Category Archives: Wedding

Taking Flight…

baba-missy

We are flying to Southern California for a wedding on a Blueberry Ranch Northeast of Santa Barbara. We meet up at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) with our daughter Katie who is flying from North Carolina. Our flights arrive 30 minutes apart. We’ll head north to our hotel and then on Saturday go farther North picking up Josh and Laura who are flying into Santa Barbara and on to the wedding we will go.

On Sunday we will trek across L.A. headed east to visit with my mom and pop before we fly home on Sunday evening. A whirlwind trip covering many miles on the 101 Fwy and interstate 5. It will be nice to be with my family and friends at Caleb and Marie’s wedding and have a visit with my mom and pop before we all head home on Sunday night. Katie will head back to North Carolina just in time for Andrew’s return from a month long training. As a dear friend of mine has coined…”Life is Rich”!

The photo above was taken by my sister Lana on Thursday night at the apartment. My niece Melissa was celebrating her birthday with my mom and enjoying strawberry cupcakes! A very special birthday to remember…

I’ll be sharing lots of photos of the newlyweds soon…

My computer will not be traveling with me so I’ll check in with y’all on Monday! Have a lovely weekend!

Back to the Beach…

When we were in Huntington Beach for Debbee and Lenny’s wedding we had the chance to walk to the beach and enjoy the sand and surf for a couple hours after a delicious brunch at Nick and Vera’s (Father and Mother of the bride).

My sister Vera lives within walking distance to the beach so we put our flip flops on and started walking…

We had quite the volatile weather on Monday, winds, calm, sunshine, fluffy clouds, dark clouds, downpours, lightning, thunder. How are things in your corner?

The Reception…

Debbee and Lenny’s wedding and reception were both in Huntington Beach on opposite sides of Beach Blvd. We met up with my sister Lana at the reception venue before the fact to help Lana facilitate and do whatever we could to get things ready for the event after the event.

We worked with Lana as long as we could before the time we needed to be at the church for the family photos.  Thankfully we had enough time to get it all together.

We had appetizers and drinks while we waited for the newlyweds to arrive. They were taking photos at the beach after the ceremony.

The wedding party and bride and groom arrived with everything set up and ready to go.

The first dance happened as soon as the couple arrived and before dinner was served. The groom worked hard to find a caterer who would prepare gluten free options since his bride has a strong reaction to gluten. The caterer was great with delicious choices for all.

The flower girls being true to their title.

My father gave advice and a blessing on the couple and on the food.

It was so good to have my kids together and to have them catch up with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

The next family wedding will be in August when Marie (in the middle) marries our nephew Caleb in Santa Barbara, California. Marie is bookmarked by our nieces by marriage and her soon to be SIL’s who she also went to school with at Westmont College in the Santa Barbara area of California.

The father daughter dance left us all in need of a tissue!

We had a great time and headed back to our hotel knowing Saturday would be another full day of organizing and pulling off another milestone family event. More to come…

In the meantime here’s where I’ll be for the next few days!

Mennonite Girls Can Cook Book Launch for our new book Celebrations

The weather promises to be just as fine as this day last July!

Debbee and Lenny

The day turned out so lovely with the sun shining brightly.

Perfect for the bride who grew up in Huntington Beach and loves the beach and her flip flops!

These are 3 of my nieces. Debbee is the bride and Michelle and Melissa (sisters) were 2 of the 5 bridesmaids.

My niece Hope and grandniece Avery were the flower girls.

Brother and Sister, my nephew David with Debbee.

My sister Vera’s family.

My mom and dad with the bride and groom.

My nieces, nephews, grandniece and grandnephew.

The grandparents with their grandchildren and great grandchildren. 12 grands are missing in this photo.

The wedding party.

Mother of the groom, mother of the bride, and the groom’s sister helping Debbee to the bride’s room to wait for the ceremony.

Father of the bride getting ready for the walk down the aisle.

The rest of the photos I’m posting here are random shots of my family that I took before the ceremony began.

Here Comes the Bride!

The bride and groom are big sports fans. The ceremony was relaxed with lots of funny references to baseball and Debbee’s favorite team, the Angels and Lenny’s favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. At least both their teams wear red.

Next post will be all about the reception at Newland Barn in Huntington Beach.

My lower back is trying to freeze up on me so I did not mow the lawn yesterday. I did get some laundry done and have started on the “list” for my trip to British Columbia. The big news here in the Northwest is the glorious weather we have been promised for the next few days and into the weekend! I’m smiling…

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

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We’ve had many celebrations, an emergency room visit, dinners, breakfasts, lunches, birthday parties, singing, reunions, and there is more to come. It’s Sunday and I’ll be back to my speedier connections Tuesday evening and will share many photos of all our celebrations. Consider yourselves warned. For now I’m just chiming in to say as my dad would say…”we are praizing duh Lorrd for all he does to us” God is good. Blessings on your Sunday!

Wedding Notecards…

I’m joining Vee for her June Note Card Party.  Since June has been known as a wedding month my note card photos are from the weddings we attended this Winter and Spring.

These first two are from our daughter Katie and Andrew’s wedding in March.

Katie painted her wedding toppers.

This photo is from the wedding of a dear friend in April on Whidbey Island. These little fairy flower girls were so cute!

Our nephew Levi and Kristin’s wedding in the hay barns in Nuevo, California. This is my brother’s Bible. Steve is a pastor and he officiated his son Levi’s wedding and our daughter Katie’s wedding, too.

This is the first time I’m joining in with Vee for her Note Card party.

Air Show Surprise…

I mentioned before and shared that when we were in Southern California for Levi and Kristin’s wedding we made a morning trip on the day of the wedding to the Riverside National Cemetery to find Dear’s dad’s grave. While we were there visiting all the amazing memorials and monuments we were treated to the Patriot’s Jet Team who were performing at the nearby March Air Force Base. What a special treat this was…

We were standing here and looking up at the Patriots and Laura said “Now all they need to do is form a heart for Levi and Kristin since it’s their wedding day” and sure enough just after she said that this is what we saw!

We were quite impressed that they could hear Laura’s request from so high up in the sky.

This was a wonderful family time and we appreciated everything we experienced together this day. We missed Dan and Andrew this time but we will have other special times with them. We trust the Lord for that…

This is going to be a short week at home for us. Here we are in the last week of May already! Yikes! How are things going where you are?

Family Joining Together…

Psalm 1 (ESV)

Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

 This was the passage that Levi and Kristin chose for their wedding. My brother Steve used this Psalm for his wedding charge to them.

My sister in laws family

The Bride’s family

I couldn’t end my wedding posts without showing you the fancy shmancy porta potties that were on site. They are called Royal Restrooms. You can see I was impressed as I took a photo of the outside and inside. There even was a carpet inside…

Today is my Father’s 89th birthday. Happy Birthday Pops! Psalm 1 is something you have modeled for your family! Thank you for choosing righteousness.

Levi and Kristin…

…and the love of birds.

2nd and 3rd lady from the right are the bride’s sisters. Furthest from the right is the groom’s sister in law our niece by marriage.

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th attendants are Levi’s brothers (my nephews) Tim, Caleb and Joseph.

My brother Steve who is performing the ceremony is Levi’s dad.

These were their wedding favors. A little bag that says Don’t forget to feed the birds…with a heart shaped bird seed feeder inside.

The candles were in mason jars filled with bird seed.

Fish got to swim and birds got to fly
I got to love one man till I die,
Can’t help lovin’ dat man of mine.
Oscar Hammerstein II
From musical Showboat.

Everything came together so nicely for the wedding under the hay barns. My sister in law Kelly made the really long muslin curtains you see behind Levi and Kristin, fresh herbs in the bouquets and on the tables, galvanized tubs and mason jars for containers for the flowers and candles. The wooden benches (40 of them) were all made by the groom with lots of help from his friends, father, and uncle. The 180 heart shaped bird seed feeders were made by Kelly and the bride. I’m guessing they might have had other help, too. The setting and the decor all suited them and this rural/farming community my nephew grew up in.

All my regular weekly obligations are done until the fall. Now it’s time to get some big projects done, starting with cleaning out the attic of all the roofing debris that fell in there when the new roof was put on. Then we have a trip to Chicago for a conference Dear has to attend.  What’s on your agenda for the last month of Spring?

Two Pros, One Apprentice…

The calm relaxed Pros checking out the burlap aisle runner…

The Apprentice getting a feel for the aisle runner…

The Flower Girl Pro getting some last minute adjustments…

The Flower Girl Pro and Apprentice enjoying some time with cousin Katie before their assignment…

The time has arrived and instead of dropping rose petals they are dropping bird feathers and the Ring Bearer Barrel is holding a nest with the rings eggs. The Bride and Groom are quite fond of birds and bird watching.

The Apprentice performed quite well although she made it to the altar with all her feathers in the bucket!

Isn’t it great how these Pros and little Apprentice got the whole crowd smiling?!

They stopped to give the photographer a big smile.

Their job complete, they took a seat.

The Pros made their exit on cue but the Apprentice had other things in mind.

Next time this little Apprentice will be the Pro…

Happy Birthday to the Ring Barrel and Apprentice’s Nana, my sister Kathy!

Since we are starting a new round of Alphabe-Thursday with teacher Jenny which means we are at the letter A I’m linking up this post about our little Apprentice.