After nearly a year of planning our big day has finally come and gone in a hurricane full of and anticipation, excitement and emotion. The night before our wedding, Tash and I each had dinner with our family and it gave us a chance to spend some quality time with them amongst all of the chaos of planning and packing up our things. The morning of the wedding was quite laid back for me because we had spent the previous day transporting and finalizing all of the things for the reception. Around 11am the groomsmen (Sahan, Jamie and Heath) came over and we got ready. Nothing can calm the nerves down like a Hungry Jacks double whooper with cheese and a Jack Daniel’s with Coke! After some formal photographs we made our way to St Thomas More Catholic Church where we were greeted by Father Clayton.

Not long after, the choir started to play Ave Maria and at the back of the church my beautiful bride appeared with arms linked with her dad. After making her way down the aisle we held each others hands. All of the anxiety that had built up leading up to this day melted away as soon as I looked at Tash as she stood before me. Before we knew it we had exchanged rings, said our I Do’s and were signing the official paper work. Later on we lit one main candle from the flames of our family unity candles which symbolizes the uniting of Tash’s Family to mine.

After the church ceremony we went our for our professional photo shoot with Russell Barton Photography. The bridal party got into our vintage stretch limo from A Old Limo and we cruised around to various places such as Central Park, Supreme Court Gardens, AQWA and the Hilary’s Lighthouse. This was probably the most laid back part of the day where everyone was joking around with each other as we sipped away a bottle of Moet. As we made our way down St George’s Terrace we had plenty of people staring , congratulating and tooting their car horns at us… all the attention made us feel like a celebrity couple… I’m sure Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie don’t have to dress up so extravagantly to get that sort of a reaction!

  

At the reception we were introduced as Mr and Mrs Gunawardena and after the entrance we had a Poruwa Ceremony which is a traditional Sri Lankan blessing for newly wed couples. All in all the reception went smoothly, the staff at AQWA were great and the food was very nice as well. I’m sure Tash’s version of the story will highlight different aspects of the day… but for me the emotional climax was at the end while we said goodbye to our closest family and friends. With our big move to Vancouver approaching so quickly; we both knew that we wouldn’t see many of our closet family and friends for a while and we soon realized that we were leaving our comfort zone embarking on a new adventure together as husband and wife. 

   

 

On behalf of Natashia and myself I’d like to thank everyone for their best wishes and generous gifts. We are happy that you could share our special day with us.