Sunday, August 10, 2008

Just get them to the church on time!

So many people. So much happening. So much fun… and photos aplenty!

If I presented all the stellar blogging material I have in a single post, it would be a mammoth monster post. So, I shall break it up. This post will only include the wedding week. Not even the whole week- just starting on Thursday. That's all. Promise.

The craziness began Thursday when the last of the immediate family trickled in. The sisters kicked off the celebration by going for pedicures (and one manicure!).

Our feet were already soaking while Kylie was still waiting for her manicure to begin, so she took things into her own hands...

Then we picked up the freshly steamed wedding dress. EEEeeeeee! Shareen and Kylie had the highly prestigious (and stressful!) duty of keeping it safe and wrinkle-free in the back seat. Mission accomplished.

In the evening, we had a pleasant dinner, then our entire immediate family trucked it over to Dan’s parents' place where his entire immediate family was congregated. It was just a big happy family time!

Here we are two by two!

Marc and/or Kylie...would you like to explain the muscle shirt? hehe:)

Friday was wedding prep galore. We had a bit of an unusual situation as the hall was unintentionally double-booked on Friday, so we couldn’t decorate until Saturday (the day of the wedding if you’re keeping track. Not every bride’s dream.) However, we were given a room on Friday where we prepped everything so Mom and her crew could set it all up on Saturday. Which they did, and they did well!

Carlynne's creativity and artistic flare was everywhere. Some day I hope to share on the blog a sampling of Carlynne's amazing artistic pursuits so you can know her and her extremely talented self like we do. Everything from their wedding invitations/programs to the decor and seating plan just screamed 'Carlynne'. Anyhoo, Carlynne painted all these pots which they stood in front of at the ceremony. And that's just a teeny tiny glimpse of her creativity.

Friday evening was rehearsal and rehearsal DINNER! After downing a scrumptious meal prepared by Dan's Mom (now a.k.a Auntie Marge), we devoured the mocha cake (which was Carlynne's excellent dessert selection). The extended G family goes batty over this cake as it was my Grandma’s specialty, and oh so delicious.

Look at us just sharin the love in the presence of the mocha cake!

Friday night we headed to the “wedding house”. Family friends of ours were unable to attend the wedding because they had a family reunion in Ontario, but they graciously allowed our family to occupy their lovely abode during wedding time as it was a convenient 5 minute drive from the church. It was perfect.

Saturday was the biggest and most special day of all…DAN AND CARLYNNE’S WEDDING! It was super. Super DUPER.

So our day started off at the hair dresser:

We each got shoulder and hand massages out of the deal. Ahhh.

Then we drove back to the house (all 6 of us girls crammed in Lowell and my little bitty car)…

…where Shareen began pumping us all through her little (yet extravagant) make-up station.

Meanwhile, Dad and his little helpers decorated the wedding vehicle. My Dad's trusty van was Marc & Kylie's wedding vehicle, Lowell & my wedding vehicle, and now Carlynne and Dan's. Each of us decorated it uniquely- starting with Marc & Kylie (you can't really see the whole thing, but just imagine some muffin tins and pop cans hanging off the back, and you get the idea!)

This was Lowell and my wedding van:

And this was Carlynne and Dan's! My Mommy was responsible for the decor which went perfectly with Carlynne's artsy fartsy theme for the day.

Us girls then grabbed a bite to eat (with the Brianne & Ashley's pleasurable company!)...

...got dressed, and boogied to the church where we eagerly waited for the spectacular event that was about to take place.

And take place it did. In a delightfully beautiful fashion, if I do say so myself.

Now I will fast forward to the reception because I want to wait for Brianne's professional photos to fill in the detail between the wedding and reception. Oh, but our little twin friends and their family came to the wedding, so I will leave you a couple of pictures of the sheer cuteness that is them. I'm gonna miss these kiddies.

Okay, now we're onto the reception. Well, at least bits and pieces of it.

My Dad has re-written a song for each of our weddings, and the rest of the family helps with instrumental and/or back-up vocals.


Darrel (the best man) and I also prepared a little number, which, I hate to say, kind of bombed. We secretly got together a couple of times and rehearsed to perfection...really. The problem? We used a different guitar come show time, and it was in an entirely different key. A key that was way too high for my poor scratchy vocal folds. I could only dream of reaching such levels of falsetto. Shoot. It could've been soooooo good! Oh well, at least we look like it went well!

We have these precious moments on video, thanks to the videographer for the day: Lowell.

(LOVIN the pant leg. Apparently I dropped the ball on my wifely duties there!)

Dan and Carlynne had a great kissing game which I'll explain more about some other time because it was just so stinkin cool and original. Here's a part of the game with absolutely no other context for you.

As previously mentioned (and displayed), Carlynne and Dan started the dance off with a self-choreographed number. It was so fun!

Later in the evening, I got my time to shine. I've already shamelessly bragged about my family's limbo skills. Well, we got a chance to show them off once again.

I think we get our limbo skills from my Mom:

Second place winner was Marco:

And first place was (hee hee) me:

And then we proceeded to dance the night away...


The. End.

4 comments :

shareen said...

WHEW! A lot of work went into that one! Thanks for posting all those pictures, I'll have to get some of your pictures off you at a later date (much later?).

Mama Bear said...

fabulous post!!

Bloggy Mama said...

Amazing pictures.

m+K said...

I actually would like to discuss the muscle shirt, thank you for asking! And all I have to say is that if I had been around when Marc was getting ready for supper he would not have been wearing said muscle shirt. Maybe we can photoshop a nice shirt onto him because I do like that picture. Great job Julie, this must have taken you awhile!