Jacqui and Richard Abroad: Saturday, August 22nd

This blog entry is not really part of our travels abroad, but considering its importance, I feel that it is quite appropriate.
What a weekend! It was so much fun to see family and friends rejoice in this great occasion. Jacqui and I had gotten to Ottawa on Monday, August 17th to help Julie with the last minute preparations. The week went by quickly but we still managed to meet with friends for lunch or dinner. Family and friends started to arrive either Thursday or Friday. We were happy to see Vince on Thursday night as he only got back from Asia on Monday but we had left for Ottawa already; we hadn't seen him since his graduation in June.
On Friday morning, we had breakfast with my brothers and their wives, and Chantal, our niece. It was very nice to be all together as this hadn't happened since 2001. In the evening, both families and the wedding party met in a room in a bar downtown for a get together. It was a great chance to get to meet Dave's family and members of the wedding party. We walked to the Notre Dame cathedral basilica for the wedding rehearsal. The place was absolutely stunning. We all went back to the bar after rehearsal to continue mingling, then headed to the hotel around 10.
Saturday morning, I dropped Jacqui off at Julie's so she could get ready with Jul and the bridesmaids. I did a bit of last minute running around, then showed up at Julie's around 10:30. The girls were getting ready and all looked very beautiful. We all left her place in a limo and got to church on time for a noon wedding. Jacqui's brother did the ceremony; it was fairly emotional for everyone involved. After the wedding, we went for pictures at the National Arts Museum and in Majors Hill Park. It was beautiful as the weather was perfect - sunny, 24 degrees, no wind.
The reception was at the hotel. We had a great meal, some nice speeches and the party after was a lot of fun as the DJ was very good. Everyone had a great time. It was so much fun to have a chance to spend time with friends and family and to see everyone enjoy themselves so much. Julie and Dave were both radiant all day. They did a great job organizing this big event.
On Sunday, we all met at Julie's apartment for the gift opening part of the weekend. It was our chance to say goodbye to Dave's family as everyone started to head back home. We finished our weekend with dinner at Pub Italia, all very tired but thrilled with the weekend we had.