Malcolm and Kaila had very quiet Bucks/Hens nights, respectively, on Tuesday night: Kaila, Maire-Claire and I headed to Bin 941, a delicious and very popular tapas restaurant on Davie St (highly recomended!), while Malcolm headed off to the Irish Heather in Gastown for a couple of quiet pints with David H.
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My Mum, Dad, and Nanna arrived on Wednesday with Matthew (Malcolm's best man) and they sensibly retired to their hotel quickly so didn't get roped into doing too much wedding stuff - though we did manage to convince my Dad to use his calligraphic hand on the place cards and Nanna to start tracing circles onto fabric for Jam covers! Wednesday afteroon marked a break from the hard work: Kaila took MC and I to the Spa at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver where we got manicures and pedicures - it took a couple of hours, but afterwards our fingers and toes looked fabulous! We headed over to Bowen Island (the wedding venue) on Thursday. Malcolm took Matthew and I on a quick tour of Stanley Park, which has a good collection of totem poles (2), and views back to the CBD, on the way to the ferry. Thursday was a beautiful day, sunny and reasonably warm and we had our fingers and toes crossed that the weather would be duplicated on Saturday! We headed to Tuscany for dinner with pretty much the whole family party (my Mum, Dad and Nanna, Kaila’s mum) and the main participants in the Bridal party (Malcolm, Kaila, Matthew, MC, myself and Andrew – MC’s boyfriend). I shared a blue cheese and pear pizza and wild mushroom ravioli with mum – yum!
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Once on the island we had to put the finishing touches to the ‘favours’ (known as bonbonerie in Aussie land) which entailled putting jam covers on the Champagne Rose Petal Jams, and tying the labels on with rafia. Malcolm and Matthew headed off for a round of golf on Friday, while the girls got food etc for the Friday night pre-wedding party and tried to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything too important! The pre-wedding party was a really relaxed affair with about half the wedding guests showing up for a mix of sushi, chips, dips, cheeses, crackers, fruit and cakes complimented by beverage of choice (as long as it was either wine, beer or soft drink!). The weather was still pretty good so I was still hopefully for the morrow, though Kaila was pessimistic!
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Saturday dawned with rain! Noooooo! The girls headed off to breakfast and the rain just got heavier, not what we had ordered from the weather gods! By the time we got back from breakfast we had pretty much resigned ourselves to an indoor wedding, so while we headed off to get our hair and makeup done (3), the boys cleared the furniture out of the Summer House living room (which is where we were staying) so that we could have the ceremony indoors. The reception was always going to be in the Marquee (4) so the mums and some of Kaila's friends setup the tables in the morning - they did a fantastic job - it looked absolutely fabulous (5)! While we were having lunch - toasted chees sambos (thanks Andrew) someone must have had a word with the weather becasue by the time we were all dressed the rain had all but stopped! Yay! Many people were roped into getting the out-door ceremony site set up while the bridal party were off having the photos - quite a good idea I think, it meant that there was no gap between the ceremony and the cocktail hour before dinner!
So after all the stress we were able to have the ceremony outside and it was beautiful! The sun even decided to make an appearance just as Malcolm and Kaila were signing the register. I gave the reading in the ceremony (6) - it was a beautiful piece from "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams:
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
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Once the ceremony was over and the reception had begun we were able to relax a bit (7)! Everything was now pretty much in the hands of the staff of Doc Morgans - who did an excellent job. MC and Matthew gave excellent speeches, Matthew's was especially amusing! Then Kaila's Dad presented a series of photos of both Kaila and Malcolm from when they were little to the present - it was very touching and I must admit I had a tear in my eye by the end!
All in all it was a beautiful and memorable day!
Photos
(1) Phoebe
(2) Totem poles in Stanley Park
(3) Getting made up for the wedding
(4) The marquee for the reception
(5) The table setup (the vases hold our bouquets)
(6) Me giving the reading in the ceremony
(7) Malcolm and Kaila relaxing after the ceremony
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