Second update in a day? When did *that* last happen, eh?

In a nutshell, we had a blast. We felt fantastic when it was over, and were satisfied that we’d done what we set out to do. We had a few SNAFUs along the way, but nothing abnormal.

I was going to document all the evil and the good here, but maybe my sweet poli has it right in not writing about the evil bits right away. It’s better not to allow small-minded people to succeed in taking anything away from the day. But I will have to vent about it at some point. I’ll also probably update again with other details of interest that I’m forgetting here.

Things did get off to a bad start Thursday night though, before we had to leave for Ottawa. I moved my car to the front of the building to make it easier to pack, and took note of the fact that there were signs out saying not to park after 7pm, for snow removal. After getting a phone call from the kids at 7, I returned outside at 7:15 to make sure snow removal hadn’t started -- and they’d already towed my car. F*ckers. We wandered around and found the car -- it had been towed to the street where it had been parked before I so “wisely” decided to move it -- and brought it back to the now-cleared street. We’d lost an hour, and Poli was fading fast due to her cold.

I walked around the apartment for a while uttering epithets and vulgarities at random moments in my newly found anger-management aspirations. See, it’s better to let it out in a non-harmful way, yeah? I directed it at no one in particular and made sure Poli knew that that’s what I was doing.

Anyway, we finally made it to Ottawa at about 11:00pm.

Friday, my stepmom threw an *amazing* dinner for the wedding party; smoked salmon appetizer, pork tenderloin main course, salad and two home-made fruit sorbet desserts. It was the first time that Poli’s mom and dad had been in the same room together for any length of time in over something like 25 years.

It would be very entertaining to tell how Poli’s mom threw herself onto Poli’s dad and hammered him with her fists while he walked around the room screaming for help, but there were no incidents or fist-fights. Toward the end of the evening, Poli’s mom even started to loosen up; I think she nearly died of shock when my stepmom brought out the karaoke machine and further broke the ice by warbling away to some old Elvis tunes.

My own "surreality" came when my dad and my best man sang "My Way" arm-in-arm. Who’d a thunk my old drinking buddy, the guy my dad told me to "watch out for" all those years ago, would end up doing a duet with said dad on the eve of my wedding. I took a couple of pictures, just so I could be sure it had really happened (I’m still wondering).

Saturday, we bathed the kids, then I set off for lunch with Best Man while Poli and the kids went to have their hair done. I came back to an empty house, and actually had an hour to myself for tea and the newspaper!

Next, I started getting dressed, then cf, marv and mystie turned up exactly on time, in spite of the weather. Marv (the driver), you are a force of nature.

All of a sudden, the house became full of the wedding party members, and people were milling everywhere. I tried my best to stay composed. The alternative was to run screaming down the street in my t-shirt, and I think that might’ve set the wrong tone for the day (not to mention freezing important private bits!).

Things started getting blurry on the way to the church. We had to stop for granola bars for Poli because she was getting hungry again, what with there being another human being inside her and all.

We arrived at the church on time, and in very bizarre surrealistic moment, got taken aside by cf’s best friend, who wanted to tell me he couldn’t make the reception afterwards. As if I was even *close* to being able to get my mind around that just minutes before walking down the aisle in front of 70 people! :-)

Anyway, we got inside, and Littlest couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle (first), while Eldest (second) kept saying that she was “scared” and honestly didn’t seem like she was going to be able to do it. They did, though, and apparently most everyone wept upon seeing them.

We’ve had oodles of compliments about the ceremony. We tried our best to keep it real and reflect us as closely as possible. There were no references to God in it, and it was short and simple, even addressing the kids in one section (thus bringing about more tears in the audience, it seems).

The dinner was more of a blur; there was a lot of meat in it. Unfortunately for the vegetarians in attendance, the veggie lasagna that we’d asked for either never got made, or sat in the kitchen untouched because of a breakdown in communications.

I had burned the dinner and dance music at home in advance, and I think it turned out OK. I tried to put on something for everyone, so we ended up with music by Frank, Elvis, Madonna, Bare Naked Ladies, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Mozart, various Celtic bands... the list goes on. Most people seemed to enjoy it though, so that was a relief. Good thing I elected not to just put on Metallica’s black album. ;-)

Some of the highlights of the night:

• Poli’s mom and dad dancing together for the first time in 20-something years.

• Our dads giving heart-in-your throat speeches.

• My drunken uncle (godfather) giving a speech he was not supposed to give, thus scaring the crap out of me; he stopped shortly after announcing that my sperm is off the scale in terms of efficiency. (OK, he didn’t put it in *those* terms; he used a metaphor, but still!)

• Poli’s dad dragging his 83-year-old mom onto the dance floor and trying to spin her round ballroom style as we all danced/watched in a circle.

• Said mom dancing with her husband (poli’s grandfather) to “Satisfaction.”

• Poli’s hot cousin drinking wine straight from the bottle, as witnessed by my co-worker! No one touched the bottle after that.

• My own stepmom stealing a bottle from co-worker’s table to have for her own table!

• My brother the air-force captain, slurring his speech and telling me repeatedly how it was such a beautiful day.

• Dancing with my baby to the waltz, the tango and the cha-cha (did you know that “Satisfaction” is a cha-cha!? :-)

And the best hightlight of the evening? Walking out of there with Poli on my arm, knowing that we just shared an experience we’ll remember for the rest of our lives, and looking forward to waking up together every morning of those lives.

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