There are bells all around...

So, in truth, Nick and I have already tied the knot. It was a small, civil ceremony in Cornwall, Ontario, not the most romantic of settings. A bit of a strange industrial town that looked like many of its buildings had not been renovated since 1950. It was actually so odd it had character. The town hall itself was on Pitt street on the main drag of this one horse town. My mother started calling it "Vegas of the North". The day was bright and the drive was through flat countryside, snow melting in the fields. I expected it all to be a formality, the piece of paper before our actual wedding, but when we got there it was nothing like I would have expected. My sister flew in from New York and Nick's close friend came in on an overnight bus at the very last minute. He literally left work and got on the bus with nothing more than the clothes on his back. My mother, father and stepmother were there and a good friend of mine joined us as well. I was wearing a pretty wild, tango inspired dress from Scandale I purposefully chose something that would not look too much like a wedding dress so that I could save that for the "real" ceremony we would have later. A woman named Manon was our commissioner of oaths for the day. She was francophone from Ontario and being anglophone from Quebec I felt a certain kinship with this woman. As soon as I saw Nick I realised this was no ordinary moment. I had spent the night before at my mum's house (as we were pretending to be traditional and sleep apart before the wedding!) Well, I have to say, Nick looked so happy, so thrilled to be marrying me that it made me melt. I realised we were taking a very big step at that moment and every cell in my body seemed to wake up. We embraced and headed upstairs into a council room that was quite characterless. Portraits of the Queen on the wall, Canadian flags, portraits of mayors, not inspiring in the least in the florescent glow. But none of it mattered. The day was transformed by what we were doing. When it came time to say our vows I was practically shaking. I thought I was going to burst out crying when I spoke because the words were so beautiful and so powerful. It sounded like pure poetry to me and the impact of those words was so enormous. Yes, marriage is a contract when you go to a town hall, recite some vows and sign a paper. But the actual act of getting married is far larger than any of those ideas. It was a truly transformative experience and one that was much bigger than us. And now we are getting ready to do it all over again, this time on a grander scale with many more people to share in the celebration. We are thrilled to have you all be a part of this!