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The bride's cake
The groom's cake
19 January 2010
The bride's cake
The groom's cake
Pixel hit send on that last post. It's OK - it was getting long.
There was a wedding rehearsal Thursday night for Dar and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparky77, sffan, vampirefan, and lunda. Afterwards the rest of us (skripka, finitejester37, janeeyre17, inalasahl, justblue0162, emungere, and sweet puffgirl_two) met up with them at a Lebanese-Italian restaurant for a rehearsal dinner. Tamarind Margaritas!
Friday was more shopping. More hours spent walking around a mall, but at least we all found what we needed. The wedding was on Saturday but not until 7PM. Dar and I decided to explore the neighborhood; we walked out of the door and into the prep for a parade. Woot! Turns out we were there on the opening weekend of the annual Stock Exhibition and Rodeo. There was a long, long parade with literally hundreds of horses and mules. There was a mule train! And marching bands. And at least a dozen entries for various branches of the Cowboy Church. The parade went on for hours and was lots of fun.
The hotel was right across the street from the Convention Center, and at the center that weekend was . . . a national cheer leading competition. The hotel was filled with young girls in various styles of short-skirted uniforms, most in pony tails, all ranging in age from 8-14 or thereabouts. Very cute group, but all of us were hesitant to take any pictures lest we look like stalkers. Such is the sad time we live in, eh.
The wedding itself was a joy. It was a perfect blend of formal and relaxed. The bride's gown was simple and elegant with a red waistband that flowed in back down the train; her bridesmaids wore red and carried beautiful cloth red fans instead of flowers. The groom was dressed in his black tux and his groomswomen wore the same style of gown as the bridesmaids except in black, and they carried black fans. The bride and groom also sported Rocket Dog sneakers - hers red, his white. The vows were original and delightful and so them. I remarked to Dar (who had been asked to read a piece as part of the ceremony) that I loved the laughter throughout the ceremony. It was delightful and charming and just . . . joyous.
The bride and groom each had a cake. Hers was covered in cherry blossoms and topped with the Chinese symbol for double happiness. (<lj user=kernelm is Chinese, in case you didn't know.) His was a smaller cake with the symbol for Serenity on it. The tables were clothed in red and white. It all was beautiful. We had to fly back Sunday morning at 5:45 AM. When we got back from the wedding, I didn't even bother trying to get any sleep. I changed into my travel clothes, packed my bag, and just relaxed until 4AM when we had to leave for the airport. (Maddie and Dar managed to get a few hours sleep in there.) A few of our friends were leaving at the same time, so we shared a taxi van. Delta once again changed gates without an announcement, and once again we almost missed our flight. They did it again at the Atlanta airport, but this time we were on to them. We took another taxi across the border in Buffalo. I was more nervous about trying to get back into Canada with my screwed-up passport, but it all went smoothly. Mark met us in Kitchener, and we were back home by about 6PM. It was a 14-hour trip from Fort Worth to Kitchener, but it was worth it.
There was a wedding rehearsal Thursday night for Dar and
sparky77, sffan, vampirefan, and lunda. Afterwards the rest of us (skripka, finitejester37, janeeyre17, inalasahl, justblue0162, emungere, and sweet puffgirl_two) met up with them at a Lebanese-Italian restaurant for a rehearsal dinner. Tamarind Margaritas!Friday was more shopping. More hours spent walking around a mall, but at least we all found what we needed. The wedding was on Saturday but not until 7PM. Dar and I decided to explore the neighborhood; we walked out of the door and into the prep for a parade. Woot! Turns out we were there on the opening weekend of the annual Stock Exhibition and Rodeo. There was a long, long parade with literally hundreds of horses and mules. There was a mule train! And marching bands. And at least a dozen entries for various branches of the Cowboy Church. The parade went on for hours and was lots of fun.
The hotel was right across the street from the Convention Center, and at the center that weekend was . . . a national cheer leading competition. The hotel was filled with young girls in various styles of short-skirted uniforms, most in pony tails, all ranging in age from 8-14 or thereabouts. Very cute group, but all of us were hesitant to take any pictures lest we look like stalkers. Such is the sad time we live in, eh.
The wedding itself was a joy. It was a perfect blend of formal and relaxed. The bride's gown was simple and elegant with a red waistband that flowed in back down the train; her bridesmaids wore red and carried beautiful cloth red fans instead of flowers. The groom was dressed in his black tux and his groomswomen wore the same style of gown as the bridesmaids except in black, and they carried black fans. The bride and groom also sported Rocket Dog sneakers - hers red, his white. The vows were original and delightful and so them. I remarked to Dar (who had been asked to read a piece as part of the ceremony) that I loved the laughter throughout the ceremony. It was delightful and charming and just . . . joyous.
The bride and groom each had a cake. Hers was covered in cherry blossoms and topped with the Chinese symbol for double happiness. (<lj user=kernelm is Chinese, in case you didn't know.) His was a smaller cake with the symbol for Serenity on it. The tables were clothed in red and white. It all was beautiful. We had to fly back Sunday morning at 5:45 AM. When we got back from the wedding, I didn't even bother trying to get any sleep. I changed into my travel clothes, packed my bag, and just relaxed until 4AM when we had to leave for the airport. (Maddie and Dar managed to get a few hours sleep in there.) A few of our friends were leaving at the same time, so we shared a taxi van. Delta once again changed gates without an announcement, and once again we almost missed our flight. They did it again at the Atlanta airport, but this time we were on to them. We took another taxi across the border in Buffalo. I was more nervous about trying to get back into Canada with my screwed-up passport, but it all went smoothly. Mark met us in Kitchener, and we were back home by about 6PM. It was a 14-hour trip from Fort Worth to Kitchener, but it was worth it.
Westward Ho
19 January 2010 21:06OK, get all your "ho" jokes out of your system now. I'll wait. :pause: Aaand we're back.
We went to Fort Worth, TX to celebrate the wedding ofvirtualinsomnia and kernelm, who'd met online as Firefly fans, fell in love, and happily decided to marry. (kernelm also spent some time at our house in Kitchener while he worked on some life direction changes.) They'd set aside a block of rooms at the downtown Hilton for the rest of us Browncoats flying in from all over the US and Canada. Great hotel, really. It had soundproofing. I can forgive a lot if there's soundproofing, but there was nothing iffy to forgive here; we had a marvelous stay. Unlike the Millennium Hotel in Buffalo where we spent Wednesday night. We got to listen to an episode of Law & Order that our neighbors had on in their room. When they turned it off before the episode was over, Dar was tempted to call out, "Hey! We were listening to that!" Heh.
Dar, Maddie, and I were all able to go because Dar found a great deal on plane tickets. The reason they were such a great deal is that they left early in the morning and had a lay-over in Atlanta. We were flying out of Buffalo rather than Toronto thanks to the antics of the Underwear Bomber and the very strict international flying restrictions that ensued. Mark had to work, and the friend who was going to drive us to Buffalo got a job (yay!), so we hired a driver to take us across the border on Wednesday afternoon so we could be at the airport bright and early Thursday AM.
As you may recall, I'm having some issues with Immigration and their screw-up of my paperwork. I was nervous about crossing the border, although I figured it wouldn't be a problem getting into the US since I have a US passport. And it wasn't a problem. The border guard spent all of her time questioning our driver. Ha!
We spent the afternoon at a mall right next to the hotel; I needed a top, Maddie a jacket, and Dar heels. We took a hotel shuttle. It was large mall. The largest mall in the northeast. We were tired already, and we trudged back and forth, back and forth trying to find what we needed. After several hours, Maddie needed to sit down and get something to drink; Dar went with her. I had a few tops to try on. What I heard Dar say is that they were going to the first place on the row that had someplace to sit and drink. What I did not hear her say was that they were going to come back and wait for me outside the store. It took me less than two minutes to realize that the tops were too small, so I was in and out of the dressing room in a snap and walked out to look for Dar and Maddie. I never found them. I hit all the places where you could sit and drink. Nothing. I retraced my steps several times. Still no one. I was exhausted and cranky, and I didn't have a) a cell phone, b) the number of the hotel or the hotel shuttle and c) any US change for a public phone. I had to walk back to the hotel - and it was brutally cold and windy - and if I was going to do that I needed to do it now before it got dark. I thought maybe the two of them had gone back when they couldn't find me, either. So off I staggered into the freezing twilight, only to find that Dar and Maddie were not back at the hotel.
About an hour later I got a call from Dar asking where the hell I was. That's how tired and upset she was, because obviously I was on the other end of the phone back at the hotel room. They'd been looking for me all this time. Had had me paged in the store and in the mall. Had talked to the security guards. One clerk started trolling the dressing rooms expecting to find my dead body. Yeah. We now have agreed to repeat back to each other what the plan of the day is, just to avoid something like this in the future :)
So we managed to get a little sleep before heading out the next morning. Pretty smooth flight to Atlanta, but we almost missed our connection because Delta changed the gate without an announcement.
I wasn't sure what to expect of Fort Worth, but I was happy to find that it was a lovely town (at least the small part of it that we saw) populated with friendly and helpful folk.
We went to Fort Worth, TX to celebrate the wedding of
virtualinsomnia and kernelm, who'd met online as Firefly fans, fell in love, and happily decided to marry. (kernelm also spent some time at our house in Kitchener while he worked on some life direction changes.) They'd set aside a block of rooms at the downtown Hilton for the rest of us Browncoats flying in from all over the US and Canada. Great hotel, really. It had soundproofing. I can forgive a lot if there's soundproofing, but there was nothing iffy to forgive here; we had a marvelous stay. Unlike the Millennium Hotel in Buffalo where we spent Wednesday night. We got to listen to an episode of Law & Order that our neighbors had on in their room. When they turned it off before the episode was over, Dar was tempted to call out, "Hey! We were listening to that!" Heh.Dar, Maddie, and I were all able to go because Dar found a great deal on plane tickets. The reason they were such a great deal is that they left early in the morning and had a lay-over in Atlanta. We were flying out of Buffalo rather than Toronto thanks to the antics of the Underwear Bomber and the very strict international flying restrictions that ensued. Mark had to work, and the friend who was going to drive us to Buffalo got a job (yay!), so we hired a driver to take us across the border on Wednesday afternoon so we could be at the airport bright and early Thursday AM.
As you may recall, I'm having some issues with Immigration and their screw-up of my paperwork. I was nervous about crossing the border, although I figured it wouldn't be a problem getting into the US since I have a US passport. And it wasn't a problem. The border guard spent all of her time questioning our driver. Ha!
We spent the afternoon at a mall right next to the hotel; I needed a top, Maddie a jacket, and Dar heels. We took a hotel shuttle. It was large mall. The largest mall in the northeast. We were tired already, and we trudged back and forth, back and forth trying to find what we needed. After several hours, Maddie needed to sit down and get something to drink; Dar went with her. I had a few tops to try on. What I heard Dar say is that they were going to the first place on the row that had someplace to sit and drink. What I did not hear her say was that they were going to come back and wait for me outside the store. It took me less than two minutes to realize that the tops were too small, so I was in and out of the dressing room in a snap and walked out to look for Dar and Maddie. I never found them. I hit all the places where you could sit and drink. Nothing. I retraced my steps several times. Still no one. I was exhausted and cranky, and I didn't have a) a cell phone, b) the number of the hotel or the hotel shuttle and c) any US change for a public phone. I had to walk back to the hotel - and it was brutally cold and windy - and if I was going to do that I needed to do it now before it got dark. I thought maybe the two of them had gone back when they couldn't find me, either. So off I staggered into the freezing twilight, only to find that Dar and Maddie were not back at the hotel.
About an hour later I got a call from Dar asking where the hell I was. That's how tired and upset she was, because obviously I was on the other end of the phone back at the hotel room. They'd been looking for me all this time. Had had me paged in the store and in the mall. Had talked to the security guards. One clerk started trolling the dressing rooms expecting to find my dead body. Yeah. We now have agreed to repeat back to each other what the plan of the day is, just to avoid something like this in the future :)
So we managed to get a little sleep before heading out the next morning. Pretty smooth flight to Atlanta, but we almost missed our connection because Delta changed the gate without an announcement.
I wasn't sure what to expect of Fort Worth, but I was happy to find that it was a lovely town (at least the small part of it that we saw) populated with friendly and helpful folk.
