For the Happy Tears!

I hardly know where to begin. What a week! Weddings are glorious, fun, hard work, emotional, exhausting, divine, heart-wrenching, and the most wonderful days in our lives ... all rolled into one.
For those wondering about my mother's flower-arranging skills:

The ivy was from her yard. The eucalyptus was from mine. The white roses and carnations were courtesy of WalMart. The Queen Anne's lace and purple cone flowers were given by our pianist and friend. The peonies traveled from my sister-in-law's farm in W.Va. I say my mother has a romantic British drapey look with flowers.

(This will be a long post. I recommend consuming it in segments with refills on tea.)
Here are photos from the bridal shower two weeks ago. (I know, I know ... I'm way behind.)

Sweetest hostess on the planet, Martha

Anna felt the delight of being spoiled, loved, and gift-given.

Anna with two other young ladies from church

This delightful gift -- Recipe for a Happy Marriage -- made the evening sweet.

I think there were 17 of us ladies there, which was delightful.

Now, photos of the finished cake! I know you've all been dying to see it:

It was as good as it looks, and everyone was so proud of Adam and Gloria. We had some left over, which we froze at church for next week's snack. And Adam had a niece asking him if he would make her wedding cake ... someday.

She was wearing these gift pajamas before the fact!

Much church decorating occurred, involving hefting of wooden furniture and tables, draping of twinkle lights and tulle fabric, nibbling on quick meals, and flying trips to WalMart for  one more thing.

a serving bowl in my wedding china pattern, Mikasa Rosemeade.

 They chose a neat idea for the guest sign-in, a tree (artwork by Julia) where each guest put a green thumbprint, and signed his/her name on said thumbprint.

 

We had a breakfast for bridesmaids and ladies in our family. My sister-in-law Anne prepared all the food beautifully. All I had to do was pull out dishes.

 We squeezed all the girlies onto the couch. (Our family has a bad habit of squeezing kids on couches for photos.) There are quite a few beloved girls missing too, but this crew is darling. This moment made my heart so happy.

Yes, Anna is sporting her daddy's old dress shirt. She basically wore it all day until time to don her wedding dress. I'm not really sure why, haha :)

The rehearsal dinner was so much fun!

 

What are Anna and Gramm smiling at, you ask? A surprise slide show of themselves as babies/toddlers/kids/teens/etc., designed by Gramm's brother. We all thoroughly enjoyed it!

 Afterward a few candid shots were taken by the river.

Where are the wedding photos, you wonder? Here they are ~

Gorgeous wreaths made my another sister-in-law

 Anna with her grandmothers before the ceremony:

Cousin Tammy and brother Marshall:

"Smile!" I said ...

Silly, happy girls!

"Don't touch the veil!!"

Lovely girls!

 "Who gives this woman?"

 "Her mother and I do."

Yes, we do, and very happily. Our darling girl has married a very fine young man, into whose arms we trustingly place her. We feel they are very well-suited, committed, and look forward eagerly to all the joys they will share.

These are only the candid shots I happened to remember to snap on my phone. Much better photos will be coming later from my dear, rescuing cousin, Tammy, who agreed to photograph the wedding on Thursday night after we learned that Michael (my niece's husband, and our first photographer) could not come because Hannah (my niece) is very ill. (Please pray for her.) 

The weekend, as all of life, was full to the brim of great joy and some sorrows as well. Families are like that, aren't they? But the union of Gramm and Anna -- that was sheer joy. They were beaming. May God bless them richly and guard them from all harm. 

Adam's mom gave us ladies in the family a handkerchief, as she said, "for the happy tears."

May they always be happy ones.

More Wedding Week Fun ...

Gramm (Anna's fiance) arrived last week. Yesterday, our next wedding guest arrived -- Kara!

She drove the length of North Carolina to be here early because she's Anna's matron-of-honor. Plus, she's just wonderful to have around :)

As you see, Adam is in his apron; he's begun wedding cake baking this morning. I did a WalMart run for ingredients:

This cake is heavy in eggs and almond paste, and quite light on flour, so it's fabulously soft and light and delectable. Here's the first big layer:

It has parchment paper on top (well, actually, on its bottom, as he flipped it out of its pan onto the cooling rack). We were surprised that he turned it out so soon. Well ... after I took that photo, it quickly began to fall in the middle. We were quite sad.
Adam investigated. And look what happened -- the cake (so very soft) actually fell through its cooling rack. Nooooo!

It was a relief to discover the cake was not underbaked, because Adam would then have had to re-evaluate his recipe and cooking. As it is, we need a better cooling situation.
Of course, the tragedy is that now we have a big wedding cake (minus the marmalade, meringues, and cream cheese frosting, sadly) that must be eaten. We are up to that!

And Adam will bake it again, and I will probably dash back to WalMart.

Anna and Gramm went to the beach yesterday. They had no success putting up our sunblocker tent, so they were in the sun all day. Yes, Anna returned home with a hot red sunburn. She tans well, but this was quite a burn. Why do brides do this with such regularity before their weddings? I think they imagine a nice brown tan as part of their bare-shouldered attire. 
Anna said, "Mom! I need green goo!" (that's Healing Herb Ointment to the rest of the world). And this morning her burn is only mildly pink, and doesn't hurt. Phew!


On to the wedding flowers! I'm studying my yard and wondering if some flowers will be in bloom by Saturday morning.
Will the hostas cooperate?

 I had not considered lantana ... perhaps?

 To my surprise the bee balm is flowering, but it might be too short for this wedding arrangement.

 We have a large pink Knock-Out rose bush, but its blooms were a bit beaten by our heavy rains (which also murdered my baby's breath absolutely, boohoo!)

 I'm watching my purple coneflower closely. Will it bloom in time?

 

Other plants are in full bloom right now, but who ever heard of putting cilantro in your wedding arrangement?

 Or oregano?

 Or pale lavender onion blooms?

 Some flowers miss out on all the fun.
The dahlias are going strong; I'm hopeful.

 

The zinnias (above right) are so green, but where are the flower buds? I'm on tenderhooks!
I do have a few pretty sprays of eucalyptus.

 And my new, long and drapey fern will be perfect.

 We have elephant ears galore, in all sizes. Does anyone ever put them into wedding arrangements?

On Friday and Saturday, Mother and I will stroll around the yard, seeing what there is to use. I've never known a better person with the skill to take a few weeds and three sprigs of ivy, and make a pretty arrangement. She's a wizard.

Oh - one more birthday thing. I've been using this paint set for quite a while. 14 colors, which does limit the visual complexity of the paintings a bit.

So for my birthday Philip and Kara bought me more and better watercolors! These are Japanese paints.

They came in this beautiful box. It feels and looks so Asian - I love it.

And look at all those colors! There are even 3 metallic ones.

Now I'll have to think of what to paint with them. Writing my children's stories is helpful in this regard because the story dictates what pictures to paint, and I don't have to sit there with an empty head, wondering what vapid image to put on paper. When the wedding is over, and the summer has calmed down, I hope to write and paint more again.

Today Adam's mother arrives on a plane from Nebraska. She's been so excited and supportive with the wedding from the beginning. She and Adam have been plotting the cake and decorations. Wait till you see!

It's June 1st - It's the White Skirt Club!!

Today is important. Right now, Anna and Gramm are down at the courthouse, procuring their marriage license.

It's also my birthday! This morning Adam gave me my birthday card.

Anna had a fabulous bridal shower on Wednesday, given by the ladies in our church. More about that later.

What does a girl-of-certain-age do on her birthday?
Spin, of course:

Go to the thrift store:

I found those two pillow covers and loved them. ($1 each)

The light fixture will go over our kitchen sink. I knew that if I waited long enough I'd find something at the thrift store. It's old-fashioned and just my cup of tea. Also $1!

I picked these tomatoes 

this morning in my garden.

Last year on my birthday I ate my first little cherry tomato from the garden. I was quite "chuffed" (as they say in Britain) -- that means excited and happy -- to have such an early tomato. This year?
I have this many tomatoes because I dug 3 volunteer plants out of the garden last fall, put them into big pots, and overwintered them (rather badly) on the front porch. But their root systems were ahead of the game when I put them back in the garden this spring. They're rewarding me with tomatoes now - a handful! They have recovered marvelously and will produce all summer. I like this plan and think I'll do it again this coming winter.

A coupe of you asked about my white skirts from the thrift store. I'm wondering if this might be a new fad. Do we need a club, ladies? I decided to show them to you with a video because it's easier: