Wedding Reception Music

Not that you could hear the music – I didn’t want to completely drown out the crowd talking, but here is what I had programmed:

Song Artist Album
Eireann Afro Celt Sound System Volume 2: Release
Downside-Up Peter Gabriel OVO The Millennium Show
Over the Border Saint Etienne Words and Music By Saint Etienne
Shaking The Tree Peter Gabriel Shaking The Tree: 16 Golden Greats
Wunderkind Alanis Morissette The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Angel Erasure Erasure
All the Lovers Kylie Minogue All the Lovers – Single
Raise Your Glass P!nk Raise Your Glass – Single
Celebration Madonna Celebration – Single
Tonight (Extended Version) Saint Etienne Tonight – EP
Truth Will Set U Free (feat. Corey Hart) 1Love Truth Will Set U Free (feat. Corey Hart) – Single
Standing Outside The Fire Garth Brooks In Pieces
The Red Strokes Garth Brooks In Pieces
Love Is a Bourgeois Construct Pet Shop Boys Electric
Parce Que Tu Existes ‘Silence’ (French Version Niklas Bergwall Remix) Marie-Christine Silence (Remixes) – EP
Electricistas Fangoria Lo Mejor de Fangoria
A Little Respect Erasure Total Pop: the First 40 Hits – Disc 1
Only the Horses Scissor Sisters Magic Hour (Deluxe Version)
Itchycoo Park M People Bizarre Fruit
What Is Love Haddaway What Is Love – EP
So Emotional Whitney Houston Whitney
What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) Information Society Information Society
Yoü And I Lady Gaga Born This Way [Special Edition] [Disc 1]
Firework Katy Perry Teenage Dream (Deluxe Edition)
Aphrodite Kylie Minogue Aphrodite (Deluxe Experience Edition)
Hang With Me Robyn Body Talk, Pt. 2
Jetstream (Richard X Remix) New Order Best Remixes
The Edge Of Glory Lady Gaga Born This Way [Special Edition] [Disc 1]
Breathing Space Pet Shop Boys Elysium
Midnight Forest Cricket Chorus Drake Jensen Outlaw
Chinese Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) Erasure Erasure
True Faith-94 New Order Best Of New Order [UK]
Supermodel (You Better Work) RuPaul Supermodel to the World
082 – I Should Have Known Better – Samantha Fox Thebeatlescompleteonukulele The Beatles Complete On Ukulele
(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes Dirty Dancing (Original Soundtrack from the Vestron Motion Picture)
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Wham! The Final
The Truck Driver And His Mate Pet Shop Boys Format: 1996-2002 [Disc 1]
Borderline / Open Your Heart Glee Cast Glee: The Music – The Power of Madonna
Omega Omigo (Beatmasters Mix) The Shamen Collection
When You’re Falling Afro Celt Sound System Volume 3: Further In Time
Somewhere Pet Shop Boys Somewhere (CD 1)
Little Bird Annie Lennox Diva
Everything I Do (I Do it For You) Bryan Adams
We Shall Be Free Garth Brooks The Chase – The Limited Series
Proud (Queer as Folk) Heather Small Queer as Folk Soundtrack
Where Does My Heart Beat Now Celine Dion Unison
Give it a Go Pet Shop Boys Elysium
Secret World Peter Gabriel Us
Take My Heart Corey Hart Fields of Fire
That Loving Feeling Cicero
Rain (Al Stone Mix) Erasure Rain Plus
One Wish Roxette A Collection Of Roxette Hits!
Beautiful Day U2 The Best Of 1990-2000

English Tea Menu

Image 1

Food courtesy of Herrera’s catering!

Appetizers

  • ImageStrawberry rhubarb chutney, feta cream on spelt crostini with fresh mint
  • Smoked salmon tartar in cucumber cups with lemon crème fraiche
  • Curried chicken salad with candied ginger on Belgian endive leaf
  • Grilled Mini Vegetable skewers with citrus aioli

 Tea Sandwiches

  • Shrimp salad with herb remoulade & oven roasted tomatoes
  • Smoked salmon, wasabi & asparagus pinwheel
  • Turkey, cranberry & brie on mini tea biscuit
  • Green apple & aged cheddar on fruit nut bread
  • Watercress & orange butter

Sweet Things

  • Image 2Assorted scones: cranberry orange, lemon blueberry, classic raisin, cheddar & chive served with Devonshire cream
  • Fresh fruit salad
  • Mini chocolate mousse
  • Wedding Cupcakes (Lemon Merengue, Grashopper, Red Velvet, Carrot, Vanilla with blue frosting) from For The Love of Cake

Beverages

  • Mimosa (Orange Juice + Spumanti) for Toast
  • A non-alcoholic toasting beverage will also be provided
  • Coffee
  • Assorted Teas
  • Pop
    • 7-Up
    • Ginger Ale
    • Pepsi
    • Diet Pepsi

Music for the Wedding

Having grown up with music in my blood, it’s not surprising that I’ve taken on the music programming for our day.  It’s an eclectic set of music spanning the several decades that Scott and I have grown up in and music that we’ve grown to love.

I don’t expect all of this music to be played, however this is what I’ve lined up for the ceremony, especially if we do go over time in any section of the church ceremony:

Pre-Ceremony 1.2 hours (72 minutes)

    • The Shamen – Omega Omigo
    • Afro Celt Sound System – When you’re falling
    • Pet Shop Boys – Somewhere
    • Annie Lennox – Little Bird
    • Bryan Adams – Everything I do (I do it for you)
    • Garth Brooks – We shall be free
    • Heather Small – Proud
    • Celine Dion – Where does my heart beat now
    • Pet Shop Boys – Give it a go
    • Afro Celt Sound System + Peter Gabriel – Downside Up
    • Peter Gabriel – Secret World
    • Corey Hart – Take My Heart
    • Cicero – That Loving Feeling
    • Erasure – Rain
    • Roxette – One Wish
    • U2 – Beautiful Day

Processional – 11 minutes 48 second

    • Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheeba (Four Weddings & A Funeral)
    • Vivaldi – Spring: Allegro – from The Four Seasons
    • Vivaldi – Autumn: Allego – from The Four Seasons

Signing of Documents – 9 minutes 1 seconds

    • Drake Jensen – Midnight Forest Cricket Chorus
    • Afro Celt Sound System – Eireann

 Recessional – 10 minutes 12 seconds

    • Pet Shop Boys – Go West (Mings Gone West First and Second Movement)

Colour Symbolism of our Bonboniere

IMG_6601
Scott and I didn’t need to look far for inspiration, for the bonboniere that we are giving out tomorrow.  Rainbows are obviously big in our world. given a past appreciation for M&M dispensers and our enjoyment of the candies (we’re both partial to peanuts and peanut butter versions – but not so good for guests with peanut allergies) we figured milk chocolate M&Ms fit the bill.
However, bonboniere has a certain degree of symbolism, especially the colour.
With help from incredibleart.org, here is our chosen symbolism of each of the M&M colours:
  • Red – for love and passion in your life
  • Yellow – for joy and happiness being constant companions
  • Blue – for peace, and unity in your life and homes
  • Orange – for your energy, enthusiam and warmth
  • Green – for health and generosity
  • Brown – that your home is a place of stability and comfort.

IMG_6603

Getting to the Church on time… (Updated)

Updated: August 22nd

Don’t forget the CNE is in full effect at the CNE grounds between Jameson and Spadina, so it my be worth taking the 401 to the DVP and get off a Bloor/Danforth then travel south on Broadview.  Be sure to check Google Maps traffic before leaving and while traveling.

MCC is located in the heart of a relatively densely populated residential area of Riverdale east of Broadview Av, west of Logan Av, and just north of Gerrard St. As such, admittedly, it does not have a lot of parking available.

The church is located at the corner of Simpson and Howland Avenues. This intersection is one block west of Logan and one block north of Gerrard.

Parking is strictly enforced in that area of Toronto as well.

Given Toronto has had questionable traffic on Saturdays – you may want to consider leaving home early.  North of the chuch is The Danforth and has a number of great restaurants for breakfast; and at Gerrard and Broadview is Chinatown East, great for Dim Sum/Yum Cha.

If you are driving:

From Hwy. 404 / Don Valley Parkway:

Riverdale is accessed by Hwy. 404/Don Valley Parkway at the Bayview Exit. Travel south on Bayview Avenue and exit at River Street. Follow River until you get to Gerrard Street. Turn left onto Gerrard and continue until you get to Howland Avenue. Howland is the first street on the left after Broadview Avenue. Go north on Howland to Simpson Avenue. MCC Toronto is on the left-hand side.

From The Gardiner Express Way:

Exit the Gardiner Express Way at the final off ramp (where the Gardiner ends and becomes Lakeshore Road.) Travel north on Carlaw Avenue (first set of traffic lights after leaving the Gardiner) to Gerrard Street. Turn left on Gerrard and travel westbound to Howland Avenue. Howland is the first street on the right after Logan Avenue. Go north on Howland to Simpson Avenue. MCC Toronto is on the left-hand side.

From Lakeshore Boulevard:

Continue on Lakeshore east to Carlaw Avenue. Turn left onto Carlaw and travel north to Gerrard Street. Turn left onto Gerrard and travel westbound to Howland. Howland is the first street on the right after Logan Avenue. Go north on Howland to Simpson Avenue. MCC Toronto is on the left-hand side.

Via TTC

From the Bloor-Danforth subway line:

  • Take the Broadview, King (504) or Dundas (505) streetcars south from Broadview Station.
  • Exit the streetcar at Don Jail Roadway (Simpson Avenue is directly across the street.)
  • Walk east on Simpson to the next block and you will find the church on the corner of Simpson and Howland.

From the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line:

  • Take the College/Carlton/Gerrard (506) streetcar eastbound from either Queen’s Park or College Stations or westbound from Main Station (on the Bloor-Danforth line).
  • Get off the streetcar at Howland Road on Sundays.
  • Simpson Avenue is one short block north.


View Larger Map

Mother-in-law & son-in-law bonding

Scott’s Mum, Betty, and his aunt, Bev, arrived on Wednesday in Toronto, just in time to help Scott and I finish up preparations for the wedding.  We’re ensuring they’re having a great time – 9 hours of shopping yesterday, finishing up the bonboniere this weekend.

We took Betty and Bev to Canada’s Wonderland today.  This is a first time for both and it made for some great Mother-in-law/son-in-law bonding time with some help from some co-workers and friends, over the two largest roller coasters at the park – Leviathan and Behemoth, and also Vortex.

I just love the picture below from Behemoth.  You can totally see Mom saying, “What the hell has Iain gotten me into, again?”

I am so proud of Mom!

We’ve got another high flying surprise for them tomorrow.

Excited about china!

So… this may be revealing something…  but a few days ago I looked at our Registry at The Bay and saw that someone had bought some of the china we have asked for and I did a little dance of joy!   Iain could see a big smile on my face… and I said rather excitedly “Someone got us our first pieces of china!!!!!”.   He just shook his head rather amusedly!

I am not sure what it is…. maybe it is because china is something I have always associated with special times, special events, celebrations, a sense that what is being served is special.    Around home for me growing up, the china was something that brought out for big family celebratory meals and occasions or when “special guests” were coming to dinner, etc.     I don’t think Iain “gets it” the same way I do… and that is OK.  🙂    He just smiles and nods and enjoys my joy in it.  🙂

Maybe it is also a sense with our new kitchen, some new every day dishes that someone got for us early on from our Registry, and now the china slowly coming in, that it is a stage of “growing up” going from “very late post-college/University” and moving into proper “Adult” living (having some nicer things, etc.).

Anyway…. still excited! 🙂

Music – The Technical Side

photoPlease allow me to have another geek moment, if you will.  This time it’s about music at the reception.

Music is a great part of my life having learned several instruments, composing over the past 10 years and it has been something that has helped to unite Scott and me right from the very beginning.

I have been spending some time figuring out the music for the reception and while I have all of the actual music figured out, I am now trying to figure out how to network the music for the reception.

What I currently have is :

  • an old Apple Airport Extreme router
  • my MacBook Pro hooked in directly to the router via CAT5
  • two iHome speakers (iW1 and iW2)
  • one iPhone to remotely control both speakers and music

The plan is to stream up to 4 hours of music using AirPlay – The reception is really only 2.5 hours but you never know how we may need to change music on the fly.

I’ve had some really good experiences routing the music from our laptops and Mac Mini to our Apple TVs in the condo, but I’ve had some challenges with these speakers cutting out when we had a party a few weeks ago.

I figured it was because we simply had too much data being pumped through the old Airport Extreme which, while it’s dual band, is not dual band simultaneously.  Everything in our condo is wireless which can really tax a network. We’ve since upgraded in the condo with a new Airport Extreme and and Airport Express for deadspots towards the bedrooms.  I figure, creating a dedicated network would address these dropouts.

Nope!

The iW1, despite being a better sounding speaker, seems to be contributing to the network troubles.  It’s constantly cutting out especially when playing with the second speaker on WiFi.  Running a port scan or connecting to this speaker through a web browser completely garbles up the connection.  The iW2 doesn’t have this issue.

Testing the iW2 by itself, it seems to play continuously, no problems with panning and scanning music while testing fades and such.  I can throw almost anything at that speaker and it takes it.

Thankfully, the iW2 has an ethernet port, sadly the iW1 does not.  So my solution is to wire up the more reliable speaker and hopefully the iW1 behaves on our day.  And having played a few tracks, this setup seems stable.

My approach to DJing this wedding, and it’s a tactic I’ve used before when DJing casual events, is to pretty much setup a long play list to play through and let iTunes do it’s magic fading in and out.  It’s neat sitting back and watching the music do it’s job to bring up and slow down the crowd.

Having the iPhone on the network is going to be a neat addition to this DJ experience.  I can be anywhere in the crowd, adjust volume on any speaker, and change any attribute of the playlist including changing the ordering of songs.

Yes, I fully admit to being a control freak on what music is played at the wedding after seeing the experiences of some other weddings.  That said, I have to admit, I do wish that Apple had kept the music request feature in their remote app.

Enough geekery – about the music?  Expect everything from the 80s to current with several genres but mostly EDM, Dance, Pop and a lot of British music.  If you want to let your inner diva out, go for it. There will be something for everyone in this playlist.

I promise that after the wedding, I’ll post our choices for each part of the ceremony and the full reception play list I planned.

Scott here – Missing my Dad

My Dad and I (circa June 1994) at my undergrad Graduation from Simon Fraser University.

My Dad and I (circa June 1994) at my undergrad Graduation from Simon Fraser University.

I will come out and say it plain and simple – I am missing my Dad a lot right now.   Not wanting to be a “downer”, but it is true.   Though the wedding planning process has been fun and exciting and challenging and such, it has also brought me really bold-faced with the reality that when my wedding day comes in 14 days – he will not be there.    I know on that day, I will and do have a multitude of reasons to be happy on many many fronts, but I am going to be honest that with it will be tinged a hint of melancholy for those that will not be there.

I am SUPER blessed to have my Mom who has been incredibly supportive of Iain and I from the very beginning.    She has also been really supportive of us as we have gone through the excitement and challenges of developing the wedding plans.  We are also very glad that she is going to be able to join us from British Columbia along with my Aunt, both coming in from BC about 10 days before the wedding, for the wedding day and a bit afterwards.

That all being said, I just wish he was going to be there, to see the smile of pride on his face as he sits there with my Mom to witness his son marrying his best friend and the love of his life – much like it was when he married my Mom over 45 years ago.   Amongst other things – my Dad (and my Mom, too) showed me the example of how to be in a marriage – deeply committed, deeply loving and deeply giving – not only to each other but also to those around them.   The funny part of what was just mentioned is that he was a man of few words – so didn’t say “I love you” very often – but I knew it through his actions as his actions spoken louder than words.   The example of how to be in a marriage is something I hope to carry on through the many years ahead with Iain.     Many times over the last 12+ years I have wanted to call him and ask him a question, many times I have wanted to just hear his voice again, or to hear him say he was proud of me.   In the lead up to the wedding, I have wanted to talk to him and hear his wisdom again.   As I was talking with a friend recently I was excitedly speaking about the wedding and they asked when my Mom was arriving and I said “Mom and Dad will be….” and I stopped in mid-sentence and nearly “lost it” emotionally…. as it had been the first time in a long time that I have said something like that – having gotten used to not mentioning him in situations like that.

Dad, I know you will be there in spirit.   You will be there in the hearts and minds of those who knew you and loved you.   You are always remembered, always missed and always and forever loved.

 

On Candles and Decorating

So….  as part of the wedding ceremony, Iain and I are doing some “candle-y things”.   That is the official technical term for it, don’t-cha-know.  🙂

unitycandle-setWe are doing the Unity Candle ceremony just after the exchange of rings.   At the beginning of the ceremony, our Moms will be lighting two “side” taper candles each representing our respective families.   When it comes to the appropriate time, we will be taking those tapers, joining the flames together and then bringing them down to light a central “pillar” candle.   The joining of the flames and lighting a central one to represent the joining together of our lives and the “formal” bringing together of our families.    This is the “base model” of the set…. we will be decorating up the candle a bit with a few things (some ribbon, maybe some “bling”, and a vellum wrap-around with a little poem on it and our names), and will post more once those decorations are completed.

memorial-candleThe other candle-y thing we are doing is at the beginning of the ceremony – is having two very important friends of ours light memorial candles.   These memorial candles are lit to represent those close to each of us that are no long with us (through death).   We will be particular remembering our respective Dads, an Uncle of mine, and our respective Grandparents.

These candles will also be decorated some as well – again with matching ribbon to above, and a velum wrap-around on the outer vase with the names of those being memorialized with each candle – as well as our names and the date of the wedding.     Pictures will get posted once the decorating of those are complete! 🙂

We purchased the candles for our wedding at a place called Yummi Candles – who have their main manufacturing facility for North America here in Toronto (I guess technically Mississauga).   Attached to that facility is a small “factory outlet”.   This means that candles can be purchased for a fraction of what it would cost at any other location.    On their website their 3-pack of 3×8″ white pillar candles is $22, at the outlet is $11, etc.   So, all together saved a fair amount of money buying it there.