The Grand Entrance (complete with beer!)

What do you think of our entrance before dinner?



















All photos taken by Unveiled Photography.

The Wedding Party

My ladies and I:

(I think Jocelyn, to the right of me, is unleashing her inner-model.)


Wade with his guys, before they got ready & after:



Aren't the groomsmen too cute?

Wade likes this picture:

And here's everyone, kids included:

(The younger flower girl, Chloe, was very excited to see Pinky in this picture. She clearly forgot she'd been holding Pinky at this point!)

All photos taken by Unveiled Photography.

After the ceremony ...

We had family photos. Here are some highlights:

With my parents:


With Wade's parents:


With my mom's side (left) and dad's side (right) of my families:










And with Wade's mom's side (left) and dad's side (right) of his families:








All photos taken by Unveiled Photography.

Thank-you notes & day-after shoot

If you feel so inclined, let me know how long it too you to get out your thank-you notes. I have a poll, just because I'm curious.

And last night's day-after shoot was sooo much fun! Obviously, it wasn't the day-after, but oh well! We got the shots that we didn't have time to do on the wedding day, so in another week or two we'll have more pictures of us together.

I found a way to put a picture in my header!

Turns out blogger put in a new tool that makes it super easy to upload a picture for your header!

The picture in my header was taken by our photographer, Unveiled Photography. We are so happy with them. They took our engagement photos and will be doing our "day after photo shoot" this Sunday.

Oh, I never mentioned our upcoming day after photo shoot. Yep, we're doing it. I'd consider doing a "trash the dress" shoot, except I think I'm going to sell my dress in a couple months. I mean, it's not like I'm going to wear it again.

And speaking of once-worn dresses: have you ever read the dresses posted on Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses? A good website, to be sure. But have you you noticed how many women describe their used wedding dress with the phrase "only worn once" or "worn for only a few hours"? Seriously? Most women only wear their dress once for a few hours. How on earth is that a selling feature of a wedding dress?

Anyway, rant done!

And ... we have such a busy but fun week-end ahead of us. Tomorrow afternoon, we're going to Groomsman Dave's for lunch. I'm looking forward to seeing him, his wife Pamela and their baby Charlie. We haven't seen them since the day after the wedding, so I'm sure almost-5-month-old Charlie will be bigger and have new skills! Then, tomorrow evening we go to Best Man Ryan's house for his birthday. Ryan and his wife Corry just found out their baby is a girl, which their two sons are thrilled about. As am I! Tomorrow, Groomsman Dinger and his daughters are coming over for lunch, and we haven't seen the girls since the wedding (though we saw Dinger last week-end). Then I'm heading to a wedding shower with my mom later in the afternoon. And finally, our day after photo shoot in the evening.

... More engagement photos ... are you bored yet?

If you are bored of engagement photos ... well, you're out of luck. These posts were pre-done and set up to post later, and I already prepared this final post of engagement photos. Because I'm probably not checking my blog from France, you can't expect any edits at this point!























(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

We're lucky to have a 3 week honeymoon, so there is another week of posts, on a few random loose ends I'll share with you.

Even more engagement photos!

(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

The rest of the engagement photos will be posted on Saturday!

More engagement photos

Our engagement session was in the winter, in order to be a contrast with our late spring / early summer wedding. Here are some more pictures from it:




(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

Next up ... more pictures on Thursday!

Engagement Photos

We're still on our honeymoon (hopefully), so coming up are posts from our engagement session in the winter:






(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)
Next up ... more engagement photos on Tuesday!

Wedding Party: non-traditional poses

Let me start by saying how much I dislike the "let's everyone jump" shot. 'Cause really, you don't look like you all spontaneously jumped for joy. You look like you were told, "Hey, I had a great idea. It'd be really awesome if we all jump at once. Yeah, that'd look so sponteanous and fun! Okay on three. 1, 2, ...":


But I do want some relaxed, fun and non traditoinal shots of the wedding party. Something like these:




Note: I have had some of these shots saved for a while. If you are interested in the source, let me know and I'll do my best to find it. If you know the source off-hand, please let me know so I can give credit.

What do you think of group shots? And do you know of any fun shots I can use as inspiration?

Congratulations, Crystal!

And Congratulations, Crystal! My bridesmaid, Crystal, got engaged on Christmas Eve. Two of my good friends and bridesmaids are now engaged (Crystal and Kristy).


P.S. Yesterday, during the Boxing Day Week sales, I bought a new camera. Woohoo! So I can actually start using a camera and putting pictures my computer again. The only downside is I have like 100 pictures on my old digital camera that I have no way of getting off my computer. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have no way to get pictures from my camera onto my computer. I lost the program for my computer to recognize my camera, and it was only on my parent's computer, and their computer had a meltdown, so I have no idea how to get these 100 pictures off my old camera and printed.

The camera is 4 years old. I was told 2 years ago that it was "obsolete" (which pissed the hell out of me, because frankly something that's two years old is "old" in technological terms, but it should not be obsolete!).

Photography

Our photographers are a husband and wife team, Katie & Steven, of Unveiled Photography. There are so many benefits to having two photographers! When we were initially looking at photographers, I had my short list of about 4 local photographers, including Unveiled Photography. Then friends of our mentioned that Unveiled Photography were their wedding photographers, and they were thrilled with the results. We were sold. We didn't even ask Katie & Steven for references - we already had a glowing review from friends of ours!

As part of our photographers' package, an engagement session is included. I didn't initially want an engagement session, but they gave some very good reasons for getting one. In their opinion, an engagement session allows the photographers to learn how we photograph before our wedding. Plus, as Katie mentioned, if we love another season, we get can professional pictures in that season. I was sold at that point!

Many people love the fall. For many people, it's their favourite time of year. Many people get married in the fall. Many spring/summer brides get fall engagement sessions. But I'm not like most people. The fall initially depresses me: it's the end of the summer, the days are getting shorter, and it gets colder.

Once autumn has actually arrived (there is not a hint of summer), I love the warm autumn days, the crisp nights, the colourful scenery, eating fresh apples and enjoying apple cider. But the initial depression I always get at the end of summer / start of the fall always bums me out.

I also love the winter. I love the beautiful light that is reflected off the evening snow. I even love winter weddings! We got engaged in December of last year, on December 15th, so let's have a winter wonderland engagement session!

Click here for images of our photographers' recent engagement sessions.

Photography

... We have our package chosen. It's a customized package, because none of the packages was exactly what we were looking for. It has less than package 3, but different details than what is available in package 2. We're really happy with this option!

And, of course, given the date, I must say "Happy Canada Day"!

As a random trivia, can you answer these questions on Canada Day:

1) Who was our first prime minister?
2) What does Canada Day commemorate?
3) What part of the Canadian Constitution protects our rights and freedoms?
4) What is the slogan of our constituion?
(a) Liberty, equality, fraternity
(b) Peace, order and good government
(c) Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
(d) From sea to sea ("A mari usque ad mare")
5) In what year was Confederation? (Bonus if you can name where it occurred)
6) Who is our CURRENT head of state?
7) In what decade of the 20th century were Canadian women first given the right to vote?
8) Which of the following chains is Canadian-owned?
(a) The Hudson's Bay Company ("The Bay")
(b) Laura Secord
(c) The Second Cup
(d) Tim Hortons
9) In what year did the most recent province join Canada?
10) In what year did the most recent territory join Canada? (I hope you didn't say Nunavut was the most recent province to join Canada!)

Write your answers down somewhere, then click on the comments to find out the answers! Bonus if you can answer them all without looking them up on wikipedia! :)

Photographic-ness?

... Wade & I went to visit a photographer duo last night. We were supposed to go on Wednesday, but that didn't work out on my end. So Friday night it was! It was actually very fun, almost like visiting friends (is that weird for the first time we met someone?!).

We heard of this team through friends of ours, Karyn and Bruce Beacock, who got married 3 years ago. Karyn highly recommended their service, and especially loved that there are 2 photographers. The photography duo are a married couple who mostly photograph weddings. Their website is open and transparent, with pricing breakdowns and an FAQ that actually has useful questions.

When we went to meet them, they had samples of albums they have done in the past. They also had a slideshow of different weddings on display. It was nice; they asked us lots of questions about us, in order to get to know us. But it didn't feel intrusive, it was just comfortable.

Photography is a huge expense, but I think that it's worth it to have the pictures. And I do love the albums they produce. So now, we have to decide what package we would like to customize!