Complimentary Anniversary Dinner & Show

As part of our wedding package from the Living Arts Centre last May, we received a voucher for a complimentary dinner and show of our choice to celebrate our (upcoming) first anniversary. We picked the Just for Laughs Roadshow, which was Wednesday. After a delicious buffet dinner- the standout was the free range chicken breast-similar to what we served at the wedding. It had an excellent sauce-some sort of reduction, possibly with balsamic vinegar and white wine. We're going to experiment at home, see if we can recreate. The cheese platter and roasted veggies were fantastic-I enjoyed plenty of double cream brie.There was plenty more to choose from-soup, salads, main dishes including prime rib and salmon. A laden dessert buffet, etc.

 

After we finished stuffing ourselves-the waitress (who also served at our wedding) brought us this platter-cake and complimentary champagne. Of course since I was going to a theater, I didn't have my camera with me, so I took this with my cell phone.

Stage before the show, of course no pictures allowed during the performances.

After dinner, we headed over to Hammerson Hall for the Just For Laughs show. Four comedians, both Canadian and American. The comedian from Idaho was the best-really hilarious. The others ranged from good to just ok. I was surprised on how packed the theatre was for a Wednesday night, it seats 900 and it was almost full.

We realized during dinner, that in all the reviews we read about wedding at the LAC, no one ever mentioned their anniversary package. We found the entire experience from initial planning, the actual event to the follow through to be excellent. The staff are pleasant to work with, the atmosphere is laid back but classy at the same time. During intermission we revisited some of the spots where we took wedding pictures, and had fun reminiscing about it all. Can't believe how fast the time has gone since then. It seems like just yesterday.

Mary and Doug's Wedding-Music and Entertainment

Music
For the cocktail reception and ceremony we hired Grenville Pinto, a fabulous electric violinist. We can't praise him enough! Rave reviews from our guests, and from people waiting in the lobby to see a show in the theater.
For cocktails, I gave Grenville carte blanche to play whatever he liked. My favourites were Thunderstruck, AC/DC and Say It Right, Nelly Furtado.

For the processional-we chose Halo, Beyoncé and added a little of Canon in D.
For the signing-Life in Mono, Emma Bunton.
The recessional was Viva La Vida, Coldplay.

Check out Grenville Pinto on YouTube. He is a-mazing!

Reception Music was provided by ThunderDj, from Burlington.
We chose a mix of retro and top 40. First dance was Come Away With Me, Norah Jones. We limited the slow dance songs, we really wanted to keep the energy high. Most guests never stopped dancing.
The only thing I would change-we rented a dance floor which was installed over the carpet. I wouldn't bother next time, people were dancing on the carpet anyway and the edges of the flooring were a bit awkward-not exactly the best choice when alcohol is involved.

Entertainment
To give our guests something to do to fill what little downtime there was, we set up a photo printer and scrapbooking station.
The printer we bought is the HP photosmart A630 compact photo printer. This printer is awesome! It has multiple slots for different kinds of memory cards, USB port, even Bluetooth to send pictures through smartphones. Very impressive.

We provided an assortment of stickers, fancy markers and pens, and other scrapbooking paraphernalia-easily sourced from craft and dollar stores. Everyone took a photo of themselves and added a message for us. Most people had their own cameras or smartphones, but we also had a few on hand. I assigned two bridesmaids to man the station. The guests had a great time, and we got to take home an album full of memories.