Bachelorette party

Last night me and the girls celebrated with wine and a chocolate fountain. The fountain was a big hit but why wouldn't it be with chocolate and fruit. We got a great deal through Anna's friends who run Sweetly Speaking. Then we played the match game. Mary and Anna came up with some great questions to stump my friends like how many pairs of penguin socks I own, how many bound editions Daorcey and I own together and what is our favourite store to shop at. Nicole came in first and I think Anna was second. Next was creating a wedding dress out of toilet paper. With several engineers and Mel's fashion degree it turned out really well for a toilet paper dress. There was even a veil and detailing.

After we just sat around and talked. So not as geeky as Daorcey's party but still fun. Pictures to come soon.

Three days to go...

Environment Canada long term forcast: Mix of sun and clouds. High 18/Low 5. An improvement over the 60% chance of precipitation it called for yesterday. Things are looking good.

Now that I'm on this pennicillin prescription, I'm feeling a tad better. It has some side effects... but those are only passing. Ah, the drama.

I'm not too stressed. Things are coming together nicely. I'm really looking forward to dinner on Sunday, actually. This may be a bit of a spoiler, but for the vegetarians in the group, we have shrimp and scallops over risotto. Soooo tasty.

My boss gave Natalie and I a present today. Seeing as he hates weddings, it's a total surprise. He said that when he picked up the book he got for us, he was even surprising himself.

Since this post is full of random, I might as well direct you to a fantastic new blog. You know Rick Mercer? Well, he's just started up a new blog and it makes me happy. BTW, Rick Mercer's Monday Report has been moved to a different day of the week... I wonder if they'll change the name...

Death by Wedding

'Tis the final countdown, boys and girls, and I need to chill out.

No, I'm not stressed about being married--that's cool and there's a reason I asked Natalie to be my lawfully wedded wife in the first place.

But, to be honest, this whole event management/wedding party thing is just not my bag, and in the past three days, four *ahem* hiccups have presented themselves. Fortunately, with a bit of persuasion and long-distance telephone time, things have been worked out... sort of.

Not surprisingly, as I've let the stress get to me, my body has begun to show signs of strain. There was the uncontolable eye-twitch, which appears to have subsided. And now there's this interesting infection I've developed--nothing a bit of pennicillin won't cure. I've seen my doctor twice in less than a week. He suggested maybe we have a bit of a cooling off period, him and I. You know, it's not that he doesn't like me, it's just that he thinks we should see other people.

But, this morning, I'm feeling good. No more hiccups, and no more surprises (fingers crossed). Plus, I continue to be excited about being married to a pretty cool lady. And in four days, I'm going to have a big party and you're all invited. I'm looking forward to seeing you.


I picked up my tux yesterday. I'm looking hot.

Bachelor Party

Sorry, there are no photos to share on this one. This was not your typical bachelor party (thank goodness!) No strippers, no heavy drinking, no blood--just good fun.

Thanks to Arone for setting things up even if there were a few bumps in the road. We played games, ate pasta until it hurt and played some more games. Laid back and enjoyable--spending good time with good friends. Plus, I learned a good thing about bachelor life: I don't expect it to be that different from married life, except for the fact that next time we play games, Natalie will be there to beat me!

Thanks to everyone for coming. I really enjoyed myself.

Crazy Alberta weather

The weather has been less than wedding friendly these past few weeks. I feel sorry for those who planned a beautiful June wedding only to see the rain. However, I've been told that July will be hot.

Here are a couple of images from a newspaper that demonstrate how wacky the weather has been.

More photos

We picked up the photos from Superstore so you can visit the Flickr site to see all of them.

When I was News Editor, Gary was the Photo Editor and I don't think I really appreciate what he did. My main concern on Wednesday nights were getting my pages and done and I needed photos, specifically photos that fit my layout. But looking at these photos and photos on his site, I can see how talented Gary is. I'm really glad he's doing our wedding.

Wedding favours!

We've been slacking on getting our wedding favours done so Anna, my sister and me tackled the project. Anna very graciously agreed to find the right ribbons and also help create each favour.

We chose Hazelnut and Fruit and Nut chocolate bars because of a Stuart McLean story. The short version is a couple always had a tradition. Whenever they fought, they always made up by eating a Fruit and Nut chocolate bar. So after her husband's death, the woman's cleaning up in the bedroom and discovers an uneaten Fruit and Nut bar. She's really affected by its discovery and can't decide if she should eat it or not. After a couple of days she decides should get over it and just eat it. She opens it up and it's full of tissue and a note which reads, "Sorry honey I got hungry, I owe you one."

The woman becomes very sad and doesn't know what to do. But eventually she decides to staple the wrapper to a pole and go down to her husband's grave. She sticks the pole in the ground and enjoys a Hazelnut bar with him.

Basically the story is about love enduring and all that nice stuff. The full story is much more romantic and eloquent than my hack summary. Another reason I like the story is that everyone eventually gets a chocolate bar they like. A Fruit and Nut bar is disgusting but Daorcey thinks it's great.

See the full set of photos here.

Actual photos!

So this is a few of the digital photos Gary took. The rest are being processed at Superstore and will come Friday.

To see the set, click here.

If there is a rain-out...

Hey folks,

If there is a rain-out (and hopefully it will be a beautiful day), we will be getting married at 2 p.m. on the same day at the Canmore Nordic Centre. So pass the info along.

Photos

Yesterday, Sunday, me and the boy went with Photo Gary to check out the locations for photos. While it was rainy, it held off enough to get some photos.

We first went to the spot where Daorcey proposed. I guess the plan was also to get some nice photos of us. Daorcey gets down on one knee and and pretends that he's proposing. Gary advises me to look surprised. At this point I don't have my ring as Ringmaker Barry has the ring to make the wedding bands. Daorcey reaches for his coat pocket and I'm thinking he's really pretending. But Daorcey pulls out a white box which contains my ring. So very exciting and Gary captured the moment.

We took some photos there and then we went to the Nordic Centre. The plan was to test if my computer could be connected to the sound system. But they were closed although Gary saw the place and said there were plenty of opportunities for photos there IF it rained.

Then we went to Riverside Park and there's lots of photo opportunities and we picked out the ceremony site. It's a major relief to know there's lots of photo opps. When we went there, we didn't think we could take many photos but that's why we have Gary. Also the deer poop has gone away.

There's a wonderful old railway bridge that would be great for photos but we thought it was too far away. However you can drive to a spot and walk like two minutes and you're there. So there will be excellent photos.

Gary took a roll so they should be ready on Friday so we'll post some photos here. It looks like the photos will be excellent.

License to get married

Today we finally got our marriage license. It's nothing fancy, just a form printed on a legal-sized paper.

To get one you have to provide your parents' legal names and their birthplaces. This was an interesting challenge as my mom was born in a village in China. She doesn't know which village so she picked the closet city. Luckily my dad knew his info and provided all that. Daorcey had an easier time as his parents were born in Canada.

Our first attempt to get a license didn't work because Downtown Registry closes their marriage license desk down at 6 p.m. yet fails to mention it anywhere on their website or in their location. So we sat there for 10 minutes before anyone told us it was closed.

Our second attempt landed us at AMA. It didn't take too long, just a lot of data entry on the clerk's part. We also had to swear we'd never been married before. Daorcey got in trouble from the clerk because he started bending the license even though an instruction sheet had that as the first no-no.

All in all, it was a mundane experience, another step towards getting married.