The pageantry, the beauty… the amazing amount of photographs we took in a half day at the festival! Enjoy the overflow!
Tag Archive | dance
Renaissance Festival
There has been one place I have ALWAYS wanted to go, but never been near one to do so… well today – Sunday, August 26th I finally did it! Ken and I (without the kids) got to go to the Renaissance Festival! In costume (both of us) no less! Although not exactly period in our costume medieval stuff but it is a start! And after going to the festival and seeing what there is to be worn and how people are wearing it my mind is already buzzing with ideas for next year. I am thinking… gypsy or belly dancer!! A costume I can work on creating myself!
Anyway, THIS year’s experience… We made it right around opening so that we could see Shandai (my best friend in high school) dance with her troop… she is also the one who got us the complementary tickets! Talk about a terrific reunion.
There is so much to see even BEFORE you get into the actual venue… I loved the girl with the fire!
And then, right inside the doorway… so many people and things to see!! And this was right at 9am!
What to do after you get through that? Wander, shop and enjoy the entertainment and sights… which we did! Oh if Ken was working right now and I had excess spending cash! There was more than a few things I would have picked up without a second thought… BUT what I did get was… a pretty parasol…
Ken got his fried cheese curds…
And we saw things that would have made Trinity absolutely go crazy in joy! The if only list for ALL the girls in our family is quite long now! There was a pretty mask here, fairy wings there… and entire outfit that I COULD have gotten with 25% down and… yah right. Again WISH LIST!
So we ran BACK into Shandai after we had been travelling rather aimlessly and she took us over to see the mermaids… oh and pointed out her boyfriend who is a real cutie.
We stopped to watch the knife throwing jugglers (and have a chocolate covered strawberry!) who were VERY amazing. They were called The Danger Committee.
At that point we had been there well over 3 hours and it was starting to get hot. So after saying goodbye to Shandai at the booth she works at.. Lady Artisan. With the most interesting bodice chillers ever! And boy do they CHILL. Shandai let me try one out. I figure next year when we plan for the whole day I will maybe purchase one! There were these BEAUTIFUL copper roses I would have loved to have as well at another booth…
So really we came, we saw, we walked… we photographed… we fell in love with the entire experience. My mind is buzzing away with ideas for my costume next year… I figure the safest bet is going to be to make my own top out of a nice bra… OH and to get some belly dancer lessons! Just gotta figure out how to get there (no driving comes back to curse me) and afford them and have the guts to do it in the first place!
And don’t worry there is most definitely ANOTHER blog entry after this one of overflow images… warning though, lots of them!
A Ceremonial Ceremony
So where did I leave off?? Hmm getting to the “church” on time… well we did one better – an hour early! With all the kids involved and He Chris’ stepdad having had a couple heart attacks the day before and only out on a 2 hour pass we figured it was best to be SUPER early and prepared. Sadly that is where the organization and MacLean time ends… but the fun continued.
We found a little corner to hide the bride in while we waited for the time and then we… waited. The groom’s mother ended up WAY behind schedule (she was in charge of the wedding cake/cupcakes as well!) but his stepfather made it! I got a lovely picture of She Chris with him before the ceremony.
The kids were a wee bit bored… ok VERY bored but we managed to keep them occupied with our multitude of baby wranglers and some colouring books I picked up at Dollarama on Thursday.
The JP (Justice of the Peace) was lovely, but she had another wedding at 3pm so she waited as long as she could for the mother of the groom but the show had to go on. Things went rather well though mom had to steal Emanuel’s shirt cord for the handfasting as the mother of the groom was also going to do that. All in all it was a lovely ceremony.
After the ceremony it was onto pictures. Luckily the missing parent was collected and there to be a part of that.
Ken and I took some time and with Karyn’s help as well I got some special pictures of my dress while waiting for the rest of the people to arrive. It was hot and the kids fussy.
OH the anachronistic ladies! Here they are!! Beauties all 3!
But we got some lovely shots. And when the bride and groom were done with us we headed off for much needed and earned slurppees at 7-11. Where, of course, I got out of the car in front of someone I recognized from high school (name escapes me)… but at least I got my pepsi slurpee!
There was another hour before the dinner was scheduled to start so we hung out in the hall again waiting on the bride and groom. Ken had a nap of course!
Dinner actually ended up starting a little late BUT it did get under-way eventually. A bit unconventional… the speeches (the few there were) were BEFORE dinner… mine as well. But then finally food! The kids seemed pleased though the table of cupcakes was screaming for them to touch quite loudly I am told!
Fat Sheep enjoyed the event from the headtable as well with her date Mae. There was much hilarity and boisterousness from that corner of the table! She was amazing, Mae… with a dress malfunction we were able to head off at the pass she was able to deal with it all with great humour. Though she says the Chrises now owe her BIG TIME as she is not a dress kinda girl and pretty much burnt herself to a socket through out the evening. Fat Sheep REALLY enjoyed her time with her lovely date!
After dinner was some random visiting… then after much urging the cutting of the cake… we had to do some more waiting before the dance but the kids decided to get the party started on their own. Trinity especially was quite the little dancer!
After the bride and groom dance we had the bridal party and then we were free!!! I changed into a different dress as mine weighed a ton… there is ONE picture that I have of it… the polka dot one. I swear I felt almost naked!
After dancing and sending Echo home with mom, taking the rest of the kids home in the van and cars where their seats were those of us staying at mom’s headed out to the liquor store for some supplies and then stayed up late into the evening hanging out, drinking and generally enjoying the evening. No pictures of that, but trust me fun was had though we all trickled off to bed in the end… some of us earlier than others (the latest being up until past 4 am!!). I actually drank a bottle of Boones (less a glass Ken spilled before any of us were even buzzed!) and a jello shooter my cousin bought me (a new thing for me). So when Echo woke up in the middle of the night it was her sippy of water and back to bed for her! No nursing until later the next day. But it was fun. I especially enjoyed getting to know Jocelyn better and looking through everyone’s pictures!!! I am sure once I get other people’s images I will have some to share of things I talked about here that I did not have a picture for! But that was THE day! And what a day it was!