The Deed Is Done..Twice

WE'RE MARRIED!

And we had a fantastic time doing it! Twice:):)

Everything went smoothly thanks to the wedding planner Sue Graham; the MC's Dave Janney (Seattle), Katrina Waller (London); the flower arrangers Dominique Martin (Seattle), Daphne Assender (London); the Lords of the Rings Dave Graham (Seattle), David Waller (London); the marriage officiant Karen (UberWoman) Carlson for both ceremonies and of course all the wonderful guests, who generally behaved themselves.

A special thanks to everyone for making our day(s) so memorable. We must not forget Gramma Ree who at 92, went up the long stairway about a month before the weddings. We now believe this was to make sure the weather was stupendous on both days.... Through the sunshine we felt her presence at our ceremonies and are certain that she was sharing in our joy.

Guests made speeches and said some lovely things. Messages from our friends abroad who were not able to join us, were read at both ceremonies and we were grateful for all your kind wishes. The generosity of the gifts given means the commemorative plaque on the boat will have to be HUGE, to accommodate all the names! Thanks again to everyone for their kindness. Some photos to show you just how good the weather was and how happy we were on the day and still are...

It all started in Seattle on MAY 16, 2009

Ray's Boathouse - the venue in Seattle

Nervous Brian

Papa John walks the bride

Heartfelt moments

Phew! We did it!

First toast soon afterwards

Dawn, Brian and daughter Dominique

Then on May 24th, we were bold enough to do it again in London

A more confident bridegroom

Brother's advice shocks Brian!

Confident bride and her stressed maid of honor

More heartfelt moments

Daughter Katrina, Dawn, Brian and daughter Eloise

The nights before the wedding days....

In Seattle the night before the wedding the keen guests, ie those not wanting to miss a moment, went out for a pre-celebration celebration. The venue was Chopstix, the dueling piano bar, on the night of a Jimmy Buffet Hawaiian shirt party. The objective, besides wearing Hawaiian shirts, was to drink margarita cocktails and buckets of corona beer. It worked for Brian as to everyone's amazement he reprised his karaoke hit by singing "I'm a Believer" to Dawn. (She was a Monkees fan at age 10)

Proof of Brian singing

"Gee, this sounded so much better in Korea and Japan at 11pm over the phone "...

But it's okay....I'm in luuuuuuuv....I'm A Believer...

And in London, Brother David arranged his favorite "Oldies" band for our enjoyment

They made us all feel young...except for the younger guests, who wondered where the heck the songs came from...

And then came the Honeymoon

We decided to do something really different. So we borrowed Katrina's Mazda convertible and went to Wales - a country not renowned for nice summer weather you know - to the village of Laugharne. Most people laughed. And told us it would rain. In fact it had rained up until the day we went there! But we still had the secret weapon of 'glorious weather Gramma Ree' :) She insured that our honeymoon was as spectacular as our wedding days had been. In fact, the day after arrival, we went to the local Regatta where the announcer informed an enthusiastic crowd that it was the best weekend in the 42 year history of the Regatta!

Laugharne is the hometown of writer / poet Dylan Thomas and his influence is felt all around the village.

Luckily, we had a small car for the Welsh country roads...

One view from our honeymoon cottage. Dylan Thomas's house is down the hill from here.

Another view from our honeymoon cottage.

Who says you have to go to the Carribean for beautiful beaches, turquoise water and sunshine?

At the Green Room, an EXCELLENT restaurant in Laugharne, we enjoyed the lovely Harrods (or Harold's as some Canadians call it) champagne that the Assenders so kindly gave us. This was one of the many highlights of a romantic, peaceful, charming and sunny (yes sunny) honeymoon in Wales. In fact we enjoyed it so much that after a stop off in Munich to visit Dick &
Gitte, we decided to have a second honeymoon in Barcelona....but you'll have to hear about those trips in our NEXT post.

Best wishes to you all from your newly-wedded world travelers ...Dawn & Brian