Our trip to Vancouver culminated in a wedding! Emma and Justin were married:

It was a beautiful day and the wedding was fun and intimate. Emma looked fabulous in red. Our cousins, Rikia and Cam, hosted the wedding and garden party reception in their home; thus saving Emma and Justin, in Rikia’s words, “from the wedding industrial complex”. It was lovely.

My mother, Marylou, flew up from Arizona. It was so nice to have her there! She looked very stylish.

Leah baked five dozen little wedding cakes in the shape of rings. They were flourless chocolate cakes with an apricot and Triple Sec filling, covered in a chocolate caramel ganache and dusted in gold. I ate 6 of them (not all on the same day). They were to die for! She also provided the necessary drama on the day, when a workman fell through the ceiling of her home on the morning of the wedding. We are very grateful to her for taking one for the team, thus ensuring the rest of the wedding day went perfectly. Leah looked absolutely amazing, especially given that she had a hole in the ceiling and had to move into a hotel.

Emma declared “no speeches”. Astonishingly, everyone behaved. Instead, we just had fun and it was smiles all around.

Even the ceremony itself was full of laughter:

It was a beautiful day. Here is a radiant Emma with her dad:

In addition to the wedding, this holiday also included a new baby, a visit from my mom, multiple birthdays, a road trip and our anniversary. It was really nice to spend time with my mom in Vancouver:

We also celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were there. On the day, Doug and I re-created a photo taken on our wedding day. The photo was taken in the back garden of Doug’s childhood home on the Seymour River in North Vancouver. The home was sold the year after we were married, and the current owner was happy to let us into her garden and take photos. She remembers Doug’s dad, Jim, with great fondness and we had a good time reminiscing about the house and garden and river. Thank you, Shamshad, for letting us recreate this lovely memory 34 years later!

It was taken in the same spot, although the bench is different. As you can see, the bench is narrower and our bodies are wider than 34 years ago, so it is a much tighter fit. While we were there, we took many photos, including this one:

We were happy to carve out some time to spend with old friends while we were out there:

And I even managed to get in a little bit of knitting. You know you have good friends when they drape you in fairy lights so you can see your knitting when the sun goes down:

I managed to finish the project I was working on in this photo, and am very nearly done with another, but you will have to wait for my next post to see it. I will end with a great photo of Emma. After the wedding, she and Justin went back to the restaurant where they had their first date, and Justin shot this photo. Emma is wearing her wedding ring, and a denim shirt over her wedding dress. Lovely!