Ok Everyone, now that the X-mas rush and New Year is here, I finally have time to write our Wedding Story Part 2: the Wedding Week.

Since Ryan and I have the most amazing friends in the world, Tyler, Danielle, and Greg were all able to get a week off work to join us in Scotland for our WW (wedding week). In the days leading up to their arrival, Ryan and I laid low in Edinburgh at a couch surfer's house in order to relax and save money before the party began. We rented a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment from December 12-19th for the five of us to call home. Danielle and Greg were the first to arrive in Scotland. Ryan and I waited anxiously at the bus station until we saw two friendly faces on the AirLink bus...and then we almost tackled them with super hugs. The four of us set off to the new pad which was a lot nicer than I expected. The condo was within walking distance of the downtown core and has stainless steel appliances (including a dishwasher - whoo!), cable and internet, and a bottle of bubbly in the fridge.

Danielle and Greg were troopers; even after an overnight flight and no sleep, we still managed to hit the town on the night of their arrival. At one point we met some pretty cool Scotsmen who bought us drinks because we are so awesome. Tyler arrived the next night; with the whole group present it was time for Ryan and I to bust out the haggis, neeps, and tatties. It was now Tuesday and 4 days until the wedding. Let's just say we went through a lot of Strongbow and Guinness that night.

Wednesday was kilt day. The boys were off to Trenent to pick up the kilt rentals while Danielle and I hit the pavement shopping. Ryan and I decided on the Prince Charlie jacket and the Lion Heart tartan. Ryan desperately wanted the McFarlane tartan but time and money constraints forced us to stick with what was available. The boys looked more than amazing on the wedding day (and every other night they wore their kilts out). As the groom, Ryan had the addition of the fly plaid to his ensemble and a black collared shirt vs. white on Greg and Tyler.

While the boys were suiting up, Danielle and I spent the day shopping the streets of Edinburgh. The first stop was to pick up veiling fabric for me to make a fascinator head piece (which you will see turned out quite nicely in the pictures). After some clothes shopping, I found a most unexpected purchase...my wedding dress. This was actually the third dress I had bought since deciding to get married.

1. A beautiful black lace dress kept as a back-up in case I could not find one in white

2. A convertible white dress from Henkka in Toronto (convertible meaning one size fits all and you can twist, tie, and wrap it to make hundreds of different looks)

3. THE dress purchased for $70 Can. from Top Shop on Princes Street in Edinburgh

So, the other two were returned and I ended up wearing the Top Shop dress which was purchased 2 days before my wedding.

That night, the five of us went to an Irish pub called Malones which had a fantastic 3 man band playing. We danced/jigged the night away together...Greg even busted out the Russian for us! Since we had such a fun time at this particular pub, we chose it to be the party spot the night of our wedding.

Speaking of the wedding, I will end this post here with the next instalment coving the wedding day itself.

Thanks for reading!