The Electrician and I have been happily married for a whole week! It’s amazing how fast time is going, maybe because being married to my love is fantastic, or perhaps because I’ve also been back at work for five days. On the countdown to the secret wedding in The Rockies, I kept asking him ridiculous questions like, “Do you know in five weeks and two days I’ll be your wife?” or “are you aware our wedding is in seventeen days?” My oddness is one of the things he seems to like best about me. Lately, I’ve been able to ask him, “Guess what? I’ve been your wife a whole week. That’s seven days.”

Many people have been asking, both in blogland and in real life, when we’re going on a honeymoon. The answer is hopefully in the spring. We want to tuck away some money for a memorable trip somewhere far, far away, and that will take some time. Also, while The Electrician’s company is fairly flexible after him doing good work for them over the last five-ish years and allows him to book time off when he needs it, school teachers are required to be in their classrooms for start-up, period. My school has a modified calendar and our kids returned yesterday, so the prospect of a proper honeymoon immediately after the wedding was an utter impossibility. It’s okay: I still have cake.

Thankfully, my husband (yippee!) and I were able to spend two days by ourselves in the mountains after the brou-ha-ha died down and our families went home. We spend lots of time on or around the water, taking a boat cruise on Lake Minnewanka, which I didn’t realize until a week ago was my paternal grandmother’s favourite vacation spot, and later canoeing on Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. For those not from around here who were wondering why my sweetie and I did not swim in the lakes we visited, please be advised mountain lakes in Alberta average 4 degrees Celcius: this is about the same temperature as the water in the jug in the door of your fridge.

Mountain lakes are also stunningly, almost unsettlingly blue-green, although Lake Louise is quite milky this time of year. We walked around the shore to the place where The Electrician officially asked me to be his wife and slipped some diamonds on my finger during a rain shower in June. Of course, we already had our elopement largely planned and entirely booked by the time we announced our engagement, but the secret was part of the fun. Here is a photo of “our” spot on the lake, taken the weekend of our wedding. I am going to frame it and hang it in our home to remind us of the world’s most romantic poor weather.

A shortish drive up the mountain from Lake Louise is Moraine Lake, where parking is nearly impossible because everyone has heard about the gorgeous water. We were lucky people in love on what we’ve been calling our “mini moon,” and we ended up with a great parking spot near the outhouses. Although the horseflies were eager to consume us chunk by chunk, The Electrician and I rented a canoe (the waiver for which bore my first married signature) and paddled around on the incredible water.

The final photo is from Lake Minnewanka, which was one of the places we took photos on our wedding day. Stay tuned for the professional shots of us in this spectacular setting; I saw the first “teaser” today, and it was fabulous. We also took the boat cruise around the lake the day following the ceremony, and sat on the shore to breathe in the calm of nature.

I will have more wedding-related stories and photos in coming posts. Thank you to all those who have commented or emailed to wish us well. We are feeling very lucky to have one another.

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