But I have a wedding to attend! I’m the groom

1. The ceremony over, the groom took off his tie.

My wife and I were supposed to get married on Saturday August 15, at the Tea Room at R.J. Haney Park, however it was evacuated so no wedding. We did not want to postpone the wedding as we had planned it for so long.  I called the [Trickle Inn] B&B in Tappen, and they just had a cancellation on the Saturday, and we got in.

The three days before the wedding I was out on Mt Ida with a skidder operator and a tank and hose fighting the fire. We had people from all over town bringing us food, water, whatever we needed, people were very generous.

2. Photographed in the Salmon Arm Bay of Shuswap Lake, the Philippine Mars C-FLYK air tanker carried over 27,000 litres of water.

On the wedding day, the Martin Mars water bombers were stationed just below the highway from the B&B and were flying over top of us as we were getting married.  You can hear them flying around in our wedding video.

That’s my story. Not too exciting. . . but memorable.

Gregg Patterson
Former employee, Forsite Consultants Ltd.