Wedding Season

the making of Emma and Matt's buck and doe sign

The weather this week has made a definitive turn towards summer, and with this, the season of nuptials is upon us. Last year, Drew and I made it through the summer unscathed; we had only one wedding to attend, and it was in October. This year we're facing a tsunami of matrimonial happiness and well-wishing. Not only do we have a bunch of weddings to attend, but this year, for the first time ever, I'm *in* a wedding. My sister, Emma, is getting married at the end of August, and I'm her Maid of Honour.

I'm extremely excited about this. I have a dress, and jewelry, and boots (we're wearing cowboy boots), and great plans for her bachelorette party. This past Saturday night, the wedding party threw Emma and her fiancé a Buck and Doe. This also goes by the name of a stag and doe, or a jack and jill, and for those who are from urban centres, the Maritimes, the west coast, or anywhere outside of central rural North America, this is a big party that also functions as a fundraiser for the couple who are getting married. You could think of it as an engagement party plus a co-ed wedding shower - no gifts are given, but money is given to the couple to help them with either wedding costs or getting started in their life together. There are games, and raffles, and, in our case, a silent auction as well. As I can attest to from my time spent working at the front door, people walk in prepared to drop a stack of 20-dollar bills on the table and take whatever you can give them, whether it's drink tickets, raffle tickets, insurance in the form of a stamp that protects them from having to take a shot of whiskey out of the groom's dirty jock strap (not kidding), or whatever the case may be. People are generous.

The buck and doe was a big success, and we'll all be eating left over sandwiches for the next week or so. In two weeks, we're going to be whisking Emma away for her bachelorette party, and a few weeks later we'll have her wedding shower. Between Emma and a couple of close friends who are getting married/having a baby, most of my weekends for the next four months are full of parties to celebrate their life events. I'm going to say now that I predict that September will come and I will have no idea where the summer went. I better start barbequeing while there's still time!

I'm not about to turn this blog into a wedding site, but since so much of my time over the next little while is going to involve planning and attending wedding and baby related events, I will certainly end up writing about them here. Be warned. And just in case you wondered what it looks like when someone takes a shot from the cup of a jock strap, this is it. Matt, the groom, is administering the deadly blow. This man should have bought insurance.