This is turning out to be a pretty wedding-tastic year. Richard and Wendy tied the knot back in July, our friends Dave and Lauren are getting hitched in November, and just a few weeks ago Jeremy and I flew off to Canada for the wedding of two people very close to my heart indeed: my brother Jeb and his new wife Anne.

The wedding was in Whistler, and Jeremy and I decided to make a bit of a holiday of it and spend a few days in Vancouver afterwards. I’d never been to either Whistler or Vancouver, so this was a really exciting trip. It was made all the more exciting by the fact that Jeremy’s mom and aunt came over as well, so the wedding was like a big reunion of families and friends from all over North America and all over the world.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Jeremy and I arrived in Whistler a day later than we had planned. We flew from Heathrow to Vancouver, got a lift to Whistler, showed up at our hotel at 6 PM, ran to our room, washed our faces, changed our clothes, and ran back downstairs to get to the rehearsal dinner at 6:30. We were so tired that everything was a bit of a blur, but it was a wonderful blur of friendly faces and warm hugs and delicious food. I think the socializing went on long after Jeremy and I schlepped ourselves back to our hotel to sleep off our jet lag.

It was cold and rainy the next day in Whistler—not ideal for a wedding which was supposed to take place outside on a terrace at the top of a mountain. I woke up with a craving for pancakes which was more than satisfied by a stack of flapjacks and bacon at La Brasserie. After stuffing ourselves, Jeremy and I strolled through Whistler village, breathing in the damp woody smells and regularly caffeinating ourselves to keep going. We met Jeremy’s mom and aunt for lunch at a café brimming with muddy mountain bikers scarfing down burgers and fries and eventually trundled back to the hotel to get dolled up for the wedding that evening.

The wedding ceremony and reception were held at the Roundhouse Lodge, which is a 25-minute gondola ride up to the top of Whistler Mountain. I can’t imagine there are many times in life when you find yourself rattling your way 4,000 feet up the side of a mountain in a gondola while wearing chiffon and high heels. It was a rather thrilling ride (the ride back down, when we inexplicably came to a stop and swung silently for a few minutes in the dark and the fog, was even more thrilling—if by “thrilling” you mean “fairly terrifying to someone not all that keen on heights”).

When we reached the top, the clouds which had shrouded the mountain all day were just beginning to break up, revealing gorgeous vistas in all directions. The wedding wound up taking place inside after all, which was good seeing as it was so cold that, before clearing off, the clouds dumped a load of fluffy white snowflakes over everything, to everyone’s delight.

The ceremony itself was really lovely, and amazingly, no one (not even me!) burst into tears at any point—not even when my little brother officially became a husband, or when his friend Javier played a beautiful bit of classical guitar while the marriage certificate was signed. Everyone was in high spirits, and the mood turned positively giddy after the ceremony when a black bear was spotted ambling across the hillside below the lodge. Snow, bears, mountaintops—it was the perfect Pacific Northwest wedding.

That was just the warm-up to the hilarity that ensued after dinner (a fabulous Pacific Northwestern feast with wild salmon, tender roast beef, gorgeous fresh veggies and salads, and a huge selection of desserts), when Jeb’s close friend Ben debuted the film he had edited together from pictures and videos of Anne and Jeb which spanned childhood to the present day.

I knew from my mom that some of my brother’s more classic video moments (like “Mr. Jeb’s Neighborhood”, hopefully soon to be on YouTube) would be making an appearance in this show, but I had no idea that there would be extended clips of Jeb and me sitting next to each other in medieval garb at a Renaissance fair, with me sullenly playing a giant recorder while my “knave” of a brother holds his head in his hands and looks literally bored to tears. Thank goodness it’s hard to be embarrassed when you’re laughing so hard that you’re crying.

We had a day and a half after the wedding to poke around Whistler and spend time with friends and family before heading back to Vancouver. The weather was gorgeous on our last day in Whistler; that made it hard to leave, but it also made for a very scenic bus ride down to Vancouver. Jeremy’s mom and aunt were staying in Vancouver for a week, but Jeremy and I had just another day and half in the city, so we made the most of it by walking around as much as possible and by making Dave and Lauren (the friends mentioned above, who are Vancouver-based foodies) take us to or tell us about all of their favorite places to eat in the city. This means we got excellent coffee, awesome Japanese food, fabulous beers, amazing hand-pulled noodles, and a gorgeous French dinner which was my birthday present from Jeremy’s mom. We also got to stroll around Granville Island Public Market and Stanley Park and walk along the seafront in the sunshine, which was utterly blissful.

All in all, the trip was great, if a bit too short—and made even shorter by the unforeseen delay I mentioned above. Jeremy and I had intended to meet Jeremy’s mom and aunt at Heathrow and travel to Whistler together the day before the rehearsal dinner. As it turned out, when Jeremy and I were on our way to Heathrow, the bus we were on was involved in a fatal crash, and we spent the day at Gatwick giving statements to the police rather than traveling to Canada. Jeremy has written about the whole thing on his blog; I just can’t bring myself to write about it because it still upsets me too much. Suffice it to say that it put things in perspective and made the celebration of life and love with our families in Whistler all the more meaningful.