rach's hair insisted on losing a petal, but turns out it was more head conforming that way. Or so we'll say seeing as the florists didn't have any extras.

Back to the cabin to get dressed and have silly pictures taken. What, you don't normally get dressed in a line? Oh, well you do on the day of a wedding. Also, if you've never seen Lise do up a corset in a small space while trying to get pictures taken from all angles, while in a hurry, you should. She's pretty darn talented. My job of "veil holder/supervisor" was much less demanding.

Ummm, people, we need less pictures of Rachel getting jewlery put on and more leaving so she can be on time for her own wedding. Well, the pictures were nice, don't get me wrong, but it's wrong to be late for your wedding. I say so.

Perfectly on time, for the wedding and to miss the sudden downpour. Let's pat everyone on the back for choosing indoors right now. It only rained for 15ish minutes, but they were exactly when the ceremony was happening. Yay not getting wet!

The ceremony itself was gold. No time for crying, there was way too much laughing going on for anyone to get choked up. Jeff said "I do" about a total of 3 times in the wrong place. At least we all know he's sure about his decision. Rach made sure to include a couple extra vows of Jeff accepting her inability to see a mess and dirty things. He just kept I doing away, so now he's doomed to clean forever. I think he already knew. I signed the wrong thing on whatever it was I was supposed to sign. When you say "write your address" I assume you mean my address. Not Saskatoon. What kind of address is Saskatoon? Be more specific JP lady, I don't sign marriage documents everyday.

Off to pictures. Our photographer was pretty funny, this little Asian lady with an interesting idea of what makes for good pictures. It's all good, she got lots of good ones and having the boys pose "V for victory" was fantastic for the rest of us. It was the only other time that in rained for a couple minutes, but ever prepared, Rach had ordered a big white umbrella just in case such an event should happen. To see all 387 pics, go here.

We finished up just in time to go open up the bar for the rest of the evening and light the tea lights. The hall looked awesome. The food was better. It was so good someone felt the need to take a picture of it. Dessert was AMAZING. Seriously, I still think of the raspberry white chocolate cheesecake that magically showed up in front of me. Did I mention I was the MC? Co-MC actually, Dev also got conned into doing it when 3 other people turned down the offer. Rach wrote out what we had to say and I wasn't required to be funny, so it was okay. Dev and Brent gave a speech to Jeff, with the hilight being them make out on stage. Rach and Jeff's imitation was slightly less good, but we'll blame the crinoline - not much else could get in the way of Rach jumping Jeff... My speech went alright from what I've been told. I didn't cry which was good, I think I managed to speak at an understandable speed, also good. Jeff then thanked Rach's parents for having sex, which is always good times and Rach thanked other people. Nic provided an awesome slideshow, if he gets asked to do many more he may start charging though...

What happened next? Why copious amounts of dancing, drinking and visiting! What else would have happened? Oh yes, more delicious food also appeared later on in the evening. So, quite successful as far as weddings go you may conclude. The most stressful part of the day/night was probably almost running out of ice at 11. Which really wouldn't have been the end of the world, tepid drinks will still get drunk. Just when we thought we were officially iceless, ice magically appeared 30 minutes after it was supposed to. Stress over. The worst part of the evening was not enough Marlito and Chaz time. Those crazy kids had to drive back to Stoon the evening of. So yes, all in all, excellent times.