Mount Assiniboine Backpacking Trip: Part IV

August 18, 2021August 19, 2021 / Maria / 1 Comment

On Day 5 we got up at 5am to try and beat the heat for the day (Part I, Part II, Part III for reference). We had to backpack 15km to the next campsite, but fortunately our packs were lighter and the day was pretty much going to be entirely downhill. We packed up everything and were off at 7am.

We hiked back towards the lodge and then took the trail branching off to Og Lake. This was the route most people had entered by and our final destination was Sunshine Village. After leaving the lodge it’s about 5.5km to Og Lake and the trail leaves the woods almost immediately. It’s a very exposed trail and it would have been exhausting late in the day in the open sun. Fortunately there was still a nice breeze so I actually really enjoyed the first half of the walk across the plain.

There’s a lone boulder about halfway across the plain, so we stopped there for a quick shady break, but the mosquitoes quickly ruined our solitude and we were forced to go on. After that the trail was entirely inundated with mosquitoes. Seriously, I’ve never seen so many of them. It’s a boggy area around the trail and I guess they’ve just been breeding like crazy in the heat, there were literally thousands of them flying around everywhere. It was a nightmare. You couldn’t stop moving for 2 seconds or they would swarm you. I hiked in my bug hat and left full length pants on despite the heat. I couldn’t bear to cover my arms, so I used fly dope to keep them away. All I can say is thank goodness it wasn’t also hot at this point in the day.

We arrived at Og Lake around 9am to find it totally deserted. There are 10 tent pads by Og Lake, but there is absolutely no shade to be found anywhere and the mosquitoes are awful, so I think everyone either got up early or bypassed it altogether. Magog Lake was buggy, but it definitely didn’t have anything on Og. I’d seen on the internet that a lot of people actually prefer Og Lake and think the campground itself is more scenic than Magog Campground. I could see how it would be nice on a cooler day, but on this particular trip I’ve never been so happy to skip a campsite.

We did stop briefly to go for a swim because I was still determined to swim in every lake. The water was a little cool because it was morning, but I could see it being so nice in the heat of the day. The big thing about this section of the trail is you need to make sure to fill up your water bladders between Og Lake and Porcupine Camp. There’s no water for the first 6km to Porcupine and while there are two small lakes in the last 3km, they’re not great water sources because they are stagnant, so we avoided them. We’d been carrying 3L of water with us where ever we went, so it wasn’t really a problem for us.

The 9km between Og Lake and Porcupine Camp are a bit of a bummer though. The area is known as the Valley of the Rocks and it’s basically a semi forested area with lots of big glacial till. It is a really interesting topography because you can tell it was once super barren and that the entire valley would have been glacier covered, but now a lot of vegetation has grown on the top of the rocks. But after 9km it gets pretty boring. The only saving grace was the mosquitoes were a lot less and it was semi shaded.

We trudged along taking a break every 3km. We stopped at km 6 to have lunch on a windy rocky ledge and we were getting pretty tired. The final 3km were brutal. There’s a junction and if you don’t need to stop at Porcupine Camp, you can avoid 200m of elevation gain by taking the other trail, but we had to stay at the campsite, so there was no avoiding it for us. Our part of the trail was very meandering, with several steep uphill sections and a whole lot of downhill (that we would have to undo the following day). The steep sections were filled with that slippery cobble sized gravel that’s a pain in the ass to walk on and I had several close calls and 1-2 falls.

But eventually the trail flattened out and we finally hit Porcupine Camp. It’s a first come-first serve camp and since it was only 2pm, we were the second group to arrive. The other group was a couple there that were bushwacking their way across the park and having their afternoon siesta. Fortunately the mosquitoes weren’t bad and we had a nice nap in the shade before taking a little river bath. I heard a lot of the other hikers complaining at Magog about how it’s not a nice campsite, but I actually didn’t mind it at all. It had a nice cool creek and it was quiet and shaded, I actually found it quite relaxing! I had some journaling time and befriended the new hikers as they arrived from the other direction.

The bushwackers had come from the same direction as us and were debating whether to bushwack out along the Simpson River Trail the next day (they didn’t), while the other 2 groups that showed up were on their way to Magog Lake. One couple arrived at 5pm and were debating continuing to Og Lake, but I convinced them to stay. I was like, “Og Lake is one big mosquito orgy. It’s all uphill, has no shade, and it took us 5 hours to get there from here”. Needless to say they were easily convinced considering they’d already done almost 20km in the heat that day. (PSA, don’t try and go from Sunshine Village to Og Lake in one day with the gondola out, it’s too much).

It’d still been a pretty hot day and we were thrilled to see more clouds rolling in. Brandon was convinced it would rain overnight, but I wasn’t optimistic. We enjoyed our final dinner on the trail and went to bed early to prepare for another early rise.

Us and the bushwackers were up again at 5am, but everyone else was still asleep when we hauled out at 7am. The location of Porcupine Camp was perfect for us because we had to start the day with a huge climb up Citadel Pass. We had to go up 500m of elevation in just 3km and then another 100m in the last km. I was dreading it after Wonder Pass, but it ended up not being that bad! I was surprised that on the final day I was actually feeling pretty good. Day 5 had been a bit of a slog and I felt like I’d been battling dehydration since Day 2, but on Day 6 I actually started to feel a bit rejuvenated.

The clouds hadn’t amounted to anything and we’d woken to blue sky again, but it was definitely a bit cooler. It took us about an hour and 15mins to ascend the 3km and another 45minutes to the top of the pass. Citadel Pass is absolutely beautiful! It’s filled with meadows and mountain peaks on all sides, I actually really enjoyed our hike through the pass.

After that we descended for most of the rest of the day. A lot of the trail was exposed, but it was so scenic and there were so many wildflowers, I loved it and it ended up being my second favourite day on the trail after our sunset hike up the Nublet. Unfortunately Brandon didn’t have the same boost of energy I had and was still not feeling great. I don’t know if it’s actually related, but I drank 1L of electrolytes every day throughout the trip (500mL with breakfast and 500mL with dinner); Brandon didn’t drink any electrolytes, only water, so I wonder if that’s why I recovered faster. Could also be age since Brandon has a decade on me 😛 But I’ll stop rubbing it in because usually Brandon outpaces me on every hike, this just wasn’t his day.

We hit Howard Douglas Lake at about the 8km mark and stopped for a break and a swim. It was my last lake. It wasn’t my favourite, but it was still very beautiful and quite warm since it wasn’t very large. Unfortunately there was a final push uphill after that to the top of Windy Ridge – it wasn’t very long, but it was steep and hot, so it took us a little while. But again, from the top of the ridge there were absolutely gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains! Plus there was a nice breeze on the top so I felt good again. The only downside is from the top you can see the rest of the trail as it meanders through meadow after meadow all the way to the ski resort, and it looks far.

We continued down from the ridge and the trail was still partially shaded along this stretch. The trail went in and out of the meadows and it was very hot crossing them, but we decided we’d push until the end of the last treed section and then take a break for lunch before crossing the last meadow. The last meadow is Sunshine Meadow, which is super popular among tourists when the gondola is running. We had the unique experience of visiting when it was totally empty, but it’s exposed for about 3km, so we weren’t looking forward to crossing it.

We stopped for lunch in the trees before pushing through the final stretch. As we were sitting we saw more and more clouds moving in. Just as we were packing up to head back to the meadows, a miracle occurred and the clouds moved to actually block the sun! We were so thrilled, we cheered and quickly started crossing the meadow to try and beat the sun. We encountered two groups heading in the other direction while we were crossing the meadow and they were the first people we’d encountered that day, save for one couple at Howard Douglas Lake. There was a nice breeze going through the meadow and I still felt great as we crossed.

Once we finally hit the ski resort though I started to lose my motivation. The trail continues down to the gondola and then it’s a brutal 6km walk along the road that goes under the gondola. It was interesting seeing the ski village empty and in the summer, but we were both ready to be done so we blew through quick. The sun had poked out from the clouds again and it was exhausting as it beat down our backs on the descent. It was around 1:30pm, so there was no shade to be found and the road was that awful gravel that’s great for rolling an ankle, so it was hard to go too fast.

About halfway down some dark rainclouds moved in and blocked out the sun again. We could hear a thunderstorm brewing from the neighbouring mountains and we figured we’d better haul ass. Honestly I would have welcomed a bit of rain, but a full fledged thunderstorm was probably more than we needed. We felt a few drops on the way down, but it never amounted to more than that while we were on the trail. The last few kilometers were brutal on the feet. We hiked almost 20km, which was our longest day, so my feet were throbbing and so desperate to be done.

Finally we hit the parking lot and I kid you not, 5 minutes later the clouds completely let loose a torrential downpour on us. We felt sorry for everyone on their way into Porcupine, but were thrilled to be back in our air conditioned vehicle. We no longer had to pick up Lien’s car from Mount Shark, so we went straight to Canmore to check into our hotel for the night. I finally got to talk to Seth and my Mom about what had happened and we showered before going out for a celebratory dinner. We each had 1 beer and we were toast, so we did some more walking (I know right?) and shopping along the pedestrian road to sober up. It ended up actually being a really nice evening!

There’s not much to report on the drive home the next day. We learned the intense heat wave had unfortunately caught half of the province on fire and the air quality was atrocious driving through Kamloops from the smoke. Surprisingly though, I didn’t feel sore after the hike and the drive. I usually find nothing makes you more stiff than getting in a car after a hike, but I didn’t get the post hike stiffness this time. I had a stiff shoulder early in the hike, but otherwise I did a good job keeping my pack light on this trip! I started with a 38lb pack and I weighed it at 30lbs on the final day of the trip. Not the lightest, but pretty good for 6 days!

So overall, it was not the trip we anticipated. We faced a lot more challenges on this trail than I expected, but I did still find the experience rewarding. I would like to re-visit Assiniboine some day, but in future I would definitely do things differently. But really, that’s what all treks are about – bettering yourself. We learned some hard lessons on this trip, but I also learned that the effort I regularly put into preparedness actually really matters. Never underestimate the trail and bring your essentials every single time. The time and money put into courses like wilderness first aid and invested in gear like an inreach can quite literally save your life. Invest in yourself. It’s worth it.

Mount Assiniboine Backpacking Trip: Part III

August 11, 2021August 19, 2021 / Maria / 2 Comments

One of the great things about this trip was that after our strenuous 2 day hike to arrive at the campsite (Part I and Part II), we had 3 nights there it which to enjoy it. After the incident on Day 2, it was a relief to know we didn’t have to get up early and carry our big packs anywhere.

We had big plans to sleep in, but it was still the middle of a heat wave and the sun had big plans to cook us. The previous 2 days had been around 32 degrees, but on Days 3 and 4 it went up to a whopping 36 degrees! I can only imagine how hot it must have been in town when it was so hot up in the mountains. I’ve rarely experienced 36 degree temperatures anywhere, and definitely never at elevation.

So the sun woke us up at 7:30am and there was really no avoiding it. As soon as it hits your tent it totally bakes you. Brandon tried to block it out by putting his sleeping bag over the tent, but we eventually had to admit defeat and got up. We had a lazy breakfast at the cooking shelter and made friends with the other campers. Because of grizzly bears you’re not allowed to do any cooking by your tent at Magog Lake. There’s a large cooking area with lots of picnic tables and a covered shelter, so we did all our cooking in the shade of the shelter and stored our smellies at the bear cache.

The result of this setup is that it forces all the campers into proximity with one another. Not really the best scenario for COVID, but it made for a really great vibe at the campsite. Everyone was super friendly and I loved swapping stories with the other campers and getting advice on the trails everyone had already done. Everyone was suffering from the heat, though people were still doing some pretty big hikes during the day. Brandon and I took it easy all morning and I mostly wrote in my journal and ate snacks. Shortly before noon we finally packed ourselves a day pack and went to do a bit of exploring.

While other campers were suffering through the heat hiking up to Wonder Pass and the Nub, we decided to have a lake day. There are 4 lakes close to the campsite and I made it my mission to swim in all of them. We started with Sunburst Lake, which we heard was the best swimming lake. Since everyone else was out exploring, we had it to ourselves for a full 2 hours. It has a gorgeous view looking back at Mount Assiniboine and Sunburst Mountain and we went for a swim and then took our thermarests out into the lake to relax. I was a little bit nervous to take my expensive thermarest in the water, but I figured YOLO and it ended up being totally fine!

We wanted to take a nap, but unfortunately it was a bit too buggy for sleeping, so eventually we packed up and continued on. Cerulean Lake was next on the list. It’s bigger than Sunburst and a bit more scenic, but also colder, so we just did a quick dip in and out of that one. Brandon convinced me to go 1km further to Elizabeth Lake – I wasn’t really digging it because it was uphill, but we did it anyways. Elizabeth Lake was also very scenic and sits right at the base of the Nub (the peak everyone hikes up to get the killer view of Assiniboine and Sunburst Mountains). The water at Elizabeth wasn’t the nicest (it looked a little stagnant), but I was on a mission to swim in all the lakes at this point, so I swam in it anyways. It was the warmest of all the lakes, but had a lot of algae, so it was a quick dip. (although it looks awesome in the photo below!)

After that we went back to the campground to have an early dinner. Brandon was feeling really tired and wanted a power nap, so he went back to the tent for a little while, which got a bit more shady in late afternoon. I did some journaling and chatted with the other campers. I spoke to a group of women that had done a sunset hike up to the Nublet the evening before and decided that would be a good option for us. We really didn’t want to hike up the Nub in the hot weather, so a sunset hike when it was cooler was a good alternative. The Nub has 3 lookouts. The first is called the Niblet, 2nd is the Nublet, and final is the Nub. The women told me the Nub was a lot of work for the same view and that they were just as happy with the scene from the Nublet, so it was an easy decision for us to just skip the Nub given the conditions.

We had dinner and then started our hike around 7pm. It was such a good decision! It was still a bit hot hiking up to the Niblet, but after that it cooled off a lot and there was a really nice breeze going up to the Nublet. It is still a pretty big hike up to the Nublet, there is some scree and scrambling, but it was the first time on the trip I’d felt truly energized! The wind gave me life and it got rid of the mosquitoes, it was the best feeling! Plus a few clouds had moved in and they really set the scene and provided us with hope of cooler weather, or at least some sun shade.

We got to the Nublet about a half hour before sunset and only had to share the peak with one other group. In general, the lack of people was one of my favourite parts about Assiniboine. The campground was half empty because of the heat and because it’s so hard to get into the park, we had most attractions completely to ourselves. We ran around the Nublet taking photos from every angle before settling in to watch Assiniboine and Sunburst light up red. The sun actually sets on the opposite horizon from these mountains, but the orange glow from the sunset completely illuminates the Sunburst and Assiniboine, it’s magical!

It was close to solstice, so we had long sunsets and long daylight hours. We stuck around almost until 10pm before deciding to head back down. We had lots of light in which to do the scramble and even the forested section was still pretty illuminated. I don’t love hiking at this time of day though because it makes me nervous of bears, so I sang most of the way down. Fortunately we only needed to use our headlamps for the last 10 minutes of the hike and got back to our tent just before 11pm.

The next day the clouds had entirely disappeared and we had another slow, hot day. We got started a bit earlier in the morning and went for a walk up to the lodge. This proved very hot, so we took a break at a little waterfall that had a small breeze coming off it. Unfortunately, the hotter it got, the worse the mosquitoes got. I’m decent at just ignoring them, but they were driving Brandon absolutely nuts. We continued down to Magog Lake hoping there would be a good breeze since it’s the largest lake and has all the glaciers feeding it.

There was a really nice breeze down there, so blessedly no bugs, but also absolutely no shade. Fortunately I still had the tarp, so we set it up along the shore and enjoyed a few hours resting away from the bugs and sun. I thought Magog Lake would be really cold, but it actually wasn’t that bad and even Brandon went for a swim in the lake. One of the other campers had told us there was a small sandy part of beach at the opposite end of the lake, so eventually we packed up and headed that way.

A lot of the campers that had been at Magog when we arrived were starting to move out and new campers were arriving, so we got some word of the outside world. Apparently the lodge had noted our heat stroke incident in its trail report, so hopefully other people learned from our mistakes. We found the sandy part of the beach. It’s not a fine sand, more a coarse rocky grain, but definitely more comfortable than the large jagged rocks in other areas. The only downside was there wasn’t as much of a breeze. We set the tarp up again, but the bugs had returned, so we made several forays in and out of the water to try and avoid them.

We planned for an early night since we had to start backpacking again the next day, but it was too early for bed when we finished our dinner, so we scoured the GPS for a good after-dinner walk. We found one that hikes out around the far edge of Magog Lake. It’s the start of the wilderness route to Hinde Hut and has a ton of signs warning about the difficulty of the route, but if you just follow the first kilometre, it’s really nice. It takes you right to the back of Assiniboine Lake and gives you a close-up view of the mountain and glaciers. We couldn’t figure out how anyone could possibly continue up to the hut from that angle though and we figured it must be a rock climbing route because it looked very intense!

We went to bed before the sun had even set because we planned to get up at 5am the next day to avoid the heat. Reports from the outside were that it was supposed to start cooling down, but it would still be low 30’s the following day. We crossed our fingers for some rain or clouds and went to sleep. Here’s a few other photo highlights! Click for Part IV.

Our Wedding Day

August 4, 2021August 19, 2021 / Maria / 2 Comments

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!