Jes's Day

Our Christmas break began with a bang. And although on Friday I had a student ask me if the bang was from a shotgun, it wasn't! It was a wedding, though, just not the shotgun variety.

My sister, Jessica, got hitched.

"She was engaged?" you ask. 

On Thursday, December 20, Jes and her boyfriend, Nate, stopped by our house to celebrate their last day of work and to visit my parents who had come in to give me a hand with a few things that Friday (Well, my mom was giving me a hand - Dad was heading to Princess Auto). It was while I had my head in my baking cupboard looking for the Christmas sprinkles that they announced their engagement! I missed the moment, but wasn't surprised! Jes and Nate are a fabulous couple and Hugh and I both knew it was only time before they got married. That time turned out to be less than 24 hours after they announced their engagement to us and when they officially signed the papers (The ceremony was December 21 at 4:30 pm).

"Were you shocked?"

Yes, I was shocked. Jes had been extremely clear to us that a big wedding was not her thing and that she would most likely elope. I was supposed to get a phone call from her at some random time saying she was married. I wasn't supposed TO BE INVITED TO THE WEDDING WITH LESS THAN 24 HOURS NOTICE. I think MANY people can learn a lesson from this, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER tell a 29 week pregnant woman that she needs to be in wedding attire on short notice. She may come close to losing her mind. In fact, I think this pregnant woman did lose her mind for a few hours.

I went to bed on Thursday night stressed. I find it hard to feel beautiful when I am pregnant and I wanted to be beautiful on my sister's wedding day. I got up Friday morning still stressed, frantically threw some clothes into a bag, and tore into work.

Lucky for me the next morning when I stood frazzled in front of my period 1's they gave me the exact reaction I needed. They were thrilled and excited when I told them my sister was engaged. When I then told them that she was getting married that afternoon and I didn't have anything to wear, every single girl's mouth dropped (along with a few sympathetic boy's) as they gasped in disbelief. One student even exclaimed, "Your siblings are weird." Referring of course to my sister's "Surprise Wedding" and my brother "joking" with me that his fiancé had failed her RN exam (Luke had me in tears in my classroom a month earlier, when he emailed me that Brittany hadn't passed the most important exam of her life. I was so emotional after receiving Luke's email that I shared what was going on with my students. After a 2 or 3 email exchange with Luke he finally admitted that Brittany did pass and his email was his attempt at a joke. Luke has since learned that it was NOT a funny joke).

When I told my administration an hour later what was going on in my world, they were equally sympathetic, urging me to head to the mall over my lunch hour. Wedding attire was priority!

After spending most of the day running around acting like my head had been cut off, I made it , on time, to Delta Bessborough where Jes and Nate had rented a suite and arranged for a JP to come and marry them.

In attendance: my parents (Dad knew before hand and brought my mom the dress she had brought for my brother's wedding, my mom did not know before hand), my brother and his fiancĂ©, Brittany (both knew before hand since they live out of town), Hugh and I (who DID NOT know before hand), Nate's sister, Racy, her husband, and two daughters, Nate's brother, Nigel, and Nate's mother, (via Facetime since they live in Ontario).

Turns out Jes and Nate's "Surprise" wedding was only a short notice surprise for myself and my mom (Well, and Hugh, but he has a closet full of dress clothes, so he doesn't count!).

Jes had her day and it was beautiful. She did it exactly her way and looked happier than I've ever seen her.

Congratulations to the lucky couple :-) I am very happy I got to be there on your special day.





Comments

  1. I love it! Congrats to your sister, her husband and your family. It really doesn't matter what we wear, what kind of flowers we have, etc. What truly matters is that they are happy, stress free and they were able to share thier day with their loved ones. As for you Jordan, you always look great and I have no doubts that you pulled it all off. I hope the rest of your holidays were just as exciting and wonderful.
    Bo

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