What a week, what a wedding

Well, here we have it, the very first entry on our new blog as a married couple!!! Yikes! It is Friday afternoon, the movers have already cleared out our things and we are sitting in the living room looking at a very empty, very sad looking apartment. Our year long journey through Central and South America begins tomorrow morning and we can hardly wait.

But first, a quick overview of what can only be described as the most wonderfully perfect day of our lives. For weeks we had been diligently watching the weather in the hopes of trying to foresee what our day would be like. We soon realized that predicting Penticton weather was virtually impossible as we saw 38 degrees and sunny one day, and 90% chance of rain and 17 degrees the next. Seriously, I think just about anyone could be a weatherman. You can just say pretty well whatever you want and people will soak it up.

On the wedding morning we woke up to an overcast but warm day on God's mountain. As morning turned to afternoon, there was a slight drizzle but our photographer was able to use that to advantage and take some phenomenal photos of Lydia in the rain. As the 3pm wedding time came around, the perfectly timed rain cleared away and the rest of the day wasabsolutely perfect...



The service was at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Penticton. It was short, simple and very beautiful. Lydia's nephew Alex was the ring bearer and as he's still too young to walk, he stole the show by being wheeled up the aisle in a red wagon. Judging from the amount of flashes that went off in the church, you would swear the entire North American Paparazzi had hit the church.

Lyd's friend Angela did a beautiful solo of "You raise me up" during the signing of the registry which will linger in our hearts and memories forever. The church was beautifully decorated by all our friends and the whole ceremony was filled with love and laughter as we committed our lives to eachother as husband and wife.



Directly after the service we went back to God's mountain where we had our photos taken together and with all of our friends and family. We climbed all over the nearby mountain to get some of the fantastic photos you can see in the slideshow down below.



The night festivities kicked off at 6pm with a champagne reception outside before we hit the tent for the dinner and dance. The dinner was delicious and our emcee Shayn did a great job of keeping things light and organized as the night went on.



Our families all had a chance to speak and there were plenty of telegrams from friends who could not be at the wedding read out throughout the night. After the cutting of the cake, it was onto the bouquet toss (which incidentally went directly into the hands of our friend Shona...funnily enough it was only moments after her boyfriend James tried to pay Lydia $20 to throw it in the opposite direction :o) ) and then onto the dancing.

The rest of the night was a blur of laughter, dancing and great conversations. We have never before been to a wedding where the dance floor was packed the entire night and people refused to leave it at 2am when the DJ so desperately wanted to go home. The most fun I have had in a very long time.

All in all it was the wedding of our dreams and we feel incredibly blessed as we begin our journey together as life partners.

Our photographer took about 1,000 photos, which we've edited down to about 150 for everyone who's interested...



If you can't see this album, click on this link - Wedding Pics