Jeni and Brandon's Big Day!

As you know from my post earlier this weekend about Bridal Emergency Kits, I was the Maid of Honour in my best friend's wedding this weekend! It has been a busy 10 months for us (well, mostly the bride and groom) getting to this moment so I was so excited to see all the hard work come together- hopefully seamlessly!

The wedding was in Kingston, Ontario and I had only ever been to Kingston a couple of times. Holy Moly what a quaint city it is! I wish I could have taken more time off work just to walk around and explore in the beautiful weather we had this weekend (versus the cold winter days on which I had visited previously). As it was, I took Friday off work and took the Via Train, arriving in the city just before noon. When I got there the bride and groom were off getting some last minute details taken care of, so her parents took me out for lunch (so nice of them!). After that we met up with the couple and had a few last minute details to take of before heading off to the rehearsal.

It was my first time seeing the hall and it was beautiful! It was in an old church that has been converted to an event venue and everything was just classic and ornate and perfect. After the rehearsal was done, we all headed back to the hotel for a nice dinner to celebrate.

I spent the night with the bride in her hotel room and exchanged gifts before retiring early and then next thing I knew I was rudely awaken at 7:00am by her jumping on me. Of course I'm kidding- I was already awake too! We went down to her mom's room in our pajamas to eat some muffins and then got ready to go out as our hair and make up appointments were at 9:00am in town!

The salon we went to was really nice and they provided tons of muffins and scones for us, along with orange juice to go with the champagne we brought! Mimosas are the best way to start the day! I even opened up the champagne bottle myself for the first time. I had never gotten my hair done before and I had no idea what was going to be possible. The owner of the salon did mine, since working with a wig can be quite different. I was fulling expecting to just get some pretty pinned back curls- but my hair turned out amazing!! I hope it survived to the professional photos.

With our hair and makeup completed, we headed back to the hotel for a room service lunch and to start getting ready. It is surprisingly fast to get ready when your hair and make up is taken care of- we finished well ahead of the photographer even arriving.

At 2:30 on the dot, we drove off to the venue! Once there we had a few minutes to collect ourselves downstairs and touch up some makeup and then it was go time!

Of course, I have no photos of the ceremony, but it was beautiful and sentimental and I was quite proud that I didn't cry and ruin all of my make up.

After the ceremony we drove around town to various scenic locations for photos (there are so many options in Kingston!). Snacks were provided, which was much appreciated as it had been quite a few hours since lunch, and nerves prevented us from eating too much before the ceremony. I can't wait to see the professional photos- I think that they will be amazing!

We ended up back at cocktail hour in time for a martini and a couple hors d'oeuvres before the guests went up to dinner and we made our grand entrance. The bride and groom surprised us by having the DJ announce some funny facts about ourselves before we entered instead of just announcing our names. Mine was "she enjoys jumping out a planes and conducting German polka bands". An apt description of me, I think. I wonder if people knew they were all true? haha

Our Bridesmaids' gifts- they came filled ;)

Dinner was delicious and I even managed to get through my speech without making too many mistakes- the speech is the hardest part of the MOH duty, in my opinion! After it was done I could really let my hair down (so to speak, there was like a can of hairspray in it). The bride and groom shared their first dance, and I have no photos because they invited the wedding party to dance with them.

I teared up at the father/daughter dance, as per usual. The mother/groom dance was touching as well!

Soon after the music started going for everyone else to get their dance on and I don't think I left the dance floor for the rest of the night! I am thankful I brought some flats to the reception so my feet were in good shape. The midnight buffet was amazing, in that they offered pizza AND poutine! The poutine came out in small takeout containers so I didn't even need to stop dancing to eat it- that is a win in my books.

Anyways, my camera has this annoying habit of shooting fuzzy shots in low light (grrr), so I thought I would just share a few fun shots of the night! Why is it I never remember to get a shot of the whole wedding party? I will have to wait for the professional photos for that I guess! I at least remembered to get a shot of the bride and myself.

Then, in the wee hours of the morning, we packed up everything into the rental car, grabbed our custom beer bottle favours (too cool) and took a bunch of taxis back to our hotel, very tired and very happy! I found myself wide awake the next morning, so I met up with the bride's family and eventually we all went down for a bit of brunch before I had to head back to the train station. The weekend was over so fast!!

Jeni and Brandon, thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of your special day! I love you guys so much and I wish all the happiness imaginable on your marriage!