Howdy folks! Well, the October of relaxation just rolls along for ActiveSteve. The weekend after my nice relaxing trip to Mont Tremblant I had a few fun little plans lined up. The first such exciting plan was a Halloween shooter party on Friday night, followed by the Terri and Adam wedding on Saturday at the Beantown Ranch. Both events were a great time, and are a good prelude to my upcoming hiatus from Canada to the warm winds of New Zealand. I’ll keep the story brief this time, because frankly, I’ve been spending my work days writing, and have plenty of other things to keep me busy at the moment. However, just to keep things consistent, as always, you can check out some of
The shooter party was organized by one of my adventure racing friends, and a lot of the invitees were people I’ve raced with over the summer. Not always on the same teams, but in this community, we’re all friends! Anyway, the party was a costume party, and we were each supposed to take a bottle of liquor for the shooter aspect of the party. I went dressed as a Mexican Wrestler (Lucha Libre style, to be specific), and brought a bottle of Cherry Schnapps for the fun. In retrospect, my biggest mistake of the evening was in not taking a sipping drink. I was wholly dependent on shots. Bad idea.
I got to the party quite early in the evening, so that I could chat with Sophia and James. I borrowed a beer to ease myself into the evening, and we chatted about the race season a bit, and future plans. There were a few other people there early that I knew as well, so it was a pretty good time. Sadly, along with the good time came the inevitable shooters. Before long, I was up to my old party tricks where I light Sambuca in my mouth for the enjoyment of all! D’oh! The other dangerous thing was that everyone at the party was put into one of three teams, and there were games with points for creating new drinks, etc. My mission was to singlehandedly ensure that my team would win. Although I’m pretty sure we did, I’ll never be sure!
As the night wore on, more and more people trickled in, and it was a pretty rockin’ party overall. Lots of people, lots of good tunes, and some fun party games and snacks. The limbo contest was pretty close to my undoing I’d have to say. By that time, I was in rough shape. Instead of the traditional limbo dance, I would just propel myself at high speed, and try to slide under the bar. Needless to say, I didn’t win! There were a lot of great costumes on display as well that night, which was great to see. Eventually, I checked myself out of the party, because I was acutely aware that I’d had a few too many shots, and was definitely at risk of not actually being able to find my way home 🙂
Luckily, I did somehow make it home, although I went right past my bus stop, and had to walk home from Baseline station in the pouring rain, without my raincoat, which I’d conveniently forgotten at the party. Oh well, it served me right, and probably gave me a slight chance to sober up a bit before crashing. Once home, I removed my super-hero like costume, and crumpled into bed, to not awake until around 11am the next morning. I had to get up though, since we had to catch a bus to the big wedding!
We were car-pooling with Alix and Matt, and they were going to pick us up to drive out to Gloucester Center to catch the charter bus to the Bean Town Ranch. I was feeling so crappy at that point that I had to go into the grocery store to pick up some greasy goodness. I got a combo of spicy wedges and chicken strips, and Matt picked up a couple pieces of fried chicken. Afterwards, we walked back out to the big school bus to find out that in fact there were only 6 of us taking it! I think there were more people planning to take the bus back at the end of the night.
The ranch itself was a great venue for the wedding and reception. It was kinda nice to just be all hanging out in one place. We had lots of time to mingle with all the guests, as well as talk to the bride and groom before they whisked themselves off to New Zealand for a month. Yup, they’re actually spending a whole month there before I get down there. We were joking that they would have to set up a treasure hunt for me. They could set up clues all over the country, and then I’d have to bike around to find them. Not sure if they’ll actually do it, but it sounded like a pretty fun idea 🙂
The wedding has to go down as being one of the shortest ceremonies we’ve had the pleasure to attend. I think it is only rivalled by my dad’s wedding in July that we had at his house, which was about 20 minutes total. The vows and ring exchange were pretty succinct, and the open bench-style seating made it feel like we were all a part of things. It probably also helped that there wasn’t a huge wedding party. There was only one person for each of Adam and Terri.
After the wedding, we all gathered on the grounds for a quick photo session with everyone, and then the bride and groom had to get through the rest of their wedding photos, while the guests reconvened in the chapel for snacks and drinks. In the short time we were outside, they had pulled all the benches out, and stuck an appetizer table in the middle. Sweet. We hung out there for probably an hour, even getting a chance to talk to the newlyweds before we all headed to the chow hall.
The supper was a served meal, and was pretty tasty. We were amazed at how efficient the wait staff were. A little too efficient even! For instance, I was picking up my roll for the last bite, and had barely picked it up that they were grabbing my plate to take it away. The same thing happened with my desert cake! Crazy. They also over-zealously tried to steal our ‘pocket bread’ that we were saving for Kev. I had to insist they let me keep the last roll, rather than take it away. Oh well, that’s better than having to wait forever to get things cleaned up. The speeches followed, as usual, with a couple funny moments and stories, as well as a little bit of tear jerking. All the things you expect from a wedding reception basically.
From that, it was the inevitable dance time. The coolest part has to be the first dance, which Adam and Terri shared by themselves, but not in the hall. Nope, they were whisked over to a little island in the middle of the pond on the grounds. Then, the Island was lit up with white lights in the trees and a spotlight, while the music was played from a PA system. Then, during the song, about halfway through, there was a cool fireworks display behind them. Even though it had been sort of raining on and off all day, it was thankfully not raining at that time. The whole effect was pretty awesome, and I’m sure they’ll remember that moment for the rest of their lives. During this time, this gave time again to the staff to reconfigure the reception hall for party time. Now, tables were pulled to the side, and little buckets of munchies were put out on each table. The bar was now also in full swing, serving up tasty drinks to those who were so inclined.
Normally, during the party time of a wedding, that’s when I imbibe a bit, and get a little crazy. However, I was so hungover from the day before I just couldn’t get into the swing of things. Sure, I had a few rum and cokes, as well as a glass of wine, but stayed pretty sober throughout the evening. However, it didn’t prevent me from having a great time. And on the plus side, it meant that at the end of the night, when we got back to Gloucester center, I was able to drive the four of us back home in Al and Matt’s car.
It was a great wedding, at a great place, and I’m sure that Terri and Adam were very happy with the way things went. Everyone we spoke to since then all agreed that it was a great wedding. So congratulations go out to the happy newlyweds!
