happy friday

we are back to fake fridays around here, but it still feels good. this weekend j is flying across the province in a private plane to play golf. pretty lux. i'll be trying a few things in the kitchen, and making use of my gym membership. 

i am working on a little post about our wedding budget. secretly that is the thing i am most interested in when i read about other weddings. i'll have that up on monday. have an awesome weekend!

our wedding: reception details

we had our reception at the crowne plaza hotel in dieppe, new brunswick. i had never seen it (or anything, really) until the day before the wedding. i thought it was really beautiful. the checkered floors might not be for everyone, but i liked them

our room set-up. i loved it. the floor, the lighting, the orchids along the wall of mirrors. i loved how everything was white. and the room was really small, so it felt cozy with our small guest list. i was pretty into those white balls over the dance floor. so cool. 

the centerpieces took over 8 hours to put together, and they were really heavy. we spent a lot of time deciding on the flowers, and in the end we went with a variety of roses and hydrangeas, and also succulents. i loved how they turned out. lots of guests took home an arrangement at the end of the night. 

i know a lot of brides really focus on the paper products like invitations, programs, place cards. but we were set on having a green wedding with no paper. so our place cards were dental floss. we thought it was a tacky but fun detail.

we did not want cake. we are not huge fans of wedding cake, or cake at all. we debated cupcakes, but in the end my danish family gifted us with this traditional danish celebration cake. it had 17 layers of an almond pastry. it was actually a hit with the guests, and another kitschy detail. we also did a danish skoal (cheers) with vanilla vodka in custom shot glasses. loved it. 

why our wedding day was NOT the best day of my life

seems like everyone always says that their wedding day is the best day of their life. it's always up there with graduations, the birth of your children, the day you bought your first house. but our wedding day wasn't like that for me...

when j and i started talking about getting married, we debated all the options: a traditional wedding in his hometown, a beach wedding down south, a backyard wedding at my parent's house, a wedding at a cabin in the woods where all the guests would stay for the weekend. the truth is that eloping at our city hall sounded the best to us. but we knew that both our families would want to be present at our wedding. and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for our guests (only family and very close friends) to come to our celebration. so we planned a wedding that was a perfect compromise. it was outdoors, it was in a city that was easy to travel to, the guests and wedding party were all able to stay in the same hotel for the weekend. it was all good.

but really, i could not be more uncomfortable being the centre of the attention of over 50 people at once. so by design, our wedding was never going to be an event i would feel relaxed and happy at. i was so relieved when the dancing started at the end of the night. finally everyone was not looking and talking about me (and j). there were other great moments during the weekend, like connecting with friends i hadn't seen in a while, and having a morning-after breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

and the moment when i slid a ring onto j's finger was amazing. i barely noticed everyone else at that moment. but the best day of my life is the day j asked me to marry him.

maybe other people feel the same way as me about their weddings? ps, we got our pictures back! they are so cool.  i'll do a few posts with the pics.

on the weekend: gros morne mountain and more

(enjoying some wine during supper)

(the entrance to the gros morne mountain hike)

(a very scenic hike)

(we encountered this sign after hiking over an hour)

(success)

(sweet little Rocky Harbour)

what an awesome weekend. we finally hiked gros morne mountain with a few friends. this was probably the most intense hike i have ever done (and i did machu picchu in peru). there was a solid hour or so of climbing on all fours up a landslide of rocks. the hike was 16 K, and took us over 5 hours. we could barely move at the end of it. strangely, there is something really awesome about making your body super exhausted. the wine and hot dogs we had afterwards were pretty sweet. during the hike, we kept saying we would never do it again. but now that a day or two has passed, i think i would. 

hotel review: gros morne cabins, rocky harbour, gros morne national park, newfoundland

we stayed in these cabins for the weekend in gros morne national park. it was a 5 min drive from the hike, which was super convenient.

price: around $225 per night for a two bedroom. there is a kitchen and a bbq too
bathroom: clean, nothing special
pool: no, but there is a huge indoor pool with huge hot tub 5 min away that is only $3/person entrance
breakfast: there's a skillet and a toaster
wifi: yes and free.
tv: we watched lots of hgtv while nursing our sore legs after the hike
location: rocky harbour is really cute, and close to the good stuff in gros morne
parking: free
notes: this cabin was perfect for two couples. there's a little convenience store that sells overpriced condiments and necessities. good idea to get groceries before entering the national park if you plan on making your own meals. also, we spent an hour at the indoor pool and loved it. tons of kids, but the hot tub was pretty empty.