John and Sarah's Wedding!

This weekend I was in Kanata for my old university roommate's wedding! Hard to believe it has been EIGHT years since we were assigned to live with each other in 2nd year! One of our other roommates (also a Sarah) lives in Toronto and we took the Via train out after work on Friday. Turned out to be a good plan because we heard traffic was horrendous getting out of the city. Unfortunately, the cab ride from the train station to our hotel was unexpectedly expensive so I am not sure if it was the most economical plan ;)

To save a bit of money after that, we walked down to the grocery store near the hotel and picked up some nachos and cheese (our favourite meal in the ol' uni days) for dinner. We ended up being sidetracked when we found out that the bride and the other girls from the bachelorette party were just downstairs from our room and hung out with them for a bit, but we did end up having our nacho dinner around 10pm...pretty similar to those university dinners!

On Saturday we had planned to walk someplace for lunch, but there wasn't much around and we had giant waffles at breakfast we just ate leftover nachos and spent the morning trying to curl our hair, despite the heat and humidity that persisted everywhere.

I demanded we take one shot before the heat ruined all our hard work at getting dolled up. Too bad it didn't end up being in focus.

Then we rolled out with the other guests in the school buses provided to take us to the venue- I hadn't been on a school bus in years! I just wished that it had air-conditioning. Thank goodness for being a girl in a light, flowy dress versus the men in their suits!

The venue was absolutely beautiful and Sarah and I wandered around for a little bit before the ceremony started. The actual wedding took place in the shade and was nice and breezy and comfortable, despite the weather hitting about 30 degrees (higher with the humidex).

Sarah's photo

Finally we took our seats and the wedding got started! The officiant asked everyone to refrain from taking photos as the bridesmaids and bride came down the aisle so we could appreciate the moment and not get in the way of the professional photographers. Because of where I was sitting I only have a shot of the groom nervously waiting for his bride- a huge grin broke out on his face when she appeared!

But once the wedding was underway, I got my camera going. Only a couple of shots because I hate to be behind a camera when I am trying to enjoy a beautiful moment like this!

Sarah's photo

Of course the bride was beautiful- not that she could ever look otherwise!

After that we had cocktail hour by the pool (which was tempting to jump into, but we chose to cool down with beer). We ran into an old university acquaintance and some other people we knew (and even the "Best Dog") and the time went by quickly. We even found out that you could spy on the official photos on the way to the washroom and took some covert shots ;)

Dinner was served in a large tent and food was really yummy! We all received bottles of honey that was made by the bride's father at their home! Isn't that neat? They were all personally labelled for each guest too. He even made the centerpieces! The speeches were so nice and sweet and we even had time for more photos as the sun set- including a giant one that the photographers took and I can't wait to see.

The Roommates!

Then, after the sun had set, the evening was kicked off with the traditional bride/groom dance and a combined parent/child dance, that Sarah's mom and brother joined in on. It was all so touching (I always tear up at those moments!). Then we really got the party underway, but none of my photos from later on turned out- just imagine a dance floor that never stopped moving and a Casey with a few too many beers :)

Sarah and I finally called it a night and took the last bus home from the venue to our hotel and fell asleep for only a few hours before we had to catch our train back to the city.

Overall it was an amazing evening and (as far as I could tell) everything went off without a hitch! Everything was so lovely and we met so many fun, new people that I never felt like the day dulled for a moment. Congratulations Sarah and Johnny and thank you for inviting me to be a part of your special day!! I wish you too many, many more magical nights like this!