Because some of you like looking at wedding pics even if you don't know the bride and groom...

Back in the day, some might say, the good ol days, Candace and I worked together at Billie's Country - that cute little craft and gift store on 96th Ave.

When Billie's closed, she and I found new places of employment on opposite ends of Surrey so we haven't seen each other since 2003ish. However, Facebook has kept our love alive, so to speak. (This is one of the positive aspects of Facebook by the way. Carolyn has posted some thoughts on 'social media' on her blog - so click over there once you've finished checking out the pics here.)

So anyway, Candace's daughter, Crystal got married today.
And I went.
It was an outdoor ceremony with a backdrop of trees behind the stage and it was perfect...
These satin leaves, by the way, were stragically placed down the centre aisle after all the guests were seated. Very pretty.
For some reason the leaves and the trees and the breeze reminded me of the Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie and the wedding at the end when Sean Connery rides up on a horse. I half expected a Scotsman to do just that this afternoon. This is a pic of the "entry" way ... we signed the guest book in there before being seated. At this point in the proceedings, the moms, bridesmaids, groomsmen, bride and her dad are all stuffed in there:

There she is... Candace on the right. The groom's mom on the left. She looks exactly like she did 6 years ago. How come no one ages anymore?

Phew. Big smiles now that their parts are done:

This is Cara, Crystal's sister and Candace's younger daughter. She has a boyfriend. So don't bother asking me to introduce her to your son.

Here comes the bride, here comes the bride...

She kept her eyes on her man and smiled the whole way down the aisle:

I had a aisle seat, so she when she passed me by she was like 6 inches away from me.

And then? For the rest of the ceremony? The 7 foot tall man in front of me held his point and shoot camera up so as to block my view.

They did this Celtic hand-tying thing that was meaningful and beautiful and hidden from view because, after Candace put on the green ribbon ...

and the groom's dad put on the purple one...

The "real" photographers moved in:

And that was that. A whole lot of us saw a whole lot of their backsides:

And then this guy, with HIS camera again. Honestly.

Yay. I got to see something:

The lady next to me (I sat in a row with sari-ed and bangled women) looked like spring:

Know where the pastor went? To look for the vows...

Ryan and Crystal had written their own vows and given him a copy. But he forgot where he put them, so he ran back to his office to look.

He never did find Crystal's.

I couldn't get a shot of the kiss because there were three photographer's in front of me hogging all the space. This is the afterglow:

Know what I'm thinking?

When my kids get married, I'm going to ask the pastor to step to the side when my sons may "Kiss their brides". Not that pastors aren't cute or anything, but, they really are the third wheel in those kiss shots.

Oh, and as if it wasn't challenging enough to watch the proceedings with three photographers in front of me, there was the videographer taking up aisle space as well...

Paul, the bride's father, is the sound man at their church. And of course, there was no way anyone could make the mics work. So that was too bad. But it didn't really matter.

It is for this reason that I could never be a wedding photographer. Standing in the middle of the aisle during the entire ceremony with everyone looking at my ass? No thanks.

So.

Everyone sitting in aisle seats was given a vial of bubbles and we were to blow them during the recessional:

(yes it was hard blowing bubbles and taking pics.)

Do you know what the trouble is with bubbles?

They get in the way.

For example - there's a bubb le blowing right past the tips of Ryan's nose in this one:

(Click on the images to view them larger if you don't believe me.)

And here? It's right by his ear lobe, looking suspiciously like a dangly earring.

However, they were festive. And fun. And it was a beautiful wedding.

So there you go. For the four of you who read my blog and remember Candace - these were for you.

Thanks, Candace for the invitation. It was a beautiful wedding. You looked absolutely fabulous (LOVED your dress) and Crystal looked stunning and totally smitten. It was a fairytale-type of day...