Guess what? I'm a married man again!
Yep, I'm home again, after a wonderful week away. Many many thanks to gamer-gal, aka Cheri and to trucker_man aka Karl, for being our witnesses, tour guides and unofficial photographers. Anyone who hasn't see Cheri's post about the wedding should go here and look at Cheri's photos.
I dove to Heathrow on Thursday morning, very early. I actually beat the traffic. I had absolutely no trouble on my flight, other than it being delayed for an hour - which didn't matter because I'd have had to wait nearly 2 hours for Connie's flight anyway. Canadian immigration checked my passport 3 times, each time asking me different questions. The most important question: "What is the purpose of your visit?" A peice of advice, people. ALWAYS say you're a tourist. When asked if I was travelling alone, I mentioned that I was meeting a friend from the States for a few days. That's it.
Connie made the mistake of saying she was getting married, and was then subjected to The Spanish Inquisition! [Monty Python quotes cut for brevity].
Anyway, we finally got together and caught the bust to the hotel. First bit of drama for me was that I'd double booked us on the bus. See, I'd not received confirmation of the first booking. The hotel itself is right in the main tourist area of Niagara Falls. They've turned the place into something of a theme park, most likely to attract families.
Friday morning we walked to City Hall. It doesn't look that far on the maps we had... *eyeroll* Anyway, we got the marriage licence. This is where we hit our first real snag. Turns out it takes the State of Ontario THREE MONTHS to process marriage certificates, so Connie cannot apply for the certificate for three months. And without the marriage certificate, she cannot apply for a visa. Oh well, another three months won't hurt that much!
After collecting the paperwork, we walked down to the river. I was surprised to see that it was covered in floating ice!
Although the falls themselves weren't frozen, there was evidence that they may have been seriously ice-bound until recently...
Cheri and Karl did't get any pics of our dinner that night, but I did.
Oh, before heading back to Cheri and Karl's hotel, we took a quick visit to the falls, becaused they are all lit up at night, in different colours.
Saturday was really the best day of the week. It was still cold, but it was the only day that was really sunny. Connie and I got all dressed up.
And so did Karl and Cheri.
Connie's sister Vera paid for the flowers, as she wasn't able to be there herself.
Cheri's photo of the rings didn't come out well. I think mine came out ok...
Then it was off to the minister's house. We got there, realised we'd forgotten the marriage license and had to go back for it. A phew preliminaries and we started the ceremony. (obviously, I didn't take any of these!)
I've always loved that bit in US and Canadian wedding ceremonies where they say "You may kiss the bride". Interestingly, the minister's wife pointed out there there were several cameras to take photos with so could we hold that pose for a bit. Both Connie and I were thinking "Not a problem...!" *giggles*
This next shot is the minister and his wife.
So to the signing of the registers. Not really that interesting...
Then they did something I'd never seen before. The had us light a Unity Candle.
And blow it out together.
We were then given the candle. I have it here with me now. We are to light it on our anniversary every year.
The minister gave us the temporary marriage certificate. The photos of him presenting it to Connie are a bit unfortunate, because that clock is directly behind Connie's head in them and it makes her hair look really weird, hence I'm not showing them here. This one shows us holding the certificate.
Cheri and Connie hit it off as if they'd known each other all their lives.
And Karl and I discovered we have something in common, too: an interest in military history!
Karl and Cheri took us to Niagara-On-The-Lake, that afternoon. And, just to confirm what Cheri said, we were planning on going there anyway for a wine-tasting tour, so being taken there for free and shown into a shop that allows you to taste all the wines from the local vineyards was a real bonus. Being taken on a horse-and-buggy ride just rounded the day off nicely.
Other things we did:
There's a big ferris wheel, called the SkyWheel. Canada's answer to the London Eye. Well we went on that one twice, once at night and once in the day. The day photo's are still on my camera, but here are the best of the night ones.
On one very wet and windy day, we walked down to the falls, where someone took a photo of us, and we then went down into the tunnel behind the falls.
Unfortunately, some of the tunnels were blocked with ice.
We also went to an exhibit called "Brick City". Sort of a miniature "Legoland". Not on on the scale of the one in Windsor UK, and certainly nothing like the original Legoland in Copenhagen Denmark. Impressive enough though, with working trains, and enormous model buildings. Plus it had little quizes. "Can you spot six bats, four scuba divers, two astronauts and a scorpion?" The still photos really don't do it justice, but they never do. The movies aren't uploaded to Photobucket yet.
Lastly for this post, here's a photo of us on a Harley Davidson. The aim is a bit off because the staff in the shop said they aren't allowed to take photos for people,so i had to use the timer.
We also had dinner at the top of the Skylon tower, a sort of miniature version of the CN tower in Toronto - although it's quite high enough, thank you! But before we did that, we transfered the photos we had to CD. This resulted in more drama, because the place we had them transferred was a little chemist shop. The chap doing it said three of the photos wouldn't transfer. Well, that wouldn't have been a problem, except that when I put that data card back into the camera to check it, the camera couldn't read it.
Those three photos are gone for good. Luckily, Cheri and Karl have duplicates. I had the place copy the CD instead, so Connie and I both have copies of all the photos.
Watch this space for more.
I dove to Heathrow on Thursday morning, very early. I actually beat the traffic. I had absolutely no trouble on my flight, other than it being delayed for an hour - which didn't matter because I'd have had to wait nearly 2 hours for Connie's flight anyway. Canadian immigration checked my passport 3 times, each time asking me different questions. The most important question: "What is the purpose of your visit?" A peice of advice, people. ALWAYS say you're a tourist. When asked if I was travelling alone, I mentioned that I was meeting a friend from the States for a few days. That's it.
Connie made the mistake of saying she was getting married, and was then subjected to The Spanish Inquisition! [Monty Python quotes cut for brevity].
Anyway, we finally got together and caught the bust to the hotel. First bit of drama for me was that I'd double booked us on the bus. See, I'd not received confirmation of the first booking. The hotel itself is right in the main tourist area of Niagara Falls. They've turned the place into something of a theme park, most likely to attract families.
Friday morning we walked to City Hall. It doesn't look that far on the maps we had... *eyeroll* Anyway, we got the marriage licence. This is where we hit our first real snag. Turns out it takes the State of Ontario THREE MONTHS to process marriage certificates, so Connie cannot apply for the certificate for three months. And without the marriage certificate, she cannot apply for a visa. Oh well, another three months won't hurt that much!
After collecting the paperwork, we walked down to the river. I was surprised to see that it was covered in floating ice!
Although the falls themselves weren't frozen, there was evidence that they may have been seriously ice-bound until recently...
Cheri and Karl did't get any pics of our dinner that night, but I did.
Oh, before heading back to Cheri and Karl's hotel, we took a quick visit to the falls, becaused they are all lit up at night, in different colours.
Saturday was really the best day of the week. It was still cold, but it was the only day that was really sunny. Connie and I got all dressed up.
And so did Karl and Cheri.
Connie's sister Vera paid for the flowers, as she wasn't able to be there herself.
Cheri's photo of the rings didn't come out well. I think mine came out ok...
Then it was off to the minister's house. We got there, realised we'd forgotten the marriage license and had to go back for it. A phew preliminaries and we started the ceremony. (obviously, I didn't take any of these!)
I've always loved that bit in US and Canadian wedding ceremonies where they say "You may kiss the bride". Interestingly, the minister's wife pointed out there there were several cameras to take photos with so could we hold that pose for a bit. Both Connie and I were thinking "Not a problem...!" *giggles*
This next shot is the minister and his wife.
So to the signing of the registers. Not really that interesting...
Then they did something I'd never seen before. The had us light a Unity Candle.
And blow it out together.
We were then given the candle. I have it here with me now. We are to light it on our anniversary every year.
The minister gave us the temporary marriage certificate. The photos of him presenting it to Connie are a bit unfortunate, because that clock is directly behind Connie's head in them and it makes her hair look really weird, hence I'm not showing them here. This one shows us holding the certificate.
Cheri and Connie hit it off as if they'd known each other all their lives.
And Karl and I discovered we have something in common, too: an interest in military history!
Karl and Cheri took us to Niagara-On-The-Lake, that afternoon. And, just to confirm what Cheri said, we were planning on going there anyway for a wine-tasting tour, so being taken there for free and shown into a shop that allows you to taste all the wines from the local vineyards was a real bonus. Being taken on a horse-and-buggy ride just rounded the day off nicely.
Other things we did:
There's a big ferris wheel, called the SkyWheel. Canada's answer to the London Eye. Well we went on that one twice, once at night and once in the day. The day photo's are still on my camera, but here are the best of the night ones.
On one very wet and windy day, we walked down to the falls, where someone took a photo of us, and we then went down into the tunnel behind the falls.
Unfortunately, some of the tunnels were blocked with ice.
We also went to an exhibit called "Brick City". Sort of a miniature "Legoland". Not on on the scale of the one in Windsor UK, and certainly nothing like the original Legoland in Copenhagen Denmark. Impressive enough though, with working trains, and enormous model buildings. Plus it had little quizes. "Can you spot six bats, four scuba divers, two astronauts and a scorpion?" The still photos really don't do it justice, but they never do. The movies aren't uploaded to Photobucket yet.
Lastly for this post, here's a photo of us on a Harley Davidson. The aim is a bit off because the staff in the shop said they aren't allowed to take photos for people,so i had to use the timer.
We also had dinner at the top of the Skylon tower, a sort of miniature version of the CN tower in Toronto - although it's quite high enough, thank you! But before we did that, we transfered the photos we had to CD. This resulted in more drama, because the place we had them transferred was a little chemist shop. The chap doing it said three of the photos wouldn't transfer. Well, that wouldn't have been a problem, except that when I put that data card back into the camera to check it, the camera couldn't read it.
Those three photos are gone for good. Luckily, Cheri and Karl have duplicates. I had the place copy the CD instead, so Connie and I both have copies of all the photos.
Watch this space for more.