Our Wedding

Our wedding has successfully come and gone. I even think I'm mostly rested from it, although not yet unpacked.

The week started with driving my car onto the Coho ferry for the first time ever Tuesday afternoon with Al and Cas in their car nearby. I have gotten on the ferry many times before as a foot passenger by running, and sometimes a small hop, on the car deck. So driving on was a big deal for me. They pack you like sardines under there. I was put next to the inside wall by the stairs up to the main deck and had to hope over my door in order to get out. It was easier on the way out than the way back into my car that's for sure. Cas and I took Rhia around the ferry for a walk. She got tired quickly but wanted to see more so Cas put her up on her shoulders. At that point the boat was starting to get a little rocky and caused unsure footing. Rhia loved this. Each time Cas would stumble just a little she would break out in laughter. We noticed a stuffed animal above and I had to get a picture of it. Once we got to Victoria we waited through customs by playing with the Sirrus radio. My car was almost right next to theirs going through the line so I set my station to the same one they use to listen to their sirrus. Al and Cas had great fun finding different stations and watching my reaction to what was playing. We went our separate ways for the evening.

Wed proved to be a very productive day. It started early with my making it to my Popo's house by about 9am. Cas picked me up there and we stopped by her hotel. After stopping by we walked to the Bay Centre in search of a few items that I needed to pick up as last minute things. We found everything in about an hour and a half. It was amazing. Since I was looking for such specific things I was worried I would get stuck on the idea in my head allowing room for nothing else. We were so pleased with ourselves when I got everything so quickly and easily. It was great.
Our afternoon was spent at the Willow Stream Spa located inside the Empress Hotel. I can't describe how wonderful it was. We did the Relaxation massage, their signature pedicure and manicure. I've never been to a spa before that so I didn't know what to expect. I can say now that I'm looking forward to the next time I'll be able to go. The pedicure tickled a little bit but nothing I couldn't handle. I loved the paraffin treatment; it was so nice and warm. We ended the evening with dinner at my Popo's.
Since Wed was such a successful day, Thurdsay was pretty low key. It was good as Al had to rush home that morning for a family emergency so Cas and I had Rhia as our companion all day. It was nice to just kind of hang out. We did some grocery shopping and caught a bit of lunch inside Mayfair mall. Since Al was gone for the night we went up to Russell's where I was staying and packed up my stuff. I then stayed with Cas in their hotel room. We took our wedding favors to the restaurant and made our way to Butchart Gardens for our rehearsal. Finally we got a dinner of spaghetti at my dad's with Richard, Andrew, my dad, my mom, Jason, Theresa, Leaha, Diven and Theresa's boyfriend Ben. It turned out well I think.

Friday morning we packed things up. I got some really cute pictures of Rhia playing with my camera while Cas was in the shower. We went "flying" and painted on the window in the steam while Cas packed up some supplies for day. Our first stop was the Dolca Vita coffee shop. They have pretty good coffee and do neat designs in the milk.
After that we picked up Kami at the ferry, then ran up to my dad's house. We dropped off her, Rhia and some of Rhia's stuff. Kami was than on known as Nanny Kami. She kept an eye on Rhia until after the ceremony and Al showed up. Sadly he just missed our ceremony by about 15 mins. However, we were really glad he was able to make it back at all. Our
photos started at 2pm. We ran all over the Japanese gardens and Italian garden. Our most entertaining moment has to be when a group of Asian tourists passed by. We were just outside what used to be the main residence facing a glass paned door. Richard and I were being posed by our photographer assistance, Peter and then were told to look at our photographer, Ute. When we did we noticed the 5 or 6 cameras in the glass door all with flashs going off. Of course we all started laughing, while Ute is telling us to not to laugh until she turns and sees them all. This was the first of a trend as we were told to not laugh many times throughout the day. If anything you can't say we were uptight for our photos. In fact we had a good time. The ceremony started almost exactly at 4pm. Richard lately told me that many people asked about our walk in music for Andrew, himself and Cas. Here's where our geekiness comes out as it's a track from the popular video game, yes that's right, Katamari Damacy. Towards the end of our ceremony Richard and I declared a thumb war, which resulted in some muted chuckles from our crowd. After all was said, it was time for more photos! This time it was family photos, which we did down in the Sunken Garden.
We had a little bit of socializing time before departing. Richard, Andrew and I were the last to leave the gardens.
Next was dinner, the three of us arrived for what we thought was early however a good number of Richard's family was already there. Krysta and the staff at Mee Wah's did a fabulous job at dinner. One table didn't leave a drop of food and in fact went looking for more. Another table looked like they didn't eat at all but they also only had about 6 people sitting there. It turns out the people missing on short notice were suppose to sit at that table. We had plenty of leftovers for a great lunch the next day at my dad's. Jason and Russell got into a camera competition during our family photos which was quite funny to all in the picture. We agreed that Jason had won. It seems that everyone had a good time at dinner.
Saturday we did a small gathering at my dad's, viewed and exchanged pictures. It's been neat to see the different pictures people took and what they thought of our wedding. Joi treated us to dinner at San Remo's about a half block down from my dad's. It was quite good.
Sunday Richard, Jason and I went over to Popo's house for a short visit. Afterwards we met up with Dad, Joi and Andrew in Beacon Hill Park. It was a great day for a walk around the park. We got lunch in Fishman's Wharf, which is where all the house boats are, named Barb's. Had to be the largest serving fish n chips. We then caught the ferry home.
Our home-coming was a treat of pizza made by Tom St. Amand. It was great, although slightly too spicy for me. Richard and Jason quite liked it though.

I think that about sums things up for the week. For more pictures of our wedding see either my website gallery or Richard's at Fenchurch*org