Norman & Jessica's Destination Wedding + Photography Adventure (Part 4)

(my apologies to my sister and anyone else who was impatiently waiting so long for this next post, but we have been really busy the last few weeks with what those of us in the business call "work" haha..)

Missed the beginning? Here's where it all started: Part 1 - The Proposal, Part 2 - The Wardrobe, Part 3 - The Adventure Begins

And now...

Part 4 - The Ceremony


May 5th, 2011 - the day we got married :)
We woke up at 6am. This (as any of you who know me probably already know) would be painful enough for me in Toronto. But in Belfast, two days after arriving, 6am still felt a lot like 1am. So if we look a bit tired, that's why ;)

Luckily for me, Elaine is a professional make-up consultant and had very kindly offered to do my hair and make-up the morning of the wedding. Unluckily for her, that meant she was also up at 6am.. (nobody was awake enough at this point to operate a camera, so there are no pictures of the getting ready  chaos!) Joe & Elaine organized a lovely and simple breakfast of croissants and OJ which I ate mainly because I had bullied my sister into eating on her wedding day back in February so I thought I'd better follow my own advice!

Ready at last, we piled into the car and headed to Belfast City Center, picking up Norman's best friend Ian (and our photographer for the day) on our way. We parked close to the City Hall at Norman's cousin Keith's place of business, and Keith was good enough to give the five of us a lift to the front gates of City Hall (after teasing me about trying to get into the driver's seat - I was half awake and still not adjusted yet to the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road haha..)

The funny thing is, even after almost 10 years of shooting other people's weddings, I still had the nervous butterfly stomach heading to our own.. I sort of loved that :)

Speaking of shooting other people's weddings, I would like to take a moment to appreciate what Ian did for us. I've shot photographers' weddings before, and it's about 5 times the pressure of shooting anyone else's. And Ian, although he has been photographing for many years, does not normally photograph weddings. So I know what a huge favour we were asking of him by handing him the camera for our special day, and I think he did such a fantastic job :)

Anyways, here we are: the incredibly impressive Belfast City Hall..

Norman and Joe waiting in the Wedding Chamber - I must say, they look pretty relaxed about the whole thing.. (at this point, I was down the hall with Elaine in the ladies room getting into my dress. Even though Norman had already seen me in the dress when we first found it at Cabaret, the girly part of me didn't want him to see me in it on this day until I was walking down the aisle)

I'm so glad Ian got a shot of this fantastic map they had out in the hall - the "Chart of Betrothal Bay" shows such important landmarks as "Introduction Cliffs" and "Big Brother Isle" on the "Male Route to Churchdoor".. they also have a spot marked "Kissmequick" ;)

Ready!

from here on in, the next bit was a bit of a blur...

Elaine helping me put on my grandmother's pearls... When she gave them to me just before we left, my mom told me that my grandfather had brought these back for my grandmother from Paris when he came home after the war. I loved the idea of bringing them back across the same ocean over half a century later to wear for my wedding day :) (I also love that my sister wore them on her wedding day too!)

I walked down the aisle to Blue Rodeo's "Lost Together". My first choice had been Journey, but Norman urged me to reconsider (haha) - in the end, this song was perfect :)

My cheeks hurt from smiling :) especially when I saw Norman wipe a tear from his eye.. 

first kiss :) with many more to follow..

How can you not dance to Billy Joel on your wedding day??

My awesome veil and fascinator are courtesy of Oh Dina! in Toronto (thanks Nicole!)

The four of us, plus Norman's cousin Cathy who surprised us by coming to the ceremony (Norman's mummy and Cathy's mummy were in the hospital at the same time to give birth to the two of them, so they are practically twins ;)  )

We went back to the stunning lobby to take some photos - we were the only wedding that day so we didn't have to worry about rushing, which was so nice..

I think this last image is my favourite :)

On Cathy's recommendation, we then went to the most fantastic restaurant I've ever seen - which I will show you in the next post! I promise it won't take as long as this one did ;)

xoxo Jessica & Norman

Photography: Ian Ritchie (a HUGE thank you to Ian!)

Dress: Cabaret Vintage, Toronto

Veil & Fascinator: Oh Dina!, Toronto

Shoes: Response Clothing, Toronto

Norman & Jessica's Destination Wedding + Photography Adventure (Part 3)

Just joining us? Check out what you've missed so far: Part 1 - The Proposal, Part 2 - The Wardrobe


Part 3 - The Adventure Begins

After quite a hectic month of planning our wedding and the family party that would follow, we finally had our bags packed and were ready to get going!

I like to leave my in-flight reading somewhat up to chance, so I always wait and pick out a book once I get to the airport... after trying on all the vintage dresses at Cabaret, this book about the lives lived by vintage clothing seemed totally perfect! (The main story of the book was not bad, but the stories told by the dresses were fantastic and made it worth the read)

We spent 7 hours in Gatwick airport waiting for our flight to Belfast from London, so you will notice there are no pictures here of us after our arrival in Northern Ireland ;) Our first stop after picking up the rental car was to go to Tesco (the best grocery store in the world, greatly missed by British ex-pats) and then we headed straight to Norman's sister and brother-in-law's place. Elaine and Joe had been kind enough to offer us a home base for our time in Northern Ireland, and we couldn't have felt more welcome in their beautiful home in Greyabbey :)

We got there around 9 o'clock at night, so it wasn't until the next morning that I took these pictures..

One of the best things about having a dog (which we don't, but Joe & Elaine do - his name is Yogi) is that they need to go for walks. We really enjoyed joining Elaine taking Yogi down this lovely route to the shoreline.. I think since Norman had been gone from the country for almost a year and a half, he was really noticing all the rock walls and ivy that the locals tend to take for granted - so beautiful :)

My lovely husband (-to-be, at this point) frequently claims to not be "romantically inclined", but as you can see he scratched our initials and the date into this rock wall the day before our wedding (followed by a kiss "X") Aww... 

Elaine took this one of us (and Yogi in the background) outside one of the shops in their village. You may notice we are wearing many layers more than when we left Toronto two days earlier - Northern Ireland in May is not exactly warm (but is of course still lovely!)

Believe it or not, on our way walking back home through the village we passed a little fruit and flower shop. The little old man who ran the shop was out front, and came to say hello to us (as strangers tend to do in Northern Ireland - it's really lovely) and Elaine told him that we were visiting from Canada and would be getting married the next day. After congratulating us and telling us a story about his wife (to whom he had been married for many years) he starting singing - in the middle of the street - "Love is in the Air". It was totally magical. As we passed the village sweet shop, the owner also came to greet us. When she found out we were to be married the next day, she rushed back into her shop and filled a bag with chocolate hearts covered in silver foil with the words "Just Married" on the front, for which she refused payment. We were both really touched and felt like we were floating around in a little bubble of good wishes and happy thoughts, which was incredibly nice when we were so far from home :) For those of you who've never been to Northern Ireland (and especially if the word "Belfast" brings to mind only stories of terrorism and bombings), I have to say that it's full of the warmest and friendliest people I've ever met anywhere :) and I'm very happy to have such a good excuse to go back to visit often!

Now - time to get down to wedding business! I had brought a portable steamer before leaving, which did a great job. I have to say that considering how many hours she spent folded in half and squished into my suitcase, my wedding dress was in fantastic shape - just needed a bit of a touch-up with the steamer (Elaine also took this picture..)

I really love my dress, and it and Elaine & Joe's house seemed to be made for each other..

My mom and sister had found this purse for me years ago at a place called Vintage Bride in Mirvish Village in Toronto - it's made of ostrich feathers. I added the ribbon handles and trim and the little purple flower with leaves just to give it a bit of colour.. 

Since none of my family was going to be joining us for the Irish end of our celebrations, it was really nice to have a little bit of them with me :)

 I always tell my brides that weddings bring amazing surprises and generosity from those around you, but even I was amazed and a bit overwhelmed by the kindness of Norman's cousin Joanne - she made beautiful bouquets for both Elaine and I to carry during our ceremony at city hall. I had never even met her until we picked up the bouquets from her the day before the wedding, so it was incredibly special and really made me feel welcomed into the family even more :)

Having had only one day to settle in (and try to get adjusted to the time difference!) and finalize everything, we still managed to take a quick trip into the city center to scout out City Hall. Back in April when Norman had booked our date with them, they had sent us a brochure about other locations owned by the city council where you could also get married - including Belfast Castle. 

Now ladies, especially those of you who live in countries without castles on every street corner, you will understand that it was an effort of great restraint for me upon hearing this news to be casual about asking how my lovely groom would feel about maybe getting married at the Castle instead of at City Hall. To his credit, even though he had already planned everything for City Hall, he did very calmly agree to call them and see if the Castle was available. Which it wasn't. The point is, I was fighting back the urge to feel like my fairytale wedding could possibly have been slightly more perfect...until I saw Belfast City Hall. It's a stunner. It's actually way more beautiful than the Castle is, since the Castle on the inside looks a lot more like a conference centre than a castle.

Here's a little sneak peak of the domed ceiling above the lobby..

..so you can just imagine what the rest looks like! (Actually, you won't have to imagine for long, because the next part of our story will be The Ceremony :) Stay tuned...)

xoxo Jessica & Norman

Photography: Jessica Lin, except where noted

Dress: Cabaret Vintage, Toronto