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 9:54 AM 05/07/2009 - The Wedding, The Holiday and The Visit

I haven't blogged since May, but I think that can be forgiven given the circumstances! A.J. and I got Married! Yay! The wedding ceremony went well - my parents arrived a couple of days earlier; and I had went out with my Mum shopping for a Wedding dress the day before. Most of A.J's extended family even made it. My dress was $40 and I bought it at Winners (which is like a TK Maxx for those in the UK). It was perfect though - just a simple, white, knee-high dress. A.J's suit was around $500 in total but that was because his Dad insisted on A.J. shopping at a certain shop and his Dad paying for it. The bouqets were made by A.J's sister and they were really pretty. The cake for the reception was made by A.J's sister's friend and it was awesome:

The Wedding Ceremony went perfectly. I think it only lasted about 15 minutes! When we were exchanging the rings, my parents surprised us when we were presented with them on a pillow that had been embroidered for us:

If you're wondering why I'm holding something below the bouquet apparently it's a tradition in my Mum's side of the family. They gave me a gift from an Aunt and Uncle after the Wedding Rehearsal the day before and it was that. I was afraid of dropping it through the whole service!

After the service we went on to the reception. My family arrived about 45 minutes after we did because they got lost on the way. It made me quite worried while we were waiting, but they arrived before a few other guests did. We had a yummy Roast Beef Dinner buffet that came with various desserts. Most of the desserts were not touched though because we wanted everyone to eat the Wedding cake. How is that supposed to work anyway? We boxed up the desserts after the reception and took them with us to our trip to the mountains for the weekend with the family.

Our Dads surprisd us with some short speeches to welcome us to their families. They were very nice, though I'm not sure if part of A.J's Dad's speech for me got lost in translation? After my Dad's speech, A.J. and him got up and did a little dance that they do sometimes. They have this thing about calling each other their Special Friend - it's cute!

After the reception we went back to A.J's parent's place and opened a basket of gifts from everyone. At the reception we had already opened a load of cards from my family and almost all of them contained cash! (We have quite a healthy savings account now to continue saving for that house we'd like to get next year). The gifts in the basket were from A.J's immediate and extended family and from my immediate family. Most of them were little thing that you can use around the house like kitchen and bathroom stuff and then there was some cool surprises that A.J. loved like music magazines and CDs. We left an hour or so after because we needed to get some rest for the trip to the mountains the next day!

We had great fun in the mountains. Incase you're familiar with the Rocky's, we went to Hinton and Jasper area. We stayed in some cabins in Hinton that were kinda old but they did the job. We spent most of our time outside of them anyway. Here is a list of the places that we went:

• Miette Hot Springs (a glorified warm swimming pool that makes up for the fact that it's just a shallow swimming pool with it's view of the mountains.)
• Mt Robson (one of the oldest parks in BC.)
• Jasper Tramway (you take the tram up to the top of the mountain and see the views all around)
• Jasper Town (I didn't look around much, but it seemed too touristy to enjoy.)
• Beaver Boardwalk (a walk around a swampy area, looking for beavers.)

I am sick right now with a cough and cold and I think that going on the Jasper Tramway and standing in the snow storm up there in shorts might have something to do with it! My parents couldn't believe that they were in a snow storm. When we got back down to ground it was about 15 degrees and of course much more comfortable.

After we got back from the mountains we spent the rest of my week and a half off with my family. We went shopping, to some gardens, bowling, dining out and to an awesome reconstruction of Canadian life 100 or so years ago. They loved every bit of it and we did too! When we went shopping I managed to get some clothes that I really like - that has not happened for 4yrs. I don't have any girl-friends to go shopping with, so I jumped at the chance to go with my Mum and Sisters.

My family is back at home now and I feel sad but also happy that I have some new memories. I look forward to when we next visit them which will hopefully be this Christmas. They will not be visiting for another 3yrs or so, but atleast that gives Canada a chance to build more attractions around here for us to show them next time! I have already noticed an art gallery is almost complete in the city...