Category Archives: Wedding

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!

Lazy Saturday…

I’ve been having fun with the new Picasa editing update! So many more interesting things to try with my photos. Saturdays are slow in blog world so I’m putting up some random collages and photos from the wedding day…

Last night I received some more photos from my niece in New York and I’ll be sharing some of them, too, soon. So you have been warned!

Niece and Grand Nephew

Grand Nephew and our son Josh

Nephews

Harv captured this photo of Katie and Andrew during the ceremony.

Can you believe today is the last day of March?! Palm Sunday tomorrow and the beginning of Passion Week. I’m looking forward to celebrating Easter. Blessings…

Sunday Serenade

“She” said “she” was done with the wedding shots. But “she” was wrong. I keep finding some more shots that I want to memorialize on my blog. Since I’ve skipped Alphabe-Thursday with Teacher Jenny for a while because of all the wedding hoopla I’ll chime in with the letter S today. I hope I don’t get in trouble for being truant! Our daughter’s wedding celebration was on Sunday March 11th so here’s my Sunday Serenade.

Her Knight in shining armor or with his shining crown. God let the sun shine on their day and Andrew’s Cover and Katie’s hair picked up the glow.

I like this one because it captured the whole wedding party with our two sons on the far right.

The happy parents of the bride, my husband and me. I like how the shot captured my brother in the background smiling, too. My brother Steve performed the ceremony.

My brother Tim and SIL Letty. My sister Vera’s kids, David and Debbee.

Nephew by marriage Ryan with our two sons Daniel and Joshua.

My sister got a photo of the photographer who is a good friend. It will be fun to see the scenes he captured…

We’re back to gloomy and rainy here in the Seattle area. Hoping for a few sun breaks here and there. Hope you noticed all the S’s that naturally occurred in my sentences!! Happy Thursday everyone! See ya soon!

The Clubhouse ~ Let’s Dish!

Just when you thought I was done with wedding photos I’m heading back to the day before the wedding and I’m joining in with Cuisine Kathleen’s new weekly party called Let’s Dish!  Let’s Dish starts at 7pm every Wednesday so I’m a little early.

We decided to rent the clubhouse in the community that our DIL’s grandmother lives for the “rehearsal dinner”. We invited all our out of town guests and family and extended family to join us for any part of the day with the official dinner being served at 5:00. We had many snacks and goodies available from 10:00 am on…

We decided to go with a Red, White and Blue Patriotic theme for the day at the Clubhouse since it was the wedding of a Marine.

Cold cuts, veggies, fruit, dips, antipasto, pita bread, croissants, cheese, pico de gallo, and chips.

We had Red, White and Blue centerpieces on each of the tables with tablecloths in the same color scheme.

For early birds we had doughnuts from our favorite shop Frost!

The Guests of Honor

Desserts for everyone. Lemon cake, spice cake, brownies, Rolo pretzel pecan candies, Rice Krispie Peanut Butter bars regular and Gluten Free.

Cousins from the older to the youngest!

Most of the Wedding Party

Our three kids!

We had my dad say grace for the evening meal and he also shared from his heart about how thankful he is to God for everything God has done for our family and friends. He is a grateful man and always speaks from his heart and doesn’t let this kind of opportunity go by without sharing his love for God and giving thanks to Jesus for what he has done for us.

My parents turn 89 this Spring.

Cousins and Uncles

Dear’s side of our family. Our nieces Jenna and Annie with their guys and our youngest grand niece Skylar with Josh and Laura.

Skylar with her Auntie Annie. Our youngest guests got into our flag theme, too!

Do you see the handful of flags Avery is hanging onto along with her Rice Krispie Treat and stuffed animal?

You can’t pull off feeding 50+  people all day long without some really good helpers in the kitchen! I’m so grateful for my helpers, my BIL Nick, my sister Vera, my son Josh, my sister Lana, my cousin John who isn’t in the photo and Dear. I was so wiped out by the time we served dinner that I didn’t think to take photos of the pulled pork, Brisket, coleslaw, and baked beans. We wrapped everything up at about 8PM and hauled all our stuff back to our house and just dumped it into the garage thinking we’d get around to putting everything away after the wedding. We fell into bed exhausted but satisfied…

Toasts!

There is a Russian saying stating: “Only problem drinkers don’t toast before drinking“.

For Katie and Andrew’s wedding we decided to toast with Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider since the Bride and Groom are not fond of Champagne.

My father carrying the toast glasses for himself and my mom.

The famous Russian phrase “Na zda-ró-vye!” (Russian: Hа здоровье!) is actually not a drinking toast at all. It is used as a reply to “Thank you!” when someone thanks for a meal or a drink. We also use this phrase after someone sneezes.

But the Russians do drink “To your health!“.
‘Health’ means ‘здоровье’ [zda-ró-vye] and ‘to’ means ‘за’ [za].

 Andrew thanked everyone for joining in their day. His Best man gave a wonderful toast for Katie and Andrew in his great southern drawl. Katie’s Maid of honor also gave a beautiful toast with some great memories of their friendship and her observations of Katie and Andrew’s relationship. We were very pleased.

Andrew’s father also gave a great toast. Andrew and Katie had special flutes that matched the pattern of bling on her dress.

Here are some more Russian toasts:

  1. To the newly-weds!
    За новобрачных! – [za na-va-brá-tchnyh]
  2. To the bride and groom!
    За жениха и невесту! –
    [za zhe-nee-há ee nee-vyé-stoo]
  3. To the beautiful bride!
    За красавицу невесту! –
    [za kra-sá-vee-tsoo nee-vyé-stoo]
  4. Let’s drink to love! Gorka!
    Выпьем за любовь! Горько! –
    [vý-pyim za lyoo-bóf. Gór-ka]
    The word “Горько!” is very typical for Russian weddings. It literally means “bitter”. In Russia the newly-weds have to kiss if someone calls “Горько!”
  5. Dear newly-weds, live your whole life as if you’ve just got married!
  6. May the happy star that brought you together shine on you for many, many years. Let us raise our glasses to the newly-weds and their happy future!
  7. There is a wisdom saying that the wife is the heart and the husband is the head of a good marriage. May you never suffer a heart attack or have a headache!
  8. Dear bride and groom, today you celebrate your first wedding. May it be your last one!

FFF ~ More From the Wedding…

It’s time to look back and share some favorites from our week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. I’m going back to Sunday March 11th. After helping Katie plan her wedding ceremony for almost a year it seems good to savor the actual event for longer than a week. I’ve been away from FFF for a few weeks because of the busyness of the final weeks leading up to the wedding. I’ve shared several posts and photos from the wedding already but just wanted to highlight some of my favorite things from the wedding.

1. It was great that both of Katie’s brothers were able to stand with Andrew along with Andrew’s best man at the wedding. Our son Daniel walked his grandmother and grandfather in to be seated.

2. Our son Josh walked me in…

3. This photo of Katie and her dad really catches their similar expression that makes me smile.

4. My brother Steve performed the wedding ceremony and did a fantastic job…

5. My father prayed a prayer of blessing over Katie and Andrew in Russian.

6. The Flower Girl and Ring Barrel my niece and grand nephew were charming. ( I’m cheating with 10 instead of 5 favorites)

7. The flowers and the table decor and the food were all fabulous!

8. The Cake Toppers that Katie painted…

9. Instead of throwing the bouquet and the garter Katie presented the bouquet to our good friend Lucy who is getting married in April and Andrew presented the garter to our nephew Levi who is getting married in May.

10. The Father Daughter Dance! Tear Jerker!

Thank you for putting up with my 10 favorites instead of 5 this week. I hope to get around soon and see what you all have been up to. We are having a nice dry day today that I hope lasts into the evening for the Sounders Soccer game.

I Feel Like Dancing…

Long before the dance floor was cleared and the music was playing the little ones were dancing.

And when the dance floor opened they were grooving with some great moves…

Hope you are experiencing some Spring where you are. We are getting some sunshine and I’m thinking I need to mow the lawn for the first time since November.

We Love These People!

We’ll shout it from the rooftops…we are blessed with lots of love and friendship from family and friends! My nieces and DIL with my parents and each other.

Our sons with one of their uncles and cousin!

Nieces, Nephew, Brother, SIL, Son and DIL!

Niece with her cousin Hope, nephew Jackson and Brother in Law.

Jackson, the Ring Barrel’s, mother and father.

My sister Kathy with her granddaughter Avery, husband, and her daughter Michelle’s family.

Our sons and most of our nephews. One of our nephews is in Istanbul studying.

My sister Vera with her husband Nick and my brother Tim with his wife Letty in the top photo.

Our dear friends, sisters of the Maid of Honor, with our girls…

Good friends since Dan and Jamie became friends in grade school.

Sisters…

Katie and our son Josh with the Ring Barrel.

Cousins

Two of Dear’s nieces (one is missing) with our Sister in law holding her first granddaughter Skylar. We were so happy to have them all with us in the Northwest.

People
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world.
There’s children needing other children
And yet letting our grown up pride
Hide all the need inside
Acting more like children, than children.

Lovers are very special people
They’re the luckiest people in the world
With one person, one very special person
A feeling deep in your soul
That said you were half and now you’re whole
No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person who needs people
People who need people
Are the luckiest people
In the world

So that’s a song that takes us way back but even further back are TRUE words from God’s book.

Above all, continue to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.

I Peter 4:8.

Wedding Decor…

We were pleased with the flowers and how the table scapes turned out for the wedding.

One of the amazing things about Katie and Andrew’s wedding day was that we had sunshine and dry skies. We did not have one drop of rain fall on us all day and into the evening. God kissed our day with sunshine and we were surprised and grateful! The forecast was for a gloomy rainy day…

The head table had chargers with the the USMC Eagle Globe and Anchor symbol.

We chose to have the family service which meant everyone could sit and relax as the platters of food were served and passed around the tables.

There was enough food for everyone to try both the salmon and the steak. The venue donates the leftover food to a local shelter.

I mentioned before that Katie painted the cake toppers with the right ribbons and emblems on her Marine!

You might be seeing some repeats on photos the rest of the week as my sister Lana just sent me her photos from the wedding.

We had sunshine and a dry day here in the Seattle area on Monday. I zoomed around town to make some returns and to shop for a couple more weddings coming up for us. We have a wedding to attend in April here in Washington and in May we fly down to Southern California for my nephew’s wedding. I found a dress that will work for both weddings. I returned those beautiful silver blingy shoes to Nordstrom today because they killed my feet at Katie and Andrew’s wedding. OUCH! I love dealing with Nordstroms!

Hope your week is going well. OH and before I leave I posted my Dear’s amazing Tomato Rice Soup on Mennonite Girls Can Cook today.

I decided to link this post to Susan’s Tablescape Thursday.