A Toast Before We Go Into Battle

"Do you think there are really people who can just go up and say, 'Hi, babe. Name's Charles. This is your lucky night'?" ~ Charles

"Well if there are, they're not English." ~  Matthew

"Where's Gareth?" ~ Fiona

"Torturing Americans." ~ Matthew

"How thoughtful of him." ~ Fiona

"Having a good night?" ~ Carrie

"Yes. It's right up there with my father's funeral for sheer entertainment value." ~ Charles

"A toast before we go into battle. True love. In whatever shape or form it may come. May we all in our dotage be proud to say, I was adored once too." ~ Gareth

Those are quotes from Four Weddings And A Funeral, which I'll be using over the next couple of posts as well as I show you this event. I went into the Ottawa Convention Centre in mid-January one Sunday afternoon to photograph the building, and mentioned in my post a few days ago about an event going on at the time. A wedding show was happening, organized by a group called Wedding Palace. The husband of one of the vendors was out on the third floor promenade with some complementary tickets, so I took one and went on in. The promenade itself had a number of displays meant as a preview of what was inside. The bulk of the show itself was inside the largest of the building's halls. As I walked about, I felt completely out of my element- single guy, not getting married, after all. But at the same time, that meant no pressure at all. Vendors would have been feeling pressure to draw in business. The organizers would have felt pressure to ensure that all went well. Those brides and grooms planning weddings would have definitely been feeling pressure. About the only people here not feeling pressure would have been the building's staff, who were just going about another day's work, and, well... me.

There were a great many vendors here: limo services, floral shops, tailors and designers, event planners and locations, and more. 

Examples of event locales include Calabogie Peaks Resort in Renfrew County northwest of Ottawa. The resort caters to skiing in the winter, but is also a four season event centre.

Another such place is the Wakefield Mill, a former 19th century mill turned hotel on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, in a lovely village called Wakefield.

This sign caught my eye.

There were even a couple of bridal shops that had wedding dresses for prospective brides to try on. This young woman was having a look at herself. There's more of this to come.