My Cousin's Wedding

This past Sunday, my cousin Terry got married. His wife is called Laura, and she is so lovely... we all love them both so much! They really make an amazing couple. So we were so excited about their wedding, and had been planning for ages about our outfits, hair, nails etc. (I got a manicure! :D)

What was especially exciting was that Ayana had been asked to be one of their flower girls! I have to say, we were so much more excited about it than her.. she really had no clue what was going on. But she would smile and nod when people asked her if she was excited. All she knew was that she got to wear a beautiful white dress, and a new necklace ("Ayana's neck-a-lis!"), and be a special girl with her favourite cousin(s) in the world, "Tewwy and Morla!!" Oh yes, and there was going to be a party. She was excited about that part! Ayana lives for parties. She is seriously such a party girl. One mention of the word "party", and she's up, running around, laughing and singing, and generally asking every five seconds when she gets to go to it.

Needless to say, on the day of the "party-wedding" , she was pretty hyped up. She kept on saying, "Mama! Party today! Its today! Hooray!"

Moses obviously had no idea, but he very much enjoyed having a bath (just like Ayana), getting into nice new clothes (just like Ayana), running around shouting (just like Ayana), and getting his picture taken several times (just like Ayana... in case you haven't noticed, Moses needs to be just like Ayana!) He was also extremely pleased with the fact that he and Joshua were both in new, matching clothes!! That was one of the whole highlights of the day. And Josh was so proud to be all matching, and to be able to show off the fact that he is a wonderful big brother to everyone who would be at the wedding.

So it was finally time to get ready, and set off (it was a bit stressful getting ready... and I'm not actually talking about Ayana. When there are about 1 1/2 hours to get ready, three girls, lots of hair, and one curling iron... things can get a bit rough! :S We got over it. :D)

The wedding was held at somewhere called the Hart House. Its this huge old house, that has been re-done, and is now used as a restaurant, but they host many weddings there as well. Its really gorgeous; it sits overlooking the lake, with a huge garden, and an old, English-looking design, it was beautiful.

The whole way there (it was about a half hour-45 minute trip from our house) Ayana was ecstatic that she was finally going to the party that she had been waiting for for the past 2 or 3 months. We didn't get her changed into her wedding clothes until we got there, but when she was finally ready, she was adorable! Laura was very insistant that everything about the two little flower girls be very simple, and not too fancy.. she really wanted them to just be two little girls. So Ayana wore this little white dress, with some embroidery on the front, her hair loose, but with a lacy headband on, and some little white sandals. She also had, much to her delight, a brand new necklace, shaped like a heart, and a couple little silver bangles. The final result was very cute. And when her and the other little flower girl, Maya, were together, it was adorable! (Maya is actually the daughter of one of my teachers at school.. in fact, the vice principal! :P) Maya wore a similar white dress, and her hair was just up, with a little white ribbon in it. The effect was very simple, but innocent, and adorable.... they got almost more attention than the bride!

There was quite a bit of waiting around before hand (because Ayana was in the wedding party, we had to be there at 3, for pictures, when the wedding didn't start until 5:30.. but it was very cute to watch the pictures being done!) but when it finally got time to sit down, we knew it had been worth the wait. Unfortunately, it was raining that day, and they had planned an outdoor wedding (of course its all nice and sunny now! I felt bad for them.. who would think, that after planning your wedding in July, you'd have rain??), so the wedding ended up being in the pavilion that was for the reception as well. Everyone sat kind of around the tables, and they had made an isle in the middle.. although at first I thought it was going to be kind of a let-down, and almost lame, they did it beautifully, and everything looked perfect. The colours that they had chosen were turquoise, and white. Kind of an unique choice, but it all looked absolutely beautiful when it was all finished. Ayana, Maya, and Laura were the only ones in white, while the bridesmaids, were in turquoise, and the groom's men had turquoise vests underneath their jackets.

Despite practicing the walk down the aisle several times, when it got time to walk down, of course Ayana and Maya had no clue where to go. This just made it all the more adorable to watch, of course. They came down, carrying a little lace parasol each, instead of flowers, got to the beginning of the aisle, and stopped, watching people watch them. Finally one of the ushers came over, and whispered in their ears, pointing out the way to go. Everyone melted watcing them, you could almost physically see their hearts turn into little pools.. they were just so darn cute!! They went and stood at the front with Laura's sister, who was the maid of honour, and is almost identical to Laura, although they are several years apart. Ayana got bored, and started to lecture Maya; "Maya, hold hands. Right now. Maya, HOLD HANDS! Umm.. Maya... hold hands now." She got right up close to her face, and was whispering this to her, until Katie leaned down, and whispered, "You both hold my hand, ok?" Eventually, Ayana was quietly lead off, to go and sit with my aunt for the rest of the ceremony, until it was time for her to walk back up the isle with Maya again. All together, she did wonderfully.. Maya was much better at standing still, and being quiet, but then, she is 2 years older than Ayana, and understood much better what was going on.

When it was time for the reception (my dad took Moses home to a babysitting in between the ceremony, and reception.. we weren't willing to deal with a cranky baby until midnight!), Ayana and Maya really let loose,and started to party. They were running around, and dancing, and eating macaroni (they served it especially just for the two little flower girls, which was soo sweet!), and just being hilarious, and having an extremely fun time doing it! During the little speaches from the parents of the groom and bride, Ayana came over (me and Megan were at a different table than Ayana and my parents, and then Josh was yet another table.. he loved it though.. he was the center of attention most of the time, and he got to sit with one of our goofiest cousins ever. Seriously, he's in his twenties, and he acts about 10. He's hilarious, and Josh loves him!) and sat on my lap. I was just listening to the little talks, and giving Ayana little sips of water, when I looked down to find Ayana being the biggest goof in the world. Me, Megan, my cousin Rachel, and her husband Jon, were all killing ourselves laughing (completely silently of course!). She was jerking around on my lap, and making fun of the talkers, and twisting her face into the strangest expressions ever.... I've never seen her being so hilarious.. or so hyped up and goofy!

There were several very cool things that happened at the wedding.. both Terry and Laura are very energetic and outgoing, and had some very unique ideas. For example, Terry decided that all the groomsmen would be wearing black flip flops for the wedding, and he would be wearing white ones. Very strange, but its just the kind of thing that Terry thinks of, and really enjoys doing. They had a little candy stand, called the Sweet Shoppe, with all the candy colour coordinated to match their wedding colours, and you could go and help yourself. They also had cotton candy (turquoise blue of course!), which my brother was in charge of helping with, much to his delight!

One of the coolest things though, of the whole day, was when they left. There were two sparklers at everyone's place setting, and when they were changing to leave, the mc announced for everyone to grab their sparklers and head outside, toward the lake. There we all lit them, and stood in two lines, making a pathway in between them. Then Terry and Laura came out, walking in between us, down to the lake, where a little boat was waiting. They got into it, and while all the groomsmen were singing, "For he's a jolly good fellow", they rowed off into the dark. It was the coolest, most romantic end to the wedding ever. When everyone else had gone back inside, my mom and Ayana were still standing by the lake, and my mom suddenly noticed that she could vaguely see the shape of the boat, just stopped in the middle of the lake, as if they had stopped to watch everyone go back inside the pavilion. So my mom leaned down to Ayana, and told her to shout goodbye again. "Bye Tewwy. Bye Morla." A few moments passed, when they both heard drifting back to them, "Bye Ayana!" Ayana then shouted, "I love you!" They answered back, "We love you too Ayana!" My mom said it was definitely the sweetest possible end to the day.

The beautiful flower girls.

Dancing with Maya and Morla!

Getting Ready

Me, Laura, and Megan.. Laura was stunning!

Going down the aisle

Terry with his two little followers!

Joshua of course, had to steal as many sparklers as possible.. boys! :S

The Whole Wedding party

Picture time

So cute!

We love you Laura!

Terry loves Ayana!! And Ayana, of course, is obsessed with Tewwy.

The matching boys

Sisters

Our whole family, all dressed up! :D

Practicing with their parasols

Moses poking in through the window.. I want attention too guys!

So a huge congratulations to my cousin Terry, and my brand new cousin Laura.. I'm soo happy for you guys!