More About Our Canadian Wedding
Our Canadian (read: LEGAL) wedding on
Thursday, August 18, was everything we had hoped for, just like the ceremonial
wedding. Everything ran smoothly. At 2:00, Darryl (from
Two Dears and
a Queer Wedding Planners) showed up at our hotel lobby and drove us downtown
to the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, where we picked up our marriage
license application. Darryl then drove us around town a bit. Darryl was friendly
and charming, and showed us some of the city and answered some of the questions
we had accumulated up to that point. He wanted to know how we met and a bit of
our story.
As 4:00 approached, he drove us to the rose garden in Queen Elizabeth Park, just
a couple kilometers south of our hotel. It was beautiful place, on a
hilltop will a view of Vancouver to the south. A few minutes after we
arrived, the marriage commissioner arrived, momentarily followed by Ann, one of
the Two Dears. Darryl set up a small collapsible table for signing the marriage
license application, and spread a lovely white tablecloth on it, as well as a
few flowers for ornamentation. We gave our cameras to Darryl and Ann, and Darryl
gave us our boutonnières (a yellow rose and a purple rose, as ordered) and we
proceeded to pin them on each other.
The marriage commissioner, Ann Moore, was just delightful. She was a charming
lady who generated warmth and sincerity and good wishes with everything she said
and did. She conducted a very nice service for us. In addition to the standard
liturgy she was required to recite, she added some of her own comments as well.
We were given the opportunity to say the vows we had written to each other
again. In a remarkable coincidence, she closed with the Apache Wedding Prayer,
which Janet had read at our Arizona wedding last Saturday.
When the ceremony concluded, Darryl produced champagne flutes and popped open
the bottle of champagne, and the five of us toasted our marriage. We had also
ordered cupcakes, with yellow and purple icing, which we also enjoyed. Then the
five of us stood around and talked, including some enlightening conversation
about how they liked living in Vancouver and Canada.
Afterwards, Darryl took us to the Japanese garden, also part of Queen Elizabeth
Park, for some more photos. The garden made a wonderful setting for pictures,
although some of them suffered from the late afternoon shade.
After that, we had dinner at the Seasons Restaurant, also at the Park. It was
magnificent. The restaurant sits on the edge of a hill top, so it has a
spectacular view of the city. As we were being seated at a table which would
have had an acceptable view, our waiter noticed us and, seeing our matching
suits and boutonnières, jumped in and said, “if you will wait a moment for us to
clear this table, you can sit here,” pointing to a table right at the window
which had one of the best views in the house. So naturally, we took him up on
his offer.
The meal was incredible. It was probably one of the nicest meals either of us
have ever enjoyed in a fine restaurant. It was our wedding day, and it was
worth it.