Month in Review: September 2021

And just like that, it’s the last Tuesday of September! So without further ado, let’s get to the month in review…

Highlights

The biggest and best highlight of September 2021? We got married! Colin and I got married on Sunday, September 19th in front of just 20 friends and family members (with many more joining us virtually!) at my great aunt’s penthouse condo. The day was so amazing and my husband (!) and I are still riding on such a high from it. Look out for a few more wedding posts once we get all our photos back!

Another highlight was Colin’s brother getting married the week before us. It was a big month of love! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stay for the entire wedding but it was amazing getting to celebrate Kyle and Corbie, spend time with family, and enjoy their gorgeous wedding venue.

Lastly, I’ve got to shout out all the time we got to spend with out of town friends and family. It was so nice having my godparents, dad, stepmom, siblings and close friends from Toronto here for our wedding. It made the day so much more meaningful and made us feel so loved to have people here from across the country.

Lowlights

About 10 days before our wedding I developed a really bad sore throat and it lingered a little longer than I wanted it to. I usually have my colds for just 24 hours but this one stuck around. Luckily, I wasn’t sick for our wedding (or Colin’s brother’s wedding the week before); I think the wed stress just got the best of me!

Another lowlight was the drama we had getting to Colin’s brother’s wedding in Vernon, about five and a half hours from Vancouver. We had booked a rental car way back in July but an hour before we were supposed to pick it up, they called to tell us no car was available. We panicked and started looking into any other way to get there. Luckily, a car was found, but wasn’t available for 3.5 hours, causing us to miss the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. But we did still make it in the end!

Lastly, refreshing our weather app and worrying about the rain in the weeks/days/hours before our wedding was no fun. Luckily, the rain held off!

Best listen

I got an Audible subscription for my birthday and binged listen to the podcast: How Not to F*ck Up Your Marriage Too Bad. It was hilarious and actually super insightful! It’s about 10 episodes and each one features the engaging host, great research, interviews and personal stories. I really liked it and highly recommend it!

Best watch

As one Survivor season wraps up, another begins. September marked the end of Survivor AU and Survivor SA but the premiere of US Survivor. Suffice to say, it’s been a busy month of Survivor watching (and Survivor podcast listening!) at our house.

We watched Shang-Chi this month and it was awesome! I loved seeing so much Asian badassery on the big screen. The fights were epic, the design was beautiful, and I especially loved all the cultural Easter eggs (like Shang-Chi taking off his shoes before entering his friend’s house!).

We also watched the film version of Come From Away – a special production of the stage musical was filmed and released ahead of 9/11. Despite having seen the show live and knowing all the music, I cried my way through the whole thing. Definitely a must watch!

What’s cooking?

There were so many good eats this month! I’m still drooling over…

• The 9-course Banana Leaf feast we enjoyed with my family from Toronto before our wedding
• Happy hour at Fanny Bay Oysters with Kim & Joe (the mussels were so good!)
• Tempura, udon and Malaysian food with my Auntie Grace and Uncle Bing
• The delicious meatballs served at Kyle & Corbie’s wedding
• And our wedding food too! I loved the sushi, chicken skewers, caprese skewers, pizza, cake jars, donuts and mango punch we had at our little reception

It was a delicious month with great food and even better company!

Posts from this month

This month on Teaspoon of Adventure I published:

• Traveller of the Month: Francesca from Little Lost Travel
• 5 Honeymoons I Won’t Be Going On

Just two posts this month as I took a week off of blogging for the wedding. But feel free to check out either of those posts if you missed them!

For my throwback post of the month, I’m going back to September 2019 with 19 Things No One Tells You About Being an Expat. This is still one of my most popular posts two years later! I love looking back at our time in Prague and reliving that year abroad.

Reads

This month, I’ve finished reading:

Falling for London by Sean Mallen
The true story of a reporter from Toronto who gets a job as a foreign correspondant in London and uproots his life and his family to live there for 1 (maybe 2!) years. I loved hearing about expat life in London and Sean’s perspective as a reporter on what was happening around Europe at the time (2011). But it was a bit hard to get through all of the negativity as his wife and daughter seemed to hate living in London.

Marriageology by Belinda Luscombe
This was a short and sweet little book about the fundamentals of marriage. Belinda presented the information in a very approachable way sharing wisdom from her own marriage, research and data, and interviews with other couples. I took a few notes that might help me as I start my own marriage!

The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
Casey Wilson played one of my favourite TV characters ever, Penny Harts on Happy Endings (if you haven’t watched this series, go watch it immediately!). While I enjoyed her memoir – even laughing out loud and crying in parts – I think I went into it with my expectations way too high. I’ve read quite a few celebrity memoirs and this one was just middle of the road. Plus, it ends with her overcoming her sugar “addiction” which just felt like such a backwards and fatphobic take, especially when she was sharing a lot of really body positive and feminist views throughout the book.

Travels

We didn’t travel much this month but we were in Vernon, BC for just under 24 hours. And since that was a 5.5 hour drive from Vancouver, I’m counting it as travelling! Shout out to Colin for driving there and back and then going to work early the next morning.

Where we have travelled in Septembers past:

• September 2019: Two Septembers ago we were on our moms’ trip in Europe (both my mom and Colin’s mom came out to visit). We visited Copenhagen, Lund, Prague, Salzburg, Venice, Tuscany, Cinque Terre and Pisa. It was a pretty epic September and some of my favourite travel memories of Europe!
• September 2017: September 2017 was the first moms’ trip the four of us went on. We took a train from Vancouver and visited Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Napa Valley!
• September 2015: Colin and I had our first trip together in Sep 2015 visiting my family in Toronto and then going to New York, just the two of us. It was a big growing trip (I may have had a few meltdowns!) and definitely ignited our love of couple’s travel. We’re looking forward to getting back to New York one day!

Gratitude

I am so incredibly grateful for our friends and family. Our wedding really was this beautiful celebration not just of our love but all of the important people in our lives. It was so special to get to hang out with people – a lot of whom we have not seen since pre-Prague days – who we love dearly. And it meant so much to us to have so many loved ones contribute to our day and help make it happen.

Whether it was in person at our wedding, happy hours and dinners before and after, virtually through our live stream, or through the many texts, calls, cards and even gift baskets we got, Colin and I felt so loved!

Coming up next

I’m so excited because coming up in October is our honeymoon! Colin and I are taking three weeks off and heading to… (you’ll have to read this post to find out!).

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How was September for you? Hope you had an amazing month!