Shel and Tasha's Banff wedding

Back from our weekend in Banff where we attended Sheldon and Natasha's wedding. So those who don't know, Shel is Simon's friend from York University. I hadn't met either of them until this weekend but we've been reading each others blogs, which we found by accident, for a while. Natasha used to date a friend of my friend Ben and followed the links to my blog where she and Shel saw a photo of Simon and connected the dots. I found their blogs by stalking out my readers using SiteMeter. Weird!

So to keep this brief I'll bullet point the most memorable things about the weekend:
- Natasha and Shel are as funny, interesting, and intelligent as I figured they were from reading their blogs
- The ceremony was beautiful (beyond words...check out the photo below)
- The reading from the Velveteen Rabbit about being real was SO cute and original, just like the couple
- Meeting the wedding party and their close friends at the Hot Springs Saturday night was fun, drinking with them and drawing dirty pictures of the Captain Morgan pose at the hotel was even more fun
- The reception featured a candy buffet, wedding cupcakes, a chocolate fountain, WWE takedowns by the bride, breakdancing and many other varieties of what I'd consider "dancing with reckless abandon" (in other words, that was the craziest reception I've EVER attended)
- Open bar is always a good idea - when the well drinks are a little rough, just add soda and one of the colored mixes
- You know the bride and groom are cool when they happily toast your table with a vodka shot (not tea or apple juice)
- You know the bride and groom are cool when they invite everyone to their suite for an after party (or did we invite ourselves...I don't remember)
- Having the reception in the hotel that most guests stayed at makes it even more fun (and easy to get home)

Simon's speeding ticket which he got 5 min after leaving the airport in Calgary

Beautiful place for a ceremony (albeit a tad chilly out there in Banff)

Shel and Tasha getting ready for the cupcake cutting!

The bride tackling one of the groomsmen ala WWE

Breakdancing is what truly makes a wedding reception memorable

My first wedding AFTER party!