Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Gov't paperwork

We picked up the marriage license from Vital Stats today. It's a very long boring piece of white paper. I'm rather disappointed that something so important is amongst the large stacks of other boring-looking white pieces of paper, like the ones to register births and deaths. I don't know what I was expecting, considering it's a government issued document. I'm so used to wedding related stuff having tacky doves and roses and embossed rings on them that to see the *actual* marriage license is just a bunch of check boxes and fill-in-the-blank boxes (in French and English) is a bit unusual! Course, because it is a wedding related item, it cost 10x more than what it is worth!

Have you seen this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ff13zZ0h0k
Yeah, it`s like that. LOL!

Oh well, at least my PhD has pretty embossing on it. Cost me 150x more than the marriage license did so it should have some gold stamp on it!

It is weird to think about, that in 32 days, Derek and Jen are going to sign the license and make it a legally binding boring-looking document.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Dinner menu

We met with Anne (events co-ordinator) and Tony (semi-retired caterer) at the Irish Club to go over the reception details. Here's what's for dinner:
  • Oven baked chicken
  • Vegetarian cabbage rolls
  • Green beans almondine
  • Honey glazed baby carrots
  • Perogies (fried, with onions)
  • Sweet & Sour meatballs
  • Pasta, tossed and caeser salad
  • Apple Crumble with vanilla ice cream
There'll be 2 bottles of wine per table and everyone gets 4 drink tickets to use at the bar, good for anything at the bar except Guinness. Guinness lovers (KATHY!!) have to part with 2 tickets for "a proper pint" of the Irish Ale. We'll have a separate colour of drink tickets for anyone who wants soda.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Stagette & Shower

Liane, Jen, Kathy and I had a fun stagette last Saturday. Not the traditional, phallic-shaped objects and embarrassing the bride type, but something a little more...mature? Sensible? We started with mani/pedis at Tiber River Naturals, a spa on Academy. We got matching daisies on our toes. Our nail techs were howling with laughter as the four of us were giving them ideas on how to embarrass people on their staggettes and stories from our past. Since our toes were still wet, we wobbled over in our disposable flip flops (carrying our shoes) to Pizzeria Gusto for dinner. They have a great selection of Chianti wines that I had a hard time choosing a bottle from the extensive wine list. Despite my best attempts at warning the staff about my allergies to mushrooms, I think I ended up eating a mushroom so I was sick later on that night. Other than that, spectacular restaurant! Though there isn't much room to throw a punch. Kathy wanted to pay for dinner but I managed a few good smacks and she relented to let me pay. The waiter managed to get a good picture of us embarrassing ourselves at the restaurant as we wrestled for the bill!! From there, we headed for martinis at Liquid Lounge, only to find the windows boarded up! :( So we went to Saffron's instead. It's getting cooler and buggier at nights now so we opted for the indoor bar and managed to eat have one drink before the karaoke started. We left to get cheesecake at Baked Expectations. Mmmmm, super dark chocolate cheesecake!! (and I wonder why my diet isn't working???) From Baked, we went across the street to Academy Club (don't remember the name) but it was a smokey (fog machine) techno bar; not really our style so we went to Toad for beers. A creepy guy sat directly across from our table and just spent the entire time staring at us and refusing to move and it just freaked me out, so once our beers were done, we went home.


Due to the mushrooms at Pizzeria Gusto, I had a rought night and didn't get much sleep before my wedding shower the next day at Val's gorgeous house in St B . It was SO MUCH FUN!! It was a potluck that could have fed a small army! Chocolate dipped cream puffs, chocolate layer skor bar cake, chocolate chip cookie Kahlua cake, vegetarian sushi, blueberry cheesecake, lazy daisy cake, strawberry custard flan, oh it went on and on. Everyone brought the recipe for their dessert so I have a great recipe book now.


Liane surreptitiously emailed questions to Brendon that I had to answer to find out how well I know him. Well, I got an A (naturally!!) because I only missed a few questions. Woo hoo me! Bonus points because most of the married women at the shower couldn't answer the same questions about their husbands of 5-35 years! I got a pin for each one I answered correctly. As you can see, I did quite well!

Another highlight was a spectacular photo album that Sasha had put together of photos of us from university and afterwards. I nearly cried reading her letter; it was so touching and to see how much work she'd put into to, especially considering she just got married 3 weeks prior, just made it more special. Liane and Kathy and Jen had done so much work that I can't thank them enough for everything they did!