Reception Memories - Marisa's Version

The first thing I saw when we entered the Maritime Museum was the flags. Aidan had about 40 flags on the flagpole. We knew we were a bit behind time-wise but had about one hour and 15 minutes of slacking the timetable. We could theoretically catch up.Walking up the steps and into Commissioner's House was indescribable. It was almost what I think walking into a movie premiere might be like. Everyone was taking pictures and calling out to us and coming to hug us, etc.. The cakes were set up on the table in the entrance hall, and they were beautiful! I put my bouquet down on the table between the cake so everyone could see the bouquet jewels. It was then off for family pictures. It was pretty well organized, and we got through them in good time. We then tried to catch up with our guests before the Regiment Band and the Pipe Band began to perform. They were fabulous and the dancers had me feeling so proud when they did the Barracks. I loved every minute of the performance and was on cloud nine when the bands played ‘Scots Wae Hae’ at marching pace.We then got into the cake cutting. We started by looking at the knife and server since we had engraved our information on my parents set. We cut my cake, the Aidan’s cake and then served up a slice of each to feed each other. My goodness, the cakes were so good! It is a shame we do not eat more. We were then on to the second performance, and I danced the Highland Fling with the dancers and then watched the performance of the Sean Truibhas and the Sword Dance. The Pipe Band then washed into the building, and we were able to get into the dances. Aidan and I danced to ‘So In Love’ (he was so good) and we immediately followed by dancing with my dad and his mom to ‘The Way You Look Tonight’. My dad and I sang the words throughout the whole thing.We still had a few things to do before the evening wound up. The speeches went well with Aidan, myself and Brendan doing the honors. Then came the shocker. Yes, there was belly dancing! A few of my students were good sports, and we ensure that many jaws hit the floor. Even Alegna had on a hip scarf. We rounded up the night with the performance to ‘One’. That really had people stunned to see Aidan with the top hat and cane. We had good fun with it and the energy we got back from everyone was fabulous.Before you knew it the sparklers were being handed out. The time had gone pretty quickly, but we had made up for lost time! We walked out amid the sparklers. It was so beautiful. We stood in front of the taxi and looked out the sparkling Commissioner's House. As we boarded the taxi friends were calling out that they loved us. It was amazing. As we rode home we were happy that the whole day and evening had gone so well.