In order to preserve memories for my own sake, and to share them with others, this post = totally happening. I have picked a small selection of 'highlight photos' from our wedding, and the events leading up to said wedding, and am going to do my best to commentate on each photo. August 22nd marked the start of my wonderful marriage to Graeme Esau, and I am so delighted to share that experience. So here goes? Photo commentary time begins! BE WARNED: This entry is
ridiculously long.
At the end of June, my delightful mother-in-law Pat hosted a wedding shower for me in Red Deer. The photo picture is of my beautiful cousin Karissa and I at said shower. I found (and still find) it astounding that a group of women I largely did not know were so willing to welcome me into their tapestry of friends. I am truly blessed to have a great family of my own, and am now married into another great family! Sidebar thanks to my dear Karissa for attending more than one wedding-related event in the summer months. Blasty beyond comprehension.
In the same whirlwind weekend (immediately after the end of my school year and subsequent departure from my job share school that I loved), I had the joy of attending Joel and Jess' wedding (Graeme's cousin and now cousin-in-law). As to be featured later in this post, Graeme and his two male cousins of similar age all got married within a few months of each other. Gong show. Needless to say, the weekend was a delight (though a lot larger scale than our own forthcoming nuptials).
Pictured above are the previously mentioned cousins, and their fiancees and/or wives. Jess and Joel were married at the end of June; Logan and Shiloh in the middle of July; Graeme and I at the end of August. 'Twas a busy, BUSY summer... but thankfully there are group photos from each wedding to capture the joy. I was unfortunately unable to attend Log and Shi's wedding in Ontario; however, I understand that there is a space in a photo just waiting for me to be Photoshopped into...
And again, immediately after an already busy time, I flew to Saskatchewan for still more wedding events in my home town. My Mother, my 'sister' Joan and my best friend from high school Jessie collaborated to plan a great wedding shower for me while I was home. The photo pictured is of two former Sunday school students who were considerably smaller when I first taught them. Thus wedding event #2 is complete!
Wedding event #3 may likely be my favourite event (minus the actual getting married part). My lovely girlfriends planned a phenomenal bridal shower for me, the theme of which need not be mentioned. :) Hilary, former 4-month roommate, die-hard Bombers' fan, Smash Brothers partner and catering machine was obviously responsible for all of the delicious appys at the shower. This is obviously why I am so startled in the photo pictured above.
The women in this photo are AMAZING. One of them is behind the camera, and thus missing, but Shawna is equally as important in this chunk of text as the others. Each of these women played (and still plays) such an important role in my life in general, and in my relationship with Graeme, not to mention being a MAJOR help with all my wedding tasks. At the shower, they truly DID shower me--with great gifts and great food and great friendship. They even went through the trouble of interviewing my almost husband for the shower, which is a long story in and of itself. Suffice it to say, I am eternally grateful for Shawna, Kari, Hilary, Rose, Sarah, Lindsey, Laura and Taryne. MUCH love for all that you did.
Shortly before the wedding, I had another (unofficial, of course) party with a smaller group of girlfriends--my PDP crew, aka: roommates + almost roommate Shawna. Kudos to Jordan (Shawna's husband) for putting up with us and snapping some (largely unflattering) photos. These are the women most often in my apartment (two of them had no choice), and they seriously preserved my sanity for the last year or so. What I would have done pre-wedding without their patience, I have no idea.
Back to Lindsey Roommate and Sarah Roommate, who are MUCH more excited in this photo than I was. Taken at the start of my bachelorette party, this photo is from Value Village as we were selecting my bachelorette outfit. Thankfully, said outfit wasn't entirely traumatizing? Though the immense amount of sequins did make it fairly scratchy under the armpits.
This may well be one of my favourite pre-wedding photos. After selecting an appropriate bachelorette outfit, me and my closest girlfriends met in Yaletown to have dinner and play Bananagrams while the sun set. Afterwards, I admittedly threw somewhat of a bridezilla tantrum, which I will accurately attribute to being stressed. This photo, however, is taken after I have decided to be a grown-up and forget about being stressed. Herein lies the evidence that ice cream solves all problems (or maybe close girlfriends do). Thank you to Lindsey, Sarah, Kari, Hilary, Taryne and Erinn for being such wonderful women, and showing me such a good pre-wedding time. Karaoke = valid form of stress relief! :)
Around the same time I was bachelorette partying it up, Graeme arrived in the lower mainland with his parents. We spent all of Thursday running around doing wedding errands, and then on Friday were legally married by a marriage commissioner. This photo is from that 'ceremony', which very few were present for. Marianne, the marriage commissioner and fellow teacher, was super helpful with all the little details. Legally, Graeme and I were 'married' on Friday, though were totally celebrating the anniversary of our marriage as August 22 rather than August 20. Random fact (and wedding event #5) complete.
This photo is from our rehearsal dinner on the Saturday, featuring Cal (Graeme's former professor and current friend) and Trevor Lee's hat. Both are very important. :) Again, this was a stressful day/time for me, what with finishing packing and thinking about starting an entirely new life in Ottawa... so I was, to say the least, cranky on that afternoon. Thankfully, the people in attendance were totally gracious about my not-so-appropriate behaviour. Plus I was a lot more functional once I ate dinner. :) By this time--the day before the wedding--our families and friends had mostly arrived and were totally willing to help out... but there was nothing to help with? Kind of an awkward situation, but thanks to EVERYONE who offered!
After an evening of frantic packing (that I didn't even finish) and writing 'thank you' cards after everyone else had gone to sleep, the day of my wedding finally arrived (obviously?). I didn't sleep all that much, but I managed alright. In the morning, I admit I wasn't feeling all that stoked about the whole thing--experiencing the standard 'cold feet' I suppose--but once I stopped having to do things? Pfft. I was good. Hence this photo, which marks the beginning of me not doing anything for myself. :) Jaimie, my wonderful hair dresser from
Zennkai, did a phenomenal job on my hair (that I could never dream of doing), and did it on her personal time. This woman even changed her family vacation days so she was available to do my hair. Just awesome. :) Plus she did my Mom's hair too, which also looked great!
Step #2 in the 'not doing anything for myself' process was getting my make-up done. I haven't had this done since I graduated from high school a number of years ago, and getting it done at
Eccotique was rad. My girlfriends showing up to watch made it a little awkward, but I was super happy with the make-up situation. Plus in the midst of all this, Hilary's husband Phil was around snapping photos until our professional photographer arrived later on. Amazing. Near the end of my make-up appointment, I was getting a little stressed because we were running late and the other customers were (Murphy's Law) being slow and/or annoying. Plus it was raining? So the stress set in. I remember texting Kari (who was facilitating all wedding set-up/design in Fort Langley), and telling her to make it inside shortly after I said I didn't want to make the decision. Oh brother!
Shortly after arriving at Taryne's house where everyone else was getting ready, Kari called and said that "my fiance insisted the wedding be outside", to which I responded "okay", as I no longer cared about making choices. My Mom had prepared awesome pre-wedding snacks, and Taryne's Mom Renee was (duh) prepared with diet Coke. The photographers--John and Tash Crozier of
Crozier Photography--had arrived, and I think I finally realized I was getting married. This photo features Tash, Taryne, my wedding dress, and a fully excited me. Lucy, Taryne's cat and my housemate for a few days, was thankfully hiding under the bed and NOT tearing my dress apart.
Fast-forward through my SUPREME water works while we were praying (I don't remember what was said because I was too busy staring upwards to keep my make-up from running, though I'm sure it was great), and my seemingly-endless wait in Renee's car while it was raining, to the real deal. Renee pulled up in front of the hall, Kelvin opened the door and asked me if I needed any help (to which I obviously responded "No, I've got it!"), and then I did it. Walked down the aisle. Didn't fall down, and didn't weep uncontrollably (though there were indeed tears, and more than I expected). I walked way too fast for people to hear enough of Dave Matthews (love that song), and I couldn't even see Graeme half the time. But I made it. Cobbled walkway or no, I made it.
* Side note that begs mentioning though? My flowers.
Christina Willows did an absolutely phenomenal job of turning my "I don't know... purple and green flowers? No roses? Nothing hangy" nonsense into beautiful floral arrangements. They were exactly what I wanted, even when I didn't know what I wanted in the first place, and they were totally within budget. LOVE it! She's also, by the way, a really great photographer. Talk about multi-talented.
Another fast-forward through Cal's rad lecture/homily and my constant face-making, and again through our vows (and my crying too much to speak and trying a "what he said" comment before finishing the vows), and we were married! For the second time? But biblically this go around. My massive stilettos and general nervousness made me fail in the 'lean into the kiss' department, AND I forgot about the high five. I did, however, manage to strut a little bit when Kanye played as we walked out. Fort Langley is the best though, because the first people to congratulate us were random strangers walking their dog. Awesome memory.
Now come the details of the reception. Detail #1 is courtesy of Kari, my long time friend and Creative/Artistic Director of the wedding. Kari is one of the most creative people I know, and after HOURS of test runs (and who knows how many hours of actual production), she made what I'm guessing is close to 100 origami flowers out of my favourite books. I hunted down used/damaged copies of C.S. Lewis, Ted Dekker, and (of course) J.K. Rowling, and they were made into flowers. SUCH a great idea, and the small touch that made the wedding decor and whatnot feel very appropriate to Graeme and I.
I am a woman blessed with good connections. Working in catering for the past three summers, my former catering manager Erin made the culinary magic that was our wedding food. She patiently helped me sort of the menu of appys, and with the help of Hilary and some former co-workers, made this beautiful display of food. Hilary also takes credit for baking all the mini pies that we had instead of cake--green sprinkled apple pie and purple sprinkled berry pie, perfectly matching the wedding colours. Hilary is a woman with an eye for details, and has a wonderful heart. She helped SO much with the wedding!
Here is the third and final 'cousins' photo, but by this time? We're all married! I am so thankful that Joel and Jess, and Log and Shi were all able to make it out to our wedding in BC. These people were wonderful in all dimensions--the guys were great groomsmen (though they did participate in some shenanigans), and the girls were super helpful behind the scenes. What great cousins I am acquiring in addition to the already great ones I have!
Somewhere near the end of our wedding dance party, Graeme and I headed downstairs to play N64 with Caleb and Jo. Phil and Hilary lent their N64 to us with one condition: they had to have photos of us playing together. 'Twas a fair condition, as Graeme and I spent a lot of our pre-dating and early dating time playing Smash Brothers. Thanks to Phil and Hil, we still do this now (their wedding present to us? An N64 system). This photo is taken just after the N64 session. Clearly Graeme and I are both VERY tired human beings.
Aaaaand then came the dancing. Or, rather, the dancing came after our friend and awesome MC Jon said a few words/asked others to share as well. Speeches were unplanned, and mostly conisted of embarrassing stories about Graeme, for which I am thankful. Graeme's parents definitely brought on the tears though, which is featured in one of the wedding photos on our slideshow. ANYWAY, we ate, people spoke, and then we danced. The first song played and the only people on the floor were Sarah, Lindsey, Jon (who transformed into the DJ) and myself. Graeme was too busy finding other people to dance. It didn't take long for the dancing (which was in the daytime, no less!) to get going though. This photo of Sarah, Rose, some random legs and I busting moves on the floor. I don't have many moves to begin with, and a lace-up wedding dress makes things complicated... but it was still a ton of fun.
Later on, someone got the bright idea to lift Graeme and I up on shoulders. Easier said than done when you're in a dress, might I mention. Graeme was perched somewhat precariously on Joel's shoulders, and though my lady friends are totally capable, I didn't get all that high up. Needless to say, this photo is just a little more evidence of how much fun we had at the dance party, listening to highly embarrassing and/or inappropriate rap songs. Kudos to Jon for being an awesome DJ, and for managing to use a pen as a dance prop.
Once evening arrived, and some of the guests started to head home, Graeme and I needed to make our exit. After realizing that a large group of people were waiting outside the hall for us, we finally made it outside. This photo (taken by Phil) is one of my favourites. By this point, I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but incomparably happy about being married. So, this photo features one of my 'good-bye' hugs, specifically with Kari. Many thanks to her yet again for making the details of the wedding come together.
After we said our 'good-bye's, and admired our extremely well-packed (not to mention well-decorated) vehicle, Graeme and I started our nine-day-long road trip to from British Columbia to Ontario. I was SUPER tired, took my contact lenses out in the car, and started to realize how tight my dress really was during the drive to Harrison. Thankfully, our first chunk of driving was only a little over an hour, and Graeme was wonderful enough to drive. :)
I feel like there are another 18
billion things I need to write down (and thus remember), but it just isn't feasible at this point. What is most important, however, are these two things: 1) That I express how incredibly blessed I am to be married to such a wonderful man, and 2) That I extend my eternal gratitude to everyone who helped out with our wedding, and thus our marriage. In the next few months, all will receive personal 'thank you' notes, though I haven't even started yet.
I am married to the man of my dreams, and THAT (see text above) was how it happened.
--- chRistie
