Friday night was my good friend Dawn and her fiance Mark’s Jack and Jill!
Look at those beautiful tropical lovers. I am SO excited for their wedding in Jamaica. Just so excited.
So apparently Jack & Jill’s (sometimes also called Stag & Doe) are a Canadian thing, and every time I mention it someone asks me what it is, so I am just going to explain it before that happens. Basically you host a big party, usually in a rented hall (but I have been to ones in someone’s house before), invite everyone and their mother (literally and their mother), get them all liquored up so they’ll play a ton of games, do a raffle, and the goal is to raise money to help the bride and groom out with their wedding expenses.
It is basically like a wedding, but only the party portion, and with games. And, well, slightly more redneck. And I use that term out of love. We all grew up in a small town that is a bit on the redneck side, and also seems to be Jack & Jill central.
Anyway, Jack & Jill’s are a very fun time, is what I am saying. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a bad Jack & Jill. You Americans need to get on this, I’m telling you. What is more fun than hanging out with peoples’ inebriated relatives? I can’t think of anything right now.
Since Dawn and Mark are having a tropical Jamaican wedding, they decided to have a tropical themed Jack & Jill.
So we busted out the lei’s and the coconuts for the occasion.
(myself, Leanne, Julie working the door)
This was the first Jack & Jill I have attended where I have been part of the wedding party, so it was a lot of fun for me because I got to be involved in things. Like working the door for a bit with my pals.
(Emily and I with the first $20 of the night)
This was fun because we got to greet people coming in. And we had a Rastafarian hat, so we liked to make people wear it as they entered.
They liked it.
My official duty was kind of the “MC” of the Jack and Jill. It was not as intense as being the MC at a wedding though, I basically just announced the games and the raffle draw winners. The prize for the limbo contest was a trophy full of the booze of your choice and I brought the guy who won on stage and got him to chug his rye out of the trophy in front of everyone. Luckily he did not throw up, or that may not have been the best decision…
Pretty sure he was feeling good though…
The most popular game of the evening was definitely the Toonie Toss. The prize is a 60 of booze. We did the Toonie Toss twice, and so the booze in this case was Jamaican spiced rum and also Crown Royal. You put the bottle on the floor and do exactly what the name suggests: throw Toonie’s at it (so actually, I am not sure you Americans would be able to do this, as you have no Toonies). Whoever’s Toonie is closest wins the booze, and the rest of the money is donated to the bride and groom.
People tend to get pretty intense over it…
I mean, a lot is at stake there.
There was also a pirate ship pinata!
Which no one was interested in. And I really bigged that up in my announcing. People are really more into the booze prizes than the candy ones at these events.
Best costume of the evening probably goes to Dawn’s mom Brenda (or just Brennie), on the left:
I loved her braids. So attractive. I enjoyed her friend’s hat a lot also. She really looked like a tourist somewhere.
I love Dawn’s family. They are a lot of fun.
I like to crash their family photos. You may remember Dawn’s dad Bri-bear from my friends’ Leanne and Dave’s wedding.
Our old teacher Mr. B was supposed to come but ended up not being able to, so we were disappointed. Until Marni, our other favourite high school English teacher, showed up!
She is next to me on the right. We love Marni! I was so excited to see her. And I can actually call her by her first name, which I told Mr. B I will never be able to do with him. It just doesn’t sound right. He will always be Mr. B.
We had fun catching up with her, and I hope there are more shenanigans with her in our future. Hanging out with your teachers is COOL I tell you.
There was also a food table, so I picked up some quality snackage…
I made two cheese balls for the occasion. One was the salmon cheese ball from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, and the other was a recipe I found on Kraft Canada. Both actually turned out really well, but the second one didn’t get brought out since there ended up being a ridiculous amount of food. No worries though, I slept over at my friends’ Emily and Corey’s, and we brought the cheese ball back with us and annihilated it until 3am. Good times.
It was such a fun Jack & Jill, and I am so proud to be a part of my little Dawnald’s upcoming big day!
