Friday, February 2, 2018

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.

30 comments:

  1. Little did they know when giving you a free ticket that they'd be getting such great publicity!

    Janis
    GDP

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  2. Planning a wedding is too stressful. :)

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  3. It must have been interesting to stand back and see it trough your lens!

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  4. Well, since I used to have a cat named Gypsy Rose, you know the photo I liked most! Love "Four Weddings" -- a wonderful start off point for a series like this!

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  5. i wonder if the lady picked that dress? i see those sort of limos all the time but never driving on the road?? looks like a fun time for all ... i hope. ( ;

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  6. Hello, the wedding shows are popular. My son and his fiancé have been going to a few around here now.
    Happy Friday, enjoy your weekend!

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  7. @Tom: very fancy!

    @Francisco: it was!

    @Janis: I would not have thought that Sunday morning that I'd end up in such a show, so it was quite a spur of the moment thing to do.

    @Catarina: there is no end of decisions to make.

    @Marie: yes, I was looking at it all from a completely different perspective. Oddly, that made it enjoyable.

    @Jeanie: ah, that would do it! Yes, I love that movie, and adding quotes to these posts felt quite appropriate.

    @Beth: it looked good on her. I occasionally see those limos here as well.

    @Eileen: I expect if someone's planning a wedding, they start looking up events like this.

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  8. I have never seen a limo that long driving on our road!

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  9. Convention centers attract some interesting events.

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  10. This is not really my piece of cake ... ;-)

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  11. Oh we have wedding events at our Convention Centre too William.. everything you could ever want for your wedding.. but you better have a lot of cash! I'm encouraging Aimee to elope when she finds her Mr Right 😀😀

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  12. A single guy at a wedding show.
    Please take pictures of cake if they have any. I joke that's one of the best reason to have a wedding.

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  13. @Nancy: they must be a beast to handle around a tight corner.

    @Red: they do! This place had an adults only show more recently called Taboo- it might be a bit too risque to have done the same with posting about that!

    @Jan: it was the first time I've ever been in that kind of convention!

    @Grace: good advice!

    @Maywyn: I was like a fish out of water! I do have a cake coming up in the last post.

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  14. Lovely interior wedding show shots! ~ love the 'queen looking' carriage ~

    Happy Weekend,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  15. Crazy to spend so much money on the wedding. Better to spend it on the marriage.

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  16. You were very brave to enter such a show! I think I went fishing with my dad near Callabogie when I was a kid.

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  17. I hope you at least got a chance to sample some cake.

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  18. Looks like there is lots of interest in having fancy weddings. Ours was simple, stress free, fun and cheap. :) That was almost 38 years ago.

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  19. It was a coincidence reading this that I had already selected the film Four Weddings and a Funeral to watch this evening either before or after our favorite Feb 2 film, Groundhog Day.I have been to at least one of these venues with someone who was getting married and they were indeed "not my thing" .

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  20. Aargh! Go to a justice of the peace, save your money and have a great honeymoon. Weddings have become over the top crazy. My grandson is getting married later this year - supposedly...well, I don't want to talk about it. Sheesh. Idiocy. But I remember that movie and at the time thought it was rather weird but I've always wanted to see it again because I think I would enjoy it now, especially if those quotes are any indication of what went on! :)

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  21. Is the cute little, romantically named Gypsy Rose available for honeymoon hire?
    Definitely weddings are big business!

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  22. @Carol: it was quite a carriage.

    @Revrunner: that's true.

    @RedPat: it would have been quite different had I been going in there as some member of a wedding party. I imagine there'd be pressure on groomsmen too. I've only done that once in my life, for a wedding out in Cape Breton. Calabogie's a lovely area. I haven't been out there in quite some time.

    @Kay: not cake, but a number of the event locales had things like chocolate samples, which I tried.

    @Bill: it's quite an industry.

    @Beatrice: I'll have to catch both again. I want to see if Groundhog Day is playing in any of our theatres.

    @Lowell: I absolutely love that movie.

    @Christine: I should have gotten more of a look at the Gypsy Rose, like gone inside, but I didn't!

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  23. I love the sign :-) funny and honest, and of course green gypsy caravan is wonderful.

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  24. That would have been fun to see with no pressure attached.

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  25. This doesn't even come close to my Retail Wedding in one my anthologies, but it is getting there.

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  26. @Klara: indeed!

    @Sharon: it was.

    @Norma: true!

    @Mari: thanks!

    @Cloudia: I did too.

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