On Wedding Locations, and Sarcoa Bar and Restaurant on Hamilton’s Waterfront.

Hello, one and all! How is everyone today? Good, I hope! Today, I'd like to talk with you about the joyous (or traumatic) events known as weddings. Specifically, wedding locations! 

I’ve always believed that any day is a good day for a wedding. As long as it ended in –y and wasn’t a bank holiday, a wedding can take place any day, come rain, sleet, or snow. Weddings on New Years would be slightly inadvisable, unless you can afford to pay both an arm and a leg for the event, but any of the other 365 days of the year is up for grabs.

You could have your wedding on the hottest day of the summer or the coldest day of winter and as long as it was a day you chose and it was filled with laughter, love, friends and family, the day doesn’t matter. Of course, the weather could dictate your clothing choice; you would not, for example, want to wear a dress with a long train on a day with fifteen inches of snow. Similarly, you would not want to wear a tweed suit in the middle of August.

(Of course, one should never wear a tweed suit, regardless of the weather, unless one is starring in a Will Ferrell movie, but I digress.)

No, the day of your wedding does not matter as long as it is the day you choose and filled with people you choose to share it with. However, while the day is inconsequential, the location is pivotal. Can you imagine having your wedding in a place you hated? Or, even worse, a place where some tragedy had occurred? Having your wedding in the middle of an alligator infested swamp, for example, would, to state it lightly, spoil the day, to say nothing of getting married in the middle of a jungle. It worked for Tarzan and Jane, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Fortunately, Hamilton, Ontario is notably lacking in both swamps and jungles, and when two of my closest friends were married this past summer, they picked a rather lovely location on Hamilton’s waterfront. Both the wedding and the reception took place at the Sarcoa Restaurant and Bar, a higher end restaurant located on Pier Four in Bayfront Park.

Photo courtesy of their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarcoa-Restaurant-Bar/233741743395665?ref=br_tf

I had the honour of being the Master of Ceremonies during the reception, and while I was less than stellar (public speaking is not my forte), Sarcoa was out of this world.

Located at 57 Discovery Drive, Sarcoa stretches out into the waterfront. The front of the building is a wall of glass windows, leading visitors into a foyer filled with couches for guests to wait. On the other side of the foyer, a set of doors lead out onto a walkway with a panoramic view of the water. 

Photo courtesy of their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarcoa-Restaurant-Bar/233741743395665?ref=br_tf

Photo courtesy of their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarcoa-Restaurant-Bar/233741743395665?ref=br_tf

On the day of my friend’s wedding, the sun was riding high in the sky, the water was a clear blue, and winter hadn’t even begun to invade Hamilton. During the wedding itself, which was beautiful, we didn’t see too much of the restaurant. Afterwards, we made our way to the reception area.

The Restaurant is broken up into three key areas. A bar and restaurant location inside the main building with servers dressed in black and comfortable chairs tables placed around the room. In this area, visitors can have dinner and drinks, and enjoy a clear view of the Hamilton waterfront while being surrounded by a classy, cosmopolitan environment.

The second part of the restaurant is an outdoor bar and restaurant. During the wedding, this area was in full use with families enjoying the summer sun for a good day out. The bar in this area drew the eye with a red canopy, and arched gateways bordered the seating area. After the sun goes down, the lights stretched overhead came to life, turning the area into something of a garden setting.

Photo courtesy of Kattie Wayne.

The final part of the restaurant was the location of the wedding reception. It was located at the back of the restaurant, looking out onto the patio and the waterfront. For the wedding, it was decorated in a theme of “Diamonds in the sky”, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling that cast separate glows over the guests during dinner. Tables had been covered with white clothes and decorated with place settings. These included a photograph of the bride and groom, and a candle holder with a purple candle. These were surrounded by decorative diamonds of different sizes, spilling out over the centre of the table.

Obviously, we were impressed by the location alone, and it is my personal opinion that the wedding party did a phenomenal job of decorating. After we’d all funneled in and found our places, the dinner and speeches began. Between speeches from friends and family, servers in black brought dinner to the guests. The food and drinks were made by Sarcoa, and included seared beef striploin, chicken skewers, quinoa fritters, roast chicken breast, roasted potatoes, bruschetta bread, and coconut crusted lime cheesecake. (This was not even half of the menu during the wedding, but writing it all out made me hungry.) The food was delicious and well cooked, and while I myself do not drink, I’ve been told by the wedding party that the alcoholic beverages were also particularly good.

Photo courtesy of their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarcoa-Restaurant-Bar/233741743395665?ref=br_tf

Unless I'm very much mistaken, this was similar to one of the dishes we enjoyed that night.

After dinner, the reception room was switched around and tables moved to make way for the dance floor. The first dances for the bride and groom came and went, followed by the flower and garter toss, and throughout, servers took orders for drinks and laid out snacks including a chocolate fountain, fruit, candy and chocolate. Between 8:30 and 1am, the guests and the wedding party danced and celebrated the happy couple, pausing only to cut the wedding cake.

I had to leave before midnight, but I left happy. I saw two people I love dearly be married in a beautiful location, surrounded by friends and family. Sarcoa Bar and Restaurant went above and beyond; they provided a stunning location, a delicious menu, and friendly servers for what should have been, and by and large was, one of the happiest days of one of my closest friend’s life.

Should you find yourself getting married and in need of a venue for a reception in the Hamilton area, give Sarcoa a shot. I would definitely return in the event of another wedding based solely on the location.

On that August evening, the location made the event. The day was convenient for the guests, but the location was critical. The wedding would not have been the same at a separate location, so for that, I’ll always have a place in my heart for Sarcoa Bar and Restaurant at 57 Discovery Drive.

To close this post, I’ll leave you with a quote from Anatoly Belilovsky in The Immersion Book of Steampunk that speaks to that old adage: location, location, location!

“So much of difference between a triumph and a flop is determined by choice of venue.”.  

Thank you for reading! If you've any comments or questions, always feel free to drop me a line. 

Much love, Erin. 

A grad student's review of an undergrad.

Hello, one and all! Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the internet. Today, a reflection, as opposed to a length review. 

A grad student’s reflection of an undergrad: Was it worth it?

I’d be willing to bet my bottom dollar that quite a few students ask themselves this after graduating; I know I did. Once the euphoria has worn off and reality begins to sink in, you start to wonder what the hell you spent four (or, in some cases, three) years on.

A coffee addiction? I’m sure those are common enough.

A less than idyllic sleep schedule? Welcome to adulthood, kids.

Crippling student debt that leaves you afraid of your mailbox? I could tell you some stories.

So what, exactly, did we spend all that time, money and energy on? I’m almost positive it wasn’t for the pleasure of sitting in a library at 4 in the morning writing a fifteen page paper on 15^th Century England, or sketchy living conditions, so why? What made it worth it? What made you stick through it?

Let me tell you what made me stay, even when I had every reason to pack it in and go home. A few of the reasons are selfish, others less so.

First: The degree. After I’d dedicated my entire high school existence to getting out of Hamilton and going somewhere – anywhere – else, that acceptance letter was my ticket out. Once I got there, there was nothing this side of the mortal coil that would keep me from graduating and getting that degree, and a lot of things tried. Break ups, makes ups, hook ups (ill-advised or otherwise), death, strokes, car crashes, broken bones, mental breakdowns and a thousand other things came at me over those four years, but I wanted that degree and I was damned if I wouldn’t get it. Sure, I got burned out – who doesn’t? For the first time, I knew what I wanted and I was going to get it.

Second: My own ego. Like I said, a lot of things went south for me pretty quickly once I started my undergrad, and more than once, I was told to just come home. I was told that I wasn’t capable of living away from home, that I should just give up, just shrug my shoulders and say, “I tried”. That wasn’t good enough for me, and every time the suggestion was made, I was more determined to stay and see it through. It would probably have been easier for me to come home, but nothing that’s worth doing or getting is easy, and my own ego and sense of pride wouldn’t let me slink home with my head down. I’d left that way, and there was no way I was coming back like that.

Third: The city. If you’ve never been to Ottawa, I recommend going. It is beautiful and tourist-y, pretentious and convoluted, congested and liberating, and I grew to love it with all my heart. It is a tourist trap, but as long as you keep a firm grip on your debit/credit card, you’ll be fine. Go to the Canal in the middle of winter, take a walk across Parliament Hill, or go see the Centennial Flame on Canada Day. It’s pricey, but you will not regret it.

Fourth: I wanted to make my parents proud. What student doesn’t think this at least once? That degree was symbolic for me; it was something I could show to my parents and the family members who’d doubted me and say, “See? This is why I left, this is what I’ve spent so much time and energy on, this is what’s made me so motivated and angry and energized these past four years”. And I can honestly say that I don’t regret the time I spent because I’ll never forget how bright the smiles my parents wore were when we got home from my graduation and they looked at my degree.

Fifth: It made me grow up. So many people don’t know who they are when they begin their undergrad. They don’t know what their limits are, what they’re capable of, what they want to do with their lives, or even what makes them truly happy. I was five hundred kilometres away from home and completely alone; you tend to grow up pretty quick. I am happy to say that the person I was when I came back home was not the same person with the same name who left four years before. I’m not done growing, but I like to think I’m a better person thanks to my undergrad experience.

Last but certainly not least, my friends. I was a wreck when I started my undergrad, for a variety of reasons, but the friends I made helped drag me out of it. It took a lot of late night chats in the dorm room, pizza trips in the freezing cold, coffee runs at 2am, and more Disney movies than Walt could shake a stick at, but they did it, and I will never stop being thankful to them for it. They made me who I am, and thanks to them, I hope I’m a better friend.

When it gets down to it, the degree may not be enough for some people. Some want more; more validation, more praise, more opportunities, and those are fine things to want. You should aspire to them, and keep that goal close, but for me, that wasn’t the be all and end all of my undergrad experience. When I thought of giving up, I focused on different things – the little things like the Canal or Disney movies, or the bigger things like proving someone wrong and proving to myself that I could do it – and now that it’s over, those are the things that I feel made all the long nights worth it.

A university education didn’t make me perfect; I’m far from it, I always will be, but it made me better. You need to think of what made it worth it for you, because those are the things worth holding on to now that the experience is over.

I blocked out my middle name, and the picture was taken on the car ride home. I sent it in a text to my friend and spent the better part of an hour flipping out over finally getting it done.

Thank you for reading, folks, I appreciate it. I’ll leave you now with a quote from Peter Jackson’s 2012 “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” that I feel encapsulates this well.

“Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I've found. I've found it is the small things, every day deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.” – Gandalf.

Till next time,~Erin.