Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
A Family Affair
June 24th, 2008 @ 12:52 pm by Mrs. Hummingbird
With our wedding coming up, I’ve been thinking about the past weddings in my family, specifically, my parents who are celebrating their 27th anniversary this August. They met back when they both lived in Montreal and worked for a company there. My mom was friends with my dad’s cousin and had seen him around the office a few times when he worked there for the summer, but she had never talked to him before. Then, while waiting for a train at Union Station in Toronto, she noticed him and went over to say hello. They dated for a while before they both got sick of all the political unrest in Quebec due to the referendum and made the move to Toronto. They had only been in Toronto a little while when one night, when they were reading in bed, they broached the subject of marriage and decided to get engaged. Six weeks later, in the August of 1981 they were hitched.
Anyway, she gave me a couple of their pictures so I scanned them to share with you Weddingbee fans and here they are! Mom and Dad Hummingbird’s wedding!
My parents on their wedding day. My dad’s parents bought him a new suit for the occasion and my mom picked up her dress on sale for $100. Although she’s always said that she didn’t much like her outfit, I think my mom looked styling in her lace dress and little bolero jacket. This picture also features my uncle (the man in the grey suit) and my Godmother (the woman in the blue dress), who are both coming to my wedding this Saturday.
A picture of my parents with their parents (mom’s mom on the left, my dad’s parents on the right). While my grandfather will be at the wedding with his dancing shoes on, both of my grandmothers have since passed away. However, this picture provided me with a little bonus as I have taken the close ups of my grandmothers’ smiling faces and put them inside a locket I’m attaching to my bouquet like so . . .
Looking over the pictures with my mom, I can’t believe that in such a short time, Mr. Hum and I will have wedding pictures of our own to add to our family’s history. 
Have you looked at your family’s old wedding pictures? Are you using any of them for any of your wedding related things? Tell me how.
20 Responses to “A Family Affair”
I love looking at family wedding pics. We are putting pictures of our parent’s weddings (both sets have been married for 32 years) and our 4 sets of Granparent’s wedding pics in a large frame on an easel.
Also, my Mom is making me an entire album of family wedding pictures…aunts, cousins, great-aunts, grandparents, etc…I have a large family so there are a lot of great pics.
Thank you for sharing these great memories with us.
I’ve scanned my parents wedding pics and my grandparents pics on my dad’s side. I still have to get some pics of my fi’s side but we are going to display them in our card/money box. It’s made out of 4 frames with a hinged top and a rotating base to see all pics.
I really want to collect wedding pictures from all of our friends and family members who’ve married. One of the themes I want to have in the ceremony is how a marriage brings together more than just two people, but an entire community (we’re including a reading from the Massachusetts’ ruling on gay marriage that discusses this), and I think using everyone’s wedding pictures would visually bring that theme home.
The picture of your Grandmothers smiling made me tear up, that is a wonderful idea to put them in a locket on your bouqet.
I’m going to have wedding pics on display from my dad’s parents wedding, because I’m wearing grandma’s dress.
i love looking at my parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos. most of them had very simple, sweet weddings and very long marriages. a good reminder to me that all these silly wedding details that i’m worrying about right now don’t really matter at all, it’s all about the marriage afterward. as a tribute to my maternal grandparents, we’re getting married on their 61st anniversary!
Since my parents are divorced, my mother is re-married, and my father is now deceased, I will be using snippets from my mom and dad’s Hawaiian wedding video, as well as snippets from my mom and step dad’s wedding video.
I spoke with my step dad to make sure that he was OK with this, and he was thrilled. It really bothers him that my dad won’t be there to see me get married and is honored that I have asked him to take me down the aisle.
We will also use pictures of my FH’s parents on their wedding day.
It will all be a part of our slideshow!
@sillyinphilly
we are getting married the on the day of my FH’s GP’s 54th anniversary, and the day before his parent’s 29th
I always thought I’d display my parents’ wedding photos on a guest book table alongside my fiancee’s parents… not taking into account I would be marrying someone whose parents are no longer married! So instead, I put photos of my mother on her wedding day in some locket cufflinks for my father to wear the day of my wedding. So at least someone will see them and appreciate them - the man she married! I love the use of old wedding photos on your wedding day. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the people who love you. These are the things that will make your wedding day special - good luck Miss Hum!
Your mom looks absolutly stunning. Beautiful. What you’re doing is also so touching and sweet, putting a picture in your bouqet.
@MSAnge - out of curiosity, what text are you using from the ruling?
As for us, I’ve gone back and looked at my mom’s wedding photos a lot in this process but I won’t be using them at all in the ceremony or displaying them during the reception. My parents are divorced and remarried plus my mom passed away a couple of years ago so I just don’t think it would be a nice touch in the way it would be for others.
We’re using a lot of our family’s wedding photos, and it’s been so much fun going back and looking at old albums. Also saw what my FI looked as a baby- YIKES! j/k
We’re hanging wedding photos up on a string of raffia with clothing pins outside on the porch area of our venue. I think it’ll look great.
Great idea Hum! I am putting old wedding photos around our guest book. It’s just our way of honoring and remembering those that are no longer with us!
Adorableness clearly runs in the family!
I’m sure your grandfather is SO thrilled to be able to kick up his heels on your happy day and I think your tribute to your grandmothers is just lovely.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
@lunapark: We’re using this:
Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other … brings stability to our society. For those who choose to marry, and for their [family], marriage provides an abundance of legal, financial, and social benefits. In return, it imposes weighty legal, financial, and social obligations….Without question, civil marriage enhances the “welfare of the community” and is a “social institution of the highest importance.” … Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family… Because it fulfils yearnings for security, safe haven, and [a] connection [to] our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition.
(Found through Offbeat Bride Tribe)
I’m bisexual, and a ton of our friends identify as variations on not-heterosexual, and especially with a note in the program about where this reading comes from, I think it will be very clear to everyone what our opinion of gay marriage is without having to shove it down anyone’s throat.
I’m still trying to round them all up! Love this idea! It brings MORE fond memories to the fun occasion.
We are getting married at the same place my parents got hitched 35 years ago so on my wedding blog I posted a picture of them from their wedding day. My Dad was stylin’ in a brown suit, pink ruffled shirt and red bow tie. EGADS DAD!
Should be a trip for extended family to visit the garden again and see how it has changed.
this is spectacularly special, thanks for sharing.
Standing in plate stands on the reception seating card table, we had B&W photos, about 11X17 size or larger, of wedding portraits of my grandparents, my mom & dad, and my sister & her husband. Beautiful generational timeline, and it was a definitely a conversation piece!
Plus, we felt so blessed to have come from a line of strong marriages. Not saying easy marriages, just tenacious! Jeff & I are happy to carry on the tradition!
