Well, if i can say one thing about our wedding, the planning process was anything but smooth. Pretty much anything that could have gone wrong through out the planning process went wrong, however, our wedding turned out amazing... incredible... I wish I could go back a month (and 2 days) and do it all over again!
So anyways, the tuesday before the wedding I was exhausted, sore, and realized that maybe everyone the last few months was right; maybe I am crazy getting married 6 days after doing the ironman. I could barely think about moving, let alone think about all the wedding stuff. My brain was mush, my legs were sore, and as for tuesday I laid on the couch for the most part of the day. It was the only day that week that I knew I wouldn't have to do anything, so i savored it. Well that is until my brother called to babysit... Of course I babysat my nephew in a pinch when my brother was pressed for a sitter (i love chilling with that little dude), but I wasn't too impressed with my newphew when all he wanted to do was walk, and walk, and then when we were a mile from home didn't want to walk anymore and I got to carry his 30 lb self. But I think in the end that was the best thing for me, my legs were feeling much better by wednesday.
On wednesday, Ben's brother, the best man arrived from London Ontario, along with my father's family from London ontario as well. And from then on in it was all about the wedding. I was supposed to go out with ben and his brother on wednesday night but I was tired and still not feeling 100% so they went out and I enjoyed a relaxing night at home.
On thursday, ben, his brother, my brother, and my cousin went out for a "bachelor day." Yes aparently they don't just do bachelor party's anymore, but entire days.. and they went golfing in Kananaskis. Since they were out, me and my sister decided to have a bachelorette day which included mani and pedi's, lunch, quick last minute errands, and then a quick nap at my house before another bridesmaid came over, ben and his beother came home and we started getting ready for our joint bachelor/bachelorette party . We had a great night. We went to a piano bar which is only a few blocks away, and it was sooo fun. The best part was it was pretty much just our family that was there, and the place was dead except for 3 other bachelorette party's. I loved that my 80 year old oma was the last one on the dance floor, and we partied until they turned the lights on and kicked us out.
On friday morning, we packed up all the stuff we needed, picked up my 2 bridesmaids and drove to fernie..Yep your math is correct; all 5 of us packed in to our little mazda 3 for 3 hours, with hangovers. We got to the lodge in the early afternoon, and started unpacking. However, there were some curveballs that included staind table cloths, no toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms,and lack of staff. I'm not sure if you remember, but a month before our wedding the owner of the lodge went out of business, so the new owner stepped up but had only taken possesion of the lodge 2 days before our wedding. Stuff was missing, I was stressed, overwhelmed, and just not a very happy camper. But, the lodge was beautiful, nothing could deny that. We headed over to my mother in law's house in fernie for the rehesal dinner and we had a great time. I had the honour of meeting a bunch of ben's aunt's and uncles who I had never met before, and my family got to meet ben's family. It was a great night.
After the "rehersal dinner," I have it in qutotation marks since we didn't actually do a wedding rehersal, we headed back to the lodge. The people who were staying at the lodge stayed up having some drinks, excitedly talking about the day to come. Nerves got the best of me, and I wound up falling asleep in my mom's room around 12. The last night before I would become Mrs Jen Rendle.
Anyways, that's a long enough post for tonight. I promise there won't be such a long delay before I finish posting about the wedding and the honeymoon.
