The Wedding Day Part 1

A few days before the wedding I stopped by my local supermarket to pick up a loaf of rye bread. The cashier was a friendly guy I've seen a few times before. We made small talk. I asked him if he'd seen the weather forecast for Saturday. High of 25 degrees Celsius (that's 77 F) and sunny! He handed me my change with a weary smile and went on to the next customer. I didn't get a chance to explain that I wasn't just one more boring drone with nothing better to talk about than the weather.

All last week I looked for him, wanting to explain - I got married on Saturday! That's why I was so jazzed about the weather! Really, I have better things to talk about, usually! I didn't see him and I'm sure he's long since forgotten.

But DANG! What weather we had for that day. Special-ordered just for us.

I got up at 6:30 am to beautify myself and steam the crinkles out of my chiffon gown. We left on time, at the dot of 9:30. I tottered down to the parking garage in my white heels, feeling incredibly self-conscious, hoping not to run into any of the neighbours.

Ken had rented a big, fancy, black car to chauffeur me around. Our first order of business was to stop by the church and set the cake out to warm up. The baker had told me in no uncertain terms:

"This is buttercream icing. If you don't take the cake out to warm up at least four hours before you serve it, the icing texture will be all wrong, like a thick layer of cold butter. It'll be disgusting."

Ever since then, many of my pre-wedding nightmares, the kind that woke me sweating at 3:31 am, brain whirling like a gerbil on crack in a greased exercise wheel, were based on a horror of not getting the cake out of the fridge in time. I worried about it more than anything else. The pastor had offered to swing by the church to take the cake out for us, so we wouldn't have to worry about it, but I didn't trust his memory. (He's a sweet man, but somewhat disorganized, by his own admission.) When Ken returned to the car to let me know that the cake had made a successful transition upstairs and was now warming itself in the lounge, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

By 11:00 we were at the Allan Gardens greenhouse, meeting our intrepid photographer. The next hour was spent posing in front of palm trees, ornamental ponds, colourful blossoms, and cacti. Good times. I enjoyed playing the part of Toronto's Next Top Model, and Ken was very dapper in his suit.

As time wore on we all got a bit sweaty, especially Ken in his suit and tie. A greenhouse is meant to heat up in the sun, and, as the clock ticked towards noon, the temperature soared. By the end I think it was probably more than 30 degrees (86 F), and humid. Fortunately we had brought lots of bottled water, so there was no fainting or other unpleasantness.

Finally we crawled out of the oven, gasping for fresh air. Mission accomplished.

I've already written about our issues with traffic. However, a benefit of having to detour all the way to Dufferin to get uptown was that we changed our lunch plans. The strategy, for the sake of speed, had been to stop by home and quickly eat a ham sandwich with carrot sticks, before heading back to the church. This would ensure that we'd get something in our stomachs even if traffic was really bad, and had the added benefit of not posing any threat of staining my dress.

But we were driving north up Dufferin. That meant passing right by California Sandwich, and Ken doesn't like to drive past California Sandwich. Especially not at lunchtime. So he parked, left me in the car with the radio on, and ran in to buy us two enormous Italian sandwiches with lots of toppings.

At home I tied a flannel sheet around my neck as a full-body bib, and put that sandwich away like nobody's business. Such a delicate, ladylike bride, covered up to my wrists with tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms dripping onto my plate. Hey, it was a long day to get through, and a girl's gotta eat!

Fortunately Ken has more than one good suit, because he'd sweated right through the one he wore to the greenhouse. He showered and changed into his second outfit of the day. I washed my face and re-did my makeup. Then we were off to the church.