calgary reception

After we returned from taking pictures, we had a little time to just relax and hang out with some family. I even traded out my dress for some comfy clothes for about 5 minutes before we had to leave for the reception. I quickly ate another beef on a bun, slipped my dress back on, and we were out the door again. Everything looked so fantastic and delicious! A huge thanks to Candyce Ibbott-Nye who made 300 of these beautiful cookies! She is one talented lady. And also thanks once again to Arianne for taking these pictures. It means a lot to me.  

I don't know how many batches of cupcakes it took for Denise to be satisfied with her chocolate peanut butter surprise cupcakes. I don't know how many I taste tested (there were quite a few), but in the end they were perfect. Thank you, Denise, for making such a variety of delicious treats!

Denise also made some lollipop bird cages. They were pretty adorable. There was dill pickle popcorn,  oh and you can just see a hint of the two bite brownies that my mom brought. Thank you!

Denise also made some yummy banana poke cake.

Thanks so much to Alex who decorated the P and the B in the above picture. Super cute!

And here are the centrepieces:

Instead of a guest book I had everyone write us a message, draw us a picture, or just sign their names on the paper provided (Marshie was the artist who decorated the papers for me, thanks lil bro). It worked out great! We got some pretty awesome poems and pictures!

We stood for the whole two hours welcoming people and receiving their congratulations. It was so awesome to see how many people came out to support us. Just when we thought the line would end, more people walked through the door. I thought it was pretty great despite the fact that we couldn't sit down at all until Jordan Burton played us a song. He and Burns used to play in their own little band together. Jordan singing and on guitar and Burns would drum for him.
Here are the lyrics:

A Million Stories

There are a million stories that we know,

That tell the tale of boy meets girl.

As difficult as they are to believe,

I have seen it.

Their passion may take you by surprise,

Something you'd have to see with your own eyes.

In order for you to understand,

What true love is.

I can testify that it exists.

Betwixt two hearts and best friends.

It's not that it isn't obvious,

It's just so rare that you might miss it at first,

So innocent and natural,

A real life fairy tale.

I can testify that it exists.

Betwixt two hearts and best friends.

There are a million stories that we know,

That convince each of us there is hope,

And we are destined to fall in love,

Now there's a million and one.

I can testify that it exists.

Betwixt two hearts and best friends.

A growing fire,

A burning desire.

A feat of strength,

A leap of faith.

A steadfast ship,

A granted wish,

A woken dream,

Everything in between.

On this day,

We celebrate,

The epitome of,

True love.

A story that,

Will never end.

Thanks so much, Jordan, we really appreciate you writing and playing such a great song for us!

After Jordan played, we figured it was time to wrap things up at the reception and get ready to leave for our honeymoon! The plane would leave at 11:20pm so we went to double check that we had everything, oh yeah, and Burns still needed to pack.

We had everything together and then I thought, oh hey, where is Burns' passport? I had mine, but where was his? We then spent the next half our searching the Heninger's house high and low. We got people out of bed who may have seen it, we called people who were sleeping, I was starting to panic a little. Okay a lot. Stephanie said that she gave it to me that morning but I had absolutely zero recollection of the hand off. I didn't even believe her! We kept searching and searching.

We then decided to search the room I got ready in once more. I looked in the garbage, and as I was looking up from the garbage, my eye spotted something that I hadn't noticed before. The printer/scanner. Ah yes. I had found Burns' passport.

I had asked Stephanie to get Burns' passport for me that morning so I could scan it and send it to my mom in case anything happened. Apparently I didn't take it out of the scanner. I, to this day, don't remember receiving his passport from Stephanie. I remember scanning it, I remember sending the information, but for the life of me I cannot recall Stephanie giving it to me. I'm so sorry to everyone I inconvenienced that night. Thanks so much for all your help looking for it.

After we found the felonious passport, we had a little time to open some gifts with some family around. It was then time to go to the airport. Thanks so much to Luke and Mandi for sending us off.



I was scared that it wouldn't be, but it really was the best day of my life.

Waiting for our flight.

I sincerely am so thankful for everyone involved in our perfect day. I'm so sorry if I didn't mention you by name, but know that Burns and I are so grateful for your contributions. 

And now it is time to retire my gageofpaige blog. To me this blog represents my single life. You can read about our married life adventures on my new blog that I named, simply, Harris. 

Thanks for reading!

the pictures

I chose to have our pictures done on Nose Hill. I went on jogs and walks there a lot in the summer (as some of you may have noticed due to all my postings on Instagram and here) and I found some spots that I thought would be perfect for wedding pictures.

Arianne was such a great sport hiking around up there only a month after she had Baby Audrey. I don't think Burns knew what I had planned. He was pretty upset because he was hiking around in his brand new expensive shoes. Oh well, they made for great pictures! Thanks so much Arianne and Boonie for putting up with my dream. I think these pictures turned out to be absolutely perfect. I'll look at one and think, "Okay this one is my favourite." Then I'll look at another and think, "Oh, no this one is my favourite." And then I look at another and the same thing happens! I love them all so very much!

There are still a lot more but these include my absolute favourites:

Arianne, I just can't thank you enough for capturing our love in such a beautiful way!

family luncheon

After most of our guests were settled at their tables, Burns and I were led to our own private table. Denise surprised us with a beautifully set table and even our own little cake!

We were served a delicious meal of beef on a bun and potato salad. There were a lot of other tasty things, too. Denise certainly outdid herself. Thank you so much to all who helped out with that!

I found bottled water labels somewhere online. If you ever want the outline, just ask. They were actually really easy to put together once I figured out how to get the picture of the branches with the birds on the label. Just print out the label, cut it on the line, put clear, one-sided sticky plastic over top (found at your local dollar store - I found mine at Dollarama) and attach to the bottle. I found that the Dasani water bottle worked best for this label (maybe Coca-Cola bottles in general?). I found miniature bottles at Wal-Mart and thought they would be perfect. Okay, well actually I was looking for the regular size but I couldn't find them anywhere, so I got the mini ones. They turned out better than I hoped! Thanks once again to Denise for helping me put them together!

Centrepieces for all the tables at the lunch:

Thoroughly enjoying our beef on a bun:

We totally forgot to exchange our rings during the ceremony planned to exchange our rings at the luncheon. It just seemed more suiting to our kind of style.

And we got to kiss in front of everyone. A lot.

In between lunch and dessert, I had my dad give a little speech. It was so great. Thank Daddy!

And thank goodness Marshie and Carol recorded everything because the Go-Pro's memory card was full from other events.

Then we had Denise give a little speech.

I knew Burns was going to sing for me. I thought he made a song up for me but he did the most beautiful rendition of John Denver's "You Fill Up My Senses". Burns may not have written it, but he sang it so beautifully and it seriously is so perfect for us. Thank you, Boonie, for doing that for me. It made me so happy. And thanks to  Matt for holding the mic for him.

Oh yes and thanks again to Matt for being such a wonderful MC!

After Burns' song, dessert was served and we left the mic open for anyone who wanted to say something nice. Burns was so worried that no one would get up, but a lot of people did! All the speeches are in my top 5 favourite things of the day.

Matt, being the MC and all, started it off.

Luke

Mandi

Grandpa Wood

Mommy

Oh and did I mention we were pressured into singing? We didn't plan on it at all so it wasn't very good, but we got through it haha. We played a song that we wrote. It's still untitled but hopefully one day we will title it and record it. We would call it "Soak Up the Sun" but that's the same title as Sheryl Crow's song.

Elise

Rick

Marshie!

Arianne said she missed this part but she would have gotten up too had she not been feeding her baby.

A big thank you to this guy:

Pat helped us out so much that day. He helped with the music, drove us around and waited for us while we went to get pictures done on Nose Hill, got us water at the reception, and was an awesome support.

Burns thanking everyone who helped and who came out to support us. 

Navy being a little doll as usual.

Yup, I married one handsome man.

Kyler, Brad, Marshall, Joe, Matt, Sam, Burns, Jordan C, Jordan W, Brandon, Pat, Luke

They're so silly.

The brothers! I'm seriously so happy to have gained 3 more awesome older brothers. And extra happy to have gained two more amazing sisters and more nieces and nephews! Not to mention all the step-siblings, nieces, and nephews that I gained. What a fantastic family that I am a part of, now officially.

I love these guys.

Yay for my awesome brothers! They're the best.

I'm ecstatic that I'm a part of this family.

Heninger/Harris family.

Grandpa Wood is so great and accepting. I feel like he's been my grandpa my whole life.

90 years old and he's still such a stallion.

Lucy and Eden Russell, our two adorable nieces. 

Every time Eden saw my bouquet she whined that she wanted it. I finally let her hold it and she lit up like a Christmas tree. So cute.

Best siblings ever.

No turning back now, Burns.

Our cute little family.