Wen and I went all the way to Halifax to see our friends Ben and Nicole get married.  It was a great time but the entire weekend-not just the wedding and my crappy photography-was a blur.

I flew in from San Francisco via the red eye to Manhattan.  The first leg was late so my bags didn’t make it.  I had to go to Le Chateau and buy the cheapest pair of black pants I could find (polyester!) and a shirt.  They looked great with my running shoes.

I wasn’t the only one feeling a little strange.  Wendy’s flight was delayed 7 hours due to storms; nothing like arriving at the airport at 3:30 and leaving at midnight.  Our other friends Michael and Fran had their flight diverted to Fredericton and took the bus.  All three arrived at 4 in the morning.

However, the whole city had come to life for Ben’s wedding.  The city shut down the streets and some groups (Brother of Acadia or something?) threw him a very colourful parade because they were so proud of him.  Lots of rainbows; presumably in celebration of Ben’s colourful language he uses when angry.

Also, some people took over the citadel in old military gear and played out a battle scene.  I can only presume that as I saw the redcoats beating what looked like Americans that this was supposed to symbolize Ben defending his love for Nicole (he’s British and apparently some Americans once tried to pick her up at a foam party in the UK).

I don’t know how he did it, but Ben must be totally plugged into the local community.

So we arrived at the ceremony tired, myself inappropriately dressed (actually, I soon found some comrades in arms who also hadn’t worn suits) and impressed by the city’s celebration of his day of matrimony.

The ceremony was beautiful.  Lots of crying, singing, 100,000 doves released into the sky and a 21 gun salute by the Eastern Canadian navy fleet parked in the harbour.  After that-casino for the reception!

The reception was totally surreal: we were in a beautiful room that overlooked the harbour and if you walked through a corridor and then down a set of stairs you were on the floors with the blue haired women in from the wilderness to play the slots on a Saturday nigght.  It was all I could do to not go downstairs and blow the $20 I had burning a hole in my pocket.

Ben did a great job of being the tech guy at his own wedding.  He built a Powerpoint presentation of photos and songs for Nicole.  Beautiful use of the overhead projector; all those product reviews he’s been leading must be paying off.  Shortly thereafter Ben’s brother skewered him in one of the funniest speeches I’ve ever heard at a wedding; if I recall through the fatigue-and-alcohol-induced haze, there were at least a few jokes about the projector.

Congrats Ben and enjoy the honeymoon.