Wedding Lessons

We honestly feel our wedding went exactly the way we'd imagined it. Then again, we'd always imagined it having a few mistakes. :)

After a wedding, you always learn a few things that you should remember for next time. While we hope never to use these lessons ourselves, they can be useful for other couples:

1. If you're doing photos outside, bring lots of water. Both for your bridal party and for the flowers. Also consider sunscreen and bug repellant for those not wearing makeup.
2. Buy a Dryel starter pack for emergency spot cleaning. We only discovered this after the wedding day. We've uploaded a video here.
3. Hand out responsibility to individuals, and make it clear what those responsibilities are. That said, we used a more chaotic self-organising approach, and it still worked.
4. Organise a lunch, preferably in advance. This worked exceptionally well for us. We took the whole wedding party to Red Robin.
5. Be very clear as to the role and location of people at the wedding itself. It can be madness when a key individual is suddenly AWOL.
6. You don't really need a strict "order of events" at the reception. The people closest to you will hang around for all of it. Just prepare to be loud and assertive when you want attention for a particular event.
7. Try to get your entire wedding party in one location for the morning of the wedding. If possible, rent an apartment and have everyone stay there for the night. It makes things a lot easier in the morning.
8. Organise a sheet of key information (venues, phone numbers, driving directions) for the people in your wedding party, the photographer, etc. In the worst case, everyone should know where they're headed next or who to contact.
9. If your venue is out-of-town, try to get maps or directions to absolutely everyone. We posted maps on our blog, and then emailed people a link to the blog. In hindsight, we should have just sent the directions in the email...
10. Leave plenty of spare time in your schedule, and be emotionally prepared for things to go wrong. On a day this complicated, something will go wrong. That's ok. :)

Anyway, hope this helps someone! :)

Wedding Photos

We have a slowly growing collection of wedding photos.. Please check out: http://picasaweb.google.ca/emphinity

Wedding Music

P and I went back and forth but we finally chose a wedding march song that fit our personalities....

Mario Kart Love Song - Sam Hart

• Best line: When we slide together, we generate sparks in our wheels and our hearts.
• Reason: What more can I say? Emily walked down the aisle to this song, and I was the happiest man alive. :) We heard this song for the first time about six months before the wedding. The biggest problem was being sure we could be this nerdy and get away with it! As it is, I'm not sure many people really noticed.
• Youtube: Original Video

Our reception was so chaotic, I don't think anyone really got to hear the music selection we put together! Still, we put a fair bit of effort into it, selecting a lot of songs with special meaning to us. Here is the top ones:

Strange and Beautiful - Aqualung

• Best line: I'll put a spell on you, You'll fall asleep and I'll put a spell on you. And when I wake you, I'll be the first thing you see, And you'll realise that you love me.
• Reason: Emily and I used to spend a lot of time using webcam. Often we'd just leave it running in the top corner of our screen while we did our schoolwork. Due to the timezone difference, our sleep patterns were different and so sometimes we could watch the other person go to sleep and wake up hours later. I always hoped this song was true - that she'd wake up, I'd be the first thing she'd see, and she'd realise that she loved me. In reality, she tended to turn off the computer monitor and would forget that I was there. :)
• Youtube: Live Performance from 2006

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton

• Best line: If I could fall into the sky, Do you think time, Would pass.. us by? 'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles, If I could just see you...
• Reason: When you're separated by 7000+ miles and more than a few timezones, what better song can you pick?
• Youtube: Music Video

Set The Fire To The Third Bar - Snow Patrol

• Best line: I'm miles from where you are, I lay down on the cold ground, I pray that something picks me up, And sets me down in your warm arms
• Reason: Much the same reason as "A Thousand Miles" - distance really sucks sometimes. As a bonus, this song is a duet and sounds absolutely awesome.
• Youtube: Music Video

Shut Up And Kiss Me Now - Paul McDermott and Fiona Horne

• Best line: Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss me now, I have been patient but patience is gone. Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss me now, All of my vision has blurred into one. Just Shut up, just shut up, just shut up and kiss me now.
• Reason: Being separated by distance, you spend a lot of time talking and looking at each other. We had to spend a lot of time waiting between visits, and eventually all patience is gone - you just want to "shut up and kiss me now".
• Youtube: Live Performance from 1998

Something Wonderful - BDA

• Best line: I love the way that your face turns to a smile when you look my way
• Reason: I heard this band in passing once. Upon seeing more of their songs, I really liked this one. Just talks about how you can miss that special someone even though you just saw them.

Sleep - Riley Armstrong

• Best line: Sleep, no I never get enough - always waking up tired
• Reason: The story of a lot of comp sci's life :) Sleep is just too awesome.

Personal Penguin - Davy Jones

• Best line: Wherever you go, I’ll go there too Here and there and everywhere and always with you
• Reason: Just a very cute song I got sent from a friend. I fell in love with it immediately. Reminds me of those things you see in movies.. like the acapella quartet type of songs.
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-sGDe-yMKs

1 2 3 4 - Plain White Ts

• Best line: There's only 1 thing 2 do 3 words 4 you - I love you
• Reason: This song just touches my heart. Catchy beat and easy to remember.
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6pW_q1PvH0

We're All In This Together - Ben Lee

• Best line: And on the subway we feel like strangers, But we're all in this together, Yeah I love you and you love her and she loves him, But we're all in this together
• Reason: I guess this one just captures our "socialist" leanings. Yes, we love each other, but we hope that we can extend that love outside of our marriage. We hope that our marriage is a springboard for being more caring to the people around us.
• Youtube: Music Video

All The Other Songs

We picked a lot more songs than described above. A lot of them have a hidden or special meaning for us, but we can't explain all of them! Here's the list of the other songs we picked:

• That's When I Love You - Aslyn
• Ache For You - Ben Lee
• Begin - Ben Lee
• Gamble Everything for Love - Ben Lee
• Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
• If you're not the one - Daniel Bedingfield
• One Love - Ellis
• Can I have this dance - HSM 3
• Such great heights - Iron and wine
• Better Together - Jack Johnson
• Beautiful Soul - Jesse Mcartney
• Hands - Jewel
• Love Story/Viva La Vida - John Schmidt
• Size Matters - Natasha Bedingfield
• These Words - Natasha Bedingfield
• Beautiful Surprise - Nate Sallie
• My Freeze Ray - Neil Patrick Harris
• Come What May - Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor
• Champagne Supernova - Oasis
• Like I am - Rascal Flatts
• Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden
• Come to Australia - Scared Weird Little Guys
• Take My Hand - Shawn MacDonald
• Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
• Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
• Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
• Hopelessly Addicted - The Corrs
• Change the World - Wayne Kirkpatrick

Wedding Aftermath

So the wedding is complete and we're home from our "family honeymoon". (One of which both sides of the family were included). What now? Well, let me tell you - there is *a lot* going through our heads. But most of all, lessons we learned during our one (and, hopefully, ONLY attempt at a wedding). So the next few blogs are about lessons we learned along the way. A lot of reflection in this I think...