· Lead up to the big dayFredericton, Canada · 10th Oct 2008 · Posted by Annie
Fredericton is bigger than I thought it would be. It has a population of about 60,000 and has a lovely city center. The entire city has free wireless Internet available which we think is totally awesome.
When we arrived in Fredericton, we went straight to Beth-Anne and Richard’s apartment. It was so great seeing them again – we used to spend almost every weekend with them when we lived in Wellington but obviously we haven’t been able to do that since living in Brisbane.
It seems all we’ve eaten on this trip so far is junk food and so it shall remain. For dinner (after having Tim Horton’s for breakfast and Dairy Queen for lunch), we had A&W. Chris tried Root beer for the first time and described it as tasting like ‘deep heat’ or a ‘men’s locker room’. He then asked me if I wanted to try some. I wasn’t too keen.
There was one very important thing that Chris and I needed to do as soon as possible after arriving in Fredericton. We both needed to try on our respective wedding clothes. Beth-Anne had sent us all the material and instructions we needed to have Chris’ waist coat and my bride’s maid dress made but after searching around Brisbane, the best quotes we were given were approx $700 for both items. Woah, what a bargain eh? So after a minor panic attack a couple of months ago, I sent Beth-Anne the material for Chris’ waist coat and sent Beth-Anne’s mum, Sherry (whom I had never met), the material for my dress, along with all appropriate measurements. Both Beth-Anne and Sherry were very anxious about the clothing fitting us well – especially my dress as it was strapless. Lots of things can go wrong with strapless dresses if they don’t fit well!
Well, Chris’ waist coat was perfect, a great fit. My dress, on the other hand, was a wee bit big. According to Sherry, we could have fit another person in the dress along with me. I don’t think it was quite that serious but yes, it was a bit too big and would have fallen straight off me if I weren’t holding it up. Oops! I don’t know how I managed to get the measurements so wrong... or perhaps I’ve lost weight although I think that’s highly unlikely. Anyway, after lots of gasping and laughing and umming and ahhing, Sherry declared it ‘fixable’ and set upon the task of reducing the dress somewhat.
We’ve been so lucky to be able to stay with friends while on this trip and Fredericton is no different. This time we’ll be staying with Katie, our crazy Canadian friend. We met Katie through Beth-Anne while she was working in Paeroa and then later in Napier. She has the most insane laughter you’ll ever hear but boy is it contagious. She gracefully moved out of her room for us so that we would have an awesome bedroom + tv room (with gas fire place that is operated by a switch on the wall) + a lovely huge bathroom all to ourselves! Thanks Katie & family!!!!
On our second day in F-ton we visited the mall. Like any good North American mall, it was big and had a good array of shops. We had Starbucks and I discovered that I must have a coffee addiction as the headache that has followed me for days now seemed to subside as I sipped on my iced mocha. Dammit, how did I become one of those people who can’t go a day without coffee!!?!?! That’s it, no more $1 coffee at work anymore. I mean it. Really.
After a quick rest, Chris and I were carted off to our respective Stag and Hen’s nights. I can’t comment much on the Stag’s do although all I can say is that Chris can’t play poker and we’re $20 poorer than we were before... lol! The Hen’s night was lots of fun – hosted by Beth-Anne’s maid of honour and good friend Chrissy. I had a few good (aka funny and embarrassing) stories about Beth-Anne and after a quick game of Mad Libs, we went out for some more drinking and dancing in some of Fredericton’s night clubs. I was surprised at how busy the clubs were but was reminded that F-ton has a couple of big Universities in it so there are lots of students around. Canadians like congratulating girls wearing veils and pink boas so Beth-Anne managed to score at least 4 free drinks in the hour or so that I was out. I might have to keep that in mind next time I want a good night out but don’t want to spend any money, haha!
Only two days to go until the wedding. Wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday night, wedding hair and makeup appointment on Saturday morning shortly followed by wedding itself. Wedding brunch and gift opening on Sunday. Busy busy busy!
When we arrived in Fredericton, we went straight to Beth-Anne and Richard’s apartment. It was so great seeing them again – we used to spend almost every weekend with them when we lived in Wellington but obviously we haven’t been able to do that since living in Brisbane.
It seems all we’ve eaten on this trip so far is junk food and so it shall remain. For dinner (after having Tim Horton’s for breakfast and Dairy Queen for lunch), we had A&W. Chris tried Root beer for the first time and described it as tasting like ‘deep heat’ or a ‘men’s locker room’. He then asked me if I wanted to try some. I wasn’t too keen.
There was one very important thing that Chris and I needed to do as soon as possible after arriving in Fredericton. We both needed to try on our respective wedding clothes. Beth-Anne had sent us all the material and instructions we needed to have Chris’ waist coat and my bride’s maid dress made but after searching around Brisbane, the best quotes we were given were approx $700 for both items. Woah, what a bargain eh? So after a minor panic attack a couple of months ago, I sent Beth-Anne the material for Chris’ waist coat and sent Beth-Anne’s mum, Sherry (whom I had never met), the material for my dress, along with all appropriate measurements. Both Beth-Anne and Sherry were very anxious about the clothing fitting us well – especially my dress as it was strapless. Lots of things can go wrong with strapless dresses if they don’t fit well!
Well, Chris’ waist coat was perfect, a great fit. My dress, on the other hand, was a wee bit big. According to Sherry, we could have fit another person in the dress along with me. I don’t think it was quite that serious but yes, it was a bit too big and would have fallen straight off me if I weren’t holding it up. Oops! I don’t know how I managed to get the measurements so wrong... or perhaps I’ve lost weight although I think that’s highly unlikely. Anyway, after lots of gasping and laughing and umming and ahhing, Sherry declared it ‘fixable’ and set upon the task of reducing the dress somewhat.
We’ve been so lucky to be able to stay with friends while on this trip and Fredericton is no different. This time we’ll be staying with Katie, our crazy Canadian friend. We met Katie through Beth-Anne while she was working in Paeroa and then later in Napier. She has the most insane laughter you’ll ever hear but boy is it contagious. She gracefully moved out of her room for us so that we would have an awesome bedroom + tv room (with gas fire place that is operated by a switch on the wall) + a lovely huge bathroom all to ourselves! Thanks Katie & family!!!!
On our second day in F-ton we visited the mall. Like any good North American mall, it was big and had a good array of shops. We had Starbucks and I discovered that I must have a coffee addiction as the headache that has followed me for days now seemed to subside as I sipped on my iced mocha. Dammit, how did I become one of those people who can’t go a day without coffee!!?!?! That’s it, no more $1 coffee at work anymore. I mean it. Really.
After a quick rest, Chris and I were carted off to our respective Stag and Hen’s nights. I can’t comment much on the Stag’s do although all I can say is that Chris can’t play poker and we’re $20 poorer than we were before... lol! The Hen’s night was lots of fun – hosted by Beth-Anne’s maid of honour and good friend Chrissy. I had a few good (aka funny and embarrassing) stories about Beth-Anne and after a quick game of Mad Libs, we went out for some more drinking and dancing in some of Fredericton’s night clubs. I was surprised at how busy the clubs were but was reminded that F-ton has a couple of big Universities in it so there are lots of students around. Canadians like congratulating girls wearing veils and pink boas so Beth-Anne managed to score at least 4 free drinks in the hour or so that I was out. I might have to keep that in mind next time I want a good night out but don’t want to spend any money, haha!
Only two days to go until the wedding. Wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday night, wedding hair and makeup appointment on Saturday morning shortly followed by wedding itself. Wedding brunch and gift opening on Sunday. Busy busy busy!
