I believe that the key to a successful marriage between Nathalie and I will be my ability to make sure that I provide a consistent supply of "slummin' it" chocolate to Nathalie.



You see, there are occassions in which high quality, expensive chocolate will not satisfy Nathalie's need for chocolate. Instead, she must consistently have cheap, dirty, low-brow, slummin' it chocolate to get Nathalie to her happy place :)

Attention to detail is everything.

On Saturday we had our friends who will be helping us out as volunteers and wedding party on July 24th for a BBQ and a "casual drink".

The result...

Too much food, a few extra drinks, and a lightsaber.

Here is the visual evidence.

Nick Dargus and his invisible beer...

Special thanks to Bitch Liam who came all the way from Philadelphia to spend the day with us... He will be the emcee on the 24th, despite his irrational loyalty to the Blue & White.

Lindsey on the left will be our bartender on the 24th, she's tremendous so bring your wallets and tip the bartender!

Quote Nathalie LaCoste: "Gimme... Gimme gimme gimme" ... She loves her lightsaber and can't stand Kate taking it away from her.

Once again beer proves to be an equally effective tool to a death weapon from the future.

Special Delivery of the Day... Cam delivers an ironic death to The Dudar.

Inappropriate? Perhaps.

Perfectly sober.

Defender of the bedroom.

A special thanks to everyone who came out, it was a crazy amazing awesome night!

I would like to thank the group of swimmers that I coach at Toronto Swim Club and all their parents for an incredibly generous series of gifts for Nathalie and I for our wedding!







I know what you're thinking... "Dave, you wear that Seahawks jersey in a lot of these pictures".... and I'll tell you that you're right, it's very comfortable and it's a Matt Hasselbeck jersey and the shelf life of Mr. Hasselbeck is not all long so I better wear it out before it's completely irrelevant.

On a more relevant note... Nathalie and I are looking forward to seeing my swimmers out at Knox for our wedding on July 24th. They will be the good looking kids that will be respresenting as my extended family!

Nathalie and I would like to thank everyone who attended her Bridal Shower and supplied us with the gifts to go to The Bay and purchase beautiful new towels.

We could not be any more excited because these towels are super fluffy and comfy!



Yes... yes, we went with family brand loyalty. The quality of these towels is fantastic, we can not recommend them highly enough.

Thank you all so much!!

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!

Since several people have been asking, I thought I would make a very "official" post updating you all on my plans for next year. As many of you know, I spent the months of September to January buried in PhD applications. Of course this coincided with finishing up my MA degree, trying to figure out a summer job, and starting to plan a wedding!! So, you may not have seen much of me during these months. Instead of boring you with the details of where I applied, I am skipping to the end result. I ended up accepting an offer for the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. So, Dave and I will be staying in the city of Toronto which we are really excited about!!! I will start my program in September and am looking forward to taking a "thinking break" over the summer before diving in to another 4-5 years of study.

There are just some friends that you meet that you know, come thick or thin, they would do anything and everything in their power for you and quite simply I know that Nick Dargus is one of those ultra-rare friends in my life and I'm honoured that he will be standing beside me on July 24th.

NICK DARGUS

Since I moved to Toronto in 1999, Nick Dargus has been with me (and I with him) every step along the way. Nick and I were rookies on the Varsity Blues swim team together, we moved into 'The Palace' together, we captained the Varsity Blues swim team together and to two Provincial Titles, we finished our swimming careers in the same year, we moved on with careers at the same time, we've played poker and pool on many an inebriated evening, and last year I was honoured to be the Best Man at his wedding.

Here are some quick hit memories I share with Nick Dargus... The Dougall Perpetual Challenge Trophy, a love of 24 (although if he ruins it for me I will ruin him), Duffs, The Palace, free pool at the Fox & Fiddle, Goldschlager (yikes), Franchises' boobs (you're welcome), and fond smile every time I hear the song 'Rasputin' by Boney M (yeah, by Boney M, will never forget that artist).



Nick and Nathalie are pretty tight as friends and have been so since well before Nathalie and I started to date. To be fair, Nick used to pick on Nathalie quite a bit, much like an older brother would pick on a sister. Although underneath that teasing was also a relationship that Nathalie was comfortable enough to confide to Nick her super crush she had on me... yeah, I'm that big a deal.

Since Nathalie and I have been together Nick continues to be a great friend. To Nathalie's delight she has proven to be an adept dog sitter for Cole while Nick and I enjoy our frequent trips to Duffs (sometimes we even bring along that deadbeat, The Dudar).

Of all the memories I've shared with Nick, I believe the fondest is the fantastic week we spent in Punta Cana last year shortly after his wedding. Nick and his beautiful wife Ashley were generous enough to take the wedding party to Punta Cana and it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip!

Nick has always been there for me and on July 24th he will be right in the thick of things again and I could not be more happy to share this day with one of the best friends I could ever imagine having in my life.

BTW... I don't know how many drinks I had in me at the time of this picture but be assured it was quite a few. A great day!

This is exciting, 103 days left to go until July 24th so it's time to unveil a proper wedding website where you'll find some of the more general information regarding the wedding...

The site is under construction but there are some preliminary details up... more to come.

The blog is definitely going to continue, please keep visiting. Hit up the Flickr. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Twitter... You can do it all with this wedding, full access!

In all seriousness, lots going on and we love all the help and support our friends and families having been giving us lately!

Visit the official wedding website... http://www.ewedding.com/sites/july24th2010

Tomorrow, Saturday March 26th, is going to be a busy day. As the wedding is coming up in about 4 months it is now time to stop browsing the magazines and start making decisions about those details I have been thinking about for months. So, my mom is going to come downtown and help me out with girlie details while Dave takes care of the more manly-organizational ones =)

Here is the program for tomorrow's events:

12pm - Lunch with Mom at the Windsor Arms Hotel
3pm - Flower consultation @ Pink Twig (Such a beautiful shop!)
4pm - Menu tasting at the Polish Hall (with Dave and Mom)
5pm - Beckers Bridal to pick up MY wedding dress!!!

Looking forward to crossing more things off my to-do list! More updates to come!
Nat