Cake cutting

Kelsey (Christine's sister), decorated the cake with marzipan icing. Snowflake topper provided by Vickie.

After dinner

Andy and I finally relax...

Family photos at reception

Mom and Rachel, Grandma and Rachel,
Dad and Rachel & Lyden and Rachel

The weather was absolutely perfect - it snowed quite a bit on Wednesday, December 27 and the forecast for Saturday was a high of -2 with sunny skies. It was almost balmy at -1 with sunny clear blue skies.

Mr. and Mrs. Krohn

Could they be any happier?

The Girls

Rachel and I with Tyler's mom .... and Rachel and the bridesmaids waiting for the ceremony to start ...

Just before the ceremony

Here comes the Beautiful Bride ...

At the church

My mother and I;

Lyden and I ....

Rachel almost ready

Makeup done & finishing touches on the hair ...

Wedding Flowers arrive at 8:30

simply beautiful .... the bride's and bridesmaids' boquets

Wedding Day Makeup

Laura arrived at 8am to do makeup ...

Wedding Day Arrives!

All the months of planning came together in a beautiful way today!

Up at 6:30 this morning - when I got up I was surprised that Rachel had already showered and was getting ready, with the assistance of Erin. After popping the quiche into the oven, making a pot of coffee and cutting up fresh fruit for breakfast, I gave the other bridesmaids a wake up call. Erin and Rachel were first to arrive in the kitchen, Rachel in her crinoline and a buttoned shirt.

The hairdressers arrived at 7:15 and got straight to work. Rachel and Erin first ... then me, followed with Kristen and Chadley. Poor Kristen looks as though she's in pain!

Bridesmaid Tea (Dec28-06)

I was up before 8 am this morning to bake off some delicious scones for the bridesmaid tea (after a very late night! Andy and I entertained Marian and Alban the evening before and didn't get to bed until at 1:30 am) ... 3 types of scones: rich, currant and Rachel's favorite, gingerbread. Rachel helped out too .... she cut them out, brushed with milk and sprinkled with sugar before baking. Rachel then set the dining room table, placing a card and gift at every table setting.

Kristen, Rachel's maid of honor went home for Christmas (London, Ontario) - she returns to Calgary on December 29 so sadly she missed the tea and we missed visiting with her!

Rachel's bridesmaids received a sparkly brooch to wear on the wedding day which will help keep their bridesmaid shawls in place. Helen (Tyler's mother who also unfortunately couldn't make the tea) and I also received a special brooch!

Snowflake Cookie Favors

The last snowflake cookie has been rolled, cut, baked, iced and bagged! Phew! I am so pleased to have this task accomplished before Christmas! I started mixing up the several batches of sugar cookies on my first day off work, Wed. December 20 and by 3:30 pm Saturday, December 22, we were finished! On Wednesday Andy helped me get started on Wednesday and placed the silver balls on the iced points of each snowflake cookie I had baked that day ... Thursday Rachel and Christine, one of her bridesmaids helped out ... Rachel applied the labels to each of the cello bags, punched holes to thread the ribbon through and cut lengths of ribbons; Christine cut the "thank you" cards, punched holes in each of the cards and got a good start placing cookies into the bag, threading the ribbon through the bag, affixing the thank you cards and snowflakes and tying the bags close while I continued to roll out, cut & bake cookies. The girls ran out of decorated cookies so I switched gears, whipped up some royal icing. Christine and I "painted" on the icing while Rachel affixed the silver balls. Andy and I finished icing the last of the cookies and bagging them all on Saturday. Andy organized all the cookies to coordinate with the table seating plan and boxed them up, being careful to insert bubble wrap and tissue paper between each table of cookies. What would I do without him?!

Shower - Dec 12/06

Vickie, Kristen and with the help of future sister-in-law Chadley together organized a mixed bridal shower for Tyler and Rachel at the church. Given the busy time of year, we had a good turn out; about 30 people! After playing a few ice breaker games Vickie gave a short devotional on marriage, using a house floor plan to illustrate her points (and for those who know Vickie, we all know how much she love to give object lessons!!). Appetizers and desserts were served, all very delicious indeed!

Finalizing Reception Details

Wow, just when you thought you had things under control... there is definitely MORE to planning a reception than I realized. Do we need/want a gift table? any food allergies? high chairs? when will the speeches take place? can the servers clear tables during the speeches? etc. etc. ... when you're being asked these kinds of questions you know it's getting down to the wire!

After the kids decorated the family Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon, (Dec 3) Rachel, Tyler, Andy and I went to the Ranche for our "sample" dinners and had a very pleasant time, the only thing was, it was so hard deciding on just one dessert so we're going with 2 - both chocolate, (one nut free) ... our guests do not have a choice of what they receive but will be free to swap or sample from each other's plates. Hope that adds to the comfortable, casual feel we're aiming for!!

My mother, niece Chantelle and Rachel have a nail appointment set up for Wed. Dec 27. Going to a nail appointment is the LAST place I'd ever expect to see Rachel at - it's so NOT her, but she was easily persuaded by the excitement expressed by Chantelle and Grandma, not to mention the twinkle in my mother's blue eyes! I'm sure she won't regret the experience and not to Rachel's surprise, I've asked if I can tag along to take photos - I'm not about to miss a photo op! Needless to say I won't have any problem filling in all the "free time" I'll have after the wedding drawing upon my life artistry skills to put together wedding albums. Ok, ok, I know, I'm forever the optomist ..... "free time" is something I'll find in between working full time, my involvement with CREW Calgary, choir and general life!

Alright, I'm posting out of chronological order, but that's ok, right? On Nov 25 Rachel had an appointment with Tracy at Izo Bizo for a trial run of her wedding hair up do. Colleen, our usual stylist was rather annoyed that she wouldn't be in Calgary to do Rachel's hair (she'll be vacationing in Maui) and referred us to her friend and fellow hair stylist Tracy. We had a 10:30 am appointment and after grabbing our favorite seasonal coffee (peppermint mocha) at Starbucks on a chilly -25 Saturday morning off we went! I think Tracy was rather surprised at Rachel's laid back, easy going attitude. No, she didn't bring along any magazines showing the hair style she wanted, didn't have any set ideas about what it should look like. Her only request was that some of her hair be swept up and some left down and so armed with that knowledge, Tracy went to work. After talking through some options and positioning of the hair piece and veil, (whereupon I'll have to make some adjustments to the veil), Rachel was very pleased with the results. Tracy and one other stylist will be arriving at our home on Sat. December 30th at 7am to tackle the job of bride, mother of the bride and 3 bridesmaids' hair! Our kitchen will be converted into a salon and I'm certain there will be plenty of laughs and pre-wedding excitment that morning!

Wedding Dress Mishap!

December 1 - 06

Last week I took "our" wedding dress in to be cleaned. I expressed my concerns about the process, would the cleaning process be gentle enough for a dress that's 28 years old? ie: it wouldn't dissolve or come apart would it? I was assured by the owner, Mr. Kim that it would be fine, the dress was in good order, not to worry ... it would be ready for pick up in about a week's time. I then received a call on Wednesday night advising the dress had been cleaned and had come up beautifully but there were several pieces of lace that had come off - could I come in and have a look? I said I would be in on Friday, December 1st (which I had previously booked off).

When we arrived at the shop, Mr. Kim, took me into the back where I saw the dress hanging on a rod, the lower quarter of it puddled in a blue bucket so as to keep it clean and protected from the floor. He handed 14 pieces of lace to me and asked me to show him where they were to be reattached. I told Mr. Kim that I would reattach the lace pieces myself as I had photos of the dress at home which I would study to determine placement.

It was immediately apparent lace was missing from the bodice and centre panel of the dress ... but upon closer inspection of my wedding photos, I also realized that pieces of lace were also missing from the sleeves, at each of the cuffs and tops of each the sleeve. Of the 14 pieces, 4 were small and 10 were large, thankfully, they were all the same design. It was much like fitting a jigsaw puzzle together.... I started with the 4 small pieces, pinning them into place; 3 of the larger pieces were slightly soiled - Mr. Kim explained they wouldn't come clean. I decided not to use the soiled pieces and did my best to come up with a design as close as I could to the original.

Surprisingly my wedding photos did not show off the dress in much detail. Any close ups were head and shoulder shots (which showed the bodice to a point) and long shots were so far away you could not see the lace detail. After pinning on the lace pieces I started to sew them on by hand.

I found hanging the dress from the top of the pantry cupboard in the kitchen provided the best light and after 3 hours, I had sewn on 4 of the 5 pieces in the centre panel. It is clear I have my work cut out for me! Thank goodness we didn't wait until closer to the big day to have the dress cleaned!

Aside from picking up the dress, Andy and I ran various errands on my day off from work, picking up clear cello bags and curling ribbon for the gift favors, grocery shopping, renewing my car registration, going to the bank, sending off Andy's company GST and corporate tax remittances. But it was not all work and no play ... after dinner, Andy, Lyden, Erin and I had a bowling game on Lyden's new Ninetendo gaming system, the "Wii". It was a tough fought battle but I came up the victor with the top score of 223! A new personal record!