What a great reception!

Not only did Steph and Jon have a beautiful ceremony, they had a wicked fun reception. The reception was held at the Holiday Inn in Trenton. The ballroom before all the guests arrived.



The MC "conferring" with me:


Announcing the new Mr and Mrs!



Steph and Jon served a roast beef buffet meal with all the fixin's. The Holiday Inn sure had a tasty meal - the roast beef was yummy, there were TONS of salads to choose from, and you wouldn't BELIEVE the desserts they offered. My favourite would have to be the chocolate torte/cake/thingy. OK, I have NO idea what it is called, but you know that chocolate/fudgy part of Dairy Queen ice-cream cakes? The part that everyone loves? Well, this entire cake/torte/thingy was that - a really big piece of the chocolate middle thingy of DQ's ice-cream cakes - sooooo yummy! I have to try not to rub it in because my fiancé was too busy with Master of Ceremony duties to get a slice (I know, I should have gotten him a piece…lol). No pictures of the buffets, but believe you me - they were YUM-O!

Patrick was not only a Groomsman, but the Master of Ceremonies as well. It did a fabulous Jon (even if I do say so myself!). He used the itinerary that I had created for our wedding as a model for Steph and Jon's - of course getting their input and approval along the way.

Here is a picture of the handsome MC doing his thing:



Patrick did an amazing job, and kept to the timeframe without a hitch!

Besides a fantastic MC, what really kept the reception going was the Bride clearly having the time of her life. She was always smiling and having fun. She also danced up a storm!





And of course the Garter Toss:



Which Patrick won! :



There was some slight controversy on whether or not Pat and I could participate in the Garter Toss/Bouquet Toss - and the Bride was like "Heck Ya" you can participate :) That made me verrry happy - even though I didn't catch the bouquet! Pat's two little cousin did:



Not only did Steph dance up a storm, so did her guests!



Steph's mother made her wedding cake, and did a beautiful Jon - and it tasted so yummy too! Here are some picture of the couple cutting the cake (if anyone has a clearer picture please email it to me!!! Hamiharri at gmail dot com)



And of course there was tons of visiting and catching up:






It was such an awesome time!

And here is one with Dad and I :)


I have so many more pictures to post! I'm looking into make my flickr.com site "Pro" so I can upload more pictures. As soon as I do, I will let you know!

Oh My Goodness, Where to Begin…

We arrived back in BC on Monday night, and somehow it is already Friday and I have yet to post! Where does the time go?!?!

I'll be posting about several things that we did on our trip back to Ontario over the next week or so, but this post will be dedicated to Stephanie and Jon - Congratulations!!! You are married!!!



Steph and Jon had a beautiful wedding at Community Christian Reformed Church in Frankford. It was a fairly short ceremony, but filled with much love and meaning. It was also a gloriously sunny and warm early fall day - I hope June 21st turns out to be just as beautiful.

Stephanie is probably one of the only Brides around that was on time for her wedding ceremony, if fact, she was a few minutes early. I'm not sure if this was a good think or a bad thing…lol I guess it was a good thing so we weren't late and making the Groom and the rest of the guests wonder if the Bride was going to show up. However, being on time/a bit early made the Groom nearly see his Bride before it was time! Good thing the Groomsmen were on their game so that didn't happen. Before the ceremony began we were waiting in a little room and I was asking Steph if she was excited and that in minutes she would be walking down the aisle. Here response was "Don't Ash…" LOL - it was apparently not the time to be asking those types of questions…if any Brides/Bridesmaids out there have time before the ceremony, try to focus on anything BUT walking down the aisle…lol

Once Stephanie began walking down the aisle the waterworks started. Beginning with Meagan…I didn't realize it at first because I was watching the Bride but then I noticed Steph start shaking her head (as if to say "no"), then I looked at Meg and she was bawling…lol…it was pretty sweet…then it made me start to tear up and then the Bride…lol…I guess tears like yawning, are contagious! But it was hard not to tear up looking at Steph, she was so beautiful!



Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the ceremony, and afterwards in a park nearby…my Dad took them on my little Sony digital…the lighting isn't the best, but as Steph gets her professional shots back, I'll try to post a few of those.














Oh, and another thing that was kind of funny was the whole decorating of the "get-a-way" car. I guess originally Steph and Jon played with the idea of having a tractor as their get-a-way car (he is a farmer after all;) However, they opted to use his Dad's newly painted and detailed truck (at least I'm 99.9% sure that it was Jon's Dad's). But then the whole thing of WHEN were we going to decorate it came up. It was just another thing to worry Steph about, only it wasn't her problem to worry about - enter BRIDAL PARTY! I think it was the most quickly decorated get-a-way car ever. Patrick and Mike picked up a few decorations (more on how awesome those two Groomsmen were in another post;) We decided that we would decorate the truck immediately after the ceremony while Steph and Jon received tons of hugs and kisses from family and friends. Patrick and I, and Leeann attacked the truck trying to be oh so careful of the new paint job. LOL - here is a picture…



Next up - reception!

Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party - check!

So I'm home now and was greeted with slightly humid air (yipee!) and a beautiful hot and sunny Friday (although it has been kinda chilly since). This will be a pretty quick post because I am in Tweed and there is only dial-up!

Here are a few pictures...

The first is one of us at Steph's Bridal Shower:



And one of the Bachelorette Party:



And that's all I'll post because it took about 1.5 hours to upload 2 pictures! Tommorrow I'm off to Ottawa to go Mother of the Bride dress shopping - fun! AND looking forward to Patrick arriving in one and a half more sleeps! More later when I have access to high-speed!

Heading "Home"…

(This picture makes me laugh every time I see it;)

Well, I will be heading "home" tomorrow anyway;) I think - scratch that - I KNOW it is going to be a busy trip - but Patrick and I can't wait! It has been over a year since I have seen my parents (and come to think of it, it's been that long since Patrick has seen his parents as well. Hopefully by the time we return we'll have much wedding stuff accomplished, as well as wonderful memories of Steph and Jon's wedding, and visiting friends and family to cherish.

Meg and I fly out tomorrow, while Patrick heads home on Tuesday - but he won't arrive in Ottawa until the early am of Wednesday. All three of us will be heading back to BC on the 24th.

Make a little wish or say a little prayer that our travels are safe - AND for Bella and Beau who will be attending "Doggie Overnight Camp" for a week.

I'll try to update as much as I can - because I am hooked on the internet you know ;p

Bye for now!

Love,
The HamiHarri's

Birthday Etc. Pics!

So another birthday has come and gone and although I am not in the mood to write much, I do want to say THANK YOU to my friends and family who have sent me birthday wishes and given me birthday gifts. And, YES! Patrick did get me the iPod that I had requested! Yippee! He had a little message inscribed on the back of it (too cute!):



I *heart* it, and I am having fun uploading songs onto it. With some birthday money that I received I also purchased a port for it so it can hook up to our surround sound…which is pretty neat and works really well. This port will also allow us to hook it up to our reception venue's speaker system, so we are one step closer to having an iPod wedding (versus a more traditional band or DJ).

Here are a few pictures of me on my b-dids as well as a "group" shot that I apparently INSISTED on taking (you can tell from the expression on my face that I might have had a wee bit too much vino with dinner - ah well, it was my birthday!) From right to left is Meg's friend Jono, Patrick, Paul, then Karen, Me and Meg - what a fun gang to have around!







So either the wine at dinner was EXTREMELY potent, or I had a case of food poisoning - ether way I was sick for the next two days - thus the lack of posting… I was so sick I had lost the will to web surf - and I am HOOKED on the internet.

Friday night I headed over to Salt Spring Island to meet Patrick for his "We Survived Summer" staff appreciation dinner. Here is a cute picture of Patrick and I while we waited for his staff to arrive.



Here is a picture of most of his staff after he had handed out awards including "The Rock," "The Switch Hitter," "The Heart," and others. It was really sweet to hear him speak about his colleagues individually, and listen to how important they are to the branch. (I have NO idea why I can't get rid of the red eye…)



Oh, and here is a picture from the inside of the Salt Spring Island BC Ferry - it is made in Belleville Ontario!!! Who knew?

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm 23 today!!!

Patrick, Karen, Paul and I will be going to Nautical Nellies for a yummy dinner. Although I'm not a big seafood fan, I am in LOVE with Nautical Nellies Potato Crusted Halibut - YUM-O! The first time I had it was when Patrick's parents were visiting last summer. It turns out that it isn't a regular item on their menu - they have it every once in a while as their "catch of the day." Well, seeing how I love it so much I just HAD to have it for my birthday, right? So I emailed Nautical Nellies to see if it was possible to have it as the "catch of the day" today. AND this is the email I got back:

Good Morning Ashley
We would be delighted to have you share your birthday with us and are more than happy to accommodate your request for the potato crusted halibut. It will be our "Catch of the Day".
Please call to book your reservation at your convenience.
Thank You!
Have a great day!
Lisa Hartery
Executive Chef
Nautical Nellies Restaurant

How cool is that? LOL - so believe you me, I am truly going to enjoy my dinner tonight!

Then Meg and her friend Jono are going to pop by our place for the traditional Hamilton - now traditional Hamilton-Harris Betty Crocker/Duncan Heinz birthday cake (chocolate cake with vanilla rainbow bits icing, mmm….)- I seriously can’t wait!!!

Labour Day Weekend and a Happy 31st Birthday to my sister Karen!!!

Another FABULOUS long weekend in Victoria, I must say! Although Friday was my scheduled flex day I decided to gain approval to work it as I had last Monday off to be home for the UPS guy to deliver my WEDDING DRESS! Yes, it is in, and safely stowed away at Karen's house :) Thanks again Karen and Paul!

On Saturday night, Meg came over for a yummy steak BBQ that Patrick prepared - Yum-o! Then we went to the Casino where Meg and I lost $40 each, and Pat won $250! That boy is so lucky! Meg and I stuck mainly with roulette - where Meg lost her $40 and I lost $20 (we decided we had a $40 limit…lol). Then I headed over to the Black Jack table where Patrick was where I proceeded to lose my other $20 - but I have to say that I was up $20 or so bucks at one point - AND I did get a Black Jack, so that was pretty cool. After Pat cashed in all his winnings he went and bought us a drink - what a nice guy ;)

Our Sunday was pretty chill as well, Pat mainly hung out with Randy and I spent the day at the mall - doing a little shopping and getting some high-lights, it is amazing that it takes about 3 and a half hours to highlight my hair! Afterwards Pat and I headed out to see The Simpson's Movie - it was pretty cute, and I'm glad that we got to see it in the theatre, but it is no Bourne Ultimatum!

Monday was Karen's 31st Birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY again Karen!!! We went to Moxies for dinner with Cassandra and Mark - it was a swell time!



Earlier in the day on Monday, Pat and I finished up our financing/insurance stuff for our new car! Which I get to pick up today after work - yippee! Pictures to come!

Hope ya'll had a great weekend too!