After realizing it was our one year wedding anniversary coming up already, I’ve been pushing myself to get more of these posts over and done with! So here’s the next one in the series… this one about our fabulous wedding party of our bridesmaids and groomsmen. Next up will be photos of Allan and myself in our wedding getups (finally!).

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Allan and I were extremely lucky to have our best friends and family agree to be part of our wedding party. I don’t think anyone realizes when you accept to be part of a wedding how much work and effort it is financially, emotionally, physically, etc. Our friends went above and beyond and we are SO grateful! So this post is for them. Thanks dear friends

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My gorgeous bridesmaids wore UK-based designer Karen Millen. These champagne bandage dresses were an amazing designer find by one of my bridesmaids, Christie (fashion maven extraordinare), who works in high fashion in London. She managed to wrangle different sizes of the dresses from all over London and they fit the girls perfectly. Not only did they fit our colour scheme, but they were also breezy and comfortable for a (surprisingly) hot day in Tofino and great for dancing.

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My maid of honour was Kim, a lifelong best friend from very early childhood (we grew up on the same street!). We went to the same elementary and high school, and played a lot of basketball together. We’re still close to this day and she’s always someone I can go to for honest advice and she keeps me in check.

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Charmainne was one of my best friends in high school, and we’ve remained friends despite the fact she lives in Toronto now. Char always makes me laugh and is one of the most endearing people I know. She flew all the way to the west coast for the wedding, and helped me transport the cake through a treacherous Pacific Rim highway drive!

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Christie and I also grew up just blocks away from each other and also went to elementary school and high school together. She is now living in London, but she visits regularly and we always have the best time together. I’m so thankful she was able to be part of my wedding party despite the travel and distance difficulties with living in UK… but she was amazing.

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Loi is one of my close friends who also happens to be my cousin. We’ve shared a lot of family memories together and she is one of the kindest and most thoughtful people that I know. Loi helped me with creating our decorations (including helping me sew hundreds of silk flowers for our chandeliers) and was a huge help throughout the wedding.

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My hairdresser Paul Wolowidnyk from Union Salon did all the hair for the wedding with the beautiful side-dos, and Hayley Miller did all the makeup. Thanks guys!

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Here’s my maid of honour Kim signing our marriage certificate and a photo of her during her speech. Her speech made me laugh out loud with some kooky stories of our good ol’ basketball days.

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I love this photo of Loi and Kim leading our guests onto the dance floor. Our bridesmaids were so helpful and upbeat through our planning and the wedding. They helped with setup and takedown, gave me tons of fashion advice, calmed my nerves, and brought an infectious spirit of fun and laughter to the wedding. I will always be eternally grateful. Thanks ladies — love you lots!

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Here are the groomsmen looking very dapper in their tuxedos. Our wedding dress code was semi formal, formal preferred. They looked great in their tuxes and bowties and I love the clean look of the black on ivory with their simple boutonnieres. Allan’s groomsmen also brought a lot of energy and fun to our celebration, not to mention an insane amount of help. They did a ton of heavy lifting, setup and takedown, not to mention the crazy task of setting up the ceremony arch and chairs (and moving them to the reception hall after) in a short amount of time. Our wedding would not have been possible without them. Thanks guys

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The boys got into some scotch before the ceremony started…

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Here’s a photo of Allan’s Best Man, Trevor, enjoying a glass of scotch. Trev and Allan have been best friends since middle school, doing pretty much every extreme sport under the sun from snowboarding, mountain biking, and surfing. They have remained close friends over the years enjoying playing on the same hockey team and lots of out of town trips with myself and Trevor’s girlfriend.

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Tom was our Master of Ceremonies as well as one of the groomsmen, and he did an amazing job of keeping everything running on time and smoothly. Tom and Allan have been friends for over 8 years and play hockey and golf together. Tom is now engaged and we’ll be shooting his wedding next year!

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J aka Jason has also been friends with Allan for more than 8 years and were neighbours for several years as well. J brings tons of hilarity and sincerity (lots of -itys!) along with him and he really kept such a great positive spirit through the entire wedding and had the whole wedding party laughing out loud for the majority of our photos.

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Ben and Allan have been friends since middle school and grew up cliff diving on Vancouver Island and getting into trouble on their trips and adventures together. They also moved together from Courtenay to Vancouver where they attended the same video game program. Ben was  a huge help with the ceremony setup, not to mention he was one of the most frequent and excited users of our “photo” both. *cough *cough*

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Love this set of photos of the guys grabbing drinks and dancing outside the reception room.

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Trev gave a touching and hilarious Best Man’s speech.

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Also, they’re not technically in the wedding party, but I think our parents need a big shoutout here! To our mothers… who supported us through our entire lives and looked radiant on our special day!

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Allan’s mom having a laugh dancing with Allan.

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My parents giving a speech. My mom looked super cute with her lavender dress and hat, and my dad looked all cleaned up in a tux and bowtie. Thanks Dad for everything you did for the wedding… all the construction insanity!

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Mother and brother dancing. Little brother shoutouts coming in an upcoming post.

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J managed to catch the garter during the garter toss. He then proceeded to dance up to his girlfriend with the garter in his mouth, lol.

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Love these entrance photos of our wedding party dancing into the reception!

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Another big thanks to our gorgeous and handsome wedding party… thanks for all your help, love, support and for making the effort to come all the way out to Tofino for us and help us with our complicated wedding. And for putting up with us throughout our lives through thick and thin and the ups and downs. We will remember this for life, and will always be grateful. Love love love.

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All photos copyright by our amazing Vancouver wedding photographers JONETSU Studios… thanks guys!.

Follow @VancityAllie

Tags: best man, bouquets, boutonnieres, bridesmaids, groomsmen, maid of honour, master of ceremonies, MC, wedding party

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2012 at 7:53 am and is filed under Wedding/Relationship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.