June 10 – Annie and Danielle’s Wedding

A wondrous day.

After the ribfest, we spent the rest of the week mostly doing house maintenance chores. The day before the wedding we had to pickup some of the food and then headed up to my brother’s to help set up.

The wedding was in my brother’s huge back yard, beside the pool and under the grove of 100 foot tall maple trees.

None of these are my pictures. I decided to leave the camera and just be in the moment. As I get more from people I will update this page.

 

The only person paid for their services at the wedding was the photographer. All of the rest of the work was done by family and friends. Danielle’s sister, Nikki, is an event planner and was in charge of everything. Her other sister Michelle’s spouse, Lisa, was chef at some very high end restaurants and took care of the food. Danielle works in the theater so her friends came and set up the sound and lighting. They rented the tent, tables and chairs but the company only set up the tent. The rest of the volunteers set up all the chairs and tables and did all of the decorating. The arbour was built by one of Danielle’s uncles. There are too many people to list but it was truly a family affair.

Danielle did all the signage.

The wedding took place on one side of the pool. The middle area was for mingling and snacks while the photos were taken. The huge 30’ by 100’ tent was on the other side. My brother did a lot of work to level out the lawn around the tent site. I still can’t believe that it fit.

The tent felt so much more open with the clear roof.

Danielle’s mom put together a display that featured my mother’s wedding dress and a tux from her side of the family.

The flower girl and the ring bearer are ready.

As is Danielle.

We only had about 60 chairs by the arbour. Everyone else (around 130 total) sat on the steps of the deck. Danielle’s dad had set up speakers and a hidden mike on the arbour so that everyone could here what was going on.

The procession starts. The flower girl got a little upset when she ran out of flowers. Everybody had a good laugh.

His job is done.

Danielle looked simply amazing.

The deed is done.

Picture time.

I can’t wait to see the professional ones.

The groomsmen.

Smiles everywhere.

My daughters.

Danielle’s uncle had built a giant Jenga set which got a lot of use.

Timeout.

After the pictures it was off to the tent for high tea. Every table got a selection of teas and a tower of scones and sandwiches. There was also a buffet table covered in desserts.

Jennie spent a lot of time folding all these napkins.

Taking a moment to relax.

The couple with their new sisters.

The proud parents.

The wedding cake was a tower of macarons.

After tea we had speeches by Danielle’s dad, Jennie, Annie’s friends, Danielle’s sister Yvonne (the maid of honour) and finally by Danielle, with moral support from Annie. Lots of tears.

The dance floor was then cleared and the music started. Their first dance was amazing. They took lessons but only had two sessions. The song was Rainbow Connection sung by Kermit the Frog.

Jennie and Annie danced to Que Sera Sera, which Jennie has sung to Annie every night as a baby.

I forget what Danielle and her dad danced to but they had fun.

The bouquet and garter toss.

It’s been a long day.

Nikki, Danielle’s sister, the event organizer (finally relaxing a bit) and her daughter.

At about 8 pm we had some Chinese food delivered. None of us had any idea how many people would stay all the way from the arrival time of 1:30 but we clearly underestimated, We ordered enough for 60. I went up up near the end and got a bit of fried rice. We should have known.

Al and Dee’s yard looked even more amazing after dark with the pool lit up and tiki torches and mason jars with led lights hanging from hooks all over the place. Some of the younger set went swimming.

Some late night photos by the professional.

Jennie and I finally gave up around midnight. I am told that the last hangers on gathered around the fire pit until around 3 am.

The next day the army of friends and family dragged ourselves out of bed to come and tear everything down and get the rental stuff ready to be picked up. Everything was done by around 6 pm.

Doing it this way sure saved a ton of money but boy, was it ever a lot of work. It was worth it though.