Category Archives: Wedding

No Need to Rehearse…

…a wonderful meal!

After the wedding ceremony rehearsal we were treated to a wonderful evening of good food and fellowship. Our nephew Levi married Kristin this past weekend in Nuevo, California. Nuevo is a rural community located east of Los Angeles and Lake Perris in Riverside County. It’s a rocky, hilly area with low lying valleys. But enough geography lets get back to the main event…

My sister in law Kelly is such a creative patient soul. She put together great decor and food presentation to honor the personalities of her son and new daughter in law. Steve worked hard leading up to the event with outdoor improvements on the yard. There were many trips to Home Depot this past month or so…

The main event happened in their backyard but the inside was beautifully coordinated with the theme of country casual.

It can be a little windy in the valley so Kelly anchored down the bandana hanky table cloths with books. The bride is a published poet so a lot of the books were poetry collections. Kelly and Steve have both fostered the love of books, reading, and learning with their 4 boys and so this was another great creative touch to the decor. Kelly sewed the tablecloths.

Country touches with galvanized buckets to hold the drinks. Kelly used mason jars for a lot of the decor and food presentation. She filled mason jars with ice and lemonade and put the lids on them. They were put in the bucket filled with ice to keep them cold along with other drinks for the evening. Straws were available for all the drinks, too.

They lined the bucket with plastic…

The menu was Middle Eastern with Falafel, Humus, Tabuli, Pita, and Shepherds salad.

Part of the dessert was baked and served in mason jars, too. An assortment of mason jar pies and cheesecake and brownies.

The evening ended with Levi and Kristin acknowledging each of their wedding party and the impact they have had on their lives and also a thank you to each of their parents for all they have done for them.

We returned home from Southern California on Sunday night full of all the experiences we had over the weekend. I’ll share more as the week goes on. It was so good to see our daughter Katie. We had a special family time on Saturday morning before the wedding with Josh, Laura, Katie, Dear and I. I’ll be sharing that experience soon, too. We were sorry Dan and Andrew couldn’t attend the events of the weekend but duty calls!

My mother is doing so much better than she had been for months. She is so pleased with the results she has gotten from her cortisone shot in her hip. She has mobility that she hasn’t had for quite a while and the relaxed smile on her face says it all.

Mom & Pop…

Tim and Letty picked me up at the airport and we headed straight to the hospital to visit my mom. Everyone said she looked so much better today than yesterday. We still aren’t sure when she’ll be released and if my mom and dad will attend the wedding. For Mother’s day I put together an album of photos from Katie and Andrew’s wedding for her and my dad. After we left the hospital our kids stopped by for a visit, too. For the record…my mother is hilarious on morphine. My dad is quite happy with his new bearded look. It was great to see both of them.

Friday night we attended the Rehearsal dinner at my brother’s house for Levi and Kristin. A beautiful evening with wonderful middle eastern food. I’ll be sharing more photos soon.

Oops I was so busy taking photos at the rehearsal dinner that I forgot to put sunblock on and now my cheeks are screaming at me.  I should know better…

Good night everyone. Have a great Saturday…

Equal Time…

…for the Groom.  All photographs were taken by Jeremy Leffel our wedding photographer.

Waiting to see Katie for the first time in her wedding gown…

The first look…I think he was pleased.

Now we are getting ready to see the next groom in our family, Levi.

What an emotional day Thursday was around here. We got an early morning call that my dad had called 9-1-1 and that my mom was rushed to the hospital. They are keeping her for observation and are trying to determine if she had a heart attack. Most of my family is and will be in Southern California soon for our nephew’s wedding on Saturday. My mom is real sad that she’ll have to miss her grandson’s wedding. She is in a lot of pain and doesn’t walk well these days because of the pain. We’ll hear today more on what’s going on. I’m at Seatac airport as I’m typing this getting ready to board my flight for Ontario Airport in Southern California. Hope things are quiet where you are…

Sitting Pretty…

All the photos I’m sharing today were taken by Jeremy Leffel, the photographer that we chose for Katie and Andrew’s wedding. We’d choose him again…

Many more wedding photos are in my stash to share. We are getting ready to head to Southern California for my nephew’s wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing my folks and many of our family this weekend. Not only do we have the wedding to celebrate but another nephew and niece graduated from college with honors!

Moms at the Wedding!

For my special Mother’s Day edition for this weekend I’m posting photos that Jeremy Leffel took at Katie and Andrew’s wedding that include mothers. Have we mentioned how much we appreciate Jeremy and his photography?

My Mom

Andrew’s Mother and his sister.

Andrew’s dad and step mom.

My side of our extended family.

This is Dear’s side of the family.

Young moms, older moms, mothers in law, step moms, grandmothers, sisters, sisters in law, nieces, cousins, friends… moms. All important people in our lives.

We are getting a stretch of good weather here in the Pacific Northwest so I’m sure people will be out and about and getting caught up on their gardening. We are participating in a Free Them 5K against human trafficking on Saturday morning. Later in the day we will enjoy a meal with Josh and Laura and from there head to the Sounders soccer game. Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Many Hands…

…make light work.

We got the professional photos from the wedding and I’m going to share them in a series. I want to acknowledge our photographer Jeremy Leffel. We’ve known for a few years that we would hire him for Katie’s wedding. When she became engaged we knew the date we chose would have to be a date that Jeremy was available.  So the photos I’ll be sharing are all taken by him. We can’t recommend him enough to anyone needing a wedding photographer.

Here are some pre-wedding shots…

Our hairdresser Sherri was indispensable to us the morning of the wedding. If you can have the hairdresser come to your venue it really makes the whole pre wedding preparations more relaxed.

Our nieces Melissa and Debbee helped the girls with their make-up.

The venue provided a wonderful plate of cheeses, fruit and champagne for us.

The guys found a local spot to the venue to get some sandwiches and drinks to tide them over.

Yep…it took many hands to make the whole celebration light work. We continue to be thankful.

The Mermaid and the Pirate

For my pictorial of the magical wedding of Lucy and Kris on Whidbey Island I will be using  a couple quotes from a Love Story that Lucy’s friend Kj wrote for Lucy and Kris and read at the ceremony.

The Wedding Processional

Our son and daughter in law.

The bride’s youngest sister and a childhood friend of the groom

The brides younger sister with her husband and one of their 3 sons.

Oliver!

Oliver’s big brother Finn carrying the rings in the treasure chest.

These sweet little faeries are all cousins.

The enchanting mermaid makes her appearance!

“Magical things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time they have happened. “Surely it has been there all along,” you think. “Surely I have always loved him.” “She has always been mine,” you tell yourself. And of course, being magic, it is all true, even when it is still only becoming so.”

“And so it was for the pirate and the mermaid who fell in love.”

My dear friend who is the Mother of the Bride.

Dear with one of the Uncles of the bride.

So pleased to be seated in Rivendell!

The walking buddies reunite…

It was a lovely wedding from beginning to end. The music was wonderful. The food was fresh and tasty. The venue was enchanting. God blessed the day with wonderful weather so the bride’s dream of a garden wedding came to pass.

My apologies to part of the wedding party that I failed to get photos of. This fancy purse that I carried threw me off my game. I’m not used to wearing and carrying such finery along with my huge camera! A conjured up excuse to be sure! But seriously when you bloggers go to lovely events like these do you get photography challenged?

It’s Not Over Yet…

…and we haven’t even seen the professional shots.

Andrew and Katie

Our son Josh walking me in…

Our son Dan walking my parents in…

Andrew walking his step mom and dad in…

Jackson and Hope walking in just before Dear and Katie.

The fun times just keep on rolling in…

Whenever a new bill comes in from the wedding we say,

“It’s the gift that keeps on giving”

Some of the  helium balloons we had filled with the Marine Eagle, Anchor, and Globe insignia are still flying high. Oorah! (It’s been 4 weeks!)

We still have a few bottles of wine from the wedding that we bring out for fun occasions.

We are looking forward to the professional wedding photos taken on the day of the wedding.

Totally random but I think it’s so cool. Here is my nephew Joe in Jordan. He’s been studying in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel from Westmont College. That’s why he missed Andrew and Katie’s wedding. We’re looking forward to seeing him at his brother Levi’s wedding in May.

Joseph on his camel in the desert…just seems right!

We are in the process of deciding on the color for our new roof that will be installed beginning in May. More fun times ahead. I’ll need to make sure and take some before shots so I can share the before and afters. We are still enjoying some nice weather here but things are changing up again soon. I almost have all my Easter dishes done. I got sidetracked with the good weather and ended up mowing the lawn today instead of doing dishes. No worries…the dishes will still be there tomorrow. Still basking in the joy that celebrating Easter brings. Hope you are, too. Blessings…

All the B’s…

My maiden name started with a B and my married name starts with a B. Dear only has one brother and I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters. My B’s way outnumber Dear’s B’s so I wanted to devote a post to Dear’s side of the family. Dear’s brother has 3 beautiful daughters. They live in Southern California and in New York. We don’t see them often enough but we are happy when we do. All our B’s get along and have good history together!

Jenna was our very first niece! She just had her first baby, Miss Skylar.

Annie was born a few months after our firstborn Josh. Our third niece from this family came several years later in 1991.

Jenna is married to Justin. Skylar celebrated her 4 month milestone while she was in Seattle for Katie and Andrew’s wedding.

My sister in law was enjoying all her grammy time since Skylar lives so far away from her. Dear’s brother and his youngest daughter were not able to come up for the wedding.

A little nap was in order before the reception!

Annie and her guy Jeff got to stay with friend’s who live in a floating house on Lake Union while they were in Seattle for the wedding. That really made for a fun trip for them to the wedding. They got into their friend’s little boat and motored across the lake to the wedding venue which was on the opposite shore. It was so much fun to see them pull up to the dock.

The Monday after the wedding was Miss Skylar’s 4 month anniversary so I will leave you with the best photo yet (that’s coming from a true Sounder’s fan!)

Fun times in Seattle with so many of our loved ones!