Congratulations, Isabelle and Andrew
Jennings!
Let’s begin with the wedding report; and
then I’ll go back to cover the rest of the day from my wake-up call through
until now.
It’s been a perfect weather day for a
wedding – not too hot, but a lot of sun and warm. My wedding fun didn’t start until after
lunch; and Mom, Ehlana, and I had one hour to get ready before we needed to be
at the church for the ceremony. A bit of
time phasing allowed us to get our hair done and finish up when we started to
run out of time; but we were downstairs and ready to go with twenty minutes to
spare. Dad, Michael, and Ethan had been
waiting for us for a while by then; so we were able to get into the minivan
right away and drive over to the church – and we only did that so Mom and I
didn’t have to walk that far in heels.
By the way, I don’t wear heels all that
often, but it is nice to be able to do that now that Michael’s enough taller
than I am to do that without it being weird for him! ;^)
Dillon escorted Mom and the rest of us to
our seats; and then we ended up with Aiden and Naomi with us too when they were
allowed to come over and sit with Ethan and Ehlana. They weren’t there as couples; but did conveniently
sit in boy-girl pairs. Having well-known
parents made for a big turn-out for the ceremony, and there were more than six
hundred guests in the sanctuary by the time the doors were closed and readied
for the arrival of the bridal party. I
haven’t gone to a lot of weddings of friends so far since we’ve moved here, but
I’m sure that’ll start changing over the next few years as our favorite
collegians start graduating and tying the knot – though not necessarily in that
order! ;^)
Sticking with the wedding news for today,
though, Isabelle arrived on-time with her bridal party; and Andrew, Dillon, the
best man, and the other groomsmen all looked very handsome in their tuxes as
they stood at the front of the sanctuary.
When the main doors were opened, Isabelle had a flower girl and ring
bearer lead off the processional, and then Violet was the first bridesmaid to
follow them. Andrew’s sisters, Lynn and
Alicia, followed Violet; and then it was time for Isabelle’s college-friend
maid-of-honor to walk down the aisle just ahead of Isabelle and her very proud
father.
I am a total sucker for happy endings, and
though weddings are actually a happy beginning, you know what I mean; and the
wedding ceremony was really beautiful. Andrew
was appropriately smitten with his bride; Isabelle was breathtakingly gorgeous;
and the joy and love filling the sanctuary was the feeling that I wish we could
all have all of the time every day.
Going off-topic again – that’s exactly what
is meant to be for us. When the
Ascension of the Light happens; that’s the direction we’ll be heading toward –
a world filled with love and joy!
Okay, so the actual ceremony is short and
sweet, but every wedding is a bit different; there are special moments; and
today was no exception. I am not going
to record anything here that might embarrass anyone in the future; but will
instead only suggest that the little imperfections that are part of life are
also part of what makes those moments special.
Andrew and Isabelle were soon pronounced husband and wife; there was a
pause in the action while they left the sanctuary to deal with the paperwork;
and then my last involvement in their happy day was watching the recessional
and then when Michael and I had our fifteen or twenty seconds to congratulate
them outside of the church before we moved on and headed home so that we could
get changed and ready to go to the Inn and work the dinner-to-close shift. The rest of the wedding report will have to
wait until tomorrow or Monday night because Violet and Dillon are still at the
reception as I’m writing this and won’t be home tonight.
I guess that means it’s time for the rest
of the news from the rest of my day; so let’s get to that so I can head into
nap mode soon.
Tai Chi by the river was wonderful this
morning; and so was breakfast in the sunroom.
Michael couldn’t do either with me because he was working the breakfast
shift at the Inn; but then we didn’t drag out the breakfast because we had a
lot of work to do this morning ahead of the wedding. The beautiful weather made the outdoor chores
a lot nicer to do, but I still got dirty and sweaty while working on the lawn
and gardens straight through until we stopped for lunch and needed to pack up
for the day. We ate outside because some
of us were too dirty to do that indoors without having showers first; and then
you already know about the pre-wedding hour we had for getting showered and
dressed up. The Inn was surprisingly
busy when it was so nice out, and we were short-staffed because of the staff
that needed to be off for Isabelle and Andrew’s dinner and reception party; so
we were really, really busy for the entire shift; and ended up working until
nearly eleven o’clock before we could close the Inn and come home.
Michael and I needed some wind-down time
first, so I went home with him; we sat out by the river with drinks and snacks
and cuddled for an hour; and then I came home right around midnight. Another shower was necessary by then, and
while some Jacuzzi time was really tempting; I was too tired to take the extra
time for that. In hindsight, I could
have had the bath because there was some family business work that I could have
multi-tasked; but by the time I checked my email; I was already cleaned up,
changed, and snuggled in bed with Mandy.
That work didn’t take too long – just a half hour or so; but that is why
it’s past-one as I’m writing this.
As I mentioned, I’ll add more to the
wedding report when I get the news from Violet and Dillon, but I will add that
Mom, Dad, and the twins were not invited to the reception. They were having a fairly small group for
that; and more than half of the guests were members of the Jennings or Jacobs
extended families. While I worked, Mom,
Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana instead had a play time and dinner at Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne’s house that sort of became a mini block party with the Seagers,
Drapers, and most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
That would have been fun to join in for,
but Jacob and Miranda needed me more; and I expect that to be a regular theme
on weekends this summer. Even with all
of the work today, though, it’s been a really great day; and I’m especially glad
that it’s been so great for our newest newlyweds.
Their honeymoon next week is sure to be
really great too compared to the week of exams I have to look forward to, but I
won’t wish that it was Michael and me going away instead; since we’re still a
bit young for that kind of fun! ;^)
Speaking of exams, we’re going to be
studying for them a lot tomorrow – and all next week; so I need to wrap this up
and get some sleep so I’ll be ready for all of that work. That won’t be wedding party level fun either;
but has to be done. This update is done
now too, and I’m definitely ready for some quality nap time; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
