After a couple of days of post-wedding R&R we are back... and we have pictures and stories and memories to share from a fantastic day!

Nathalie and I will do our best to put up as many photos and stories as possible in the next couple days so please do check in!

Our wedding photographer was Kathryn Palmateer... to say that she was fantastic on Saturday would be an understatement. As soon as we see the rest of her work from Saturday we're going to be sure to give her a proper and thorough endorsement.

Good morning. It's 8:30ish, just rolled out of bed, actually slept really well.

Here's what going on today, Wedding Day!

1. I'm about to go check into the hotel Nathalie and I are staying in tonight.

2. Nathalie is already up, she's getting her make up and hair done with all the Bridesmaids

3. I need to make sure to eat a full breakfast because once I get my suit on I'm probably not going to eat until dinner at 7ish

4. All the Groomsmen are coming over by about noon and we'll leave for Knox around 1PM.

5. Nathalie will scurry to get her dress on, take a bunch of pictures at home, and then pile into vehicles to get to the church.

6. Colin, Massimo, Marco, and Cam will be at the church to Usher! Thank you boys!

7. Get married about 2:15

8. Church reception

9. Photography session

10. Reception

11. Get out of dodge.

Simple. Easy. Nothing could possibly go off-course... Wish us luck!

Nothing left to do today.

An amazingly busy day of decorating and preparations for tomorrow. The reception hall is ready, the church is decorated, the wedding ceremony has been rehersed.

Done.

There are a few things to get done tomorrow but for the most part the rest of the day is up to our capable friends and family.

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm exhausted and sleeping will not be a problem tonight.

Nathalie... well, she's in Mississauga and has a much earlier wake up call then I do... good luck with that Love Love.

I can not wait to see Nathalie in her dress tomorrow, I must admit, I'm super pumped for that because she's simply going to be glowing.

A great day to come, a great day!

Things are calm this morning.

Here's the list...

1. Thank you cards... too many of them.

2. Finalize the bar with Lindsey

3. Arrange for cake to be picked up (thank you Massimo)

4. Set up the reception hall

5. Stock the bar -- pick up a few final bar items

6. Decorate the church

7. Wedding rehersal (6PM)

8. Bridesmaids back to Mississauga for Bridesmaids' stuff

9. Clean... everything.

10. Write cheques so everyone and everything gets paid.

11. Anything else we could have possible forgotten.

That's it Baby! Showtime tomorrow! And yes, hopefully I will have time to set up a blog on tomorrow's rundown.

Hopefully we see all of you tomorrow!

So tomorrow is a pretty busy day, I will do my best to put up the day's agenda but let's just say between the hours of 1PM to 8PM things are pretty hectic.

However, after 8PM things chill way out.

Nathalie will head out to Mississauga with her Bridesmaids and her family.

I will head home to our apartment.

If any of our guests/friends/readers/acquaintances are around on Friday night and would like to swing by the apartment and hang out, I will just be hanging out.

To spice up the offering, The Dudar will be in attendance, I have reasonable belief that reception emcee Liam Weseloh and his beautiful wife Erin will be arriving from Jersey/Philly and they are going to drop in.

Call me. If you don't have my number then e-mail me at july24th2010@gmail.com and we will make arrangements.

The big day is soon!

The thunder is gone, the rain is down to a 60% chance but identified as "scattered".

Face it, Saturday is going to be a good day!

Wednesday's hit list was a complete success although Nathalie was the only one to make it to the pool for some sun, Dave was stuck in errands.

Thursday serves as kind of the calm before the storm. Tasks are pretty simple but need to get done. Business really starts to pick up on Saturday.

Here's what Thursday entails...

1. CLEAN THE APARTMENT!! Top to bottom.

2. Dave needs to go pick up his pay cheque.

3. Go to Post Office to pick up a package.

4. CLEAN THE APARTMENT!!

5. Table numbers

6. Get to the pool.

Will there be more to do.. absolutely.

Yesterday we had to do a little shuffling of the seating chart due to a guest having to inform us that she could not make dinner. It happens.

We paid the photographer her final installment... hit the wallet hard.

Nathalie and I also started to take on an artistic project.. more on that later.

Nerves appear calm here in the apartment, Nathalie and I both are pretty relaxed about Saturday... for now :)

It was quite the exciting moment in the apartment today! I came home from running a few wedding errands and there was a nice vase full of flowers on a side table. I thought nothing of these flowers, clearly thinking that Nathalie wanted to pick up some flowers but upon going upstairs to say hello to Nathalie, I was told the flowers were for me.

So after being virtually pushed down the stairs by Nathalie to see who the flowers were from, I opened the card and read...

"Dave + Nathalie! Wish I could be there, thinking about it Dave -it's

probably thanks to you that I can't! ... Love from Winnipeg... Michaela"

This was incredibly touching, as I told Michaela on Facebook -- you made our day and your flowers are beautiful and make us so happy to have a great friend like you.



And for those wondering why I may be responsible for Michaela being in Winnipeg, I was her swim coach at Toronto Swim Club up until November this year when she broke through and started qualifying for National-type meets and move up out of my group. She's a fantastic young lady, a good swimmer who is going to Dalhousie University next year where she's going to rip it up for the Tigers out on the east coast.

A classy touch from a classy young lady.

The weather situation for Saturday has evolved all week. Early reports called for clouds and showers, then chance of thunderstorms, and then there was optimism for sun, and now we have come just about full circle and we are back to "3022 Chance of thunder-showers".

What does this tell us?

Absolutely nothing

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Tuesday was a complete success, here's Wednesday.

1. Nathalie off to Mississauga for a few errands.

2. Head to Moore's to pick up suit

3. Find equipment for bartender

4. Finalize ceremony and reception programs and do copy run.

5. Hit the pool for some sun.

6. The day is young, I'm sure there will be more to do....

To be honest, Nathalie is running out of things on her "to-do" list, which means Dave is clearly winning.

Rolling right along, stress level under control, actually doing pretty darn good. No imminent disasters in the visible distance.

Here's a rundown for Tuesday...

1. Communicate with bartender, make sure she's all good (10:35 already job done).

2. Arrange with brewery for beer delivery (Monday carryover)

3. Contact DJ... (Monday carryover)

4. A full day of rounds for Dave with Papa LaCoste (Mark). Including picking up suit, picking up gifts from The Bay, and picking up some equipment for the bartender.

5. Communicate with Groomsmen about the weekend schedule (10:35 already job done)

6. Meet with Ben and edit the ceremony program, getting ready for final revision before print run.

7. Pick up milk and coffee/tea accutrements for reception at Knox.

8. Pick up crafty decoration thingys (Nathalie's job, I have no clue what these things are).

That's it for now!

Nathalie was up early today, after a relaxed Sunday due to Bachelorette festivities so there is some preparation to be done today...

For those yet unmarried or getting re-married or soon-to-be-married, here is a little summation of the issue of Monday (as known at 10AM).

1. Contact our Pastor, Rev Kev to touch base and ask him to say Grace at the Reception

2. Evening outline for reception emcee

3. Arrange with family to bring in wine and alcohol to our apartment so we can easily transport on Friday.

4. Arrange with brewery for beer delivery

5. Contact DJ... Make sure we're on the same page

6. Send evening outline to bartender

7. Arrange to pick up gifts from The Bay later in the week (our family and friends have been generous, I think we need to pull up a moving truck)

8. Final modifications of ceremony program

9. Send out timeline to Groomsmen (Nathalie sent timeline to Bridesmaids on Friday -- their's is more complex)

10. We'll see, the day is young :)

Let's get this party started!

It's 12:02 on Monday AM of our wedding week. Five full days of preparation, one day of ceremony, and one day of celebration (all give or take).

Remarkably we feel like we do not have much left to prepare. Calls have to be made, schedules finalized, and decorations and deliveries but really the heavy lifting is all set.

Everything culminates with the ceremony at 2PM on Saturday.

If you're reading we hope you will join us at Knox on Saturday!!

It's a quiet Saturday. Next Saturday Nathalie and I will be knee-deep in our wedding, which is very exciting!

For tonight however, Nathalie and her friends are painting the town for her Bachelorette Party and I... well, I'm blogging to you and loving it.

Nathalie and I have been working with all the great people at Knox to come up with a selection of music for the ceremony and to say that Nathalie and I have a differing opinion on good music when it comes to the ceremony would be an understatement.

Ultimately, Nathalie will get what she wants on this matter but below some of the rejected songs played on piano that I was suggesting should get played...



OK... maybe the Black Eyed Peas are a little too mainstream...



Denied.



Just wrong.



Stairway Denied.



Maybe System Of A Down doesn't hit the right note, but damn is sounds pretty cool.



Perhaps a song entitled 'The New Divide' is not an appropriate song for a wedding, just too much of an opposing message.

And finally... The vote from Groomsman Benjamin Caplan...



Please e-mail Nathalie and I and let her know that you want Queen! This is guaranteed to start a church sing-along, a tremendous moment it would be!

Looking out my window today I see a clear blue sky and I hear the roar of rubber down at the Ex for the Toronto Indy.

According to The Weather Network today's "28/18 chance of thunder-showers" is similar to July 24th's "30/23 chance of thunder-showers".

Nice.

Although we would not mind if that "28/21 sunny" scheduled for the 25th moved up one day :)

Later today... Rejected chuch music

Nathalie and I went through the fun of selecting a first dance song yesterday, much music was considered, some dismissed without honour, some dismissed after tough consideration.

There was a final 3 that we thought were all really good songs, we finally settled on... well... if you're at the reception you will know when it happens but otherwise that detail will not be given away ahead of time.

Here are the runners up...





Come back tomorrow for a fun round of YouTube action. Tomorrow I will post songs that were considered for music at Knox for processional, recessional, and signing music (please note that I have no idea what those parts of the ceremony are, Rev Kev knows when to point at me to say 'I do' and other then that it's all Rev Kev, the parents, and Nathalie... True Story).

Rejected church music. Tomorrow. Don't you dare miss it!

Yes, Nathalie and I were running through some songs for the wedding and of course I wanted to hear some Billy Idol.

Enjoy. We did.

It's as if the executives over there at The Weather Network are playing games with the long term forecast and it's giving Nathalie heart problems (not really).

Last night, the forecast for our wedding weekend...

So clearly we were excited that there will be some beautiful sunshine and clear sky for the wedding and all the pictures of the day!

Then.... today happened and the forecast changed a little bit...

So now we're looking at a chance of some thunder-showers...

One day... sun. Next day... thunder.

This story will continue to evolve as we get even closer!

Some funny pictures I came across on the internet.
The Balloon entrance way...


Dragon...
Paris!

What does isolated showers mean?

Of course WikiAnswers has the answer.

Looks like we're looking at nice-ish weather on the 24th... or so the early, early forecast would indicate. Stay tuned as this wedding day weather forecast evolves!

The announcement of our upcoming wedding was mentioned in Knox Presbyterian Church's bulletin on July 4th.

Here is the blurb:

Banns of Marriage

It is our great pleasure this morning to publish the
Banns of Marriage between Nathalie LaCoste and
Dave Ling. They will be married here in Knox
Presbyterian Church on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at
2:00 pm. If any of you know any legal reason why they
cannot be married, please speak to Rev. Dr. Wayne
Hancock, before that date. Nathalie and Dave would
be pleased to have you join them for the ceremony on
that day.


Or to see the online version: Click Here