prelude

Wednesday - May 25

9:00 a.m. Ernie and I pack the car, leave home, and arrive in Kamloops shortly after noon. We meet Sonia at her hair dresser's, not sure what she has on tap for us. It turns out plenty!

After unloading our car at the church and checking in to our motel, we go for lunch at the bagel shop where the groom is working his last shift as a bagel baker before the big day. There we meet Matt’s best friend Chris (who is his best man). Then we drive Matt and his friend to the garage where his car has been for repairs, and the three of us carry on to Costco and Superstore to shop for food and veggies for fruit and veggie platters for the reception.

7:00 p.m. Back at the church, we put perishables in the large fridge and freezer. We’re just finished when, right on cue, Sonia’s cell rings. It’s two more friends calling to get directions to the church. They’ve also just arrived from out of town with coolers of meat and cheese, also for the reception, cut and vacuum packed also to be packed in the fridge.

We happily leave the kids to their stag and stagette parites, to find a Montana’s restaurant. After dinner, it’s back to the motel and bed!

Thursday - May 26

8:30 a.m. I walk (7 minutes) from the motel to the church to get to work with Sonia, Ida and Celeste. The first job is arranging the meat and cheese trays. Ida and Celeste have brought a multitude of the plastic tray and dome duos – the kind that stores use for ready-made trays.




We’re shortly joined by Chris and Dean and Ernie, and spend the next hour rolling endless slices of ham, turkey, beef, pastrami and placing them on trays. After we have six meat trays assembled, we go on to the cheese trays.



11:00 a.m. Some of the dance school girls arrive to help. They get to work on the veggie and fruit trays – cutting oranges, peeling and slicing kiwi, pineapples, watermelon and honeydew melon, cucumbers, celery, peppers etc.



More of Matt’s friends arrive and they start on decorations – putting up a canopy-thing at the front of the sanctuary, and decking it with twinkle lights and tulle, as well as lining both sides of the aisles with twinkle lights, also covered with tulle. It looks lovely.

The girls, finished with the trays, begin decorating the reception hall with – you guessed it – more twinkle lights and tulle! (We can’t finish in there, though, until after the rehearsal dinner, because a Weight Watchers group has their meeting in the room until 7:30). I get another of Sonia’s friends who arrives late on the scene, fluffing out the wedding car flowers (which come all squished together).

12:30: Almost everyone has left to do one thing and another so it’s nice and quiet. I get the buckets of squares out of the freezer, cover the variety of platters I’ve brought from home with paper doilies and set out the squares - garnished with silk roses.

2:15: Sonia and Kate (another bridesmaid), get back with bags and bags of buns, and a problem. They can’t find the CD which has the processional music. Frantic phone calls, rummaging through several cars and making a trip to the house where they last had it turns up nothing. Finally Kate calls Danny (who is in his studio this afternoon and who burned the CD in the first place – having altered it for length to exactly fit the occasion) asking, does he have the song saved, and please could he burn another? Yes, he will. (Whew!)

2:45: We leave, to pick up Mum, my sis and niece at the bus depot. We settle them in their motel room, two doors from ours, then relax in our room for about 45 minutes, before we have to return to the church for the rehearsal.

4:30 - Rehearsal. The processional music CD has been reburned. The mothers and the groom and his boys walk in to something by Pachelbel. Then the music changes to "The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel. The first time Ernie and Sonia walk down the aisle with these words sifting through the music:"..I love it when you read to me / And you can read me anything / The book of love has music in it / In fact that’s where music comes from..." I get surprised by tears.

5:30 - We leave the rehearsal a little early, to pick up some food for the rehearsal dinner, which we’re keeping cold in our motel fridgette (seeing as how every other fridge is full by now), and Mom, Bea and Adrienne. Then it’s off to Jocelyn’s where we’re hosting the rehearsal dinner (pizzas, Caesar salad, pop and watermelon). We need to be there by 6:00 when the pizzas are being delivered – to pay the delivery boy.

The pizzas come right on time, and soon the house is full of everyone from the rehearsal, filling plates with pizza, salad and watermelon, crowding around the big kitchen table and spilling out onto the lawn – where it’s lovely and cool.




7:30 - We take Mum & Co. back to the motel, run a few more errands, and then it’s back to the church to set up the reception hall. Put up tables, dress with tablecloths, centerpieces, place-cards, cutlery, napkins, confetti etc. etc.

10:00 - We’ve done about all we can for now with the reception hall. My feet are killing me! But worse, the bride looks positively gray with weariness.

We go back to the motel and get ready for bed. But one more thing must happen before we can get to sleep...

11:00 - The cell phone rings. It’s our Ben, asking for directions to the motel. A few minutes later, there is the sound of car doors and a rap at the door.