This will be the final installment of this series of Introducing The Wedding Party, as I have given a proper (albeit long winded) introduction to The Dudar, Nicholas Dargus, and Benjamin Caplan and now finally and I will introduce you to my Brother, Scott Ling.

SCOTT LING

Not everyone is as lucky to have a sibling as awesome as my brother.

No one is perfect but to me Scott is about as perfect as one could expect. As an older brother I'm sure my brother was treated with ample disrespect as a child but Scott rolled with the punches the whole way... sometimes those punches were metaphorical... sometimes physical... Typical childhood brothers stuff.

For years we swam together at COBRA, Brock, and finally the University of Toronto. I consider myself exceptionally lucky that Scott chose to follow me to UofT, it's must have been tough given the footsteps he had to follow, it's never fun to be considered the second person to do something but I don't really feel that Scott was ever truly considered to be "Dave's little brother" for any significant amount of time.

Scott truly is his own brand of Ling brother. After recently graduating from UofT with a Masters in Architecture this Spring, Scott is ready to embark upon his own wedding this September to his beautiful fiancee Emily. Way to go Brother, I look forward with great anticipation to being with you on your big day. BTW... pictured to the right is not Scott with his fiancee but certainly he looks pretty happy...

On the 24th of July Scott will stand right next to me at Knox and he will get his opportunity to speak at the reception. Certainly this will be Scott's opportunity to unleash his great equalizer... a keen wit and a unique sense of humour that most might not get upon first blush but certainly a humour that makes sense to me... and that's all that matters.

Thick and thin. Scott's been there through it and for that I thank him but certainly not as much as I should thank him. And to be fair, below is a picture of Brother with Emily....

Brampton. St. Catharines. The Palace. And to the future. Thank you Brother.

Over the past several months I have been researching flowers to use for our wedding. Since I knew very little about flowers I started learning about some pretty simple classic flowers and then moved on to more exotic and seasonal flowers. I have included some of my favorite ones here.




This bouquet is made primarily of white orchids and hydrangeas. Orchids are a beautiful exotic flower which are expensive but elegant looking.








What I love about this one is the mixture of flowers. There are green cymbidium orchids, crysanthemums, roses, and lots of greenery. It is so vibrant and colourful!








Orchids, roses, and fresias. Again, the greenery is so pretty mixed in with the flowers.









These flowers are called Fresias. They are very popular for weddings as they are white and elegant looking.







While I do not wish to give away exactly which flowers I have decided to go with for the wedding, but I imagine you can guess at least some of them by looking at the pictures throughout the blog.

Aside from my Brother, Ben is the member of my half of the wedding party that I have known the longest and I am truly lucky to have a friend who has been there for me over about 20 years to now have at my side on my wedding day.

BEN CAPLAN

I met Ben in St. Catharines while we were both swimming for Brock Niagara Aquatics during the 1990s. A lot has changed over the last 20 years, although Ben's feet are pretty much the same size, and Ben and I have been through it together all over that time.

Swimming proved not to be Ben's deal over the long haul (despite his brilliant form shown below) but our friendship transcended the pool and moved to the pool halls, and from there we went to school together, had a hilarious time working at 3 for 1 Pizza together, moved to Toronto at roughly the same time, lived in The Palace together, hit up the Zen Lounge countless times, worked at the UofT pool together, enjoyed Crazy Strings at the Silver Dollar Lounge while swilling prohibition era quality beer, we've watched a number of UFC shows together, Sunday night beers and pool at the Fox & Fiddle, and most recently he moved in with Nathalie and I for a short while this year. There have been many more moments beyond that as well and let's just say that there are no half-baked ideas that I would not buy into if Ben asked me to get involved in.

Currently Ben is fully entrenched in an art career and I could not be more proud of his evolution in this pursuit (you can see one of his pieces below). At one point in time art was a hobby for Ben much like playing the guitar, shooting pool, or relentless womanizing but now it should be considered that Ben has gone pro in two in those pursuits, the first being art and the second... well, if you don't know him then you will and let's just say his billiards game is not what it once used to be.

I have grown up with Ben, much in the same way that Nathalie has grown up with Veronica, and our friendship has endured our crazy teenage years and sadly now our 20s that are in our rearview mirror. I will always be there for Ben and I'm confident that he will always be there for me and on July 24th he will be exactly where I hoped he would be and that's in the wedding party.

Thanks Ben, I deeply appreciate your friendship.

Not much explanation needed. The theme was "Mad Hatter" and it was very girly! Enjoy the pictures! My sister hosted the event and did an amazing job! Special thanks also goes out to Nicole, Gran, Kim, Mom, and Dad for the decorations. It was lots of fun! To see more pictures visit our flicker account!

Notice the side profile. I decided this was the best angle to try to avoid seeing my
swollen nose and eyes!!

Veronica and I about to fall down the Rabbit Hole!

Crazy Hats were worn by all! (Kate, Julia, Kristin, and Brittney)

Nicole made some fancy rabbit cupcakes among green cupcakes. So talented!

I don't know where Gill's hat ended up, but it is still a great photo! No one was about to forget MY name!

I wanted to share a story with you all to warn you of the dangers of walking. Yes, I said walking. A few days ago, I was walking along Robert St. on my way home from UofT campus when I was struck by a crazy biker barreling his way down the sidewalk. He rode up behind me and I was thrown face first into a metal fence. Needless to say I was in quite a bit of pain and shock. The fact that I was also bleeding from the head was also not a very pleasant experience. I somehow managed to get my bearings and a really kind woman stopped and helped me get to the walk-in clinic. Dave, Dudar, and Kate then proceeded to take care of me throughout the day. Dudar bought me a cupcake. Kate distracted me with a marathon of "Community" while asking me memory related questions when I looked like I was about to doze off. Dave cleaned me up, made dinner, and bought me a brownie. Sugar and TV are an excellent way to cure a swollen head!































I now have a nice cut on my forehead (think Harry Potter Style) and a nice swollen face! This of course happened 2 days before my bridal shower which made for awesome photos of me with two swollen eyes and sporting a Disney princess band-aid on my head. I am not sure what the moral of this story is, but I wanted to provide an explanation for my funny appearance in the shower pictures =)


PS: If anyone asks, the fence looks worse!