Snapshot Wedding Summary: Part 2 (Montreal)

We flew out of Victoria at 6am on June 22, and headed to Montreal. We had a direct flight from Victoria all the way to Toronto. That's over 5 hours in the air, which means we were able to watch more than two movies on the plane! Needless to say, however, we were more than glad to stretch our legs and get doing what we came for when we reached Montreal Trudeau. It's quite the transition from Victoria, from the trendy, nutritious food-eating, outdoorsy culture of Vancouver Island to the urban, fast-paced, time-for-business feel of the island of Montreal.

Jenn's family picked us up. First stop was Moores, where we learned that my tux rental had come without a shirt or tie! An issue that was sorted out in the next few days, to my relief because I'm not really in the habit of going without a shirt for weddings...

We also got to see Jason and Christina's new home! What a nice place. Great neighborhood, quiet street. And the apartment is very spacious. That will be a fun place to visit!

The week in Montreal was very much like a week in Santa's shop for elves. Each day we worked and schemed to get everything the way it needed to be for the ever-approaching Friday ceremony! There were iTune playlists to organize, toole to place, errands to run, bows to tie, dresses to alter (I didn't do that...), food to eat, phone calls to make, and lots of fun to have in the midst of it all.

To make it all more interesting, Jason and Christina were able to snag that new apartment the week before their wedding. They didn't think they'd get it so suddenly, and so amongst all the wedding preparations, all their possessions had to be moved from Jason's apartment and Jenn's parents' place! Craig, Jenn's dad, Jason, and I spent about 12 hours (from 2:30pm to 2:30am) moving boxes and bed frames and dressers and computer parts and major and minor appliances and bags of clothes and couches . . . down the stairs, through a small doorway, into the truck, over to the new place, out of the truck, up some stairs, through another small doorway, and into the apartment. It was a lot of fun, actually. Most of the time we were laughing about how much work we had. We took a little break at midnight, and went to McDonald's for a late supper. Interestingly, the LaSalle McDonald's was being used as the setting for a new McDonald's commercial. So, if you see a commercial with a jalepeno pepper on a burger, we were there when it was being filmed.

After our Micky D's treat, we finished up our moving, and got into bed for 3am. Quite the moving experience.

While we were moving Jason and Christina's life to their new locale, Jenn was throwing her sister a "hurray-you're-getting-married!!!" party. Those six girls have been close since they were born, and one by one, each of them are having their turn in a wedding dress. Jenn, Dom, and Liz, and now Chris. Only Char and Reb remain. It was a girls' night full of girliness, old home-videos, and a fun send-off for Chris into wifeliness.

The night before the wedding, Jenn and I went to Jason and Chris's new apartment to install an air conditioner (which, you must understand, is essential in Montreal during the summer. It is very sticky and humid every day, and there is truly no relief like a continual supply of cold blowing air!). That was a fun experience... It was 9:30 pm when we started, and 11:15pm when we finished sawing and installing. My apologies to the neighborhood for the terrible noise... But the great thing is that the AC was installed. Extra great since Jason and I spent the night there. To our delight, around 4am we woke up shivering, needing blankets. There is no greater feeling than being really cold after having been far too warm when you went to bed.

The next day was the wedding.

All the groomsmen met at Jason's for breakfast. We had pancakes and bacon. Excellent! By 2:40 we were donning our tuxes and taking the groomsmen pictures. Jason has such great friends! I don't think I've had this much fun in a wedding party for quite some time! The limo was to come at 3pm, to get us to the church for 4pm. However, the limo didn't show until 3:40, which is a big problem because the Mercier bridge which takes us from the island of Montreal to the south shore is usually plugged with traffic, and the closer you get to 5pm, the worse it is. The biggest shock was, after we were seated in the limo, the driver asked us, "And where is the church?" Where is the church?! Well, we got him there, but he certainly wasn't the brightest light in the socket... When we were coming up the church, we told him to turn "droite" (French for "right"), he said, "Gauche?" ("left?"). "No, droite!" "Gauche?" "No! Droite!" "Oh, okay, I go gauche." Sheesh.

When we arrived, he turned around to us and said, "Okay, so how do I get to the bride's house now?" What the --? Usually it is assumed that the driver has done his homework... but not this one! So, an uncle of Jenn's met him at a nearby Tim Horton's, and led him to the Watkins. There, he had Christina's parents go ahead of him so he could follow them back to the church (since he still didn't know where it was...), and, as Christina was waving her parents past the limo, the driver just about caught her arm in the electric window! Who is this guy?! Needless to say, he'll have some reckoning to do.

Aside from this limo-trauma, the wedding was amazing. They chose to have their ceremony in the same church Jenn and I had our wedding, Georgetown Presbyterian, which is older than Canada's confederation. So, it was very nostalgic for us, and very surreal to be back there again so soon. When Christina came down the isle, she sang a song for Jason, "You Take My Breathe Away," as recorded by Eva Cassidy. Chris has an amazing voice to start with, but even more exceptional was how well she performed on her own wedding day! With the eyes of 150 guests on her, and staring right into the eyes of her soon-to-be-husband, everybody was blown away. Watch it here:

Their reception was loads of fun. Great food, lots of family, and crazy folks on the dance floor.

By 3am, everything was cleaned up, and we were headed home. Chris and Jason were off to Jamaica and a life together. After one day's rest, Jenn and I were headed back to Caronport.

What a wedding week! I don't think we've ever seen that much family all in a week's time before! (Or traveled so far, either! 9,500 km in 10 days!) We had loads of fun, but made sure to ask our unmarried siblings to wait a couple of years before getting any ideas...

Snapshot Wedding Summary: Part 1 (Victoria)

A few weeks have passed, and the dust has settled, so now seems as good a time as any for a little wedding-trip narration.

It was a balmy 25°C as we left Regina, heading in to a much more temperate 15°C in Victoria. In Calgary, we were told we most likely would not catch our connector from Vancouver to Victoria. By the end of our layover there, they finally told us "there is no way you'll catch it." So, we did what we thought to be the responsible thing - we canceled our hotel reservation for that night, and told our ride (my sister Candyce) that we weren't going to make it to Victoria today. However, half way through the Calgary to Vancouver flight, a stewardess came over the system saying, "I have some great news for you Victoria-bound passengers! The Victoria flight has stated that they will wait for you, so you are going to Victoria tonight!"

OK... So, now what? We landed in Vancouver, were quickly zipped off by golf cart to our Victoria gate, and found our seats on a small little aircraft (37-seater) filled with tired passengers who had been waiting for us for an hour... Sorry folks. 15 minutes later we were in Victoria. Since our ride-givers were probably asleep, we took a shuttle to the hotel, which thankfully hadn't given our room away. Success!

The rest of our Victoria time was smooth. We got to do some wall-climbing with Candyce and Nathan on Friday. That was a blast. I hadn't climbed in a while, but I like it. I used to teach wall climbing at camp, so it was good to get up on a wall again. The wedding day was really neat. We took pictures in the early afternoon before the wedding. We were marveling at the vegetation in Victoria. So many big, old trees and lushness! Quite different from the horizon-based beauty of Saskatchewan. I felt sorry for my poor brother, Brett. He had a mild case of something that felt like H1N1. So, he didn't enjoy the picture taking quite as much as everyone else...

After pictures, we hung out and ate food until the wedding. (That is Candyce in her wedding dress, which is safely concealed by a towel, lest some rebellious bit of food plan a staining revolt.) The wedding ceremony was very rich. It was filled with liturgy and music (a choir hand-picked by Nathan, the groom, sang the ceremony music - very spectacular!). Jenn and I helped with serving communion. It was unexpectedly an emotional experience for me to serve communion, to look each person in the eye and say, "The blood of Christ shed for you." It was the response of especially the elderly that was most striking. There was a sense of security and the knowing that comes from lifelong experience that resounded when an older man or woman would nod and say, "Amen."

The reception was fun. It was like a family reunion for my dad's side. It was neat to introduce Jenn to them as my wife, since she hadn't met most of them. The next morning we all got together again for a brunch at my uncle Larry's, who lives on the Island.

That afternoon, Jenn and got to see something very cool (to us). The Luthor Mansion -- that is, Hatley Castle, but it poses as the Luthor Mansion, the residence of Lex Luthor, in the CW show, Smallville. At least, the Hatley Castle poses as the exterior of the Mansion, since the interior scenes are taken elsewhere, like Burnaby or somewhere. Hatley Castle was built by a wealthy family back at the turn of the 20th century. It now functions as a small university. It is in Victoria, a mere 20 minute drive from our hotel, so how could we not go take a look! The funny thing is, in Smallville, the Mansion is supposed to be in Kansas. Kansas has no ocean (obviously), but if you stand on the landing in front of the castle and look away from it, this is your view:

Obviously some skillful camera work is put to use in Smallville to convince the audience that this old castle really is nestled in the woods of Smallville, Kansas.

Our time in Victoria was a lot of fun. Lots of time with family, and lots of time to sight-see. Candyce and Nathan put a beautiful wedding together, and it was truly wonderful to be part of it. Candyce and Nathan are in Europe now, on a whole spectrum of adventures, which you can follow if you like, at "The Adventures of Nathan and Candyce."

Our trip to the Island was especially memorable for Jenn, since she had never been that far west before. She wasted no time in getting her feet wet!

That concludes the Victoria chapter of our week of weddings. On to Montreal!