Another Wedding: Kevin and Ivy

This past weekend was our second wedding of the summer.  It was the wedding of Ivy and Kevin.  Kevin's been like the perfectly annoying little brother that I never had.  He's the younger bro of my good friend Jen (the beautiful bridesmaid below!), and being only a year younger than Jen and I, we saw a lot of Kevin throughout school.  We have an excellent love hate relationship, with major emphasis on teasing and poking fun at each other.  It was such an honour to be able to see this boy all grown up and marrying the love of his life.  Ivy and Kevin couldn't be more perfect together, and after 8 years of dating, it was great to see them finally married.

My lovely friend Jen, standing in support of the bride and groom.

Kevin's dad, Joe, read a tear filled prayer that he wrote for the couple at the end of the ceremony.  It was a treat to see this man of God pray for Kevin and Ivy, as it was filled with love, emotions, and lots of tears.  Actually, this whole wedding was full of tears, but they were all good ones.  Joe is a wonderful father, and it was easy to see how much he loves his kids, and the new additions to his family.

The groom's dad, Joe, reading a beautiful prayer for the couple.

Kevin was so stoked when he and Ivy were finally announced as husband and wife.  He looked so eager to get to the kissing part, and to be officially married to his love.  It was definitely a highlight to see Kevin so filled with happiness and joy, and to finally witness a little PDA.  These two definitely aren't ones for public displays of affection, and we, the guests, worked hard to get them kissing lots throughout the evening!

Finally married!!

The two flower girls were cute as buttons.  Lily and Madeline had on lovely little orange and white dresses, complete with baskets of petals and sock buns in their hair, but as soon as work was over it was back into play clothes.  These two little cuties are the nieces of the groom, and both of them seemed to enjoy playing a little game of show-me-your-belly-and-you-will-get-tickled.  Of course they kept flashing those little belly buttons, so I kept chasing them like a tickle monster.  Little giggles are seriously the one of the greatest sounds.  Even though I don't get to see them super often, it's fun having them be older now, that they remember me!  (I'm sure that my wild hair helps a little bit.)

Lily and Madeline, begging to be tickled.

One of the best parts of weddings is the reunions we get to have with old and great friends.  Jen was home from Vancouver for the wedding (and a visit at my house this week is happening!  Yay!), and Caitlin too, whom I haven't seen since she got home from her many months in Brazil!  We've been friends since I moved to Ontario 15 years ago, and it was just like old times, laughing and dancing and being ridiculous together.  I'm looking forward to this week as they both are coming to stay with me at the beach while Josh is away working.

Me, Jen and Caitlin.

Sometimes the hardest part of weddings to get through are the speeches.  This wedding was definitely not one of those weddings.  This wedding had the kind of speeches that you feel attached to.  So attached, in fact, that you are crying along with everyone else at the words that are being shared.  Carol, Kevin's mom, wrote the best poem in lieu of a speech, and I wish that I could have a copy just to share it now (although it probably wouldn't make much sense to you, reader, as you might not know the couple).  It covered all the history of Kevin as a child, linked with rhyming words of dreams that have come true, love that has been found and even some laughs along the way.  It was too sweet to see the wedding party one-by-one dig for their kleenex to wipe away tears and runny noses, but it was something else to see Kev lose it completely.  He was using his huge napkin on his whole face to try and contain the crying!  Definitely a soft spot is warmed in my heart to see the mega athlete smarty pants (star beep-test runner in high school and then onto Team Ontario Rugby, before become a freakin' aerospace engineer!) succumbing to tears.  Can't really blame him though.  I think that Carol had the whole room reaching for something to wipe their eyes.

Joe and Carol, father and mother of the groom, and the speech of all speeches.

Salt water is definitely flowing.

In true Ottenhof (groom's family) Dutch tradition, no wedding is complete without hoisting them up in the air on their chairs, dancing around and singing at the top of their lungs, "Lang zal hij leven," which meanas "Long shall he/she live!"  It was very loud, and very fun looking, but poor Ivy looked like she was going to be launched off her chair at any moment. She was smart and held on for dear life, but Kevin was all about singing along and continuing his emotion of total stoke.  I feel like his arms were up in the air the whole time!  Obviously he has great balance, because I took a few shots of this dance, and in more than one does it look like he's going to slide of his chair at any moment.

Having the time of their lives, up in the air.

Kevin's older brother Matthew had a cute little task for the new bride and groom to perform as part of his speech for the night.  Since Matthew is a home builder, he explained that the first step of building any home is hammering in the first stake.  There were some tears while explaining this to Ivy and Kevin, and in true Matthew fashion, he's not the most graceful crier.  I think that he must think he'll stop crying if he just pushes through the words he's saying, but most of his words become garbled and cut off, and he definitely manages to make his face contort into interesting positions.  (His own wedding to his beautiful wife Sarah takes the cake on this crying technique).  Anyway, he had Kevin and Ivy hammer in the first stake of the building of their marriage, and I thought that it was a great illustration for building a strong foundation together.

Surprisingly, they hammered that thing into the ground with ease, and speed, even though it seems like it would be really awkward to do with two people.

We had the greatest sunset this night, and it provided the most gorgeous golden glow through the tent windows.  We definitely took the opportunity to try and capture it!

God certainly painted a pretty sky.

Glowing friends.

Laughter is golden, and so it Cait's hair.

At the end of the formal festivities, the party began!  One thing that my friends do very very well is become the life of the dance party.  Lots of sweatiness in this group, because they just don't stop!  Cutest dance of the night, though, goes to Ivy dancing with her friend.  Her bustle just wasn't cooperating (do they ever??) so another friend became her dress wingman.  He danced along behind Ivy, holding up her dress so she could enjoy the dance floor without the fear of tripping over all that fabric.  It was pretty adorable.

Willow Smith has nothing on Caitlin's hair whip.

Ivy with her dancing dress assistant.

The night ended for Josh and I just after the pizza came out, as we had to head out.  Pizza was a hit with all the dancers, and the open bar attendees.  Unfortunately we missed the real end to the party.  I heard that a bunch of guests jumped into the pool, with fireworks going off around them.  That definitely would have been quite the sight to see!

Pizza dancing cute fools!  Love these girls.