Our wedding

 Yes, we finally got married despites all the evolving changes due to Covid-19 and last minutes paperwork's SNAFU.  Which continued upon our return from our short honeymoon.  Apparently we forgot to signed a sworn declaration of our intend to be married.   So we did afterward, got to keep the paper trail in due form :-)

The other hiccups were about, proving both our former spouses were dead.  For which, one required a death certificate, with out one it is apparently easier to kill someone in person than on paper. 

And being a Catholic wedding, needed a more recent copy of my baptistere.  The last one I have dated from 1962, the year I started school.  Never needed another since :-)

Should had been a easy task, contact my church and ask to be send a new copy.  But with the current pandemic situation churches have been shut down for a while.  Of the only two churches I went to in Quebec, one burned down and the other is manned by little old volunteer ladies, have no web presence, only a phone and a fax.  Took a while to get thru...First I had to get the contact info... Which I finally got by getting in touch with a nearby church that had a web presence and talking to a nice lady.

They say it takes two weeks to process my request; Go down to the archives, dust off the right albums, folio etc hand transcribed the info, have someone sign it off as being a certified true copy and bla bla.

It was Sep 9th before I finally got thru, rushed my money to them and waited 2 weeks, on the third started to get anxious (me and the father, without it cannot be married in church).  Turns out they did not mailed it, expecting me to come picked it up... Noooo, I'm in Nova Scotia!  Then they called me back cannot find it.  Somehow they made a new one on the same day I last spoke to them and mailed it the same day.  It arrived on the last Friday prior to wedding...just in time.

Meanwhile, we went along with our wedding plans.  We thought of rescheduling at a later date, but we thought: No idea how long this pandemic will last and the after effects, so postpone until when??

It quickly became obvious also that most of my family could not be present, being from Quebec and Ontario, they would have to spent 14 days in quarantine prior to wedding, only to repeat the same back home.  We cannot asked anyone to spend almost a month (28 days) in quarantine, especially if they are still working... :-(

The next big hurdle was waiting to find out IF we would be even allowed inside the church and under which conditions?

Here inside our Atlantic bubble, our churches have re-opened, but only to a limited number of persons.

First it was 10, 15, now 50 persons maximum allowed inside.  That meant every times trying to figured out who would be allowed inside??   To that number of 50 subtract the Priest, the Deacon, and 2 helpers, down to 46.  And of course, everyone that was allowed inside had to give their contact info for tracing purpose, if God forbid, someone test later positive for Covid.

All that to say, we made it :-)

Our two grand daughter's at the table with us

Here's a few pics from our wedding taken by friends, we have not seen our official pictures yet, we just got back from our honeymoon.

Our good friend Nadine, getting Jean ready

Jean on her way to the church.

One of  Covid restrictions: No processing down the aisle.

We came thru the side door, masks on.

Once in place, the wedding party can take its masks off, 

the ones in attendance had to keep theirs and keep social distancing between each bubbles

BTW, the ring I gave her previously in Feb, when I proposed?

 I replaced it with the real bling, first time she sees it :-)

Gave her the real engagement ring on her birthday in Sep, 

but she never saw the matching wedding band until now.

Oh, that left a big hole in my tool buying budget for a while :-)

Making it official

You can now kiss the bride... without a mask, yeah :-)

A good friend of Jean made the scrumptious cake

Our little family unit from NS, 

missing two sons and two grand kids from Ontario :-(

The next day we left for our little abbreviated Honeymoon.

The original plan was a Viking River cruise down the romantic Danube river, but may be a while...

Instead we had to stayed inside our Atlantic bubble.

We made the best of it, travelling the country side in Cap Breton, checking out restaurants on our way.

But we spent our first nite in Halifax at the Prince Georges hotel, then a lazy drive along the south shore back home before taking off for Cap Breton.  Meanwhile, the dogs were staying with the other set of our grand kids grandparents and had the visit of the kids in the week end.  They were fine :-)

Had a lovely lunch at the Grand Pre winery estate, 

on our way to Halifax.

Our suite at the Prince Georges.  

Great location down town Halifax.

Covid restrictions?  No valet parking and restaurant closed :-(

That was about the same everywhere BTW.

Love the 1PM check out time, no rush in AM.

 

First time I noticed this new place, Rogers centre

Lots of eatery and bars to discover around, we did not go hungry :-)

The old Halifax clock tower.

Once ruled the day to day activities in town.

Then we took a leisurely drive on the south shore (along the Atlantic Ocean)

 on the way back home.  Had lunch in Mahone bay. 

The following day, we took off for Cap Breton, hoping to see the fall colours.  

Same thing at home, the only reds left are the oaks and the burning bushes

We were about one week out to see the reds from the maples, but still lots of colourful vistas.

They have wicked winds in the Highlands, most maples are now leaf less

Since we were staying a few nites in Sidney, we went to nearby Fortresse Louisbourg.

It was out of season, they are getting the place ready for winter and it was drizzling rain, but it makes for great photos with no ones around and the rain makes the colours more vibrants :-)

Of course being a woodworker, I tend to looks at things with a different eye...

This fortress is a complete reconstruction, started about 1961.  It was totally demolished by the British after taking it over so it would not rival with the newly established Halifax port.

The last time I visited was with my father in the late 70s, been a while, lots have changed since.

Being on the Atlantic ocean side, salt water and time has also taken its toll on the structures...

Empty mortises

Being reconstructed, again

That would need replacement soon

Driving around we stopped at a small park.  I got so excited after what I saw :-)

Its been a long time since I saw a large white birch tree.

And it looked healthy to boot, bonus!

They used to be plentiful, but have been harvested to near extinction to make white paper :-(

The boardwalk along side the wharf in Sidney, behind our hotel

After another leisurely scenic drive and a few more stops, we are now back home, reunited with the dogs. 

Mr and Mrs Demers with the furry kids

We can now take a deep breath and say, we made it :-)

Thank you to all that could attend and to our family and friends that could not be there because of Covid, we will renew our vows in Quebec or Ontario later on, so you could be a part of it.

We missed you and love you.  Hoping to be able to see you soon  

Bob, Jean, Rudy and Diva