My Best Friends Wedding

 

It’s been over 3 weeks since I last posted or visited anyone around this wonderful  blog land. Can I just say how much I’ve missed all of you! And how glad I am to be back!

First it was because my children and grandson flew home for my brothers wedding and I was busy having fun with them.  In spite of my physical aches and pains, I had a blast with my kids. Some might say, “too much fun” but I say there is no such thing as too much fun.

To those of you that have young children or children not quite grown up yet, I must say, you have so much to look forward to. It’s not that I didn’t have a blast with them when they were growing up because I  did. But, there is something about sharing in laughter and the joy of life with your grown children. We even got to take a family picture, although my son-in-law and granddaughter from Florida and my step daughter and grandson from Nevada are missing (and were missed by all of us).

And I even got a picture with my five kids…oh how they have grown up!

Then came the weekend and all the wedding festivities. In spite of our nasty cold wet weather, we all had a blast. The wedding ceremony had to be moved inside because of the weather but for the most part, the rain held off for most of their wedding day. It was a beautiful fall wedding in the middle of a place I call “heaven”. It’s actually my sister and her husband’s place and it’s right in the middle of a wooded area, surrounded by nature. It’s gorgeous, no matter what time of year we go there, so I call it “ a little piece of heaven”.  The falls colors were amazing.

My sister and her husband missed their calling in life as wedding planners because they did the most amazing job of planning, decorating and putting it all together.

 

It was a risk in having the wedding at this time of year but thankfully they were prepared for whatever came in the way of weather. Thankfully they have large buildings for such things as this and thankfully there were a lot of us to help put it all together in the end. Their daughters are amazing too. The youngest one decorated the cake. The eldest one did my hair for the wedding and also took the guest book photo’s. This was all beside helping their parents with everything else.

Both the bride and groom were beautiful and never stopped smiling. The pictures don’t do justice for the beauty of this most wonderful day.

The theme of their wedding “Falling in love” was perfect.

I was honored to walk my best friend down the isle and to be his best woman. I even survived giving the best woman speech at the reception. I totally forgot that I had to do this until about 5 minutes before hand and as the matron of honor gave her planned and written out speech, I started to panic. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was going to say so I just spoke from my heart.

My brother, married them and he did a wonderful job. They wrote their own vows and it was beautiful and from their hearts.

Every family or group of people that came to the wedding had their picture taken in front of this old buggy seat, for a special photo guest book, that my sister made for them.

This is my whole family, except we are missing about 14 or 15 people!

Yes, it was on the cool side, even for Minnesota at this time of year and those that flew in from much warmer parts of the country might have called it freezing and had on winter coats but I think everyone started warming up, once the party and dancing began! And boy did we dance….

   

My little people love to dance…just like me…

  

…we danced the night away! And we might have gotten a little silly and crazy in our celebrating…

They even got my mom to do a shot…

…So that she would yodel. And she did!

Lots and lots of love,laughter and smiles  shared with family that have become friends and friends that have become family. We made memories.

Between Grandma and granddaughter…

….between Grandpa and granddaughters…

And the newly wed…

Uncle and niece…

And cousins…

 

Auntie and niece…

….and sisters that finally got to be together…

…and more sisters…

…and husbands and wives…

…and uncle and nephew…

 

….Grandma and grandson…

 

….and sisters and mom….

…and a mom and her sons…(this was one of my most special moments because rarely will my eldest son pose for a picture and he not only sat for a picture with me, he actually smiled!)

…and of course with my 3 little honeys…

Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures with just  my husband because he was one of the bartenders (in a separate building)  and I spent most of the night on the dance floor….and other then the few times he came in and danced a song with me, I didn’t get to see him a whole lot. I am still hoping someone got a picture of us!

We had the time of our lives. We made new memories and one’s we will be talking about for years to come.  In spite of the weather, it really was a most perfect wedding day. It was perfect because all these 2 people wanted was to be married.

It didn’t matter that things didn’t go perfectly as planned. What mattered the most is that 2 people that finally found each other, got married and a whole lot of people that love them, showed up anyways…in spite of the cold and rain.  It’s not about the wedding, it’s about the marriage. Now that the wedding is over and real life has began, I have never seen my brother and his wife happier. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why we celebrated! All because two people fell in love.

After 5 nights of minimal sleep and too much fun, I was exhausted…and I thought I was just getting a cold. I thought I was just tired from too much of everything. I wish. Instead I got sick with something…fever, head cold, sore throat, cough, sick to my stomach, body aches, chills and super tired. Even though I am still having a few symptoms, after over 2 weeks, I am finally back to the land of the living.  And I’m not the only one that got sick…sadly, many that attended the wedding got sick also….at least one person tested positive for the swine flu 2 days after the wedding and I was told that my symptoms matched those. Whatever I had, I’m thankful that it’s over.

Now that I am back to the land of the living, I hope to catch up with you in the near future. I will be stopping by real soon!