Lifestyle

The Wedding

I promised a recap of Amanda and Marc’s wedding – and here it is!

Years ago, I told Amanda I would be thrilled to help her plan her wedding (she was probably fourteen at the time). Fast forward to the day after Thanksgiving. I was at a vendor event signing books when her text arrived saying she and Marc were engaged. I may have squealed a little and done an abbreviated version of a victory dance because the two women browsing books at my table looked at me like I’d lost my mind. When I explained my niece had just gotten engaged, they smiled and nodded their heads in agreement news like that was worthy of some excitement.

We jumped into wedding plans right after the holiday season and hit full stride by spring. When Amanda told me she wanted orange and periwinkle blue for her wedding colors, I admit I was a little dubious… but my gracious! Those two colors are gorgeous together in the photographs!

She had many mishaps with the plans, but in the end everything came together so well.

The wedding and reception were held just outside of the small town where I grew up on a private property with a huge yard and a beautiful Victorian house.

We started prepping the yard Thursday afternoon and worked at a feverish pace right up until the wedding started.

A rehearsal took place Friday evening.

Here’s the practice run. I used to babysit one of the bridesmaids along with Amanda, her sister and brother. (Now I feel really old).

These two … seeing them together just made my heart happy.

This is my favorite photo from the rehearsal. Just love the colors and her sassy smile.

Marc and Amanda hosted a big dinner at their house after the rehearsal. Most everyone had left to go to it while a couple of us lingered to do a few more things on site. I’d asked Captain Cavedweller to run inside the house and close a window we had open during the ceremony practice while I took care of some quick details. Five minutes later, I glanced up to see the window was still open. Deciding to investigate, I turned the corner of the house and saw CC leaning over one of the water tanks we set up for drinks with a sledge hammer in his hand, pounding something. It took me all of five seconds to leap onto the porch while he killed a snake that decided to crash the party. Thank goodness there were only a few of us who knew about the intruder!

After my hero disposed of the evidence, we drove the short distance to Amanda and Marc’s for dinner. Oh, my word! Marc made the best, best, smoked beef. CC is still talking about how good it was.

Despite the 40mph winds that attempted to put a damper on the dinner, the party moved into Marc’s shop and carried on with enthusiasm.

Both CC and I were impressed with the great group of friends and family these two have who just jump in and help do whatever needs to be done.

Thankfully, the wind died down by Saturday although smoke from all the nearby wildfires turned the skies gray and thickened the air.

Before we knew it, it was time for the wedding. Amanda walked down the aisle to Adele’s One and Only.

I was so busy running around before hand, that I didn’t get a chance to take any photos. I slid into my seat approximately a minute before the ceremony started. Afterward, I wished I’d stood in the back so I could have taken better photos, but it was nice to just sit and enjoy the ceremony. The photo above is their first kiss as man and wife.

They visit with the officiant who got his license specifically to marry them. How cool is that?

In between running around like a chicken with its head chopped off, I snapped a few photos of Amanda and Marc while the real photographer worked with them. I love, love this shot of her in the doorway.

And our girl had a bright orange parasol that just popped in these photos.

This is my favorite, favorite photo I managed to snap of the two of them.

While this one isn’t that great from a technical standpoint, I love the expressions on their faces and that they were truly enjoying their reception.

This is Micki, Marc’s sister. I don’t think we could have pulled everything together without her help. I’d briefly met her last month at Amanda’s bridal shower, but it was so fun to get to spend time with her.

Marc and Amanda did a champagne toast…

And he really shook up that bottle good.

Yours truly made the wedding cake. It should be emphatically stated that I am not a cake decorator, have never made a wedding cake before, and have never made royal icing flowers before. I ordered 50 royal icing flowers online hoping to avoid the need to make any. However, when the flowers arrived, the “assorted sizes” turned out to be a variation between minuscule and teeny-tiny. At least I know how to make them now!

I carried out the cake and set it on the table, turned around to grab my camera and stared in shock as a sea of kids surrounded the table so deep, the photographer couldn’t get close enough to take a photo. The maid of honor helped herd them back while Micki, CC and a few others carried out the cupcakes Amanda ordered for the kids (they were so pretty, Lois!).

For a moment, I thought the kids (there were 120+ youngsters in attendance) would tackle Micki and take the cupcakes from her, but they made it to the table.

I’m happy to report, both Marc and Amanda nicely fed each other a piece of cake without smearing it all over each other. Although she did put a touch of frosting on his nose and he dabbed one back on her.

After the cake was cut, Amanda and Marc shared their first dance to Keith Whitley’s Somebody’s Doin’ Me Right.

We’d strung lights all along the porch, beneath the water tanks filled with ice and beverages, along the fence surrounding the property and there was a cool icicle light archway in the trees above the bridal table – but I somehow managed to take only one shot of the lights and this is it.