Pink Hair, Stagette's and Old Pics

I had no idea it was now custom for the Bride to have a "Stagette" party prior to getting married. It looks, however, that the girls have now one-upped the boys by extending the traditional one night Stag Party to an entire weekend. Erin, Maggie and a half-dozen or so of their best friends got together in the beautiful Okanagan city of Kelowna, B.C., last weekend, to celebrate Erin's upcoming July 25th wedding.

Erin, the Bride and Maggie, a Bridesmaid! These have gotta be wigs!


Here's all Paulette and I know for sure about the big weekend. All the girls arrived in Kelowna on Friday evening, some driving from Calgary, while others came from Victoria, Vancouver and Nelson, B.C. They were all staying at a Motor Inn with as many to a room as allowed to keep the costs to a minimum and the fun to a maximum. By the time everyone got there, it was getting late so Erin and Maggie said they just "hung-out" as the plan for the big night out was Saturday anyway.

Erin & Maggie - the pink hair was definitely a wig - thank goodness!


On Saturday, it was extremely hot in the Okanagan with temperatures in the high 90's, so they all spent a few hours at the beach with lots of sunscreen we're told. In the morning they visited a Lavender Farm and after leaving the beach they went on a tour of one of Kelowna's local wineries. I guess that was just to get warmed up for Saturday night. All Paulette and I know about the evening is that they all got together and went for dinner at a very nice restaurant. Being good parents, we didn't ask any more questions as everyone got home safe, sound and accounted for - and the wedding is still on!!

Paulette sent 100's of prints and here's a collage of a few images I sent


The other night, Paulette and I spent the evening going through old photos of Erin. Paulette searched the low-tech stuff - prints stuffed in shoe boxes, dresser drawers and photo albums, while I looked through all the digital pics stored on my computer. Erin says a friend of hers has volunteered to make a DVD slide show for the reception and she has promised to to keep it short - 2 song maximum and less than 5 minutes. That's good, because sometimes, although these slide shows can be fun, their impact is lost because they're just too darn long.

One of my favorites - Paulette and Erin in San Francisco - July, 2003


Erin & Rhett 3 years ago at our niece's wedding


It's going to be difficult to choose though given the amount of pictures we sent off. Luckily, we have no more to do with it until we see the end result at the wedding. Another good thing I noticed is that as the designated family photographer, I seem to have escaped being in most of these. These days, of course, I wouldn't be so lucky as everyone, it seems, has some kind of digital camera.