-Arrange flowers for DIY centerpieces (15 of them)
-Load two cars FULL of wedding décor, luggage, etc (and pray it all fits!)
-Drive to Kingston (from Bellville) and meet with our reception coordinator (the first time we met…or had really talked! I had been emailing back and forth with the Events Manager (?) previous to this).
-Check in to my hotel and his dorm room
-Make "Just Married" sign for getaway car
-Meet some family from my Mom's side for dinner (they were unable to come to the Rehearsal Dinner because my Granny requires dialysis several times a week)
(I'll be posting my DIY Flower Centerpiece Experience once the pro-pics are in I'm hoping within the week)
By the end of the day I was feeling great about the wedding reception stuff - the venue seemed to have it together, I realized that I wouldn't have to worry about any details and DIY anymore - whoot! However, my emotions about other stuff (mainly my Mom) were not doing so great. Up until dinner on the night before my wedding, I was under the impression that my mother WAS going to be there…although there had been many ups and downs about this during the week. It was my understanding until I had dinner that evening with the O'Connor's (Mom's side ;) that MORE arrangements had been made so she would come to her baby girl's wedding. It turned out that it was not meant to be…we have still not talked about it.
Here is a picture taken of some of the O'Connor side at one of my all time favourite (and yummy) places, Woodenheads - despite the cavalierly shared news of my Mom - it was a lovely evening…and really special to me that my family had made the effort and taken the time to attend this dinner:
Anyhoo, much to my fiancé's (at the time ;) ;) chagrin, we would be spending the night before our wedding separately…although we had been "Living In Sin" for nearly 4 years, we would be spending the night before our wedding apart - I'm still a bit of a traditionalist at heart…and a romantic.
Not only would we be spending the night apart, but it would be me in a cushy hotel room and him in a dorm room…lol I would have been happy to spent the night in a dorm room instead of a hotel to save some $$$, but because our photographer was coming to my room to take pre-ceremony pictures, I wanted them to be taken in a more visually pleasing location - he wasn't happy, but he understood ;)
I booked a standard (re: cheapest possible) room at the Radisson Hotel on the harbour front of Kingston. The cost was $199 - plus taxes and such. But, when we walked into our room - we were majorly upgraded - whoot! AND because we left at 3:00am-ish Sunday June 22nd…to catch our flight to Jamaica out of Ottawa - they only charged us for one night - wicked deal! I was beyond impressed with this hotel (even though the parking situation sucked…very expensive!).
I was able to wake up to this beautiful sunrise the morning of my wedding - it was bliss! :
