Recap of the Days Leading Up to Our Wedding Day

Hi everybody! Colin and I returned from our honeymoon yesterday. We were really able to "get away from it all" and we had an awesome time in Hawaii. While we were away, we did not have regular access to cell phone or internet; so, I have been experiencing email and blog withdrawal. Now that I am back, I am blogging the first chance I get. This entry will provide a recap of the few days leading up to our wedding day. (Note: I wrote this recap down on paper while on the plane heading to Hawaii...so that I could more accurately capture my thoughts and emotions rather than try to recall two weeks after the fact.)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Okay, only three more days to go. Tonight was our wedding rehearsal at Oakview Terrace. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a blur. I really hope it's not like that on my wedding day. Colin and I, along with both sets of parents, the entire wedding party, and our musician (my sister, Valerie) arrived around 7pm to meet Kris, the Oakview Terrace Coordinator. She quickly described how the ceremony would unfold. First, Frank, the Wedding Officiant would walk in followed by Colin and the groomsmen. Then my mom would be escorted by my brother, Colin's parents, the bridesmaids and then me escorted by my dad. One of the things I had really wanted to do was time the processional music properly. Valerie had kindly brought her keyboard to do this. Unfortunately, Kris made us walk much more quickly down the aisle. So, we really couldn't do it. We only had a half hour for the rehearsal before another party would come in. Despite the fact we weren't able to properly time the music, I was still glad we had the rehearsal. It gave everyone an idea of what to expect. In particular, the groomsmen who ended up standing on the wrong side of the chapel on their first try!

Thursday, August 21, 2008
On today's schedule, the task of the day was to stuff our wedding favour boxes. My Maid of Honour, Linda, had taken the day off to help me...because Colin wasn't going to!!! What was Colin's priority two days before our wedding? He was going to go with a friend and his dad to the casino in Niagara Falls. You may wonder how Colin got off the hook from wedding work. Well, Colin's friend is from Peru and today was the only day they would be able to hang out since we were leaving on our honeymoon afterwards. So, I allowed him to go out. Besides, I didn't think stuffing wedding favour boxes was going to take up a lot of time. Boy, was I wrong.

I had asked Linda to arrive at Colin's house in the early afternoon and we started to stuff boxes around 2pm. Early on, it became clear that it was not going to be a "quick and dirty" task even with the help of Colin's eldest aunt and mom! First, the boxes had to be folded AND THEN stuffed with six hershey kisses AND THEN tied with ribbon. (The boxes were not that easy to fold.)

After about an hour, we realized that we did not have enough chocolates to stuff all the boxes. So, Linda and I went out hunting for more Hershey Kisses. And we literally went hunting because the Hershey Kisses were not so easy to find. We had bought special gold-wrapped Hershey Kisses from the Hershey Factory in order to match the gold print on our boxes. Two hours later, we only found a few packages of the gold-wrapped ones at one store. In the end, I bought silver Hershey Kisses and Hugs chocolates to stuff the remaining favour boxes.

By the time we were done, Kirk (Colin's brother and Best Man) was home so we had an extra body helping us out. By 10pm, we had stuffed 252 boxes - the minimum number of favours required. My eyes were so tired by the time the job was done.

Thanks so much to Linda, Colin's Aunt, Colin's Mom and Kirk for all of your help!

Friday, August 22, 2008
With only day left and most of the planning done, today was dedicated to all of the tasks we could not do until today anyway. In the morning, I went to pick up some flowers from our florist, which were to be used as a wedding cake topper.

In the afternoon, we transported various supplies to our reception venue at DoubleTree International Plaza Hotel. Supplies included wine, engagement portrait and centrepieces. The centrepieces needed to be constructed. Instead of flowers, the centrepiece was going to be a two-tiered glass pastry serving dish in which we would place our wedding favour boxes on. Something different and also a great space saver on the dining table too! To decrease the risk of the glass centrepieces breaking, we decided to construct the centrepieces on-site. For this task, I had enlisted the help of Linda, Kim (one of my bridesmaids) and Hsin-May (our Reception GM). I was so grateful to have these girls help us today. Once we had access to a storage room, the girls quickly began building the centrepieces. They were wonderfully efficient. Once the centrepieces were done, they kindly stuffed the remaining wedding favour boxes.

Meanwhile I went off to a manicure and pedicure appointment. Colin also joined me for a manicure only. After a week of rushing around doing last minute wedding stuff, it was nice to spend two hours relaxing and being pampered. We went to ZenSpa which is in the DoubleTree hotel - not cheap but overall a good experience for me.

After my appointment, I quickly went back home because the bridesmaids and I, along with my make-up artist and friend, were going to check in at a hotel fifteen minutes away from Oakview Terrace. I wanted us to stay in a hotel the night before because I wanted all of us to be together and to be close to the ceremony venue as so that we wouldn't be late in the morning. Lights were out in my room at 10pm. As I fell asleep, I remember feeling happy and excited.