Shanna and Leigh's Wedding

Shanna and Leigh's wedding was a beautiful day despite the rain. I was really happy to be able to be a part of the wedding party. Here are some pictures from the day. Here are more pictures from the photographer Marilyn Mikkelsen (posed colour photos) and her husband Ralph (black and white candids) plus Shanna and Leigh's honeymoon.

I guess the who "day" was actually a wedding weekend, as the girls (and I guess boys too) went out on the town on thursday night. So that we could accomodate some of the out of town guests (Rachel), we decided to have the stagette on that day, which actually worked out as we were able to get a limo from Griffen's, which was a nice touch. After bar hopping, the majority of us went home to bed, but Shanna brought her maid of honour Rachel out for some fun. They met up with the boys at Zaphoids, and proceeded to have some fun which involved poutine, and coming in at about 7 on Friday morning.

Fortunately I did not go out, as I had some homework to do (as I knew that I wouldn't get any work done the rest of the weekend). Shanna and Rachel picked me up in the early afternoon, and I helped deliver the bridal gown and some of the bridesmaids dresses to our staging area (aka Rachel's parents place) where we would be getting ready on Saturday. After some confusion between Shanna and Leigh, the bridal party (minus Kelly who was meeting us there) drove out in rushhour traffic to Bells Corners from downtown. We ended up getting about 15 minutes of our 45 minute manicure (although Kelly got her full 45-minute treatment, lucky bum!) at the Spa's Nail Bar. (I would put the link, but they were quite rude to us...we knew we were late, and even called ahead to let them know, but we still got berrated even though we paid for the full 45-minute manicure!) After the manicures, Leigh drove Kelly and me to go pick up Patrick and Shanna drove Rachel, Amy, and Nadine to go pick up the candles, and both cars were to rendez vous at the church for the rehearsal. It was funny because our car was racing to see who would get there first, but apparantly, the other car had no clue. The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and then were headed to the Vietnam Palace (I think that's the restaurant) on Somerset for the rehearsal dinner. It was really yummy, and I think that I would definitely return.

Saturday morning, Shanna came and picked me up with Nadine and Amy and we headed to meet Rachel at the Hair Tech Coiffure Inc salon in Orleans (corner of Innes and Jeanne D'Arc) for our hair appointments. Hair was fun, but expensive (sometimes it is difficult being a student) but worth it because I liked my hair and there was no way that I could put in 48 bobby pins myself. After hair, we headed to Rachel's where we snacked (aka pigged out) before getting dressed (well we had to get Shanna dressed first) and all made up. It was a fun girls afternoon, and we all managed to get prettied up before the photographers came to get pictures of the bridal party. After pictures, we headed up to Divine Infant where Shanna and Leigh got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and everyone did their parts perfectly.

Unfortunately the rain didn't hold off until the reception, so we got a few pictures in at the church before the wedding party (minus the bride, groom, maid of honour, and bestman) headed out to Strathmere for the reception. The reception was a lot of fun, they had some very creative ways of getting the guests involved, I think that every table did some sort of activity (chinese fire drill, funny story, sing a song, impersonated other people) to get the newlywed couple to kiss. It was also really nice seeing some people that I haven't seen in a while.

The next day, the wedding party and family were invited out to Perth to Tony and Lynda's home for a brunch. It was a nice place (that I haven't been to in ages - probably since 2nd year University - my bachelor's) to visit and have the brunch. We also got to see some of the disposable camera pictures, which was always fun.

Overall, I think that the wedding was a success. I thought that this would be last wedding for a while, but Rachel and Clayton are engaged to be married, and we will be celebrating with them on the Mayan Riviera in February. I will definitely bring my SLR and take some beautiful pics of the scenery down there. I can't wait...it should be tons of fun! Now, on to saving money mode...

Thanksgiving

It seems to be a trend to travel to the U.S. to spend Canadian Thanksgiving. This past weekend, I travelled to Boston for two reasons - my cousin Amy's wedding (and all of the festivities), and the UPA Northeast Regionals. It was a very fun weekend despite the long drive.

The weekend started out early Friday morning when Geoff, Damian, Melody, and I departed from Ottawa and started on our adventure towards Boston. Our intended departure time was 7:00 am from downtown, and we ended up leaving Orleans at around 8:00 am, which was only about 30 minutes behind schedule (typical ultimate time). The drive was quite nice, we decided to cross in Cornwall, which put us driving on all of these little roads so that we would avoid the morning rush hour in Montreal. I drove that leg and was quite happy to be done driving somewhere in Upstate New York. Geofford took the next leg and brought us the rest of the way through New York and into Vermont. At our first rest stop (which was badly needed by my tiny bladder) we saw advertisements for Ben & Jerry's so we decided to head to the factory for "lunch". Fortunately for Geofford and I there was a small chip stand where we could get "real" food before our ice cream. Damian and Melody decided to eat ice cream for lunch and save their appetites for the banquet that would occur that night. After Ben & Jerry's we drove the rest of the way to Boston, once we reached Boston we saw a burning car on the side of the road and thought that was the reason for the increase in traffic, but it was just regular rush hour, and due to some poor advice (from the other car) coupled with a lousy map we spent an extra 45 minutes inching through the traffic in Boston. When we reached the hotel, we met up with my mom and Francis to walk to the restaurant in china town to have the pre-wedding banquet with the family at some chinese restaurant. After dinner, we all headed to the Cheesecake Factory for our second dessert. Unfortunately for me, I was stuffed and since we had Regionals the next day (with only four women), I thought it would be wiser to pass on the second dessert. I did take a taste of the cheesecake, and immediately regretted my decision, but was too tired to return and get a piece. We headed to bed fairly early (by tournament standards) because we had to depart from the hotel about about 6:45 so that we could get to the fields on time.

So the 6:45 departure time was actually 7am which was perfect because it took about an hour to get to the fields (in Devens, MA). We got there right in time to watch the other teams all arrive and seeing some familiar faces on Goat. We played our games and the women got really tired because there were only four of us. The guys did a really good job of helping us out, which was greatly appreciated, especially when I got hurt in the second last game, and decided that it would be worse to try and push it the last game. So Deb, Nat, and Mel played ironwomen in the last game and did great.

Although we did not advance on the Saturday, we liked the way that our schedule worked out (we only wanted to play three games on Saturday, either win all three, or lose-win-lose) because it gave Damian, Mel, Geofford and I enough time to get back to the hotel before the wedding dinner (we had to miss the ceremony which was beautiful). We made it just in time and sat down to an awesome feast which included: scallops, crab, lobster, fish, chicken, steak, and many other fantastic dishes. I was ridiculously full after the dinner and was unable to make it to the post-reception dancing which was to occur at the Avalon - one of the clubs in Boston. The other reason for not going was that we had to return to Devens early the next morning for another 9am game :p

On Sunday, we did not play our best 2nd game of Ultimate, but that could be due to the fact that the team was distracted by the Open Final between Goat and DoG. This was a phenomenal game even though Goat lost. After our last game, we watched the end of the GLUM back door final and saw our Master's team advance to the UPA Championships in Sarasota, FL before watching the conclusion of the Goat - Twisted Metal backdoor final. This was a very exciting and nerve wracking game as we saw Goat give up a couple of breaks, and then get them back, and then getting a break, losing it, and almost losing the game 16-14. But Goat didn't let Twisted Metal score, tied the game at 15 and made it a game to 2. Goat ended up scoring first with a huge break and then finishing off Twisted Metal 17-16 in a very exciting game. We were a little glad that we played our 2nd game or else we might not have watched that exciting final.

That was the end of our Fall seVen team, and now we are preparing for indoor so that we can get ready for next summer and our pursuit for Perth in 2006.