Calin and Susanne arrive in Nova Scotia

Calin and Susanne arrived on Thursday a week before the wedding. We left NB that day to go to Halifax and to eventually pick them up when they arrived at the airport. On Friday we took them out to see the sights in Halifax. First stop, Dalhousie University. Following Julia's old walk to work/class we got to the campus and showed them around.

Then we went down Spring Garden rd. to the Public Gardens and saw the Harbour Hopper amphibius tour bus on the way.

We walked through the gardens and then had a pint and some food on the Rogue Roost's patio.

Then we walked down to the waterfront and went on the Keith's Brewery Tour. Julia and I had already been on the tour several times, but it's always fun and a must for tourists. Here's Julia checking liquid for clarity during the brewing process.

Here we are at the Stag Head's Pub. This is where the tour ends and you get a couple glasses of Keith's.

Then we followed the harbour going south. We couldn't follow the harbour the whole way but eventually we got to Point Pleasant Park. But on the way there we walked through a movie set. Watch for Seawolf coming to a theater near you, or probably something that had Seawolf as a working title.

Once at Point Pleasant, we walk around some more and went down to the beach to check out the Cormorants and play in the "No Children" zone.

Julia and Susanne are being Cormorants (who sit like this in the sun to dry the feathers on their wings).

We took the bus back into town after all that walking and went to the Economy Shoe Shop to meet up with more friends and eat something after all that walking. After that it was off to the the Granite Brewery or the Henry House as some call it now, which is yet another wonderful Haligonian brew pub. Here's Calin with the sampler. Doesn't he look happy?

We also briefly stopped at Bearly's Blues House for possibly another beer. The next day we went to the market before I had to leave for NB for my 10 year high school reunion and Calin Susanne and Julia make their way to Pomquet and Cape Breton. We always loved to go to the market when we lived in Halifax cause there's lots of fresh everything and interesting meats like boar and ostrich and other fun stuff to do. It's also a good place to roam around when you're hungover Saturday morning, which was often the case. Here's Sussane in front of the Dutch Gouda salesman.

This sign has aparently been there forever and I only noticed it now.

Passing through Bellville

After Vanessa and Joey's wedding we drove to Belleville to see some of Julia's high school friends on our way to NB. We swung by Reid's Dairy to get several different kinds of cheddar. Cheddar is not so popular in Germany and hard to come by in Jena, especially if you want any kind of old cheddar. We also got Loonie Shake's (milk shakes for a dollar) and wanted to get fresh curds but they were out.

We went over to Pam's house for supper with her and Jen. Here's Julia unwrapping our present from them. A hand-picture-frame with a photo of us from when we were all in Dublin last year:

Jen couldn't come to the wedding which is why we got to open that present right then and there. Pam also wasn't sure she could come because her grandmother was sick in the hospital.

After supper we went to the local sports bar to have a Rickard's White or two and so Julia could get up on all the latest Belleville gossip.

Unfortunately, Pam's grandmother passed away that night while we were sleeping. Pam went to see her and her family early that morning.

Next we were off to NB and Halifax.

Vanessa and Joey's Wedding

Now the chronology of our blog gets all messy. This was on the 5th of July, two weeks before our wedding (the last post). The next few post will also be taking place before the wedding.

First of all I have to say that the day before Vanessa and Joey's wedding was a big day for me because Julia was arriving from Germany. Hooray! The poor girl had been working non-stop at work and at several sewing machines for the two months (and more) prior to this. Then, we were on the cross-Canada wedding circuit for the next month. So after she got of the plane we went to Chris and Karen's (and Owen's) for a nice supper on the patio and a night of jet-lag sleep.

The next morning after quickly sewing horse hair braid onto the hem of her dress we were off to Venessa and Joey's wedding in Kitchener-Waterloo.

A quick note on Julia's dress: this was the practice dress she made before attempting all the wedding garb. It's made from the same patern as her wedding dress but with a shorter skirt and no train.

Between the wedding and the reception, we checked in to our hotel room and had a few beers. Above is Owen repetedly requesting "Row, row, row your boat" by screaming "Row, row, row" and rowing Joy's hands like oars.

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was held at the Polish Legion which meant Polish beer which is like Czech beer, delicious. The Hall was decorated in white and blue, the colours of the wedding. This matched the baseball theme of the wedding since they are Blue Jays fans and they first met at a ball game.

We had lots of kidly entertainment during the supper as we were seated with Owen, Midori and Toby and of course their parents Chris, Karen, Shane and Dayna who are also lots of fun.

Here's the top of Toby's head climbing into his seat.
Owen and Julia's uncle Beer.

Dayna and Midori playing with a doll.

The supper was all traditional Polish dishes. I would enumarate them but I have no idea what they were called. All I know is that there was lots of courses and it was all delicious. There was also an impresive spread of midnight snacks later on.

Here are lots of people cutting a rug after the speeches and bad jokes.

Here are Julia and Baba and her uncle Ray (he of the bad jokes) in some kind of line dancing thing that was going on.

We partied until about 1:00 and then went to bed so we could get up for the brunch the next day and drive to Bellville (the next post).

Our Wedding

So finally, finally we're getting around to blogging about the wedding. I think that part of the problem was that it just seemed such an insurmountable task that it was easier to put off. Especially since we did so much travelling afterward, and the list of things to write about just kept growing and growing. We're finally going to try to tackle it so we can start to tell you about all the exciting stuff that's going on in our lives now.

I have to add, that Jeremi has been much better about trying to catch up on the blogging than I have. The thing is, it takes him a lot longer to type up a post than it takes me, and this one's a doozy, so I told him to leave it for me, and he's been patiently getting the pictures ready for the following posts, gently reminding me that I have to do it eventually, but I'm always too tired or too busy. This weekend, I'm finally going to tackle it.

While the last post had a slideshow with pictures from the photographer, Jocelyne Vautour, here are a combination of some of our favourites from her pictures as well as some taken by our friends and family. All these pictures are from the day of the party, before, during, and after, along with some short comments on each.

Here's everything set up before the ceremony, with the tent, the chairs, and the herb and vegetable garden in the foreground.


The setting for the party, as seen from across the road.


Here Jeremi is getting some moral support from our friend Calin before the ceremony:

The quilt mounted on the shed in preparation for the wedding, with a temporary sleeve sewn on by Jeremi (which is still there, even though the quilt has been on our bed for a couple of months now), and a hanging mechanism engineered by my dad and brother (and probably Jer's dad too, I'm not sure, I was too busy sewing).

A close-up of the bouquets before the ceremony. The original plan had been to have poppies, in keeping with the red and black of the quilt, as well as the general edible theme, with all the greenery provided by herbs. Unfortunately Jeremi's attempts to grow poppies in the months before the wedding didn't turn out so well, so I improvised with daisies (also edible, though not so tasty), which were growing wild all over the place. That morning I sent Calin out to collect a bucket full of daisies, and he came back with not only daisies, but lots of black-eyed susans, provided by a neighbour down the road who saw him cutting flowers and offered some from her garden. They really made the bouquets lovely! And all the herbs came from the plants that Jeremi and Betty Ann had been working on for the past few months. Jeremi's aunt Trish was invaluable in the preparations in general, and the bouquets and corsages in particular. She also helped out sewing on hooks and eyes for the dresses at the last minute, and didn't tell me I was completely insane for disassembling my wedding dress the day before the wedding to change the neckline from strapless to halter. (Yes, it was a completely insane thing to do, but I didn't need anyone telling me that.)

This was taken around 3:30 or so, an hour before the ceremony, while I was still sewing the last pair of shorts for the ringboys. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I'd already given up on finishing these, and had asked them both just to wear jeans, but then we'd finished everything on our list of things to do that morning (with lots of help from friends and family!) by around noon, giving me four hours to kill and with lots of nervous energy and a canoe of icy cold beer in the backyard that I'd sworn to avoid until after the ceremony at least. And so I decided to finish the shorts. Jocelyne thought it was hilarious that an hour before the wedding I was still sewing and hadn't had a shower yet, which I guess is a bit unusual.

Marie pinning on Jeremi's corsage, with both of them looking quite spiffy.

Mmm... The plates of Caprese salad ready for the appetizer course. In preparing this the kitchen smelt so wonderfully of basil, it was unbelievable. And all that fresh basil out in the garden - thanks again Betty Ann! I should also mention that we decided to include this in the menu not only because it's delicious, seasonal and beautiful, but also because it reminds us of Germany. It's popular enough in Canada, but here it's a bit ridiculous, being found on literally 90% of menus (regardless of the type of restaurant), and we call it "German's favourite salad" at home. (This is a bit funny as it's almost half cheese, but believe me, it has more vegetables than a lot of German salads, and definitely less pork.)

Here I am having some serious help getting ready beforehand. I'd originally asked Veronica, Marie's cousin, and general expert on all things beauty-related, to help me out with my hair and make-up beforehand, as I really don't enjoy going to salons and didn't want to do it if I didn't have to. Unfortunately she was running late getting to New Brunswick from Halifax, and had called ahead to warn us. Jeremi's sister Marlene and sister-in-law Cathy (on the left) then stepped in to save the day, blow-drying my hair and adding some product and starting on the make-up and hair styling when Veronica (on the right) arrived about 20 minutes before the ceremony and continued from there. They were all great, and I had no fear that it was going to turn out just fine.

Some of the guests sampling the canoe-beers before the ceremony began...

Here's Olivia, the younger of the flower girls, who was playing hide-and-seek with our friend Calin who was standing outside the window.

My mother crying (of course) upon seeing me all dressed up. Here you can see the cool roll that Veronica put into my hair - she's so good at this stuff!

Yeah, yeah, bad luck, whatever. It's not a huge house and everyone who had to walk down the aisle (which included the groom at our wedding) had to assemble in the kitchen beforehand, so there was no way he wasn't going to see me.

The flower girls receive their bouquets moments before walking out (and only maybe 5 minutes after getting the dresses on, to allow for as little time as possible for disasters to occur).

The ring boys with their first tentative steps...

Here are the little ringboys, Ezra and Owen, doing their best to make it down the aisle. Ezra, in front, was making good progress, but seemed entirely distrustful of the whole thing. Poor Owen had only been walking for about a week, and decided that he wasn't having any of it. My brother Chris and his monkey helped him up the aisle.

He was done walking.

And now come the lovely flower girls, Jeremi's goddaughter Taryn (in front) and her younger sister Olivia.

Then Jeremi's good friend Laffy and his sister Marlene,

...and his brother Nick and the lovely Marie. I love this picture - they both look like they're having so much fun!!!

Jeremi was then walked up the aisle by his parents, Paul and Betty Ann. This picture has prompted some to ask how he could have come from a mother so petite (note that she's wearing heels here). Paul's not so small, but he's not a giant either. Jeremi's answer: lots of meat and potatoes.

And then there's me with my parents. Here, the heritability of height and build seems more believable...

The fiddler playing us up the aisle. We really wanted a fiddler, especially as everything else was so handmade, but Jeremi's friend and former roommate who played professionally (and even started to teach me) wasn't able to make it, and he didn't have much luck tracking down any other local fiddlers who were free on the day. Instead we had the granddaughter of a local fiddler. While not quite professional-level, it fit in well with our "homemade" theme...

The long view of the ceremony, with the quilt hung up on the shed behind us.

A closer view of the ceremony. The officiant was pretty hilarious - she's a local lawyer who's the only person performing non-religious ceremonies in the county. We paid her in cash, without receipt, so that we didn't have to pay the GST on it. Yup, a lawyer gave us a shady, under-the-table, cash-only wedding. I hope it's legal...

And we're married!!!

After the ceremony, but before the cider started flowing.

Right after the ceremony, the sun came out, and I started drinking.

Here Ezra was giving me something or other, a stick or something that he wanted me to have.

Me and my baba, who looked so good that day, and cried so hard through the whole thing.

Baba after the ceremony, after she's stopped crying.

Getting congratulated by Jeremi's grandmother, Grammy.

Marie and Laffy giving a toast to the bride and groom - finally, I was allowed to drink!

Instead of getting cases of champagne, we opted for cases of bubbly (alcoholic) apple cider that's being produced in Nova Scotia now, and sold at the market in Halifax. All the wine with the meal was also bought from local producers with booths at the market (except for the second string, which was homemade by Jeremi and Paul), and this was in keeping with the general local theme. It was delicious!

I love this picture, of the mothers of the ringboys. If this is what motherhood is like, it makes me slightly less afraid.

This is a great picture, with the Bazar clan hanging out under the trees with some beers, having a visit from Uncle Beer himself.

My parents and Baba with the Gariepys, our old neighbours from Belleville, and close family friends.

And now for the official posed photos. Firstly, us with Jeremi's immediate family. Note that I'm holding a glass of cider in this picture. The photographer kept taking it away, and one or more of Jeremi's uncles would then replace it as soon as that picture was done. I ended up hiding it behind his back in my left hand for most of the rest of the pictures.

And then my immediate family.

...my extended family...

...Jeremi's extended family.

Taryn and her parrain.

The wedding party, including all the children. In this picture Ezra was no so sure he wanted to be so far away from his moms, until Laffy started holding his hand, and then Ezra was in love for the rest of the day. He thought that Laffy was just the coolest.

Marie and I make threatening gestures to hay-fever sufferers everywhere...

The men hanging out...

And the adult section of the wedding party, sitting on a little bench by the trees.

This would have been a really sweet picture if Jeremi hadn't been reaching quite so directly for my boob...

I love that you can see the tents of some of our friends in the background of this picture, and also the huge amount of basil I put in my own bouquet. Fresh basil smells better than roses, if you ask me.

Here Jeremi and some of his friends from military college are doing something... I'm not quite sure what, maybe it's a Québecois thing. From left are Coco (Guillaume), Bea, Jeremi, Pat, and Laffy (Francis).

Here I think they're feeding him booze?

Jeremi and the oh-so-sweet flower girls.

Ah, our inappropriate master of ceremonies, Rishad. I have to say that Rishad was on his best behaviour overall - he's pretty good around parents, usually. Here he's threatening the use of bear spray (in his right hand) on Laffy, should he get out of order.

I love this picture of Nick. I love that his shrug goes so well with the upturned point of his vest too.

Woah, the cake looks crooked in this picture. It must have been a question of perspective, because I staked that thing thoroughly.

The hungry guests lining up for supper. The food was all great, especially the delicious Ukrainian fare cooked up by my mom and baba and driven in from Ontario in coolers packed in dry ice packed into a U-Haul trailer. My family's pretty awesome.

The tables were called up to eat not by number but according to the potted herb that was their centrepiece. Here a very hungry Joerg is asking that somebody call Chamomile already!!!

And on to a description of the food! With the aforementioned Caprese salad for the appetizer we also had little spanakopita triangles (spinach and feta cooked in filo pastry), which Jeremi and I had made the week before and frozen. They were cooked up the morning of the wedding using two ovens in the houses rented by my family at les Chalet du Havre. For the main course there was a roasted pig, pyrohy (or perogies) with both cheese & potato and sauerkraut filling, holubtsi, and a bean salad that somehow ended up with way too much dressing when the recipe was scaled up. (It still tasted good.) There were also fresh buns, baked that morning under the command of Nick, with lots of different seeds on top. There were also homemade pickles that my mom had brought out from Ontario, sweet ones with a bit of cinnamon in the brine, an unusual recipe that she'd gotten from Mrs. Gariepy years ago, and they were a huge hit.

Here are the delicious holubtsi, or cabbage rolls, being served up.

Ahh, the pig. We were originally planning on roasting the pig up ourselves, but ended up instead finding a local farmer who raised pigs (and a variety of other animals), and had a big BBQ on a trailer that he could bring to events. Jeremi visited the farm beforehand, and loved it, and the meat was really great.

This was a donation jar that let people give money to the charity of our choice in return for various levels of kissing. Once people started pooling their money together and asking to see some skin I was getting worried, but Jeremi took the brunt of that.

Marie and Laffy were playing rock-paper-scissors here to see who had to give their speech first. There was quite a competition between them as to who would give the better speech, and it was seen as an advantage to give the speech second, so they fought over the privilege. In the end, Laffy won the coveted spot. As for the speech contest? It may still be undecided. I would argue that Marie's content was better (though it was about me, after all), and she had the advantage of knowing both of us really well after having lived with us, whereas Laffy knows Jeremi much better, but Laffy had a great (if cheesy) line about "bringing two great families together", or something like that, that was clearly aimed at the parents. (Oh yeah, the parents were supposed to be the judges of this contest, though I'm not sure they were ever informed. And the loser of this contest was supposed to have to give a toast to the winner, though that never happened either.)

Drinking after the toast:

Marie and I paying rapt, happy attention to something.

This is my favourite picture of the finished cake, as it just looks so sunny and summery.

Jeremi and I doing the whole "cutting of the cake". Rishad was narrating all this, and suggested that now we had to do that terrible "feeding each other cake" nonsense which I hate, so Jeremi suggested we attach Rishad with the cake instead. (More on that later.)

Rishad getting a 'fro full of cake. He then head-butted Jeremi soundly, leaving a big icing stain on his pants for the rest of the night. (No worries, it washed out.)

Jer with a bunch of his high school friends who were able to come. The weekend before was his high school reunion, which was conveniently timed for him!

And some more toasting!

Olivia, Sabrina, and Fannie, playing outside on the grass.

I love how she's got her crinolines piled all around her in this picture.

The tossing of the bouquet. I'm not sure if this was the first (failed) attempt, when I threw it way too far, over the heads of everyone, or the second, slightly more successful attempt, where it landed before the feet of everyone. I did get the impression that none of the women there were too marriage-mad though, as Laffy ended up catching the bouquet (and then giving it to Marlene).

Jeremi and I, dancing the first dance. The song was "Green Eyes" by Coldplay. And yes, I have green eyes.

And then we were joined by our parents, making three dancing pairs in total. This was to "I Will" by the Beatles.

Here's Jeremi going after the garter, in his oh-so-delicate way. When showing wedding pictures to my colleagues this picture required a lot of explanation, as this is not a German custom.

Then Jeremi tossed the garter out to the crowd, and it was caught by... ...Laffy. That guy was on fire by this point.

While I was overall quite happy with the dress, I wish I'd engineered in a bustling mechanism. This was sort of an afterthought for me, and I figured a safety pin would do the trick. It did, but then when someone stepped on my dress it ripped a small hole in it, and the safety pin came undone a couple of times as well. Still, it fit and it held together all night, so it did what it was supposed to do. (As far as I'm concerned, it's a one-time only dress.)

The younger of the very-photogenic flower girls, hamming it up for the camera.

This is a small version of the quilt which was lovingly made by my old neighbour from Belleville, Bev Gariepy. Our families lived on the same street when we lived there, and they had a son my age and a son my brother's age and we played together a lot growing up, spending half the summer in their pool and the other half playing kick-the-can (and related games) throughout the neighbourhood. Her and her husband are avid readers of the blog, and she's also quite a quilter, so following the pictures of the quilt blocks that Jeremi had put up, she made a miniature version with our names and the date of the wedding on the back. (It also served to wrap up a bottle of wine from Sandbanks winery, which is in Prince Edward County, across the bay from Belleville. Sandbanks is also the name of the provincial park in the county with the most spectacular sandy freshwater beaches in the world, as far as I'm concerned, with enormous natural sand dunes. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to bring Jeremi there during our whirlwind tour this summer, but it'll happen sooner or later. As for the wine, it's being saved for my birthday supper next Wednesday. It was really such a heartfelt gift, and it really does look like the one in the background!

This was the "band", a one man medley machine with the stage name "Atlantic". Lots of classic rock with a good sampling of Acadian music thrown into the mix, it was a definite crowdpleaser.

Here are my mother and baba dancing with me in some sort of circular Ukrainian dance that baba knew the name of. After this baba was pretty well done with the dancing, but I was so happy that she could dance with us at least a while.

Once the dancing started Taryn was my best friend, who wanted to dance with me all the time! This was actually a good thing, because strangely, no one was asking me to dance. I think because they all thought I was too busy or something. At least I always had a ready and willing dance partner in Taryn!

And here's Owen finding dance partners of his own, after he wandered onto the dance floor by himself. Here he's been found by a willing participant who danced with him for quite a while.

Owen sleeping, after a busy night of dancing. He slept quite soundly for a while, which meant that my brother and Karen could relax and really party for a while. After Marie met my brother coming back from the canoe with 6 beers in his hands for the third time, she asked him how the baby was doing. "What baby?" was my brother's gleeful response. (He was joking, of course.)

Laffy, when "Dancing Queen" came on. This is an old RMC thing, where they'd play "Dancing Queen" once the commanding officer or whoever left their formal fonctions, so they could all take off their wool tunics. This then expanded into the real world, and when it came on in a bar or at a party they'd take off their shirts. (This also took some explaining to my colleagues...)

Ah yes, more of the dancing military types.

Ah yes, is a wedding ever complete without a conga line?

More drunken conga-line goodness. I love how even the camera seems drunk in this picture.

Here's Susanne, right behind my brother, having a good time!

Alas there aren't so many pictures of the last phase of the evening, which saw yet more dancing, a mosh pit of 3-5 people, Laffy and Pat acting as drunken DJs ("move your body, move your body", and hitting each other with the microphone), and finally the relocation to the bonfire of the people still up after 3:00, which miraculously included both me and Jeremi. At this point Laffy wowed the crowds (or at least Marie) with his encyclopedic knowledge of Quebecois folk songs, and I slowly drifted to sleep on Jeremi's shoulder. I have no memory of going to bed, but he assures me that I was awake enough to mostly walk there (i.e. he didn't have to carry me). All in all, it was an awesome party. I do wish I had a picture of me in my wedding dress passed out next to the bonfire at nearly four in the morning, but no one was taking pictures at that point.

The next morning, you can see some of the overnighting champions with their breakfast beers. (This was really at around 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning. I was okay the next day, but certainly not ready to drink, or even eat for the first few hours, but at least I was better than after Nick's wedding...)
To see more pictures click here. If you have some, we would love to see them. Contact Jeremi to get instruction on the easiest way to get them to us.

A note on Zooomr: If you are checking out the rest of our wedding pictures, you might find it annoying that there is no easy slideshow button you can press. There is however a small button that appears on the small versions of the picture once you've selected a set. I looks like this:

It is only visible when your mouse cursor is over the picture. If you click it you'll get a bigger picture and will easily be able to navigate through the set by clicking 'next' or 'previous'.