The Wedding-Elizabeth becomes a bride

Remember a few months back when I went to Colorado Springs to visit my BFF Gail and attended her daughter's bridal shower?
This past Thursday was the wedding.
Pictured above: Elizabeth, age 31, on her wedding day.

BFF and MOB Gail.

The wedding colors were blue and green.
It was an outdoors late afternoon wedding.
It had showered off and on throughout the area all day long, and as Elizabeth walked out on the arms of her mother and brother, a bold clap of thunder gave us all a start.
Just noise...no rain during the ceremony.
PTL!
(She chose the song "The Baby Elephant Walk" for her entrance.  Gail said Elizabeth just happens to like that song a lot.  I thought it was quite fun and original.  Can't quite remember that tune? Click HERE it will come back to you in a flash!)

Bryce place the ring on her finger...

She placed a ring on his finger, all the while holding the family heritage hankie in the palm of her hand.


The ceremony was performed by the H*ghway Patrol chaplain.
Bryce serves in that organization.
Elizabeth is a Science teacher herself.


The bride was kissed to celebrate her new status as wife.

Elizabeth seemed pretty happy.

REAL happy!

A lovely cake awaited the guests after a buffet from the couples favorite fast food restaurant-Chick-fil-A.

Wearing something on one's head at the wedding has caught on!

And be still my heart! a handsome man was seen in a seer sucker suit.

Gail gave me a wave...

She was quick to begin her roll as a meddling mother-in-law.
(Not really!)

Gail: Now a mother of three!

Elizabeth's younger brother Scott.
Scottie-Pah-dottie as we used to call him when he was just a little brother tyke.
Scott is now an orthopedic surgeon about to begin his residency.
A few years ago he was hospitalized for a month when it was learned that the non-stop bleeding following some minor oral surgery was because of hemophilia. Elizabeth spent many hours with him at the hospital until the situation was finally managed.
Elizabeth and Scott were always close but after that scare, I think they bonded in an extra special way.

Scott is a thoughtful, gentle generous young man.
And just a bit before the wedding he had assisted his Uncle Craig in performing an arm amputation.
Nothing like family bonding time now is there?
Personally we prefer going to a park or a movie, but what the hey.
Every family is different.

(Another gander at that head piece. Pretty cool!)

Gail had some bling in her hair, but found that just wasn't quite enough for her.
Pirate bling, magic wishing wand...now THAT'S what we're talking about!

Actually some small props were made available for the guests to play with during the time that the official wedding photos were being taken.
Gail's sister Dale joined in improving on her special day outfit.

Sisters...sisters...there were NEVER such devoted sisters....

It was so good to see the sisters together and laughing together.
Two years ago Dale's husband passed away suddenly on a business trip.
It was such a shock...and yet, joy does come again.

There have been many seasons when it seemed like hard times would never stop.
What a blessing to have a day of showers of joy and times of celebration for Gail's family.

Many years ago, back in the mid 1980's Gail's family was part of a church fellowship group that owned several duplexes.  Six families lived in three duplexs, Gail and her husband owned a house at the end of the street, and we lived just a few miles away.
Gail's sister and brother in law were one of the duplex couples. 
Elizabeth's Uncle Craig and Aunt Sue lived in one of the two bedroom duplexes while Uncle Craig finished college, and then they moved to start medical school.
When they left, they had four children, a son one year older than our son, two daughters and another infant son born just weeks before they left.
Their oldest daughter Sarah is now all grown up, married to an orthopedic surgeon...

She is expecting HER fourth child.
How can that be true of  the little Sarah that we knew as a baby?

Uncle Craig...as an orthopedic surgeon who routinely does amputations,,,seriously.... bad taste to wear a hook don't you think?
We had not seen Craig in almost twenty years.
He came up and introduced himself to Bernie at the rehearsal dinner and his jaw just dropped when he realized who he was talking to.
In minutes it was like not time had passed at all.
It was just like we had just talked yesterday instead of a decade ago.

It is fun to photograph wedding poses from a distance.

Gail's hair bling...

Yes, Elizabeth wore killer high heels to her wedding.
Why shouldn't the "something blue" be the bride's shoes?


Another cute wedding photo pose.

Ahem....back to the cool guy in the seer sucker.

And a BOW TIE!!!

Can it get any better than this?

As a matter of fact it does.
This handsome guy is engaged to Elizabeth's cousin Amie, Sarah's sister, and Craig and Sue's daughter
He is a Marine Corps officer.
They met recently in church.
She is a widow with three small children; she lost her husband after a long and very difficult battle with cancer.
They will be married later this month.
I believe he will wear his uniform for the ceremony, but since the wedding will be in Texas, I hope he will be changing back into the seer sucker for the reception.
It will be his first time getting married; he was so sweet as he asked me for advice on how to have a long, long happy marriage.
If I wasn't already happily married and he happily engaged, I think I would want to marry him myself!


Scott displays his double fisted bouquet holding skills.

The boy has mad skills!



Told you the bride loves HIGH heels.

The couple chose the most interesting flowers for their wedding.

The table centerpieces were created using randomly shaped bottles and freely arranged unusual flowers.

The maid of honor had VERY high heels too, but soon came to her senses during the reception and changed into some more comfortable (and lively!) flat foot wear.

The couple danced smoothly together on their first dance as husband and wife.


I could see that Elizabeth was truly smitten with her man.


Beautiful dance!

Gail claimed her daughter for a bit of dancing as well.

Then while the girlfriends partied on the dance floor...

Gail claimed a dance with her newly minted son in law.
After a few moments on the dance floor, Gail's "local" best friend Chris yelled out  "Gail...Let HIM lead!"


The brother and sister shared a turn or two on the dance floor.

I loved at how Scott smiled as his sister as they danced.

The bride's paternal grandparents danced...



and it was hard to keep a knot from forming in our throat as we watched him gently lead his Alzheimer stricken wife though the steps.

Another of Elizabeth's cousin, Little Joshie C....now Dr. Joshua C. who now is teaching Engineering at a prestigious university, and the father of a twelve year old and a couple of other children as well.
I didn't recognize him...he who used to play with hot wheels and rode trikes with my own son long ago when they were barely even school age.
All the times we as couples prayed for our children, met as mothers to talk over our current parenting puzzles...our prayers clearly had been answered.
Those wee ones have all grown up to become simple wonderful adults!


I got a kick out of seeing the bride commandeer the photographers' equipment to take a couple of shots herself.

Gail just never stopped smiling..
Isn't this a lovely wedding location?




Another look at those shoes...

And the bouquet.

The bride's maternal grandparents (Gail's parent's) acting up.

When we went into the reception I checked the seating chart to find out where Bernie and I should sit.
Next to the bride and groom, the bride's mother, her sister and her parents it turned out.
I was so surprised.  I know I feel like Gail is my sister, but sitting there at that table next her her and her bride daughter made me feel like it was really really true.

Gail's parents still live in San Diego, where Gail and I met and where we grew up.
We both regularly return to San Diego to visit our parents and *sometimes* we even arrange our visits so we can see each other back in our old stomping grounds.
We have known each other as pregnant women, nursing mothers, relocated wives, mothers of teens, of college age students, engaged children, and have cheered each other on through each phase of our lives.
Together we rejoice that our same aged parents are doing so well, and know we will be there for each other as we go through the next phases of our lives.

Only someone like me who has lived in Salt Lake City and watched Sister Wives would look at this picture and think "Oh, he must have taken another wife....wife #9 looks great!"
Just kidding.
This was the first and will be the ONLY marriage for both of them.


When I saw her posing with one of the prop umbrellas, I wondered why all brides don't have similar prop inspired pictures taken.

Bryce doesn't look so sure about this pose.
I wouldn't be trusting those crazy looking guys either!

Gail had cool shoes too...

I just couldn't rock an umbrella like Elizabeth did.

Bernie could though.

I wanted him to wear his seer sucker suit too, with his yellow and blue stripped tie.
We compromised, he wore my second favorite suit and the tie.
Said he didn't have the right shoes to wear the seer sucker.
That excuse isn't going to last long I can assure you.

One of the usherettes dancing with her husband.
Boy those two really had some hot moves!

Gail and her mother didn't attempt to challenge them with dance moves on the dance floor.

I asked Elizabeth to take a shot of the garter she received at her bridal shower; it was the garter her paternal grandmother wore, which had been made for her by HER grandmother.
That makes it a garter made by Elizabeth's great-great grandmother.
Elizabeth was the oldest granddaughter; her cousin Amie and Sarah didn't get to wear it for their weddings. It was saved for Elizabeth to wear.


Instead of rice being thrown, bubbles were blown instead.
I like that quite a lot!
Gail's mom was quite happy surrounded by the colorful floating bubbles.

Grandmother Anne, the woman for whom the garter was made, privately whispers something to her granddaughter's ear.

Anne's husband Jim broke in on his granddaughter as she was dancing again with her new husband.
How wonderful it was to have all four of her grandparents at the wedding!

When it was time to finally leave, Bryce gallantly carried Elizabeth's shoes for her as she walked the garden pathway out to their car.

Her dress had been bustled for the reception; she looked completely comfortable in her gown through the entire event.

Personally I had to laugh as I watched the young couple waiting patiently at the curb while their friends finished up decorating their getaway vehicle.

Personally, if I had been Bryce, I would have had some colleagues show up and arrest us on some made up outstanding warrant and given us a siren blowing light flashing escort to our hotel.
As I joked with my old friend Sue:

 "My husband can get me back to the hotel faster than your husband can get you back to the hotel.  Heck...Elizabeth's grandpa can get Elizabeth's grandma back to the hotel faster than Bryce is getting Elizabeth to the hotel!"

We laughed together as old married ladies who still think a night away with our husbands is fun and romantic, just like we did years ago.

And we hoped that some day Elizabeth and Bryce will have the joy of standing on a curb with an old friend and marvel at how time has flow by.