Francis and Jaclyn are married!

Wow, my baby brother is married, and I have a new sister. I have wanted a sister for a long time now, and I am happy to call Jaclyn my new sister. Geofford and I travelled to Halifax to meet up with my family (my parents, Damian, Uncle Lawrence, Aunt Betty, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Laura, Aunt Winnie, and Uncle Sammy) and to meet all of Jaclyn's family (her parents Jim and Cathy, and sister Jenna, and a multitude of aunts, uncles and cousins) to celebrate their wedding.

We arrived in Halifax mid-Thursday morning and waited around the airport to meet up with some other Ottawa arrivals so that we could be driven back to Halifax (the city - as the aiport is a far distance away) together. We hung out at the Gannons and met the family before going out to dinner with my parents and relatives at a chinese restaurant called ChinaTown. We were able to enjoy fish and lobster, which was very exciting...(as it turns out, this was the majority of the shellfish enjoyment for the trip). Thursday night we went out to a bar - can't remember the name to listen to Jaclyn's old band play. They were really good, but a little too loud for these old ears (but definitely not as loud as NIN - but since were up since 6am EST, it was pretty loud to our ears).

Friday morning, Geofford and I travelled to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg with my relatives. Geoff had fun playing on the rocks - jumping from rock to rock in his sandals...and scaring me when he decided to try and go onto the coloured rocks (which were the ones that were wet from the waves...) Hopefully Geofford will post pictures soon from this part of the trip, as there were some incredible vistas from Peggy's Cove. After Peggy's cove, we travelled to Lunenburg, but didn't have the chance to see the BlueNose II, but did have some fabulous scallops and shrimp...(our second taste of seafood). We had to hurry back to Halifax in time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner/rehearsal/post-rehearsal get-together. We had a nice bbq before the rehearsal, which was a great opportunity to get to know the wedding party and Jaclyn's relatives. They were fantastic. It was a pretty early night because the boys (my dad, Geofford, and my two uncles) were getting up early (6:54am tee-time) to play golf.

Saturday morning - the day of the wedding - Geofford left the room around 5:45 to meet my dad and the uncles to leave for golf. I think I heard him leave the room, but I fell asleep soon afterwards. My mom and I had a hair appointment at the Head Shoppe (where the bridal party was getting their hair done), and I got my hair curled and my mom got her hair set and curled. It took Katie - my hair stylist - one hour to curl my hair, and due to the humidity and the persistent straightness of my hair, the curls definitely relaxed during the course of the day - to the point that one of the groomsmen he saw my hair before and after decorating the hair noticed the difference in curl. sigh...I know that I shouldn't get my hair curled for my wedding, but it was nice to have curly hair for a day - even if it meant having a ton of product in...

The wedding ceremony was beautiful - Jaclyn was a gorgeous bride and Francis was a handsome groom (I still can't believe he's married...he's my baby brother!). Father Gerard had a lovely homily - and it was very personal to them, which was nice. After that we went for pictures and then had dinner and danced the night away. It was a great night - except the fact that there was no a/c because it broke the night before, but fans were brought in, and we coped. There was a little bit of comotion at one point in the night, when the groomsmen ran onto the dance floor in their "uniforms" - which consisted of muscle shirts, red mesh ball caps, and shorts....to liven up the dance floor - and to get out of their tuxedos for a bit.

This morning was quite relaxing, after breakfast, Father Gerard said mass outside for those of us at Mount Saint Vincent University. There was a bit of a laugh about it because the mass today was as long as his homily yesterday during the wedding mass. After that Damian, Geofford and I ran some hills (there are a lot in Halifax) and threw the disc around. We then went back to the Gannon's for the post-wedding brunch/gift opening. One of the uncles made a fantastic haddock chowder and one of the aunts made a fantastic chili. One of the smart things that they did - which I will copy - or look into copying was that they rented all of the dishes for the brunch so there was no need to worry about washing. You just rinse and return...which is great because then we were able to spend a little more time talking, and there were less people in the kitchen.

We now have a bigger extended family - and Jaclyn's family has opened their hearts to us - they might even come watch Geofford, Damian and I play ultimate when we travel back to Halifax for Nationals in August - that would be fun to have some fans...

On the way back - as we really didn't have that much lobster, Geofford and I picked up a few lobsters from ClearWater Seafood to bring back to Ottawa to enjoy...It's probably a lot more expensive to buy it at the airport, but was it ever delicious.

People keep asking me how the wedding planning is going, and I think it's going pretty well. The only thing that I am a little worried about is the dress alterations, as the person that I was going to call - I seem to have the wrong phone number....eek! Other than that, I will really start worrying about all of the details after MixedUp and CUC Nationals...Ask me August 21st how planning is going :)