a 'scent-free' wedding

Dear guests...

we are now 2 weeks away from the big day and look forward to seeing you all then. We have one small request that missed being mentioned on the wedding invite:
A couple of people attending our wedding are sensitive to perfumes and colognes. They can get bad head-aches from being around those wearing them. In order to ensure they can enjoy themselves for the evening we would really appreciate it if everyone refrained from using perfumes, colognes or other strongly scented products that retain their scent after use, like some hand lotions. I think hair spray and styling gel is usually ok (I'm fairly certain I will be using these!).

Thanks for your cooperation!

Melanie (and Tim)

Gifts 2

Dear Friends

Ok, so we're a pair of nuisances and cannot make anything simple. As you will have seen previously, we have a list of gifts from Lakeland listed on this blog. We also hold an official list with Fairgift, a Fairtrade organisation. This list can be found online at http://www.fairtradegiftlist.co.uk/. You just need to enter the surname 'Poole' and you will find that we have the sole list in that name. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at the normal place

Tim and Melanie

The Gift Dilemma...

Dear friends, we are so grateful for any gifts you wish to bless us with for our wedding. However, please do not feel obligated! We will of course ship or take any gifts we receive in Canada to Scotland. The dilemma is that with shipping costs it may be easier for us to take lighter, smaller things, and of course nothing that needs to be plugged in. You can choose items from our gift list from Lakeland (see earlier post), order online and have it shipped to our address in the UK (please ask us for this). Or if you prefer we can simply buy an item of your choice when we get there, which will be a bit more economical. Please give us a shout if you have any questions, Melanie or her parents at 261-3015, pooleballwedding@gmail.com

And at the risk of breaking etiquette, we are very happy to receive favours in lieu of gifts. If you would prefer to participate in the logistics of the wedding day we would be most grateful, as we need some people to help out in different ways and would consider this a great gift!

thanks, and hope to see you soon!

Ceremony and Reception locations

The ceremony will be held at Crossroads Mennonite Brethren Church, 231 Kitson St. in Saint Boniface. Kitson intersects with Travers Ave, and is located close to the intersection of St.Mary's Ave. and Marion St. Parking is available on the residential roads surrounding the church.

The reception is at Fort Whyte Alive, McCreary Rd. between Sterling LionWilkes Ave. and McGillivray blvd. Take the McGillivray route if you want to avoid a long stretch of gravel road!

Gift List

Please feel no obligation to send gifts! We are grateful for any kind of gift, but want to make it easy for our guests if they wish to bless us in this way. So we have done the traditional gift list. Our list is going to be in 2 parts. The first is listed here and the second will be available for perusal as of May (selections from Fairgift, a fair trade wedding list company). We have selected a number of things from Lakeland (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/). Lakeland does not do wedding lists, so we would request that you order gifts from the internet and email us at pooleballwedding@gmail.com. We can then send you a forward address for deliveries.



The list is:

Oven thermometer Ref 11235 £4.99

Tadka Spice Pan Ref 12799 £9.99

Traditional Tagine Ref 7184, £16.99

Quick 'n' Easy Pressure Cooker Ref 10740 £39.99

Ravenhead Glass Sauce Boats Ref 11778 £6.99

Porcelain Wavy Serving Dish Ref 11620 £9.99

Preserving Thermometer Ref 3822 £39.99

Spice Basket Ref 12163 £4.99

Rotary Whisk Ref 11921 £9.99

Glass Juicer Ref 12322 £3.49

12 Hole Deep Bun Tin Ref 10949 £10.99

Magic Non-stick Liner Ref 5570 £4.99

Magic Non-stick Liner Ref 5571 £8.99

Non-stick Lift-out Cake Liner Ref 11126 £2.99

Non-stick Lift-out Cake Liner Ref 11128 £3.99

Non-stick Lift-out Cake Liner Ref 11129 £4.99

2 Bristle-less Pastry Brushes Ref 10018 £4.79

Flexible Mini Duo Ref 10876 £4.29

2 Mini Funnels Ref 12892 £1.49

2 Silicone-Based Funnels Ref 12326 £3.29

Lift and Turn Tongs Ref 2175 £4.99

Good Grips Vegetable Brush Ref 6113 £3.49

Chrome Banana Tree Ref 2923 £5.99

The EcoChef Chopping Board Ref 12282 £12.99

Swiss Knife Sharperner Ref 1954 £12.99

Laser Scissors Ref 7095 £8.49

Laser Cheese Plane Ref 6499 £3.99

Kenwood Flexible Spatula Ref 6375 £1.99

Mushroom Brush Ref 10173 £3.99

Stanley Food Flask Ref 11202 £17.99

The Lakeland Cool Bag Ref 3447 £24.99

Images of Manitoba

In addition to the last post, we thought it would be a good idea to add a few images of Canada to the blog - just to wet your appetites. First up are some photos of Manitoba, all within a few hours drive of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg

The Pembina Valley

Lake Winnipeg

Whiteshell Provincial Park

Spruce Woods

Exploring the vast, beautiful country that is Canada

Travelling all the way to Canada merits a bit of a longer visit. You might be hoping to see some other parts of the country besides Winnipeg. It is really hard to recommend a particular part; there are just so many beautiful and interesting cities and parks! Of course Vancouver and Toronto are popular choices; big cities with lots to see and do. However, remember that July is busy tourist season. The whole of British Columbia is very nice, especially along the west coast and Vancouver island. Saskatchewan is not a popular place, but is very different and gets you into the heart of the prairies. The east coast (Halifax, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) may remind you of the UK, but has wonderfully friendly people and quaint little towns. Quebec city and Montreal are great historical cities.
And then there are the vaste wilderness areas. If you are one for nature you might want to look into group guided outtrips, such as canoing. This is a safe way to find yourself in the middle of pristine lakes or woods. The north (tundra) is a fascinating place, and more and more people are taking tours to see the caribou, polar bear, beluga whale and aurora borealis. The north would be a truly unique cultural experience.

Really, it is hard to go wrong. Check out some touring websites and let us know if you have any questions!

Accommodations in Winnipeg

Winnipeg is a big city, with many, many hotels and motels and a few bed and breakfasts. There is also at least one youth hostel. However, if you do not plan on hiring a car to get around we suggest choosing accommodations close to the downtown area, or along a major route. Melanie rates the transit system as very good - there is an online site that allows you to enter destination and origin and gives you details of what buses to take, so with internet access you can plan your day trips accordingly. You simply need to ask if the desired accommodation has easy access to a major bus route. And for the day of the wedding we would be happy to arrange for you to be picked up, taken around and dropped-off by local wedding guests!

The wedding ceremony will be in an area called St. Boniface (central west), and the reception is in the south west of the city. The Poole family is staying at a Bed and Breakfast in an area called West gate, where there are a number of B&B's in historic houses. This area is nestled in a river bend and is quite beautiful. It is within walking distance to downtown and is about half-way between ceremony and reception.


Melanie has a number of friends and family who are willing to host you! Please let us know if you would like to stay in a home rather than a hotel; it is no trouble at all.

And if you enjoy eating out you might be interested to know that Winnipeg has more restaurants per capita than any other city in Canada!

Travelling to Winnipeg from the UK

So the first thing you may be considering is how to get to Winnipeg - or more to the point, we should start by explaining where Winnipeg is! Winnipeg is in the heart of Canada, a large city on the prairies built at the trading point where two major rivers, the Red and Assiniboine meet. For more info, you can look at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg).

Flying is probably the best way of getting to Winnipeg, although the more environmental of you may consider sailing or swimming across the Atlantic. Air Canada (http://www.aircanada.com) run daily flights to Winnipeg from Heathrow via Montreal and Toronto. United Airlines (http://www.united.com/) also flies into Winnipeg from Chicago, although this route will put you in contact with our friends at US customs. Finally I have recently been alerted to direct flights from Gatwick via Finn Air through a subsidiary, Go Travel Direct (http://flights.gotraveldirect.com). I think Finn Air have taken over the old flight plans of our deceased friends at Zoom Airlines.

If you are considering combining your Winnipeg visit with more travel in Canada, Westjet is a lower-budget cross-Canada airline that has been highly praised for their service (see www.westjet.com). Remember that Canada is a huge country with wide empty spaces, so travel by car should be carefully considered - give yourself plenty of time for any road trips! Travel by coach is also a possibility, but can be rather slow if inexpensive (see www.greyhound.ca).

Any questions? You can email us at pooleballwedding@gmail.com

So there you have it -next up will be accommodation in Winnipeg

Tim and Melanie

Welcome!

Hello friends and family! thanks for checking out our blog. We hope that we can provide you with valuable information on all things wedding-related (our wedding that is!). We are really excited about our wedding celebration in July and hope that as many of you can be there with us as possible. To make it easy for you, we want to provide detailed information (for our out-of-town guests) about travel to Winnipeg, accomodations, site-seeing etc... as well as general information about other aspects of our wedding (gift philosophy, gift ideas, wedding-day updates/changes).

We will be adding more soon!

Tim and Melanie