Love Declaration Celebration

Originally posted April 21st 2010

Emmanuel and I both wanted to be married on Halloween before we ever even met - though I think it is a fairly common desire in the modified community. I being a typical girl, have been dreaming about this day for most of my life. I wanted an elaborate wedding, and in ways we did go all out and in others we just didn’t care at all.

Planning began practically the moment he proposed, but nothing was really set in stone until 6 months before the big day. Being that we got pregnant only a few weeks after getting engaged, most of our energy was focused on the pregnancy.

I planned to do everything I could myself. I even considered making my dress and the cake at one point. Over all I ended up doing all 85 invitations all by hand(not with one of those fancy Cri-cut machines or anything), plus the response cards, I made my own bouquet, spent endless hours searching Etsy for the perfect gifts for the wedding party - custom silk screened ties that Emmanuel picked the images for the guys, and I never found the perfect gifts for the girls so I made them handmade custom bags, put together all the other items for the wedding party’s “rock star VIP” packs - including VIP backstage passes our friend Paul did the designs for, and I had them laminated as well as sorting through a ton of M&M’s to give each person only one colour(minus Zoe who’s vegan so she got vegan friendly candy), I purchased endless amounts of Halloween decorations, material for table cloths, made ‘loot bag’ style favours for the guests which included handmade caramel apples which I made with Candice and my sister Jessica the night before the wedding, centre pieces, homemade soap for the bathrooms… I made my own veil and fascinator, did my own hair(not the styling though, Lucy from work did that) and makeup, made Pinxit’s headband and skirt for the reception, purchased shoes online that I had to fix so that the rivets along the back wouldn’t cut up my  heel and replace the ribbon in them so they matched my dress, designed my dress, designed the cake, made the cake topper, hmm I think that’s it. Haha.

We chose our church - The Story - as the venue, along with our pastor Joe Manafo who originally married us, to do the ceremony. Plans changed several times(in terms of where to hold the ceremony, rental of chairs and tables, linens, etc), and eventually we ended up just deciding to have the ceremony at the new church that Emmanuel’s youth pastor opened.

I was late arriving at the church, mainly because it took all morning to do my hair(I think Lucy felt stressed, and took her time working on me), but then because we had to go across town to the hotel for me to do my makeup, get dressed, have photos taken, AND get Pinxit ready. Luckily I had Mae, Mae’s mom(Cathy), Jessica, and Candice to help out.

The ceremony was emotional, and I started crying before either of us even said our vows, haha. We played “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to see who would say their vows first, which Emmanuel won. He had every one choked up when he said his vows. I on the other hand had people laughing. We had planned to exchange high fives again, but clearly forgot because neither of us did it when we planned to. We at least had rings this time(just barely though, they got to us a few days before the wedding) that I found on Etsy as well, which we had inscribed ‘31.10.09’ on one side, and ‘this day anything goes’ on the other. It's short, sweet, and straight to the point.

Emmanuel’s Vows:

your smile, your laughter

you were who I was waiting for

regardless of the distance 

I was swept by pretty eyes and letters

I knew you were someone worth waiting for

you were the only thought that ever felt real

thunderstorms could never stop me

cause there is no one in the world like you

you’re simple yet confusing

your sparkling eyes make me weak at my words

days seemed like years in the month of December

and never will I give up trying cause you’re everything to me

cause there is no one in the world like you

Tiffany I promise to cherish you, honour you, and love you for now forever

to infinity and beyond

My Vows:

These are the hands of your best friend. They will forever love you, and hold you close

These hands will provide for us along side yours, and will help to build our future

These hands will comfort you, and will give you strength when needed

These hands will wipe the tears of sorrow, and tears of joy, from your eyes

These hands will hold our children, and together with yours, will keep our family together as one

And these hands will knock out your teeth if you ever go astray

These are the hands that when aged, will still be reaching out for yours, to infinity and beyond

After the ceremony, there was a lot of confusion, and finally after organizing everyone, we headed off to the Bluewater Bridge to have our photos taken with the wedding party. I had hoped Pinxit would be involved, but out by the water being the day before November, it was far too cold without having to put her in a snowsuit, so she sat out. I’m actually kind of really upset that from the entire day there wasn’t a single photo of her with us taken. Nor did we ever get family photos done. It was hard enough to get all of our parents together being that both of our sets are separated, so it’s not even like we could get photos taken again at a later date. I can hope for it, but it won’t be the same, and my hair will never be the same, so it would be obvious anyways. Oh well. I guess that’s why people pay for wedding planners to make sure this stuff all happens… On the plus side, I just found 3 photos of me holding Pinxit, and one photo of my mother and I. Now my mother can stop complaining. Haha.

We had a large gap between the ceremony and the reception so that people with children could take them Trick or Treating, and those without would have plenty of time to get their Halloween costumes ready. Well our wedding party wasn’t on the ball yet again, and it was moments before we were to make our zombie entrance, and people were still getting their makeup put on. If we ever renew our vows, I’m going with one, maybe two people tops because trying to keep a hold on 6 girls and 6 guys is ridiculous. At one point we even lost my mom and sister Karley because she told Mae’s mom not to wait for them while they went Trick or Treating, and it wasn’t till about an hour after the reception started that I noticed.

Highlights of the night included: Candice running a cheesy ‘prom photo’ style photo booth for us so everyone could have their picture taken in costume, my wedding party surrounding me so we could sing along to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” completely vocally(I guess a cappella, but it was along with the music, so not really. Haha…), Mae and Candice grinding Emmanuel and I while dancing to “I’m On A Boat” by The Lonely Island, umm not really a highlight in terms of good but I found a melted chocolate down my dress that a girl put down my cleavage and ended up in pj’s for the rest of the reception(my sister rules at picking out clothing… haha) and having my mom freak out and nearly go on a death rampage.

Then having to do clean up, while most people stood around too drunk to help or do a good job, and I don’t like to leave things undone(especially because there was to be church service the next morning, and the clean up crew never showed up/did their job). I believe we finally got to the hotel at around 3am - Mae and her mom watched Pinxit for a bit so we could have some alone time, but after I took a bath in the awesome jacuzzi tub in our room, we were ready to pass out. Plus she got fussy(poor kid didn’t go to sleep till she was back with us), so we just watched some tv, and had family cuddle time in a huge king size bed.

After checking out in the morning and getting my dad and siblings, we went for lunch with most of the wedding party and a few other guests, and then we went to my father in laws for a few days. Not much of a honeymoon - to this day we still haven’t had one, nor are there any plans anytime soon. We said we were going to go to do a road trip to Graceland this summer, but because the DMV was on strike for so long, neither of us have our licences, and Emmanuel’s completely expired so he has to start all over again, so we won’t be doing that. And next summer we plan to be pregnant again, so either we’ll have to change plans, or just hold off for a few more years.

Photos to follow, I just have to try to get myself down to around 100, as we collectively have somewhere around 1,000 photos between the photographer Troy Shantz, as well as Nathan, Emmanuel’s aunt, and all the guests who posted photos on Facebook. I also still have photos from Candice to receive and go through… Haha.

--------------------------------------------------

Wedding photos by Troy Shantz