Splendid Saturday

The day of the wedding was a beautiful day. The weather was a bit warmer than the previous day (thank goodness!) and it wasn't rainy. Carl, Asha, and I had a lovely sleep in and spent most of the morning lounging in our room, watching t.v., and relaxing.

At 11:30 I needed to pick up a few things before the wedding, so Asha and I drove into downtown Kenora, parked our van and started to walk to a few shops. I found wrapping paper, but because it was so nice, we kept walking and stopping in the neat shops. I stumbled upon this lovely little store with the most amazing kids' clothes, accessories, and toys. It was very nice and I was tempted to buy some overpriced item. But I told myself it was foolish to spend $45 on a gorgeous little dress or $20 on the most adorable tights, so I just touched, smiled at them, and moved on.

As I was walking up the street, I happened to look ahead and made eye contact with the people coming towards me. Could it be? Is that Mel and Vinora?! (They are good friends of Carl and I). I started yelling, Mel started yelling, Vinora started to scream (in case you are wondering, their reaction confirmed their identity) and we ran to each other and exchanged huge hugs. I thought Mel would crack my back! Talk about a surprise! I knew they were going away for their anniversary, but I didn't realize they would be in Kenora and we haven't seen them since we've gotten back. So we chatted a bit and then we said we'd connect up another time. It made me chuckle that we happened to meet; I couldn't stop smiling.

Asha and I headed back to the hotel because she was getting tired. Oh good. She'll sleep well this afternoon before the wedding.....

Can my baby read my mind? I think she is brilliant beyond measure, because she decided to thwart my plan and stay up ALL AFTERNOON. The score now; Asha - 2, Mom - 0. Carl finally got her to sleep around 2:00, but the thing was, we needed to leave around 3. Great. I couldn't possibly expect her to last through until evening without having a complete meltdown. I was wishing that I had a 15 year old niece that I could leave her with in the hotel. Well, I told myself, there's nothing that can be done. It was about a 30 minute drive to the cabin where the wedding would take place, and though Asha didn't sleep, I looked on the bright side, at least it would be a beautiful event.

The ceremony started at 5:00, after the cocktails, and it was held on the large and beautiful dock. About 100 chairs were set up on the main dock and then there were about 50 people standing on the upper deck and the bank. The bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the stairs to the lower dock from the cabin and so naturally we all looked up to see the bride. The brass quartet started to play the wedding march, but there was no sign of the bride. What?!

All of a sudden, someone started to gasp and clap and there was a boat coming around the bend, with the bride standing in the front. It was really one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. You could tell by the look on Justin's face that he had no idea that Bobbie would be making her entrance that way. All I have to say is WOW!

Carl did a wonderful job of officiating. He cut his message short since it started to rain, but it was so cute how they pulled out an enormous umbrella to cover him, the bride and the groom. Asha and I quickly borrowed an umbrella from the upper deck, but the rain didn't last long and soon the sun was shining again. The only thing that was a bit of a damper to the wedding was the nooseums (those tiny, little biting flies). Asha was getting annoyed and I was very itchy by the end of the ceremony.

After the wedding, we mingled a bit, and Carl and I chatted with some friends from church. It was a very classy wedding and I say it was nice to be dressed up. And Thank you Lord, Asha was still smiling and wasn't too upset about not being able to be free to crawl all over the wet grass. She didn't mind being handed off to one of the bride's aunties while Carl and I went to get our meal. And she even had a nice cuddle with Grandpa Harry from church. I was a bit nervous about how she'd do throughout the reception because our table was 1 foot away from the Emcee and I thought, Great, how in the world do I get out of here when she starts hollering? Well, she didn't and so we made it all the way to the cake cutting before we decided to head home. Sure, it would have been fun to stay for the dancing, but hello, reality check, I'm here with a 10 month old baby and it's close to 11 hours since she had any significant sleep. I'm using borrowed time here.

We said our thanks and goodbye to the parents of the couple, and to the couple before we headed back to the hotel. On the drive, we saw 2 foxes and 4 deer along the side of the road. Once we got back, I gave Asha a bath so that she could relax and settle for the night.

I just love weddings and so all evening, until I fell asleep, I was smiling. It was a beautiful day and I was honored that Carl could perform the ceremony and Asha and I got to come and enjoy this great celebration.