A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Our wedding photographer Kira Nelson, has posted some of our photos from the day on her blog. You can see her blog post here and can see the slideshow here.

She has also posted all of the photos from the entire weekend festivities in a private gallery. If you are interested in seeing them please send me an email or comment in this post and I will send you the link and the password. This private gallery is where you can order prints if you wish.

This past weekend Michelle and I tied the knot. As my regular readers know we got engaged last year, and got to planning the event almost right away. Before we knew it the weekend of September 26th, 2009 arrived and the festivities were underway.

Friday night Michelle and I held a welcome event at our home. Since we had so many friends and family travelling from all over the world we thought it would be a good idea to have as many of them over as possible the night before just to catch up. We ended up having a very full house (and backyard) with over 100 people showing up. My mother and relatives were gracious enough to cook dinner for everyone, and I’m pretty sure no one left hungry. We wrapped things up at 11pm and I headed over to Curtis’s place to spend the night.

Saturday morning I woke up with a strange feeling in my gut. The funny thing was that I wasn’t sure if I was nervous or hungry. At around 11am I took my groomsmen out for breakfast. When we finished I deduced that I was in fact nervous since I was full, and still had the strange feeling in my gut. We headed back to Curtis’s condo to chill before the wedding ceremony.

We threw in the Goonies to help settle my nerves and at 2pm our photographer Kira Nelson showed up to take some shots of us getting ready. She didn’t spend too much time with us before heading back to our house to shoot the bridal party getting ready. Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the Broadway Theatre for the ceremony.

We ended up getting their a little early so the boys and I crossed the street for a drink at the Yard & Flagon. We figured it was a good way to kill some time, and to help take the edge off. After we finished up the time had arrived to get married. And married I got. The ceremony went perfectly.

Michelle and I decided a while ago that we didn’t want to take a big chunk of time to do photos. The plan was for the wedding party and Kira to walk from the Broadway Theatre to the Hilton and do photos along the way. Since the ceremony ended at around 4:30 and cocktails wrapped up 6:30, we would have plenty of time to get some great shots.

We arrived at the Hilton at around 6:15 to catch the tail end of cocktails. Dinner was served followed by the program. We kept it short with toasts to the groom and bride, as well as ‘welcome to the families’. I also prepared a slideshow (watch it below) which played just before Michelle and I addressed our guests.  The rest of the evening was spent dancing to a variety of great music.  I’ve always said that you can judge how good a wedding is based on how many people are dancing.  I’m happy to say that the dance floor was more-or-less full for the entire night.

It was great that the wedding went exactly as Michelle and I had envisioned. It meant a lot to have so many family and friends at our wedding. Some traveled from afar, and some from near, but one thing was for certain - the wedding would not have been the same without any of them.  Thank you to all.  Michelle and I will cherish this day for the rest of our lives.

Our friends Kris and Lindsay got married this past weekend in their hometown of Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada. Michelle and I headed out to wedding Saturday morning. The weather was awesome - real sunny and not super-hot. The ceremony was at a nice park on the edge of town, and was a great place for a wedding. This was one of the nicest ceremonies I’ve had the pleasure of attending.

Following the ceremony a few of us went out for a cocktail at the Hollywood Bistro in town. Unfortunately there were no celebrities there. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the Melfort Curling Rink for the reception. Dinner was delicious and the program was well done. All of the speeches and toasts were very entertaining.

The dance was next on the agenda and fortunately the majority of the attendees had the dancing bug. The dance floor was filled for the majority of the evening, and remained that way until the end of the night. These are always the greatest weddings in my opinion. And with all of these weddings I’ve attended this summer I’m starting to get really excited for my own. And as it happens, it’s the next one on the calendar.

You can check out photos from the day on my Flickr site by following the links below. Just a note. I noticed tonight that if you choose to watch the slideshow, the pictures are enlarged to fill the screen. This causes the photos to lose clarity since I don’t upload them at full resolution. To fix this, click “Options” near the top right of the slideshow screen and ensure that “Embiggen small things to fill screen” is NOT checked off.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

One of Michelle’s good friends Sara who is currently living in France was back in Regina to get married to her main Frenchman Alex. I had met Sara only a couple of times, and had never met Alex so I was looking forward to getting to know them. I also had the pleasure of photographing their wedding.

The celebration was quite intimate with around fifty people and was held at an old country church in the Qu’Appelle Valley by Craven, Saskatchewan. The day turned out to be a scorcher, hitting temperatures in the mid-thirties (celsius). Let’s just say there were a lot of sweaty people. After the ceremony we had some refreshments and snacks while guests tried to fly kites. A few people managed to get their kites to take flight, but unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of wind that day.

The laid back reception was held at the Delta with the program intermingled with the meal. The food was delicious and the event was very classy. And as I had hoped, I managed to get to know Sara and Alex much better.

You can check out photos from the day on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

Michelle’s brother Christopher Parker married the love of his life Dazawray Landrie on Saturday, May 16th, 2009. The wedding ceremony was held at the Forestry Farm in Saskatoon. Things were looking pretty scary weather wise leading up to the wedding. The ceremony was being held outside and it was snowing regularly right up to the big day. As it turned out, the Saturday of the wedding turned out to be a great day.  Whew.

The wedding was short and sweet, followed by some mingling while a few key family photos were fired off. There was a few hours to kill before the reception which was being held out at Langham, SK - about 30 minutes outside of the city. Michelle was co-emcee for the reception so we grabbed a quick lunch and made our way out to Langham to get a few things organized.

The community hall where the reception was held was decorated beautifully. The wedding party, friends, and family did a great job of getting everything in order. Dinner was lasagna and Caesar salad, which was a little unprecedented, but delicious. I seriously believe that may have been the best lasagna I’ve ever had.

The dance followed the reception and a good portion of people stuck around until the end. Michelle and I are happy to say that we shut the thing down…as we do at most wedding we attend.  I didn’t bust out the moonwalk or worm this time around, but we did make use of our recently acquired ballroom dancing skills. We were waltzing like nobody’s business.

I fired off quite a few shots at the ceremony and a handful at the reception. You can check them out at my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

Being proud new parents, Jason and Cheryl wanted some nice photos of their new daughter. They invited Michelle and I over one Friday evening for dinner, which would be followed by a photo shoot that would hopefully produce some nice shots of Jorja.

Cheryl really wanted some shots of her daughter in her “birthday suit”, but this proved to be a bit challenging since Jorja didn’t like the chills that came with being naked. While Jorja was wrapped up in a blanket, we practiced shots of Jason holding a Cabbage Patch Kid.   Adding to the hilarity, I didn’t have proper lighting so we had to be a little creative with some common household items. With Michelle acting as my assistant we did manage to get some good shots.

You can see more of the photos on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

On Thursday, March 12 of 2009 my good friends Jason and Cheryl Fenrich became the proud parents of a new daughter, Jorja Ann. Later that day Jason gave me a call to announce the arrival, letting me know that everything went well, and that mother and daughter were both healthy.  I asked him to let me know when they were accepting visitors so Michelle and I could meet Jorja.

The following Monday I got a text from Jason (you heard me right - Jason now text messages regularly) inviting us over to see the new baby. Michelle was at school late that night so after I picked her up we headed over to Jason and Cheryl’s.

It had been a while since I held such a new baby, but I think I did alright. She mostly slept while I held her which was alright by me. The less squirming meant the smaller chance of me dropping her. It was Michelle’s turn next and she looked like a natural holding Jorja. I think her motherly instincts kicked in.

I look forward to taking pictures of this cutie in the years to come.  You can see my first shots of Jorja on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

There was no way I was tackling trying to install a kitchen. As comical an event it would have been, and as entertaining a blog post it would have produced, having all of the cabinets come crashing to the ground did not seem desirable. Luckily a friend of ours Wade (of J.J. and Wade fame), actually installs kitchens for a living. Hiring him seemed like a much better idea.

Wade and one of his guys showed up late Monday morning and got right to work. I filled them in on some pertinent information and then got the hell out of their way. I took off for the office and left the guys to do what they do. When I got back at around 5pm, I couldn’t believe how much they had actually accomplished. The majority of the cabinets were up and you could really start to see the kitchen taking form.

Once again I got out of their way and hung out in the home office. I peeked my head into the kitchen every once in a while between loud “construction type” sounds. The guys worked pretty late into the evening before calling it a night. Apparently everything went more-or-less smoothly throughout the day.

Since they traveled in from Regina, Wade and Tyler just stayed at our place. They were back up and working early Tuesday morning after Michelle and I left for work. When we returned at the end of the day they were just wrapping up the trim and some of the other more cosmetic stuff.

I got a kick out of some statistics they were keeping throughout the day. On the top of one of the lower cabinets they had written a tally of how many times two songs had played on one of Saskatoon’s terrible radio stations, Wired 96.3.

• Dead & Gone by T.I. - 9 times
• Low by Flow Rida featuring T-Pain - 9 times

Apparently the day didn’t go quite as “by-the-book” as the previous day as they had to make use of their ingenuity to get some stuff to work out. Everything looked pretty awesome to me so obviously they made some good decisions. They were hoping to wrap things up by around 4pm, but ended up working until after 9 before actually getting on the road back to Regina.

Michelle and I were super happy with how the kitchen looked so far. The only thing I was worried about from the design was how much floor space there was going to be with the cabinets around three walls. As it turned out I was worrying about nothing since it turned out great.

Now we just have to wait for the countertop to be installed. The guys showed up Wednesday to take measurements, but would likely not be able to install for at least a week. We were obviously hoping they would be done within a few days since not having a kitchen sink really sucks. Eating out is starting to get old.

You can check out more photos from the install on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

The weekend arrived and that marked the beginning of the actual work for the kitchen renovation. Michelle and I spent Friday night emptying the kitchen in preparation for the demo on Saturday. After a little deliberation we decided to dump everything into the living room We figured we could deal with losing that room for a few days. You can see the initial clutter of our kitchen below.

And after we moved everything out of there, it didn’t look too bad. Very deceiving.

The living room on the other hand was a complete disaster. I wasn’t too sure how I would be able to handle this for the next few days. However I was happy that everything was able to fit in the living room alone. I was really hoping to keep as many rooms as unaffected as possible.

Early Saturday morning the kitchen arrived. I was thinking we would be able to fit all of the boxes in the dining area, but when I saw the truck I knew that would be impossible. The only feasible place to store everything was the garage.  I was really hoping the installers wouldn’t mind hauling everything in as they needed it.

Michelle’s dad arrived not too much later and we started to rip the kitchen apart. I was rather pleased that everything came out without too much trouble. The lower cabinet turned out to be the only thing that wasn’t salvageable.

This was my first foray into demolishing a room in a house and it turned out to be not too bad. My only regret is that I didn’t get to use any dynamite, let alone a sledgehammer. Maybe next time.

With the kitchen being totally cleared out we were now able to start the electrical work. You can seem more pictures from the day on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

Since moving back to Saskatoon in 2005 I’ve been hosting the annual Geeks in Basements New Years Eve Extravaganza - a gathering of my closest friends to celebrate the coming of the new year. This also happened to be the first one that would take place in Michelle’s and my new house.

Since Saskatchewan was going through such a bitterly cold stretch we thought it would be a great idea to give the 2009 party a Caribbean theme. Our guests were informed to show up in their best island gear and enjoy some Jamaican style cuisine and groove to some funky reggae beats. We even announced that there would be a special prize for the most impressive getup.

Marla and Charles were the first guests to arrive and they sure did impress us with their costumes. All Marla needed was some suntan lotion and she could have jumped a plane to the West Indies.

Unfortunately as more guests arrived the quality of the costumes diminished. And when I say diminished I mean were non-existent. At least Michelle and I had enough leis for everyone to wear. Besides the “dressing up stick-in-the-muds”, the company was still top notch and everyone had a fantastic time.

As usual I laid out the “community camera” for people to fire off shots during the night.  I actually had no idea that there were so many picture taken until tonight when I pulled the photos off of the camera.

Feel free to check out some of the better shots on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

And in case you hadn’t guessed, Marla won the prize for best costume - a bottle of Malibu Rum.

I never made another post following the wedding announcement back in September so I thought I would give a quick update. Michelle and I have gotten the major things sorted out including the venue for the reception, the photographer, and the DJ. The bridal party are ready to go with Michelle having found hers and the bridesmaid dresses. As far as I know they are all fitted and ordered. I too have found what the men will be wearing, but I’m pretty sure they have not went and got fitted yet.  I may have to give them a deadline. Michelle being the crafty person she is has been spending a lot of her time creating our invitations and ’save the dates’. We are going to have a lot of people needing to travel a reasonable distance for the wedding, so we figured ’save the dates’ would be a good idea. Michelle finished those up last night and will be mailing them out in the next couple days. Only expect one of these fabulous creations in the mail if you’re a traveler.  If you live close by, consider this your official ’save the date’.

I guess the last major thing Michelle and I keep ignoring is where the actual wedding ceremony will take place. We’ve found that when you’re not getting married in a church, your options become quite limited in Saskatoon - especially when weather could become a factor at the tail end of September. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

Usually I am pretty expedient when it comes to processing photos after an event. I’m not sure why I have gotten lazy lately, but Sharon and Derrick’s wedding was back on October 25, 2008. This morning I woke up with a little extra energy and decided to work on my photo backlog.

Michelle was in the wedding and the bridal party got ready for the day at our place the morning of the wedding. This gave me a good opportunity to get some insider shots as the girls got prepared.

I didn’t get many other shots during the wedding or at the reception, but I was sure to catch of few of the cake and the first dance - something Sharon wanted me to do since her photographer was only available for the ceremony. I spent the remainder of the evening ‘getting jiggy with it’, and playing Bananagrams.

You can check out some more photos from the day by following the links below:

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

This past Tuesday night was very exciting for me.  I asked Michelle to marry me, and she accepted (like there was any doubt).  I’m sure most of you who are reading this have already heard the news, so I’ll just give you the details of the events leading up to the big moment.

A few weeks ago Michelle and her mom spent a few days in Edmonton at a lingerie trade show.  I saw this as my chance to go ring shopping.  I went to GMG Jewellers and explained to a salesperson what I wanted in my ring - a hybrid of my vision and what Michelle had hinted to me over the last few months. After looking at a few different designs, I made my decision and told them to go ahead and build it. I would return in a few weeks to pick it up.

The next day I told Ryan that I had just bought an engagement ring. Since Michelle’s birthday was coming up I thought that I would propose on that day. I wasn’t sure if this was a cheesy idea so I ran it by Ryan. He didn’t think it was, so the plan was set - I would propose on Wednesday, October 8th.

I was told the ring would be ready on September 17th. The day came and went without me picking it up. I didn’t want to get it too early fearing that I wouldn’t be able to stick to the plan. Another week passed, and September was coming to an end. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was too excited and picked up the ring on Tuesday, September 30th at lunch time, with the intention of doing it that night.

This was a busy week for us so it didn’t leave me many options. Tuesday nights we have ballroom dancing class and always go out for dinner afterward. We had previously agreed to go to a new Indian restaurant on 8th Street that night. However I had decided that I wanted to propose downtown along the river, and since 8th Street is nowhere near downtown I cleverly said that I was craving sushi and suggested the Samurai (which is right on the river). She agreed and my plan was underway.

While we were eating our sushi I kept mentioning how nice an evening it was and that we should go for a walk along the river, especially since we rarely do this. This is where my plan fell apart. Michelle was completely against a walk, stating that we needed to get home because she had a bunch of tests to mark. I tried to change her mind but was unsuccessful. I didn’t want to be too persistent because that would have been fishy (no pun intended).

As the conversation changed to Michelle’s trek up Mount Fuji while in Japan my mind was racing, desperately trying to concoct a contingency plan. Needless to say I still don’t know anything about her climb. I must have been pretty convincing since she didn’t suspect that I wasn’t listening to her.

After leaving the Samurai, and failing one more time to convince her to go for a walk, we made our way back home. The easy thing to do would have been to postpone the proposal. However I started the day telling myself that I would be engaged by the end of the night, and damn it, I was going to make it happen.

While Michelle was catching up on her email in the kitchen, I placed the ring in the middle of the bed, and dimmed the lights. I went to the kitchen and said that we should practice the dance we learned that evening. As we danced, I led her to the bedroom where her ring awaited her. The rest is now history.

See everyone next October.

My good friends Kipp and Steph got married this past Saturday in Saskatoon. This was a wedding that I had been looking forward to for some time, and I am pleased to say that it lived up to my expectations. The wedding was at the United Church on 3rd Avenue and was short and sweet. I think the ceremony was under thirty minutes, and since it was pretty hot outside with no air conditioning, this worked out well.

We had a fairly large chunk of time between the ceremony and the reception so a bunch of us went for drinks at the the Freehouse to kill some time. I’m pretty sure I’ve had Caesars here before, but I don’t remember them being so delicious. These were the greatest Caesars of all time. Five-thirty quickly approached so we headed over to the Victorian where we had dinner reservations for twelve.

This is a fairly upscale establishment and I was looking forward to eating here for some time. The twelve of us made quick work of some huge appetizer platter, which made it difficult for me to finish my steak dinner. I managed to clear my plate except for a quarter of a new potato. I just couldn’t fit anymore food into my gut.

Even though cocktails weren’t scheduled for another thirty minutes, we figured we had better make our way to the reception at Louis’. For some reason Louis’ misquoted how many people they could seat for the reception. Kipp and Steph advised us that we be there early if we wanted to ensure we got a seat. We were the first guests outside of the wedding party and immediate family to arrive, so we had our pick of seats.

We spent our time mingling with the guests during cocktail hour.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with the reception in Louis’ (not Upper Mub) since I had never seen one held here before.  I am happy to say that it looked really good, and was a nice location for a wedding reception.  It’s pretty convenient to have the full bar and DJ booth at your disposal.

The program started at nine o’clock and was emceed by Kipp’s sister Regena.  The program, like the wedding was quite short, with a toast to the groom and bride, as well as the welcoming of Kipp and Steph into their new families.  The program ended with the bride and groom addressing their many guests.  It was all nicely done.

The rest of the evening was a great time filled with lots of visiting, spirits, and dancing. The DJ was kind of funny, and was having a little trouble keeping the dance floor full. When I went to request a song I mentioned that I used to DJ at Louis’ back in the day. He quickly called me into the DJ booth and said something like this:

Dude. You have to help me. This is only my second time DJing and I don’t want to screw this up for the bride.

I gave him a few suggestions and a list of songs that I figured would work out well. It seemed it helped him out a bit and people started to make their way to the floor. I’d like to think it was my song list, but there’s a pretty good chance it was just because people started to fill up on drink.

Michelle and I were there until the end of the night, which ended shortly after two o’clock AM.  There wasn’t many left at this time, but it was pretty cool to see Kipp and Steph there right until the end as well.  I don’t think you see the bride and groom stick around this long very often.  After saying our good-byes and thank-yous, we called it a night and grabbed a cab home.   What a great wedding.  Thanks Kipp and Steph!

You can see more pictures from the day by following the links below:

• Kipp & Steph in Black & White (Thumbnails)
• Kipp & Steph in Black & White (Slideshow)
• Kipp & Steph from the Community Camera (Thumbnails)
• Kipp & Steph from the Community Camera (Slideshow)

Since buying our house back in February, Michelle and I were planning on throwing a housewarming party. We initially were hoping for May, but that just couldn’t happen. Who’d have thought owning a house would make one so busy?   Before we knew it summer had arrived and we figured we better have the party now, or it would never happen.

When we started putting together the guest list, it didn’t take long to realize that this could end up being a fairly large shindig. We figured the more the merrier and sent out the invites. Most people RSVPed in some acceptable manner, but for some reason clicking “YES” or “NO” in the Google Invites continues to confuse people.

Michelle and I spent the few days beforehand getting ready for the party - buying booze and food, and getting the house and yard ready to accommodate a barrage of people. When the day arrived, it was also on the day of Saskatoon’s big Sidewalk Sale so Michelle was obligated to help her mom at her store for most of the day. I spent the day prepping everything, then my parents showed up and were able to help me out. Luckily Michelle got off early so she was able to put together all of the food platters.

Before we knew it people started showing up in waves. I was planning on BBQing at a nice pace, accommodating people as they arrived throughout the evening. How wrong I was. Everyone seemed to show up right at 6pm on the nose. I was BBQing like a madman for over two hours, trying to keep people fed. I guess you live and learn, but at least everyone got to eat.

The evening went really well, and I think everyone had a pretty awesome time. I know I did. The final count was about 45 people including myself and Michelle. It was pretty packed for a while, but luckily the weather was nice so people were able to hang out out on the deck and the backyard. It was also great that Michelle’s and my parents (and a bunch of her extended family too) were able to meet for the first time. They didn’t get a chance to visit much, but there will be much more time for that in the future.

I just want to end off with a big thank-you to everyone who showed up to help celebrate the purchase of our new house. We also really appreciate those people who were there until the bitter magnificent end (4am), and helped us get everything cleaned up. It really made Sunday morning a joy to wake up to.