The Wedding

I promise to give you all of my heart, my trust, to be your light when you are in darkness, to be mindful of your feelings and be open to change. I vow to weather through the ups and downs, to grow with you and grow old with you. No matter where we are in this world, I will be your home and I will love you unconditionally always
~

Our wedding on August 25th was not only an insanely fun weekend with our favourite people in the world, it was also a good-bye to our life in Canada and a very real chapter opener for the next stage of our lives. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding day and was overcome so many times by the sheer magnitude of people coming all the way up to the lodge to celebrate with us and give us their time and share such love.

It wasn't all fun and games though! There was a whole team of people making everything happen and dealing with each hurdle as it came. There were four walkie-talkies among a group led by Nancy, Anne-Marie who set up all day Friday and part of Saturday. Some guests arrived and just jumped right in with the set-up team and got to know everyone which was really helpful! Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all of you.

Joel and I arrived on Thursday night after an insane drive up where our car died and we actually had to borrow a car to make it the rest of the way! Friday we had the ceremony rehearsal and then Joel's folks hosted the Meet and Greet party for 50 or so guests who made it to the venue that night. The food was amazing and it was so nice to get to say hello to everyone.

I actually managed to disengage from the set-up on Saturday morning (I even ditched my walkie talkie) and had an amazing massage from Jessica and spent a little time with Warren [aka the God of hair]. Meanwhile my brother had pretty much pulled an all-nighter working on writing the ceremony music (are we surprised?) and was running around like a madman getting things set up for the ceremony and reception.

The various family cabins were abuzz with food prep for the after ceremony snacks. A groups of guests and the hostess-lead ground crew were in the barn arranging flowers and the staff at the lodge were pulling together the flowers for the ceremony site. In no time the ceremony time arrived and there I was walking with my Mum and Dad toward the beach.

There's nothing more moving than walking toward all the most important people in your life except doing that on your wedding day while your brother plays a piece of music he wrote for you. I had tears in my eyes before I even made it to the circle on the beach. The ceremony was a blur. I remember having a hard time not dissolving during the parent readings and actually didn't make it through the last sentence of my vows "and I will love you" but I think it was implied.

We led the guests in a parade to the champagne and then down to the beach for my father's toast. We got into a canoe and pushed out onto the lake with everyone waving from the shore. We looked at one another and Joel said "we're married" and we both grinned. I'm really glad we had that moment alone before we needed to talk to anyone. To me, that was the pronouncement.

The family photos were a riot, we all ended up in the canoe in the rain with an odd assortment of umbrellas waving over our heads. Once we finished the photos it was pouring and we all went indoors to dry off and then we were off to the barn for dinner and dancing.

Arriving in the barn was really like stepping into a fairytale - really that was not my goal in my planning but sometimes these incredible moments just happen. It was amazing to see all the faces around us and the tables full and all the candles casting light up on the flowers. I wish I could bottle that. I loved having our own little table, we talked to almost every guest throughout the dinner without even needing to move around.

The speeches were so well put together (I knew our families would have something to say but really I think everyone outdid themselves). Again I had a hard time keeping composed. Joel and I had a tough time with our speech because we were both so overwhelmed by all the things people had done for us.

We served the little wedding pies next which I'm glad we did because we got to have a little visit with everyone as they came up to have dessert. Around this time I realized that Joel and I had never taken a moment over the past year of wedding plans to figure out our first dance. Seriously. We went out on the deck and I took him through the box step slowly a couple of times and he said "got it" so we went inside and then we were out on the floor for the first dance which I can only describe as perhaps the least coordinated dance we've ever performed.

The Bills kicked off the dancing for the guests by getting everyone on the floor in long lines and calling a simple folk dance. It was a riot. After that the dance floor remained packed until 1am.

Other highlights of the evening:
The Pennington men dancing together
The stories at the open mic
The Bills getting plugged in and playing a rock set as "The Billets"
James Brown
My Dad being called on stage and playing the last song with the band

There are reports that guests continued to party till 6am. By 2am though, Joel and I had a fire burning in the old wood stove in our cabin and were drinking a bottle of champagne recalling all the great moments of the day.

The following morning guests split into groups and went on hikes and jumped in the lake or just enjoyed some peace and quiet around the chalets.  In the evening people gathered again at Joel's family cabin for a dinner and party followed by a gift opening and then a campfire. My 90 year old Grannie sang Blue Moon while my dad and brother played guitars and we all toasted marshmallows till the wee hours. What more could you ask for?