This is re-posted from my Offbeat Bride Tribe blog. I figured I'd post it here for posterity's sake.
The night before our wedding our bridal/groom's party came over to our house for pizza and beer. This included my best friend from Ontario (Jenny) who I hadn't seen in years so that was pretty exciting. Everyone hung out, relaxed, got a bit drunk and had a great time. It was pretty awesome.
The next morning I woke up with my new quilt (a wedding gift from my favorite aunt who couldn't make it to the wedding) covered in little bits of toilet paper. Either Spike (my kitten) was super stressed about the weird energy and extra people in our house or else he knew it was mummy's special day and wanted to decorate her (I like to think this was his reason). When I say covered I mean every 3 inches had an inch square of toilet paper on it – what a clever little kitty!
James and I had planned to go for breakfast the morning of our wedding but we were dirt poor (big screw up with his payroll department) and we didn't seem to have enough time. So I headed over to my mum's house with the ladies from my bridal party and the boys all stayed at our house with James.
I got to my mum's and my friend was there to do my makeup. I have huge anxiety and stage fright so I was starting to feel like I was going to hyperventilate. My wonderful MOH went to the liquor store and picked up a few bottles of Baby Duck (a super cheap BC sparkling wine that tastes like pop) and I took an Ativan to calm myself down. I was clever enough to have one of my bridesmaids curling my hair while I had my makeup done because once my makeup was done the photographer showed up to do the “getting ready” shots which are actually taken when almost completely ready and totally for show. 
So I asked her to give me 5 minutes and I took off to the bathroom with a handful of bobby pins and managed to come up with something resembling “wedding hair”. It was also at this point that I realized that while I had painted my toes (which would not be seen due to closed toe shoes) I had completely forgotten to paint my finger nails. Oh well!
Mum walked me out to the photographer's car, carrying my train and my bouquet. The photographer and I arrived down town at the top of the China Steps where my H2B was waiting at the bottom. 
They had to get some stuff ready so I impatiently waited for him at the top. It turns out that the whole time he was waiting he was driving the photographers crazy with “where's my girlfriend” “is my girlfriend here?” and “I get to marry my girlfriend today”. Finally I got to come around the corner and there was my handsome H2B waiting for me looking so absolutely fabulous in his suit with the happiest face I've ever seen in my life. Of course this is when the tears started. James held me and calmed me down and then we took some awesome photos in the back alleys and then drove to a beach and took some more photos.
We were running a bit behind so we hurried back to my dad's house for the wedding (me with the photographers and James by himself). I arrived at my dad's house and started to panic about being the centre of attention and just the major stress of it all. Worst of all was that my H2B was nowhere to be seen. Finally he jumped out of some strange car and it turned out he had ran out of gas on the way there!!! He tried hitching a ride but none of our guests recognized him (who's going to assume the guy hitchhiking is the groom in the wedding you are on yr way to?) but finally some guy picked him up and drove him right to my dad's house.
I was pretty freaked out so James took me into the bathroom and talked to me and calmed me down and reminded me that it was just about us and all I had to think about was that it was OUR wedding and no one else mattered and that it was going to be the two of us together for the rest of our lives. My mum overheard this conversation and says it is her happiest memory of the fantastic day. Not that she had any doubts about me marrying James but once she heard him saying this, and the way he was saying it, she knew that she would never have to worry about my heart being broken again and that he would take care of me forever.
Once it was time for the ceremony to start we realized that the boys in my bridal party had set up the music to be heard in the backyard but hadn't thought about the ceremony in the front yard. Oops! So the music could only be faintly heard while we were doing the aisle walk but no one really seemed to care. It was a fabulous ceremony, not too long, wonderful words, totally interactive and awesome. At some point a spider landed on my left boob (I'm totally arachnophobic!) and James' best man reached over and grabbed it. Pretty funny to have the BM grabbing at the brides' boob right in the middle of the ceremony.
After the ceremony we did the bridal party/family photos which was pretty boring but it was over pretty quick. Once that was over, we headed into the backyard where the party was already in full swing. James was pretty relaxed and was having a great time. My only regret from my wedding was that I didn't relax for about half of the reception and was stressed about pleasing everyone. I wish I had just sat down and let everyone come to me but I felt like I had to make the rounds and play hostess and make sure everyone was having a good time. It wasn't until some of our guests (mostly the older people and some of my friends with babies) started to leave that I actually began to enjoy myself.
The food was great although it turns out we didn't have enough. Oops! We didn't have any sort of official game plan so people just ate and drank and socialized. Before the cake time my mum did a toast to me and James that she had spent many hours perfecting. After that we had cake time which was pretty cool because everyone thought our Buffy & Angel cake toppers were the coolest things ever.
Eventually my guests decided it was time for some dancing so they cleared away all the chairs & tables at the top of the yard and turned the music up. James and I had our “first dance” to “I Can't Help Falling in Love” by Lick the Tins (a beautiful Celtic version of the song). Having had no sort of practice dancing we kinda just wung it and ended up with some awesome pictures. After that, everyone ended up on the “dance floor” and had a great time. I actually found myself dancing which is something I rarely do (by this time I had taken off my crinoline and veil and had thrown my hair up in a high ponytail) At some point, either before or after our first dance (I don't really remember!!) my dad decided I needed to have pictures taken on his motorbike so that's what we did.
Eventually we realized we had to go check into the hotel my mum had gotten for us as a wedding gift so we left. James' groomsmen had gotten a jerry can and put some gas in the car and brought it back to the wedding so we didn't have to hitch a ride! We stopped at our house on the way to the hotel because we were missing out little kitty so badly! We were totally tempted to take him to the hotel with us but we knew that if he wrecked anything that it would end up on my mum's credit card!
We arrived at the hotel and it was beautiful. My mum had gotten us a “bridal suite” and the “bridal package” so there was a big king sized bed, a soaker tub with jets right in the middle of the room, and champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting for us. One of our favorite things ever it bath time so we filled up the tub and hopped in. We had kind of already accepted that we wouldn't have the energy to have any “sexy times” so we just really had a wonderful time together, re-living the day. We ate our strawberries and drank our champagne and stared out the window an the beautiful harbour and had a wonderful evening.
In the morning we called up for room service and had breakfast in bed. I didn't want my “wedding night lingerie” to go to waste so I put that on after breakfast and pranced around and then finally we had sex as a married couple. It was great!
Eventually we headed back to our house, got changed and went back to dad's house to open prezzies and hang out with my family and drink champagne and eat wedding cake leftovers.
Altogether it was an absolutely perfect wedding. I really wish I could remember all the details but it was just so surreal that I've ended up piecing it all together from photos!
Finally here are a few more of my favorite pictures:
xo
