a handmade wedding

Yesterday I went to a wedding with Toni and the Skipper. I had met the bride once before and the groom not at all, but at that one meeting the bride said "If you're still here on July 28th then please come to my wedding!" So I did.

It was lovely. My wedding was a handmade wedding so I could appreciate all the thought and preparation that went into this one. The couple lives on a 20 acre farm near Nanaimo and grow fruits, vegetables, chickens and ducks. (WHY didn't I take any pictures of the chickens and ducks? *kicks self*) It's a lovely farm and you can tell right away that a lot of work goes into its maintenance.

There were about 50 people there (I didn't count). We parked in a field, put our potluck offerings in the recently completed barn, and poked around the farm until we were summoned to the tent where the ceremony was to be held. The officiant was a relative of the groom but had legal authority, and it was a lovely ceremony. The bride had made her own outfit and the groom in his Scots attire.

The ceremony referred to passages and stories of the Bible without being too churchy. The bride and groom had written their own vows, which were each put in frames from which they read to each other. The groom's vows were very moving, the brides were decidedly earthy. Yup. The whole darn thing made me cry - not just from all the love present but for missing My Sweety. We got married almost four years ago and I know well that moment of marrying your best friend.

I will admit that I did fall into a bit of sadness after that, so when the ceremony was over I wandered around the property by myself, found the washroom (in the farm house), leered at the bride's three spinning wheels, snooped in the knitting basket, admired the strings of hanging herbs, counted five guitars, pet the sleeping cat, then headed back outside to say hello to the ducks and chickens before making my way to the WINE. After a bit of food, I suddenly felt human again (food is amazing for that, what with having calories and all) and able to socialize. I tried to convey my story (I have been apart from my husband for 14 months, haven't seen him for nearly six months) without seeking pity. People were delighted to hear that I have been volunteering at Providence Farm. I showed photos of my recently completed Indian Runner duck Bodum cosy (for a later blog post).

The dessert table will win me every time. The cheesecake was amazing. The carrot cake was good. Lots of cookies and squares and other sweet things. The wedding cake was a fruit cake, made and decorated by the bride.

Other items of interest: there was maple sap wine! (I'm sorry, the secret is out). Did you know you could make wine from maple sap? They also had blackberry wine as well as a number of other wines. The wedding favors were little jars of homemade jam and a bar of handmade soap. It was a lovely wedding and picnic, and it served as a good reminder to me of just how much I love parties. I'm not the most outgoing of people in a crowd of strangers, but you just never know what kinds of interesting conversations you might get into. I had a good time.

pizza party!

On Friday, we had some friends over for pizza.  Above is the apple rhubarb berry crisp Toni and I made for dessert.

I use the pizza dough recipe from The Breadbaker's Apprentice and this was the third time I had made it.  I kept on forgetting to make the dough ahead of time to give it a long proof period, and ended up only making the dough that morning. I liked the effect - it was much more manageable and I could stretch the dough out quite a bit more without tears.

Clockwise from top left: smoked tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, mushroom, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives

Two pounds of shredded mozzarella!

Table setting for six

 Other toppings: wine salami, spinach, garlic, feta

The sauce - I smeared a spoonful of pesto, then sprinkled a teaspoon of oregano, then a couple spoons of home made tomato sauce. 

I'm really terrible at waiting for guests to arrive when I have everything ready half an hour before they get there. I had so much dough for pizza, I figured I had time for a food experiment. I brushed a blank with olive oil and sprinkled sea salt on it. YUM it was so good. 

This is the second one. They turned out pretty impressive. 

Toni and the Skipper decided we needed a pesto only appy. Again, YUM. 

Things start to get a bit fuzzy here because the guests arrived, bottles of wine and beer were opened and poured, and some went in me. I was cooking the pizzas, drinking wine and beer as well as conversing with my dear friends, so I couldn't tell you about the individual pizzas that followed except that they were all delicious. 

I admit I started out with wine, but gosh my friends are so good at beers too that it was hard not to drink a little of everything on the table.

We had lots of leftovers and everyone was fully stuffed by night's end. I definitely overindulged but it was so good. I went to bed full and drunk. Woke up with a screaming headache at 4:30am, took something, and went back to bed.

It was so wonderful to have dinner with five people I love dearly. It made me deeply thankful for the good people in my life. There was talk of a big send-off party for me when I go (whenever that is - we still don't know but we are now halfway through the promised five months). I have left the Island so many times and have had lots of farewell parties thrown for me. You know me, I love a good party. Maybe that's why I keep on leaving and coming back? ;-)