Day 1 & 2: Halifax

For those of you who have been checking this blog, hoping for honeymoon stories, you've come to the right place!  What better spot to write up our little adventure but the blog that already exists.  So here goes.


Day 1: 

Our anxiousness to get going got stopped dead in its tracks when they announced on the Porter plane that we had mechanical problems, and would be approx. an hour late.  So we deboarded, and enjoyed some more excellent free food (real shortbread cookies!  excellent coffee!) while we waited.  Once we got on board, it was another few hours and a stop in Ottawa before we hit the turbulence.  I think the last 20 min. of our flight was more exciting than any other time I've been in a plane.  Roger laughed when I joked to him that crashing and burning wasn't my first choice to start our honeymoon, but once we touched down I began breathing again.  After I removed my clenched hands from the armrests, we picked up our luggage only to find that our carry-on (checked at the gate) had lost its handle.  Stubborly, I filled out a complaint, but I was told by the Porter deskwoman that they don't cover handles or straps.  But our night looked up once Aunt Irene and John took us back to their place and stuffed us silly with a homemade meal.  Delicious.  With full bellies, we climbed into bed at 9:30pm THEIR time and fell fast asleep.

Day 2: 

About 13 (!) hours later, we got up and were treated to the delicious smell of cinnamon buns and the patter of rain on the roof.  A few of those, and we were ready to head over to Aunt Norma's and Uncle Gordon's to see the family.  Great turnout!  We saw a veritable scattering of the family, and held a quiz for Roger at the end.  In no particular order, we saw Jeff, Sarah and Emily; Mary Lynn, Alexander and Joshua; Andrew, Andrea, Sammy, Kai, and Josiah; Warren, Taylor and Mackenzie with their dog Lila; Aunt Norma and Uncle Gordon, naturally; Aunt Eva Mae; and Jan and Phil made an appearance with their irresistible new puppy Murphy.  In true Spares tradition, there was a buffet of food to stuff ourselves with, and I think all of it was homemade.  I know all of it was delicious.

Finally, Aunt Irene and John took Roger and I into Halifax, and after a little searching found the Waverley Inn.  We'll be able to walk to the train station, it's so close, and we're looking forward to having a little stroll before our dinner at the Press Gang tonight.  But oh, the room.  This whole hotel is like something out of a Victorian period movie.  Stephanie, you'd have nightmares.  It's one of those places you just KNOW is haunted.  There are no elevators, but with a little help from the hotel, we climbed the one flight to our Queen Deluxe room and settled in.  We have a beautiful crocheted and tassled canopy over our epic bed (the headboard is solid wood, and straight out of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre), a jacuzzi in our spacious en suite, and everything exudes awesome.  I'm in heaven, and I know Roger loves it too.  *self back-pat here*

We're off for dinner, and probably a little walk beforehand.  Afterwards, perhaps try out the jacuzzi?  Lots of love to all, and we'll let you know when we're on the train.

We're Married!

The day has come, and gone, and we can only say THANK YOU.  Thank you so much, to everyone who was a part of it, and thank you to those who were a part of it from afar.  You are all so important to us, that it wouldn't have been the perfect day it was if it wasn't for you guys.

With love, from the happy couple.

Heather & Roger

Accommodations Update - Very Important!

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel our group block at Staybridge Suites.  It looks like we won't be able to guarantee the minimum of 10 rooms that qualify us for our discount.

What does this mean?  It means that the choice of accommodations is now in your (the guests') hands.  We (R&H) will be staying at the Staybridge Suites the night of our wedding, October the 10th, but we don't want anyone to feel obliged to join us if they find a more reasonable price somewhere else.

If you're up for comparison shopping, here are some other options, ranging in affordability:


Holiday Inn, Bronte
Motel 6, Burlington
Monte Carlo Inn, Oakville

We hope this information helps and can't wait to see you all in (gasp) less than 6 weeks!!

Honeymoon Update!

Oooh, my pocketbooks are feeling significantly lighter.  This weekend, Roger and I purchased our VIA tickets - Halifax to Montreal, Montreal to Toronto, and Toronto to Vancouver!  We used our four $100 gift cards (courtesy of Air Miles), which was about 15% of the total.  Not too shabby!  Of course, this means if anyone was planning on donating VIA Rail gift cards, it's too late.  But we're leaving the expense on our Deposit-A-Gift registry site, because goodness knows we'd be grateful to a gift that helped us cover the costs! 

But money matters aside, it's one of the first major purchases we've made for this honeymoon, and we're both very, very excited.  Our other purchase was to buy plane tickets to Halifax: we fly out on Friday afternoon via Porter (yay warmed espresso cup luxury!) and will be staying at Aunt Irene's that night.  I haven't yet had anyone offer a location for a possible get together while we're down there (it would have to be Saturday day or Sunday night), but it's still three months away.  Lots of time.  And we still haven't bought our return flight from Vancouver, but we're stalking WestJet for a seat sale.

Roger and I are very excited at what we've got lined up already: a night at the Waverley Inn in Halifax, possibly a trip to the Biodome in Montreal, and definitely sushi in Vancouver.  Anyone have any other suggestions as to where to visit?  I know I'd love to see the Japanese Gardens at UBC, and Roger wants to go for a hike along the way (possibly through Stanley Park, or somewhere else on the West Coast)... so exciting!  We're looking forward to this trip just as much as the whole wedding!

Earrings and Invitations!

On the road to completing all my wedding items still outstanding, I can now cross Wedding Jewellery and Invitations pretty much off my list!

Here's a picture of the completed invitation, with a chiyogami-lined envelope:

  

 And here are the lovely marcasite earrings I found at Costco, of all places:

I'm off to check all the other things I still need to do, but I know I've got a hair trial and a meeting with my florist to book for August.  And let's face it... August is CLOSE.

Shoes!

Woo hoo for sales!  Went to my favourite shoe shop (Bos & Co.) and found these babies hiding in the sample sale room - pretty much a collection of size 7 shoes, with suuuuuper reduced prices.  Got these and a pair of summer sandals for $50.  Like, with taxes.

Ta da!

98 Days Left! (So TheKnot tells me...)

Can you believe it?  We have barely three months left until chaos descends on a small village called Bronte.  Here are a few of the things we've accomplished recently:

1.  Updated the registry to now include towels and placemats and baking pans and a corningware casserole/roasting dish.  Sweet.  Got a little carried away and might have registered for chocolate, only to turn around and buy it ourselves.

2.  Talked to our dance studio about estimated pricing for bachelor/bachelorette party, and have pleasantly discovered it will NOT bankrupt us or our guests.  Present pricing looks to be about $25 a head for space rental and teachers.  We'll probably bring a party tray of sushi or two.  Yum.

3.  Nearly finalized both massive family turkey dinner and wedding reception catering - this is very, very good.  Now we just have to look into rentals.

4.  Bought a strapless bra (I love you, Change!) that doesn't make me a) look flat or b) feel really uncomfortable.  Just comfortably uncomfortable.  It's pretty and lacy and ivory.  Now all I need to do is finish the dress to go over it.  Which leads me to...

5.  Put the dress over the bought netting fabric on Kristina's judy.  Looks pretty good.  Next step is to make a mock-up of the underskirt(s) and decide on/find a lovely caramel-y coloured cotton gauze to go under it.

6.  Cashed in 2800 AirMiles to get $400 worth of gift certificates for VIARail.  We'll probably book the tickets asap after we get them.

7.  Are officially booked at the Waverley Inn in Halifax.  We still haven't bought our flights, but are on the lookout for a good deal (probably will fly Porter to Halifax, as soon as we know when exactly we're flying out).  We are also still figuring out if we can do a hosty drop-in thing in Nova Scotia for the family up there, but haven't heard from anyone offering the digs yet.

So I figure that isn't too bad, right?  Roger still has to get his suit, so that means Harry Rosen trip in the near future, and the invitations are in the works with a local Graphic Designer friend of mine who has good printer hook-ups, so that's soon to be completed as well.  All is fiiiine.