Mawwiage is what brings us together.

I'm late. Stuart's sister Deloyce got married two weekends ago. But better late than never right? Let me tell you about the whole weekend.

Stuart and I took Thursday afternoon off from work, so that we could drive to Edmonton in time to see Typhoon Judy.  As usual, Christopher was outstanding and Darren's writing was amazing. I could have lived without the smoke machine running through the whole thing though. I think the situation became quite clear without the wafts of headache inducing, mucous membrane itching, eye-watering torture. Thanks to Chris for comping us all (Stuart, Mom, Karen, Tom and Tom's friend!) - it was opening night, so there were even munchies afterward!

Friday morning, we went down to see Marghie.  I got my bangs trimmed as usual and Stuart got his cut a wee bit shorter, since we don't plan to be back until Christmas. I don't know what the end goal is, but Jasper Ave is a disaster zone. We grabbed some lunch and then headed into deepest darker Sherwood Park to help set up at the church.

I met hordes of Kelly's family and although Stuart remembers most of their names - I don't.  I'm just not good at names.  However, a small horde of children helped me to get the tables clothed and center pieced, so that was fun.  

I also took a turn at plating desserts and keeping Grandma Parsons company. Then it was getting close to time for the rehearsals.  I didn't actually have anything to do in the wedding ceremony itself, so I snuck out to the Reitman's sale instead. My only pair of jeans were getting loose enough to slide down my butt annoyingly.  (Size 9, yeah!)

I got back in plenty of time for the rehearsal dinner.  Loads of indifferent carbs - wheeee.  I find that I am continuously astonished by what Stuart's extended family consider "good food".  Oh well, at least I wasn't hungry.  Just before we ate, Stuart and I gave the happy couple the bride & groom mouse ear hats that we'd bought for them at Disney World.  They wore them all night! 

We drove home through the cool, cloudy, rainy weather and wondered what the next day would hold.

Much as I'd have loved to sleep in on Saturday, I got up to go and do a shiatsu treatment before we needed to start getting ready for the wedding. Had a quick bite to eat and then started in on hair, makeup and clothes. 

 Thankfully, the temperature came up a wee bit and the clouds cleared off, so it turned out to be a decent, if not gorgeous, day. We got to the church in lots of time and I chatted with various Elle family members.  One of Kelly's cousins couldn't make it back from Germany, but she's a music student, so she sent a video of herself playing and singing and they Skyped the whole ceremony.  The iPhone with her feed on it was even included in the family pictures!

The ceremony itself went fine.  No one ran away, tripped, fainted, threw up or anything.   The pastor managed to get a few laughs, although over all, I wasn't too impressed with his oratorical skills.  Poor use of metaphor.  On the other hand, I did learn that Christians are all polyandrists, which I'd somehow missed before.  He said that all marriages are comprised of: the groom, the bride and Jesus.  WOW! 

 They had a tea reception afterwards, for the invited guests and the members of the congregation who just chose to show up. I visited with the family members I knew, met a few more and helped to dish out cake. (It was the only way to guarantee that we got a piece of the good cake, not the nasty Costco sheet cake! Strawberries and cream... mmmmm....)

People trickled out over the afternoon and by about 6pm we were down to just the folks who were going to the small family dinner - 21 people! We decamped from the church and headed to Murietta's on Whyte Ave. They had booked the function room, which just fit us all - although it got very warm by the end of the evening.  And it was a long evening... the appetizer appeared in good time, but our mains took almost 2 hours to arrive! It was a set menu and most of us chose the steak.  Mine was gristly and chewy and judging by how much went back on the plates, I think most of them were. Oh well, it saved room for our two desserts - a chocolate molten cake and more wedding cake! Cookies and cream flavour this time - double mmmm.....

So all in all... I think it went well!