Charlotte called me up one day, and said “Don’t get mad…”
Well, that’s always a nice way to start a phone call.
“Just tell me…”
Legit, I thought someone got hurt. I thought something bad at happened.
“We’re looking at Vegas. We wanna elope. I’m sick of the planning.”
Big sigh of relief. “Is that it?! You had me scared! … Why Vegas though? …. You don’t even gamble…”
And that was the start of our mountain adventures. Turns out Charlotte had no idea you can get married anywhere so long as you had a marriage license and someone who could legally marry you. In between telling her about the great time I had last summer at my cousin’s elopement, and looking into who could marry them into the mountains, we managed to pick a day where they were both off work, where his sister was back from Halifax and off work so she could travel down, and where I was actually free as well. Then she found Marion, who had the date free and an excellent suggestion for a location to get married in. So in two weeks, she had her mountain wedding planned, organized, and ready to go.
She managed to fit flawlessly into the very first dress she tried on – we snagged her stunning dress from De Amore Boutique in Warman, and they rushed her few alterations, and loved the fact she was running away to get married. She had wondered into The Indefinite Article and found an amazing vintage fur wrap and wooden ring box. She also found the wooden bracelets that she then stained to a darker wood. She already knew she was going to wear her Great-Grandmother’s vintage gold necklace.
The pieces just kept falling together.
Funny enough, our last thing to do was get Jared’s outfit. We snuck into David’s Distinctive Men’s Apparel on 2nd in Saskatoon on a whim, because they had great mannequin’s, and we had excellent service. We were all so impressed with the level of attention, and at how fabbuulloouussss Jared looked in his jeans 😉
Finally, the day was here. His sister was in town, the laughter was loud and the energy was high. I got to spend the morning helping my best friend with hair and makeup, in between sips of wine and Polaroid photographs. She had picked up her flowers from Forget-Me-Not-Flowers in Banff, and we laughed as I swore at the insane amount of buttons I had to do up.
And then it was time.
And in that moment between running back up to the room because we forgot the flowers and that moment when she stepped out of the forest, ready to say I do to the one who had her heart, I felt so grateful.
Being able to witness my best friend’s joy, as she creates her family, this was such a blessing. Being able to share a lifetime of memories with her – starting in grade five and the many sleepovers, talks on the phone, visits, and Much Music dances – and then to see her radiance on this day, I suddenly had to learn to shoot through teary eyes.
All my love, all my blessings.
