No. 1 Got Married.

Took a great picture of the first green beans from my garden a while back and need to get out there and pick more, but somehow green beans didn't seem like news with No. 1 getting married and all the pics I had of the Bachelorette Party, and now the wedding. Even with No. 2 and No. 3 in town for the first time in a long time I had to keep saying, "This is NOT about ME."

Oddly enough, Ken called today to see how everything was working out for me. Remember Ken? He's the guy who tilled the mushroom soil into my yard and got the whole thing going this past Spring. My garden is working out beautifully this year (so far), not JUST because of Ken; nature has been wonderful to us, giving rain, more rain, and more rain followed by sun, sun, more rain, sun, more rain, sun (rinse, repeat). These plants (and more than half of them are volunteers from throwing all our food scraps in the garden areas) think they're in heaven, but will soon realize that they're in hell when the rain no longer comes and I forget to use some of the rain water I've collected on them.

I'll get back to thoughts of gardening while No. 1 spends the week in Puerto Rico on her honeymoon this next week, but for now, here are some pics from the Bachelorette Party, Rehearsal Dinner, and Wedding.

For YEARS No. 1 has said, "When I get married, I want it to be outside and I want BOTH my dads to walk me down the aisle." Well, she had pretty much the world's longest aisle down a hill laden with bumpy tree roots, so it probably took two men to hold her up on that walk (in high-heeled shoes so the gifted dress would fit right without alterations). I look at that pic and wonder who was more nervous.


The wedding was held behind the house of the wedding planner (and school chum from UTA) who lives on a lake in Irving, Texas. It made a beautiful backdrop, as you can see here.


Summer was both the sitar player AND officiant. Everything about her performance in both roles was flawless. In fact, outside of burning to a crisp an entire pound of bacon (MY doing) and failure to get delivered the wooden plates I'd wanted (warehouse oversite somewhere), and running out of time before two planned side dishes were made (I made enough food to feed 12 armies and almost missed the wedding because I wasn't done making food), the entire thing went off without a hitch.

No. 2 (shown on the right above) did my hair and makeup as well as No. 1's hair and makeup. It is SO MUCH FUN to have someone else do your makeup ... with brushes of all kinds that tickle you all over your face. The hair thing ... not so much. She put it up and that required tons of pins and clips, some necessary and some as adornments, but they all pretty much hurt and it felt WONDERFUL to take it all out at end of day.



Everything I cooked turned out wonderful (so they told me) and looked great on the buffet table. No. 1's friends, Em, No. 2 and No. 3 slaved themselves to my every need. How often do you hear "I'm here for you. WHATEVER you want done, I'll do."? GREAT bunch of people. I don't want to hear any more of that bullshit about how the youth of today is this or that. They're the youth of today and they're GREAT people.

The grounds along the lake where the wedding was held was so expansive (for our purposes) that a quick look at some of the pics might lead one to think few people came. It was HOT (Duh ... this IS Texas, afterall) and people found shade both during the wedding AND the reception. One resourceful family even brought their fishing poles. Don't know if they caught anything, but there were fish in that lake. This is one of my favorite pics because I totally missed this. In fact, I don't know if she even threw her bouquet.

One bad(although not really bad) thing about shade along a lake kicks in when trying to take photos. The after-ceremony photos were taken on the way other side of the property with the lake (again) used as backdrop. Lots of trees and nice shade there, which meant that people stayed cooler but the pics came out so dark that they had to be lightened to see who we were and then the whole lake thing got washed away. /just sayin'.



Will be posting more pics all week long, maybe going back and forth from wedding pics to bachelorette party. I think you'll be able to discern the difference in events.