Breaking the Ice

When the parents of the bride and groom have not met each other prior to the wedding, it is probably a good idea to get together before the festivities begin.  Fortunately, we were able to meet the groom's parents before all of the friends and family arrived for the big day.  I now understand why the bride and groom never seemed very worried about whether their parents would like each other.  They knew we would!  Well, at least we liked them, I can't speak for his parents, I just have a feeling.

We hosted a little dinner on Thursday before the wedding as an ice breaker.  What we needed was Mexican food.... and beer!  What we needed was a chance for everyone to get into the mood of the weekend and meet the family while still wearing comfortable shoes!  Don't ever underestimate the power of comfortable shoes!

I'm not sure the groom's family knew exactly what they were in for
but they look like they are having fun!

"Our shoes are so comfortable! "
Happy Moms!

Party in the pantry... or are they just wearing comfortable shoes?

Pocket watches for all the men from the groom!

With the ice thoroughly broken we were ready for all of Friday's events and the wedding on Saturday!

Since we were all "old" friends now, we totally enjoyed the bridal luncheon while the guys played golf, hung out with the kids and recovered from the bachelor party the night before.

The bride and her sisters!

Friends and bridesmaids!

Lovely junior bridesmaid and John...the lone fellow with all the women!
Lucky guy!

 The rehearsal is one of my favorite parts of a wedding for some reason.  I have been known to cry more during the rehearsal than during the wedding.  I think this is when it all hits.  It hits the bride, the groom, the father of the bride, etc. that this is going to happen!  We have planned and worked and waited for this day for a long time and now we are one day away.  The wheels are turning and there is no stopping now.

Our beautiful church!

Practice makes perfect...

The bride sang the Psalms and I just love the way he is looking at her.
#Melt my heart

With the ceremony fully rehearsed we were off to the rehearsal dinner.  Another favorite part of the wedding weekend for me....because I did not have to plan it!  The groom's family did a fantastic job choosing a great spot with great food.  It was the perfect place for everyone to visit, relax and get to know more about each other.  Coincidentally, it was also the groom's birthday!

Speaking of getting to know more about each other....I gave the groom a little gift at the dinner.  It occurred to me that he really does not know all about his bride's past.  I made him a scrapbook full of pictures of her from birth through university with highlights of some of her favorite things and some of the special events in her life.  I have made one for each of my children's spouses as a way to give them a glimpse of her/him "before".  I'm not sure who liked it more, the groom or the bride!

What a cool spot!

Mom and Dad welcoming everyone

They look so nice together!

Everyone checking out the bride's past....

At the end of the night we felt a lot closer to the groom's family and the wedding party.  We all came together for one reason; to witness Katie and James' marriage.  Two people brought together all of these friends and families because they wanted us to be there when they said, "I do.".  We were all there to give them our blessing.  With a common goal we felt close.  Each of us loves them in our own way and we want them to have a long and happy marriage.  Finding that one special person is a blessing and it makes everyone happy to witness such a blessing.  We were all definitely happy!

Stay tuned for the wedding!

What is it About the Garage?

I follow a few other blogs.  Just a few... compared to the number some people out there read on a regular basis.  Maybe this explains why my blog is not on thousands of people's everyday reading list, that and the fact I don't blog every day. The blogs I do read, I read for pure entertainment plus they have a writing style to which I aspire.  I really miss my weekly brain candy when one of my bloggers goes more than a week between posts.  The nerve of them....how can they go and live their lives and not keep me in the loop with a witty or relevant blog post?

Today I noticed that my last post was ten days ago a long time ago and I thought to myself, "If I'm lucky there are people out there wondering if I fell down a rabbit hole or something.".  I know...it is very presumptuous of me!  No worries, I am here, living my life and not blogging.  It happens....so I guess I'll forgive my favorite bloggers for doing the same.  Sometimes life is just more important than the blog.  No! Life is always more important than the blog.

Having a happy Easter with these people
and not blogging.....

So... what have I been up to instead of blogging?  Well....there are a lot of spring golf tournaments and I just don't know how to say "no".  There are the dance lessons TJ and I are taking.  Plus, we have been doing some spring cleaning or as I'd like to refer to it, "cleaning this pit before friends and relatives arrive and see how we really live"... oh, and did I mention the wedding is in less than 2 weeks?  Really, I am not doing that much for the wedding compared to the bride who has done most of the work.  Far be it from me to butt in and take over her finely tuned wedding planning mojo.  I do find myself having panic dreams where I show up to the church and I don't recognize any of the people there or The Dress falls apart or no one shows up or fifty more than we planned for show up.  I'm sure these will become more and more frequent over the next few days.  I am just hoping that soon we will be able to relax, enjoy the moment and trust that all of the people we are paying will do their jobs and everything will go according to plan or as close to the plan as possible.


Let's talk about cleaning for a minute.  In my book, cleaning means mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, maybe clean the dog nose prints off the windows, cleaning the cobwebs from the corners and putting away all the piles of crap that we have sitting around the house.  To my husband, cleaning means cleaning the garage.  What is it about men and the garage?  Every time we have a party or event at the house he feels compelled to clean the garage.  Why?  We don't ever eat dinner or serve cocktails there.  No one ever sleeps in the garage.  No one goes to the bathroom in the garage...I hope!  We don't even have a ping pong or beer pong table that people play in the garage.  But, without fail, he thinks we  (he and the mouse in his pocket?) need to clean the garage.  This time, since the event is bigger than a little Saturday night barbecue, he has gone way beyond the garage.  "We" are having the outside of the house painted.  The house is getting a total overhaul.  The bonus to me is that the painters are cleaning the outside of the windows after the painting is finished.  A job I was planning to not have enough time to do!  So, for three days the outside of our house has been chaos.  Once the job started and got underway we found out just how badly the house needed painting.  The timing may be a bit off but in the end, she looks very nice with a shiny new coat of paint not to mention clean windows.  On to the garage!

NOT!!!!!

Chaos comes before order.

We finally did it!  We have both always wanted to take dance lessons and with the upcoming wedding we decided to just do it!  After three lessons, I can say in all seriousness, we will never be ready for prime time by the wedding.  We may eventually be able to dance together without fumbling awkwardly through the steps...we hope.

Dancing with the Stars...here we come!

There is a very good chance the blog will be idle until after the wedding.  I'll be busy holding in my stomach trying to fit into my mother of the bride dress, enjoying all of our family and friends and dancing up a storm.  I promise plenty of pictures and hopefully no horror stories.