Bloggin it up

Kerazy Weekend Part 3

Alrighty, last part.
(make sure to scroll down and read parts 1 and 2 first)

So Jenn and Jenn's Mom dressed me in my costume.
The costume involved a painters smok thingy with hood, gloves socks, some wrapping stuff (I don't know what it was) and uhm.. hot glue. Everything was stained with tea (except the glue), to give it an old worn look.

The costume dressing was... interesting, it involved me getting wrapped from head to toe with this white wrapping stuff, using hot glue to stick it in place. This is not the first time I have had Jenn's mom getting all up close and personal wrapping me with stuff. Last time was suran wrap...

I was not very... comfortable with all the places hot glue needed to be applied, but it all finished eventually.

So everyone finishes their costumes, and we head off (thoroughly late) for the party.

I have heard a lot of hype about this place prior to today.
- The garage is used to store a large car collection (including 3 porches)

This place is HUGE, driving on their street I say something like "Is that the entrance" as I motion to a very large Soprano like metal gate. Jenn says "No we are going to the other entrance"

We drive by what seems to be parking attendants, and park the car on the road along with the other 40 - 50 cars already on the road.

We walk through the second set of gates to the property, and have to walk to the front of the "garage".
This garage is about the size of 2 - 4 large barns, it's dark out, so it is difficult to get a good look at it, from what I can see it looks very new (as it should).

Mr Lee greets us around the side of the building dressed up as a war general. (I didn't know this initially, but Mr. Lee is the host)

We walk inside the garage it is reminiscent somewhat of a stag party. The place is the size as I am used to in carp and kinburn community center halls, except is it 2 stories high.
Rubberish floors (heated I am told).

There is a large number of people dancing in front of a stage, very nice looking stereo equipment that looked very new. A lady at the front takes our picture with a digital canon SLR, I spot no less than 2 other people with expensive SLR cameras taking pictures around the floor (ie professional photographers)

The (open) bar is setup to our right with 2 people handing out drinks from under the tables.

From the looks around the place there was a lot of time spent on decorations.
The place was amazing, the pictures will have to show you the rest of the place as I can't do it justice.

Unfortunately Mr. Lee is a big leafs fan, and has a stanley cup winner, banner, like you would see at the hockey arena, hanging from the ceiling, (It is strung up so as not to touch the floor, it is that big)

There is a loft type area above with TONS of hockey jerseys hanging from the ceiling upstairs, I spot 4 gretzky jerseys, I presume from all the teams he was on.

I get introduced to many of Jenn's relatives, her cousin Chris (baseball player she mentions frequently), her Granny, some cousins, and cousins children, etc...

Me and Jenn's Dad eventually wonder into the back room below the loft, this is the shop / game area, and it is cool, there are 2 lifts, with 4 cars off to the right we go and take a look. Apparently the car under wraps is an older Porsche 911, I don't recall what the cars were on the lift, but the other car seemed to be purely bought to collect, it still had plastic on the seats, and the factory sticker in the window.

Back in the main area, there are a few bikes that are roped off, a harley, a very large honda bike, and a bike with the coolest bike rims I have ever seen.

Enough of the ambiance again. Jenn wanders around and plays with some of her cousins, I have a couple beer, and meet some more relatives, when we are told from the MC on the stage that the garage doors are going to open and we are all to follow the ghouls into the house.

What's this? As we are walking in, I think we came to the conclusion that we are getting a tour of this new place. (this place has just recently been built, it is too new to be furnished, but looks complete otherwise.

The front doors are two huge solid wood doors I would expect to see on the addams family.
The great room we walked into was breathtaking.
Stairs to our left have cast iron banisters, lots of wood, a fireplace (which, I didn't get a great look at). We were among the last people coming in, and it was difficult to take it all in, there were so many people around.

Mr. Lee greets us at the front of the room, and welcomes us into his house, then another person walks forward from behind him talking,
blah blah, some greeting then "Only part of this is a costume, I am actually a priest."

What? Why are you here? This is a pretty big party, he even invites his preist wow.

Jenn's cousin Chris and Laura (fiancee) are called up to the front?
They walk up, but have changed costumes.

It becomes apparent now that this is a surprise WEDDING!

Both sides of the immediate family are called to stand up front. (forgetting the actual order this might have happened earlier)

Everyone seems to have the same reaction, "What? Really!? This is CRAZY! Wow".

Now to step back and give you a better perspective, everyone is still dressed up in Halloween costumes. Even the immediate family, all of them really good. The funniest of which was Laura's brother who was dressed as a slutty female (or prostitute), with makeup, uber short skirt, and some very skinny tube top thing. The crowd as well all dressed up, attending a wedding.

The wedding progresses with everyone in shock, I am taking pictures like a madman.
There is a loft area above, I try and scoot up to take some pictures to find it completely barracaded with people. Then I jump back down.
All my pictures unfortunately are from the same angle.

The wedding finishes and they go up to sign the wedding registry thingy. And the whole mass of people swarm to the front. I stay back where I am, and take some more pictures, and eventually find myself talking to Jenn's grandma.

I am chatting and snapping pictures, when I spot Jenn trying to get my attention, and motion me over... then I realize she doesn't want me, she is trying to get her grandma up there. I follow granny into the swarm, and we end up on opposite sides of the family huddle.

Some people with masks still on, Jenn, Jenn's Mom, Chris' Mom, etc...

Then someone motions to the masked people, who promptly remove their masks, to reveal Jenn's relatives from the states, exactly where they are from I am not sure, but I guess further south from the accents. They have been inconspicuously partying with everyone for hours prior.

At this point as well Jenn's Dad has called Jenn's sister multiple times, I assume to say things like
"Hey, uhm ya... your missing Chris' surprise wedding", and
"Guess who just popped out of masks after the wedding"
"Get your ass down here"
"Did you ever pick the wrong party to miss"
etc...

So as the wedding crowd slowly dissolves, someone gets on the microphone to encourage us to head back to the party. And we head back down, still in shock and awe (shocwe) of the ... whole thing.

The Chris and Laura get back down, and have the ritual first dance, as husband and wife, then the other dances.

We find out from Jenn's relatives (the ones that unfortunately live down in the US) that they have known for about 2 months. To which Jenn's sister says something like "If someone would have told me I would have come...". lol

I play some foozball, take some pictures, Jenn's sister shows up eventually.
The party continues, there are some random speeches, and the party winds down slowly.

We stayed right up to the last song and headed back to Jenn's parents.

The next morning, we go and do some shopping at white feather, to get some chicken breasts and perogies, and go visit Jenn's sister.

Later in the evening Jenn decides to stay another night, and head back Monday morning, so she can spend some more time with her US relatives, so I take off to get back home.
The drive again is wet but bearable.

That was the weekend in a nutshell,
I am sad I missed my grandparents 60th, but heading up to Oshawa turned out to be a great alternative.

Hope everyone enjoyed the wait. ;-)
Oh yea, here are the pics.

posted by Matt @ 5:31 PM