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We kept the festivities fairly minimal on Wednesday since a lot of people had to work the next day, and saved the partying for Saturday.

Saturday was a big big day.

We checked into our hotel in the morning (thanks Rhiannon!) and then headed out to Boronia for the family party. There was about 30 of Scott’s family there, mostly cousins and aunts and uncles. We ate party food and cakeS (so many). It was the first time that I’d met some of these people.

Favourite quote from the party: “When are we singing Happy Birthday??” -Noah (Scott’s nephew)

After the family party we took the train back into the city for our other party. We’d booked the upstairs area of a bar in Richmond for all our friends. I was a bit worried since we didn’t really plan much for this party besides the super cool cake that one of our friends made for us, but it turned out fun. A LOT of people showed up! I think there was about 60 at one point, in a pretty small area! It was really good having all our friends and workmates all there for us!

I don’t have many pictures from this night yet, but I think lots were taken so I’ll try to track these down. Along with the video Brett took of the actual ceremony! I’m on it!

Sunday was very relaxed. We didn’t do anything actually. I played Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for a LONG LONG time. It is addictive.

Today has been quite productive though. Our visa paperwork is quite close to finished now, which is good. We can pick up the official marriage certificate this week and I want to send off the package right then.

We’ve got curling tonight. I’m extra excited because they finally got enough rocks for us all to play a proper game (we were only doing 4 rock ends before). It’s going to seem so crowded, I know it. But should be very fun.

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Wow what an amazing week. Everything went so smoothly and I’m so relieved and happy.

Now for everyone not there…

The Big Day. Wednesday the 14th.

Scott had to go in to work a little bit that morning so I spent the morning relaxing and getting ready on my own. I went out to get my make up done and pick up the cake and Scott came home and cleaned everything up and got it all ready for everyone coming over later. I got home, we got dressed and then headed into the city (by tram of course!) for the ceremony.

We had only booked the small room at the registry office for the wedding, but since there was no one else there they moved us into the big room! This was good since we had a few last minute extra guests (the nephews). The ceremony went smoothly (except for the lady saying ‘Perkins’ instead of ‘Perkin’ even though we’d just gone over it in the other room!!!) It was really great that my family got to listen in on speakerphone! It was a last minute suggestion by Kate but I’m so glad it worked out! They stayed up until 1:00 AM and had a little celebration at home in Ottawa!

This is what Rosemarie had to say about it:
“listening to the ceremony was nice. it was kind of peanuts teacher style but we could understand what was going on and tell who was talking. and we could hear the vows and things. it was really nice being able to listen to it though. after we ate fondue and had champagne. kate got really into everything. she even wore a dress!”

I was only kind of nervous the whole time and I didn’t get teary until right after the vows when dad told me (over the phone) that they could hear everything and there were some tears there and they would have a toast for us. So great.

After the ceremony Rhiannon took a bunch more pictures for us around the city, and then we took the tram back to the house for some drinks and cake. There was 14 of us that day (Scott’s parents, both Scott’s sisters and a boyfriend, Scott’s brother and his wife and two children, Rhiannon, and my friends Chris and Trang). We drank lots of beer and champagne, and WAMPAGNE (when Jessie accidentally topped up my wine with champagne) and devoured our delicious delicious hazelnut cake from Ganache (my favourite chocolate place everrrrr), looked at the pictures, and then headed down the street to Fiesta for a Mexican feast.

The meal was nice and so were the enormous margaritas. I had prawn fajitas and Scott had the veggie combo plate, like usual.


(NEW SISTERS!)

We all ate too much and headed home after the meal. And to bed early since a lot of people had to work the next morning!!

On to part 2….

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Monday now and I am finally feeling better!

The past few days have been pretty rough in the digesting department.

Today was very good though and I got a lot done. Just two days until we get married and I think everything is under control now for Wednesday and the parties on Saturday. Got both the cakes sorted, my outfit is ready, hair is behaving. I even booked a makeup appointment! We even were given a night in a really nice hotel for this Saturday.

Doesn’t look like web broadcasting is very feasible, but we will definitely have lots of pictures and I’ll post them as soon as possible. Our friend Rhiannon is photographing for us. Also, if you want to talk on the phone, I can use my Skype credit to call you, or you can call us at any time (although day-time is much preferred!) My phone number is +61 435 297 755. We usually find that your late night-my early morning works best, or vice versa.

I can’t really think what else to write about right now. I’m very excited and only nervous about turning too red in front of everyone!!

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So busy all the time now. It’s crazy how complicated planning even a tiny wedding is. I don’t even want to think about what it would be like for a big one.

Most things are under control now though. We’ve got rings (although mine is still off being re-sized), I’ve got dresses, we booked a place for the party on Saturday, our friend agreed to photograph, and the invitations are being finished up tomorrow. I guess still we have to figure out cakes (yum!) and a flower for me and a few other small things but those should be fairly easy.

I’ve heard suggestions of web broadcasting the wedding. Would anyone watch it even if it was at 1:00 AM EST? I’ll look into it, but I’m not sure how easy this would be to do. First thing I guess is to check whether they even have internet in the building. If we can’t do this, we’ll make sure to video it I guess.

This weekend coming up is a full one. I work Saturday morning and Scott is going golfing with his mates for him and Jarrod’s upcoming departures, then we have been invited to a formal dinner at the yacht club by John and Muriel. I am really looking forward to it, it’s been a while since I’ve been to anything kind of fancy. Scott has to wear a jacket and tie! Sunday is my bosses birthday party at their new house too which should be good fun. Lots of food and drinks I expect.

The other night we had to throw out a whole dinner. We made Kylie Kwong’s eggplant thing and it turned out GRITTY. It must have been the packet of Szechuan pepper I bought from the Chinese grocery. Maybe we had to do something to it before we used it, but how am I supposed to know… the package was totally in Chinese. I think it also had a heap of MSG because my tongue went numb like it used to in China. Nasty stuff. It was such a shame to throw out so much nicely cooked eggplant, coriander, spring onion and chilli. :( After that disaster I cooked up a stir fry in three minutes with all the bits of stuff we have in the fridge with a bit of hoisin sauce and that was much better.

It has been so so nice having free fruit and vegetables all the time. Isn’t it the perfect relationship, the vegetarian with the fruit vendor? Most days at work I go through the ‘rehab’ box, which is where we put anything that has a crack or sunburn (the best kind of damage, it just means a small brown spot on the surface of the vegetables, only affects appearance), and then pick a few other things we might need for a recipe and my boss lets me take it all home for free. This means we have an endless supply of capsicum, mushrooms and eggplant and other things. Amazing. I am REALLY going to miss this in Canada.

I guess after the wedding the next step is to get everything ready for Canada. I’ve almost finished the visa paperwork, but we haven’t even started figuring out where we’re going to live or what work I can get. It will be extra hard getting started in a new city with way less connections.

All for now.

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I’m so sorry for leaving my blog for so long. I didn’t want my family/friends to find out the big news via my blog, so I was waiting to post for a while. Spreading the news has been exhausting so anyway, enough emailing… here it is.

Scott and I are getting married next month!

It’s just going to be a tiny ceremony, 8 guests, on July 14th, and then a party on the weekend for other friends. It sucks but it looks like none of my family will be able to make it. I know we didn’t give much notice.

I need to get to British Columbia ASAP to start establishing my residency so I can actually get into BCIT next year. We know it’s going to be a struggle for a while, we are going to be very poor. This is why we haven’t planned any Ottawa party yet… I really don’t know when we will have the cash to fly anywhere. I really WANT to bring Scott home, but we don’t really know when. We will keep you posted, and eventually there will be a Canadian celebration.

At least Rosemarie gets to meet him soon.

Our friends and family here are very excited for us. Scott and I are great together and they all see that. We are so happy and very confident in our decisions. It has been a very stressful month but we’re getting through it. We’re a great team.