I decided to write specifically about Twillingate because it’s such a beautiful part of Newfoundland. It has special meaning to me as the place where my Nan lives and my mom grew up, but it’s also become a pretty popular tourist attraction in recent years. Twillingate is an island located on the northern central part of Newfoundland. The entire region is a series of coastal islands and its neighbouring Island, Fogo, has become especially popular in recent years since a high-end hotel was constructed that frequents visits from bonafide celebrities. I’m not sure if Twillingate became popular as Fogo’s less-expensive and easier-to-access cousin, but either way, it is worthy of the attention its received in the past few years.
Unlike Fogo, which requires taking a ferry, Twillingate is connected to the rest of Newfoundland by a causeway. It’s a 5-6 hour drive from St. John’s, so it is a bit of a trek to get out there. My Nan regularly comes in to St. John’s to stay with us, so I haven’t been back to Twillingate since 2015 when we had a family reunion. My Nan is going to be moving out of her house later this year, so I was really keen to go out and stay with her while I was home. It was the August long weekend, so the rest of my family decided to join me. We were hoping to get out cod fishing, which unfortunately was not to be, but we still had a great time.
My Nan has the most beautiful property located right near the water in Bayview, a very small community on the island. Her house is at the end of the road, known as Greenham’s Point after my family (the Greenhams), and has the most gorgeous ocean views. As children we’d always brag to our friends about how we could whale watch right out of the window in my Nan’s kitchen. Because the house is located right at the end of the road, there are several beaches behind the house that, while not actually on my Nan’s property, feel almost like they belong to us.
The house itself is located on the cliffside, but the back of the house looks out to Back Cove, where you can access the water. At the end of Back Cove, the rocky coastline juts out into what we call High Point. According to my Mom, it was my Pop’s favourite place to be and her favourite place too – such is her attachment that she’s asked us to eventually scatter her ashes there – so definitely a special place. From there you can climb down to Middle Cove and then eventually over one last rock overhang to Swimming Cove. I’m not sure if my family named the beaches or whether the names were passed down, but either way, all pretty self-explanatory.
We arrived late at night, but we got up the next morning to do our standard walk of all the coves. I admit they seemed a lot bigger to me as a kid and the topography of the beaches has definitely changed over the years, but they still hold a lot of memories to everyone in our family.
Fishing has always been a way of life in Newfoundland and more so on my mom’s side of the family for me than my dad’s. My Pop Greenham was a fisherman and since the moratorium ended my family has always loved to fish. My parents had already been out earlier in the season, but we were hoping to get out while we were there. There are strict regulations on the recreational fishery and you can only go from Sat-Mon during the summer, and fish a maximum of 5 fish per day per a person, with a total of no more than 15 fish per boat trip (regardless of the number of people in the boat). I’ve been fishing with all my uncles at some point throughout the years, but the weather was not ideal for it on this trip.
It wasn’t overly rainy (though the rain did pass through for short periods of time throughout the weekend), but it was pretty windy in Bayview and as a result it was never really calm enough for us to take the boat out. Disappointing, but that’s life. My parents did give me the fish they’d already caught to take home though, so I didn’t leave empty handed!
Instead we embraced the tourism. I did a bit of googling to see what was new “down arm”, the name locals use for the main part of Twillingate because it’s located on the arm of the North Island (as if things aren’t confusing enough with so many islands, Twillingate is actually comprised of 2 islands). I saw a pop-up for “Cozy Tea Room” and I was intrigued to check it out since I love tea. Mom had never heard of it and assumed it was new.
So we went to visit one afternoon and Mom was dismayed to learned that it is not new at all, but has actually been there for a whopping 19 years! And not only that, it was owned by my Mom’s former teacher, so we had a great chat with the owners and Mom vowed to return on future trips. Unfortunately I was disappointed to learn that “tea room” is a bit of a misnomer. I was expecting a full tea list, but despite having a full menu, they really only served Tetley orange pekoe. We all got a big kick out of this though because it’s just so classic Newfoundland. Everyone in Newfoundland just drinks orange pekoe, mostly Tetley, although some people love Red Rose. It’s a classic part of Newfoundland, drink it with evaporated milk if you really want to fit in!
After tea we did a little bit of shopping and then I wanted to stop into Split Rock. Craft breweries have been popping up all over Newfoundland (similar to everywhere else), with the latest addition being in Twillingate. We asked the waitress if there’s an actual “Split Rock” that the brewery is named after, turns out there is, so she told us where to find it and we logged it away for later. We didn’t visit on this trip, but if you like wine, Twillingate also has a fruit winery called Auk Island, which you can do a tour of or make a booking in the restaurant. Newfoundland boasts so many different types of berries and many of them are featured in the wines. (Disclaimer – in case you know my parents, neither of whom drink, these are mine and Emily’s beers).
I was also keen to do a bit of hiking while we were there (of course). One of the Island’s more popular hikes is known as the Top of Twillingate and is conveniently located 10 minute walk from Nan’s. It’s Mom’s favourite walk and goes up to the highest point on the island. It’s not a particularly long walk and only took us about an hour there and back, but you can see Nan’s house from the top, which is always fun.
In the past I’ve also gone hiking out around French Beach and Spillers Cove, which is a great hike, but I wanted to try something different, so me and Mom opted to go out to the lighthouse at Long Point and do a loop hike around the community of Crow Head. Long Point is a popular attraction itself, we did a bit of a longer loop that didn’t seem to be super well frequented based on the condition of the trail, but lots of people hike down to Nanny’s Hole when they visit the lighthouse. It’s worth going into the lighthouse as well if you’re visiting, you can go right up to the top and there’s a nice museum as well. The last time I visited was during our family reunion and we actually found a replica of my Great-great-grandfather’s boat (I’m not actually sure how many “great’s” he is but you get the idea.). Also if you’re thinking the water in these photos looks great for fishing, you’re correct, it’s generally calmer in this area, but sadly where we store the boat in Bayview it was still blowing a gale on and off.
I really enjoyed the hike around Crow Head. It’s a nice mix of hiking through the woods and over the headlands. We found the not-so-infamous Split Rock and enjoyed lovely views down arm and out to Crow Head. There’s one sketchy bit on the trail as you head into Crow Head with a steep rope section, but otherwise pretty easy hiking. We almost lost the trail once, but found it again pretty easy. We got rained on briefly near the end and finished with a trip to the lighthouse gift shop. This is definitely another thing not to miss! The lighthouse sells THE BEST fudge. Mom is a bit obsessed and bought over a pound of about a dozen different flavours to sample, while I enjoyed a very generous scoop of ice cream.
Otherwise the rest of the trip was spent visiting with family, playing cards, and enjoying the view from Nan’s back deck. Some of our relatives arrived from Ontario just before we left and it was great to get to spend an evening with them. The food was excellent – we had my Aunt’s moose stew, my Uncle’s cooked dinner with turr (known by the rest of the world as “murr”, it’s a gamey seabird), and a delicious pea soup from the Crow’s Nest. I wish I could have stayed longer to go fishing, but mostly I’m just thrilled to have gotten to visit with my Nan.
I haven’t had any opportunities for travel lately (obviously), so I figured I would write about my trip home in late July/early August. I grew up in Newfoundland, so going home is more about visiting with my family than activities, but I’ve become a lot more enthusiastic about getting out hiking while I’m home over the past few years and ended up having a great time exploring while I was back!
I always catch the overnight flight when I fly back to St. John’s, so Seth dropped me at the airport for my 11pm flight late in the evening. It’s definitely not fun flying post pandemic (but really, was it fun flying pre-pandemic either?), but fortunately I didn’t have anyone sitting next to me on either flight and the airlines are really strict about mask usage, so it wasn’t too bad and I slept through most of the flight. I had a quick stopover in Montreal and arrived in St. John’s around noon. My parents did a quick drive by to pick me up and I was so happy to finally be home for the first time in 2 years!
Even though it would be really easy to take a nap, I always force myself to stay awake the first day to help get used to the time difference. Mom made me some homemade cod chowder and my friend Gill dropped by so that I could meet her 2 month old baby, Leo. I quickly caught up with Emily, but she was going camping with her friends for the weekend, so me and my parents decided to go for a short hike along the Signal Hill trail to close out the day. Signal Hill is a huge tourist attraction in St. John’s as the location of the first transatlantic radio signal, but really it’s just popular for the views. It makes for a great urban hike and you can often spot whales up there, so the locals love it just as much as the tourists. Unfortunately it was super foggy when we went visited, but it still made for some cool photos of the city and harbour shrouded in fog.
The rest of the weekend was all about catching up with family and friends. It was a little surreal finally being home. Newfoundland had super strict border entry regulations during COVID that required all visitors to isolate for 2 weeks upon entry. They modified the restrictions in July so that fully vaccinated travelers could visit without having to isolate. While Newfoundland has still had a few outbreaks over the past year, cases have been limited in comparison to many other places and while I was home, there was virtually no COVID there and everyone was just carrying on with their lives mostly like normal. It was so wonderful to spend time with so many different people and to be able to hug my loved ones. It didn’t take long for it to feel like normal again, but initially it was a little bit surreal.
In between catching up with friends I still managed to cram in a lot of hiking. Me and Mom went out to Cape Spear to look for whales, another popular tourist attraction because it is the most Easterly point in North America. We hiked 5km out to North Head, where we had a snack, but sadly didn’t see any whales. However, on the way back, we found two hanging out feeding along the cliffside and ended up watching one of them for the better part of a half hour! The fish must have been pretty shallow because it only dove once and was super active in one spot near the surface. We saw it breach several times and it waved at us a lot, so it ended up being a very successful trip! We think it was a humpback whale based on size. The most common whales in NL are humpback and minke, it can be hard to tell them apart, but minke are smaller.
Over the years I’ve been working on hiking the entire East Coast Trail, which is a 300km long section trail that runs the entire eastern coast of the Avalon Peninsula. I made good progress on the trail when I was home because most of my friends were working during the day, so I would just go off hiking on my own. But Mom is semi-retired and Sean was finishing up his education degree, so one week day we decided to go hiking together. We ended up doing the Sugarloaf trail, which runs from Logy Bay to Quidi Vidi. I had done this section years ago with Seth, but on a very cloudy day, so it felt like a totally new hike on this occasion. It was cloudy when we started, but it ended up clearing into a gorgeous day and we had a picnic lunch at the halfway point and saw more whales playing around in the shallows. There were several boats out fishing though and they didn’t look too pleased at the whales eating all their catch! We were thrilled to find the ice cream truck open in Quidi Vidi when we finished the hike and ended with a cold treat.
During the first week home I also did a few solo hikes, the goal with these was to do new sections of the trail. I went for a short hike from Middle Cove to Torbay along the Silver Mine Head Path, which is less than 5km round trip and actually very scenic for such a short hike. I ended with a swim at Middle Cove Beach. Growing up I would never swim in the ocean. The North Atlantic is known for being very unforgiving with big waves and riptides, as well as it’s very cold. It seemed warmer to me than I remembered growing up, so I guess all those freezing cold alpine lakes have increased my tolerance. I don’t recommend swimming in NL unless you know what you’re doing, but there are some safer places if you want to dip your toes.
I also did Stiles Cove Path, which I wanted to do as a one-way trip as it’s 15km long. Mom dropped me off in Flatrock on her lunch break and it took me about 5 hours to hike north to Pouch Cove. I loved this trail! First of all, it was a week day, so I was one of the only people on it, and it had so many gorgeous views! The weather was pretty classic Newfoundland when I was home, in that it was constantly changing from rain, to clouds, to sun. The forecast called for rain almost my entire first week home, but while it was cloudy most of the week, it didn’t end up raining very much.
Mom was convinced I was going to get rained on when I did Stiles Cove, but the weather gradually improved throughout the day until it was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day! The reason I liked Stiles Cove so much was the variation in topography. It meandered both through the trees and along the open coast. Again, I stumbled upon a bunch of whales and hung out around one viewpoint for 20 minutes watching 4 whales fishing. I saw one of them breach, which makes it seem like more of a common occurrence than it is, as well as I saw a few whale tails while they were diving. About 3km before the end, the trail goes down to a beach at Shoe Cove, which is very sheltered, so I decided to go for another swim before meeting Dad at the end of the trail for pick up. The completion of this trail meant I have now hiked the entire trail continuous from the tip of Cape St. Frances all the way to Maddox Cove, approximately 80km.
Conveniently the Olympics were on throughout the entirety of my trip, so I stayed up late watching events at night and then had some pretty lazy mornings getting caught up. I don’t have cable in BC, but Dad has some 800 channels, so my timing was great. I’ve been pretty obsessed with the women’s soccer team ever since I attended FIFA when it was held in Vancouver, so I made sure to watch all their games while I was home (which obviously had a very exciting ending!). Then towards the end of the week I prepared for a short family trip out to Twillingate to visit my Nan – to be covered in my next post!
It’s been 2 years since our wedding day, but I never wrote about it and I’ve always personally found that writing about something really helps me to be able to recall it better in the future. It was an amazingly special day and I want to try and hold on to as many of those memories as possible (and hope too many haven’t slipped away already).
I always wanted to get married in Newfoundland. The longer you’re away from the home, the harder it is to describe what the term means to you. I felt tethered to Newfoundland for a long time after leaving and probably drove all my co-workers and new friends nuts with how much I liked to talk about it. There’s really nothing more frustrating than trying to explain to a Vancouverite that 5cm of snow is not a snowpocalypse and that snow in March is not crazy. So I really held on to my roots, and I still do.
But the longer you’re away, the more untethered you become and it’s hard to deny that Vancouver has also become my home and that I now have strong feelings of attachment associated with both places. But all this really only fueled my desire to get married in Newfoundland. I knew it would be an impossible trip for most people to take, but I really wanted to give the people who have become close to me on the West Coast the opportunity to visit. Plus I really wanted some wedding photos with the ocean (sadly I never ended up getting them, though not for lack of trying).
We came home two weeks before the wedding. The first week was dedicated to all the chores and appointments that come with organizing a wedding from afar, but I was adamant that I wanted to leave the second week free to spend time with my friends and family that were visiting from away. I got my wish and had a great week hiking the east coast trail and partying on George Street with many of the people I love. My bridesmaids threw me a lovely little pre-wedding party and we held the rehearsal dinner at my parents house.
It absolutely poured the night before the wedding. We had the most gorgeous weather leading up to the wedding, which I took as a bit of a bad sign because there’s only so much nice weather St. John’s is going to get, but it was still calling for decent weather on our actual wedding day. We had to move the wedding rehearsal to my church, but we still planned for an outdoor wedding at Pippy Park.
On Saturday morning, August 10, I woke up to the most gorgeous weather. I was pretty anxious the night before (okay like super anxious), but all I felt on Saturday morning was excitement. My recurring nightmare leading up to the wedding was that I wouldn’t have everything ready, or that things would be late, so it was so nice to wake up and think that none of that mattered anymore. Everyone had their jobs and whatever happened, I wouldn’t have to be the one to deal with it. Plus it was a sunny day and the sun always puts me in a great mood!
I was almost giddy for everyone to start showing up, I believe we’d planned to start hair and make-up at 8am because we had a 1:15pm wedding (yes, that’s the kind of organized person I am, the kind that gets married on the quarter hour!) Our hair, make-up, and lash artists all showed up on time to my parents house, along with all my bridesmaids and before I knew it, we were all done up with an hour to spare! I had the hair and make-up scheduled pretty tight, but everyone we hired was amazing and we had time to just relax before heading to the ceremony. I loved my hair, which was an updo done by Flhair by Lauren and Brittany Rowsell did a great job filling in my lash extensions. Make-up was what I was really nervous about because I’d had a bad experience with getting my make-up done in the past, but I had a consultation with Carlye Winsor and she was awesome! I looked exactly how I wanted to in all my pictures and I can’t thank her enough for that!
Our photographer, Zach Wheeler, showed up to take some pictures of us as we finished getting ready and we took a few snaps in the backyard before the bus showed up to take us to the ceremony. I can honestly say that I didn’t feel any butterflies before the ceremony. I expected to feel anxious on the way to the Courtyard, but all I felt was excitement to walk down the aisle and finally marry Seth. The time on our invitations said 1:15pm, but that was because I was sure something would cause us delay or people would be late, so we were actually planning for a 1:30pm wedding. But since everything was running smoothly, we actually did start the wedding pretty much on time!
My best friend Gill played a piano prelude that I’m sad I never got to hear and my new brother Trevor played and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow on his guitar while we all walked down the aisle. Since we got married outside, I stayed hidden in the bus with my parents until Seth had been walked down the aisle by his parents and then snuck in line behind my bridesmaids.
Walking down the aisle was my favourite part of the entire wedding and one of the most emotional moments of my life. It was overwhelming and I felt a very powerful feeling of love for Seth as I walked down the aisle. The whole way down the aisle I was trying to hold back my tears and Zach caught a photo of me right when I entered the Courtyard that I absolutely love because you can see the emotion written all over my face.
Mom kissed me at the end of the aisle and left lipstick on my cheek, which got me, and everyone else, laughing and really set a tone for the rest of the wedding. I’ve been to a lot of wedding ceremonies and of course, I’m unbiased in saying that ours was the best. It was a no fuss ceremony, but it meant everything to us. We were married by Major Barb Pritchett, who was the corps officer at the Temple when we started going there as a family in 1995. She messed up right at the beginning by calling me Beth (we think it’s because it rhymes with Seth?) and made us all laugh, only bringing a little bit more joy to the day. But she also gave us a lovely ceremony and I think she really set us up for success in our marriage.
After walking down the aisle, the vows were my next favourite part. We decided to go through the arduous task of writing our own vows and I’m so glad that we took the time to do it because it was the most meaningful part of the day and something that I will always treasure and hold us accountable to. My friend Erica pre-read them both to make sure they were similar in length and content, but I think we had a good mix of reminiscing about our relationship while being thoughtful and intentional about the promises we were making to each other. We talked in advance about what marriage meant to us both and agreed on what kind of vows we’d be making to one another.
My childhood friends Maria and Steve did a duet for us of Ruelle’s, I Get To Love You, while we both signed the register and My Aunt Arlene and my cousin Emma did readings for us from 1 Corinthians and Anne of Green Gables (yep, it was that kind of wedding). Just as we were finishing signing the register, we started to feel a few light raindrops. My cousin, Olivia, quickly came to the rescue with an umbrella for us, which we laughed at because it had little birds on it and Seth loves birds. But it was light enough and we didn’t really need it, so we ditched it for our first kiss and presentation as husband and wife. We’re both proud to have decided to keep our maiden names, so there’s no annoying document changes for us (and my blog handle is still accurate, yay!).
As we started the procession down the aisle it started to rain in earnest as Trevor ironically played “Here Comes the Sun” on his guitar. It was the oddest day for weather. There are photos from the beginning of the wedding that show blue sky, but at the end of our 30 minute ceremony it really started to pour (that’s Newfoundland for you). It helped to speed the receiving line along because everyone was trying to hurry back to their vehicles, but the poor Groomsmen got soaked stacking up all the chairs.
Fortunately the first bit of rain didn’t last too long and we were able to get our family photos done in the Park without too much ado. The rain was sporadic, so we’d take some photos, hide under the eave of the park building, and then take some more. The only problem was where to go after that for the rest of our photos.
Surprisingly the rain wasn’t really bothering me that much. We were ahead of schedule, so it wasn’t slowing things down and it was so sporadic I figured it would just move off. We had planned to go out to the Marine Sciences Centre to take some photos on the East Coast Trail, but we decided to head downtown to Government House instead to avoid the rain. Unfortunately the rain was much worse downtown, so we took some photos inside the receiving hall, which I was unsure about because they were inside, but they ended up being some of my favourite photos of Seth and I from the entire wedding!
After that we split with our bridal party. They went off to the Reception site and we continued on our photo tour. We decided to try for Cuckhold’s Cove since it was nearby, but there were a bunch of other wedding parties there as well, so we decided to try for the wedding reception venue instead. It was located about 45 minutes outside of St. John’s and I was getting reports it was sunny out there. There’s only one small regret that I have about my wedding, and that’s that we never made a go for photos on the East Coast Trail. I really wanted ocean photos, and sadly I never got them. If I could do one thing over, I would just take them in the rain. But we still have gorgeous photos so I’ve learned to let it go.
Our reception was at The Wilds, which is a golf course out on Salmonier Line. They recently constructed a brand new pavilion, and the price is great compared to the golf courses closer to town, so we were thrilled that the space was available. It was far enough that a lot of guests decided to stay the night in the hotel, but close enough that people were still able to drive home if they wanted.
The Wilds staff took us out on the course to some of the prettier photo sites and we got some unique photos in the woods. We finally got a full shot of our giant wedding party and popped some champagne before heading into the ceremony.
My cousin Olivia and my friend Sean were our Emcees for the night and they did such a wonderful job, as did all of my Aunt’s, who got up early to decorate the entire venue for us. I really was so lucky. Because I was living in BC, my Mom took care of all the decorations and completely executed our vision for the space without us ever having to lift a finger! My Aunts took care of the reception while my Uncles took care of the ceremony site. Emily is an experienced cake decorator, so she made both the Wedding Cake (which was 3 tiers, two of which were Styrofoam), and the sheet cakes that everyone ate. She even let us do a little cake testing and we agreed on a vanilla cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate ganache!
We did our reception set up a little bit different than your typical Newfoundland Wedding. Seth didn’t like the idea of having a head table, so instead we just had a normal circular table at the front of the room where we sat with Emily, Trevor, and their partners. The meal was my favourite, turkey dinner, and the chef did a special fish meal for Seth. We had a fun little kissing game that incorporated both our hobbies. To get us to kiss, you could either come up to the front and hula hoop, or you could pick a card and try and guess the name of the bird! Both games were a hit, but of course, I’d give the edge to the hula hoopers.
We threatened everyone to keep their speeches short, they all listened except of course for my parents. But everyone gave lovely speeches and Seth’s family especially, had everyone laughing. We ended the formal reception by cutting the cake, but since we had so many people Come-from-Away, we wanted to integrate a Screeching-In ceremony into our wedding! Personally, I think this was one of my more brilliant ideas. It always takes the staff a while to set up the hall for the dance and the Screech-In kept everyone entertained and out of the way! So we re-located to the bar and our family friend Mary screeched in around 25 people!
It was super fun to watch all my friends from Vancouver and a good deal of Seth’s relatives kiss the fish. It raised a lot of questions in my office when I sent the photos around after the wedding, so for those who have never heard of a Screech-In, it’s Newfoundland’s way of welcoming outsiders in as “honourary Newfoundlanders”. The catch is, you have to kiss a cod and take a shot of Screech Rum!
We had our first dance to I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You, which was so special for me. First dances are one of my favourite parts of weddings, I’m always the weirdo in the front who can’t stop staring at the happy couple as they dance, so I loved having my first dance with Seth. I’d been very on the fence about having a father-daughter dance. I don’t like a lot of the patriarchal aspects of weddings. I’d strongly been debating walking myself down the aisle, but at the end we decided to both have both our parents walk us down the aisle so that at least it was equal. So formally, we weren’t planning to have a father-daughter dance, but at the last minute I decided I didn’t want to risk regretting it, so we had a joint father-daughter, mother-son dance to Bruno Mars’ Count on Me.
I’m so glad we did, it ended up being one of my favourite parts of the wedding! Halfway through, my Mom and Emily cut in to dance with us and Trevor and Seth’s Dad cut in on their dance. We danced as families for a little while and then we all joined into a big circle and danced together as one big family. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. I do recognize that I am so lucky to have 2 supportive families that both like each other and are endlessly supportive of me and Seth. The dance for me represented the forever merging of our families and made me so happy that despite the things that make us different, we are all one family now.
After that the dance kicked off in earnest. Now I don’t want to brag, but my wedding was definitely a party! I feel like I’ve been to so many weddings where it takes forever for the dance to properly get started. It’s always the bridesmaids trying to get everyone comfortable on the dance floor – we did not have that problem. The DJ kicked off the party with Heave Away and the dance floor was immediately flooded with people! I give most of the credit to my large and energetic family and it was really an awesome time. Me and Emily were slightly concerned when the DJ played a slow song for the second song that it would kill the rave he’d just got going, but the floor was then crowded with all the couples and when he went back to a fast song again after that the party immediately continued. Our DJ could use a little work on his song transitions, but he was actually really good at reading the room and playing a little bit of something for everyone, so we were really happy. He kept the party going literally the entire night, the dance floor was never empty, so there’s not much more you can ask for from a DJ!
Eventually we broke out the hula hoops on the dance floor and we had a photo booth set up in the corner for people to enjoy. Mom had set up a candy bar, but I somehow never visited it once the entire night. I went hard at the beginning of the dance because Zach had told me he usually sticks around to photograph 2-3 songs and then takes off, so I wanted to stay on the dance floor. But apparently even Zach was having the time of his life and he ended up sticking around for at least an hour of the dance, photographing all our guests.
The only downside was it was extremely hot in the venue. Even with the rain earlier, it had been a hot, humid day, but fortunately there was an outdoor deck on the venue, so I was constantly going in and out for air. I believe we had the venue booked until 1am, but no one seemed to have any interest in kicking us out and the DJ just kept on playing, so eventually around 1:30am I went over to Seth and told him maybe it was time for us to move out. Most of my relatives were still hanging around because it’s customary to send off the bride and groom. So we told our parents we were getting ready to go and my Aunts secretly wrangled up the rest of the guests to make a bridge tunnel to see us out! It was so sweet, so we ran through their little tunnel, ending one of the most exciting days of our lives.
Truly, I was so floored by all the love and everyone who came out to celebrate with us. I felt like we started our ceremony off on the right note, with a mixture of humour, but also authenticity, and it carried through the rest of the day. Would I have preferred if it didn’t rain? Of course, but even with the rain, it was still a perfect day. Our wedding was in 2019, so in retrospect, we really had no idea how lucky we were to have been able to gather with 160 of our friends to celebrate.
We stayed in the honeymoon suite overnight and said another goodbye to our friends and family in the morning. This one was a bit harder since we wouldn’t see any of our friends again on the trip and would be going back to BC in a few days. We checked out to the most enormous bill I’ve ever paid in my life, and then headed off to Bonavista to enjoy a short honeymoon before heading home. We went on a proper honeymoon in December when we visited New Zealand for 5 weeks (again our timing was so lucky!), but it was nice to have a few days after the wedding to decompress and just enjoy each other’s company!
The Road Goes Ever On 