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.

Laundry Memories, new and old.

As happy as I am with my laundry room re-do, I still sometimes skip outside and let old Mr. Sunshine dry the wash.

The nifty wire clothes rack from IKEA easily holds a full load of laundry, and even works for drying Cal King sized sheets one at a time. Best of all, the whole rack collapses flat and gets leaned up against the wall behind the laundry room curtain, taking up almost no space at all when it is not in use.

When the temperature soars it just seems silly to use electrical power to finish up the laundry task.  Plus it gives me an excuse to wander around the garden as I come out to check to see if the clothes are dry.

With 11% humidity, the clothes dry here almost as fast as they are washed.

I got to musing about laundry as I went about my task.

I remembered growing up three blocks from the beach, and my Mom hanging out laundry year around on a clothes drying device that looked like a squared spider web perched flat on a stick. 

The lines closest to the pole were hung first, while turning the entire web, then each line thereafter, hanging clothes until the finally the outside line was hung.

My Mom always used citrus soap since we had soft water.  Our clothes smelled so fresh and the whites were always so white.

She mentioned to me that those folks with driers and hard water had a hard time keeping their laundry from looking rather dull and gray.

She was right; I could see my classmates clothes become more dingy until they were finally outgrown.

In the summer, Mom would clip up the clothes early in the day (using clothes pins with springs; I never could figure out how clothes pegs work when I saw them later in life). Then she would take care of the usual household tasks while we kids hung out with our friends, waiting for ALL the neighborhood moms to finish up so we could go to the beach.

Usually we were at the beach by one, and stayed there until around four-ish, the time the moms needed to get back home to cook dinner.

Ironing was done in the cool of the evening while we watched TV.

Is it any wonder that in college I thought women who wanted to have a job outside the home were totally nuts?

When I got to college I did my own laundry for the first time.

Since I was going to school in Oregon, using a drier was part of the process.

I never did get the hang of doing laundry regularly; like many of my dorm mates, it was not too unusual to see me clad only in a bikini hauling my stuffed full pink gingham laundry bag down to the basement laundry room, even in the dead of winter. 

When there really is absolutely nothing clean left to wear, well, the bikini is called into service.

(I wasn't the only one thus attired.  College students need strong motivation to give up time and money for laundry needs.)

Laundry room fun with dark haired Jennifer, my future maid of honor, and her room mate/childhood friend Randi.
Isn't that what "set" tubs were for..."setting down" and relaxing while waiting for your laundry to be done?
Their room was just across the hall from my room; Jen was the first person to befriend me on campus.

Jennifer, Randi and Chuck. 
It was a co-ed by room dorm, Chuck and his room mate Lance were across the hall and one room down.
Maybe it was because in college the guys did their own laundry, and proved to me that anyone tall enough to reach the washer dials was quite capable of doing laundry. Both my son and daughter learned to do laundry by the time they were twelve years old.

When I married young, (right out of college!) Bernie and I got an apartment with a laundry room.  Funny, I really don't remember doing laundry at the apartment at all.  I do remember there was a large swimming pool and a sauna...I imagine we must have filled all the machines at once, gone for a swim, switched them to the driers and hit the sauna, which was co-ed and rarely used.

As newly weds, we were probably the sauna's most regular visitors.

The plan to live in the apartment for the first five years of our marriage fell apart after only ten months, when we discovered our first born was on the way.  The apartment complex was adult only; we would have to leave.

We found a very tiny house to rent, probably about 700 square feet, an old uninsulated bungalow with peeling faded paint, and an old carriage house garage out the back.  The garage was dark, and housed all sorts of scary spider and assorted other shudder producing creatures.

Bernie and his dad managed to plumb a spot for a washer; the water drained out onto the struggling lawn.  I know I had a clothes line there, but I also had a old gas operated drier as well.

Bernie re did the bathroom in the house, put up fencing so "the baby" could have a yard to play in some day.

We lived in that house until Laura was 9 months old. Bernie's parents had decided to purchase a new house and rent their old house out to us. 

Bernie had lived in that house since he was four years old; his brother was conceived and born in that house shortly there after.

Another generation was conceived there as well, when Laura was 11 months old, our son was on his way.

Laundry there was done out in the garage as well, but the garage was just two steps out the side door, and was quite handy.

There was an old fashioned clothes line there as well; with the demands of "two under two" the clothes line was mostly used to dry towel after swimming in the pool.

Bernie's sister had seven kids closely spaced; Bernie was still a teen when the oldest was born.  He remembered visiting his sister and being totally grossed out at finding diapers soaking in the toilet bowl whenever he would go over to visit.  It was he who decided that a diaper service would be used for our children, and so I was spared the years of washing diapers that others routinely dealt with with valor.

Jeff was four and Laura was five when we moved into the house where we lived until Jeff finished high school.

The washer/drier was again out in the garage; and to get there required walking down three steps, walking around the back of the house past my weaving studio, treading on old brick that skimmed past Camellia bushes that bloomed vigorously each winter.

(Me in 1985, age 31, toting yet another load of laundry..I can just  make out a pink camillia blooming  behind me.)

The one car garage was stuffed with "stuff" and one car was a tight fit, but there was room for not only the washer and drier but a set tub as well!

The house was built in 1945...just prior to WWII, and originally had but three bedrooms, one bath, a dining area the size of two modestly sized powder rooms and kitchen the same size at most bedroom closets...and I don't mean the walk in kind!

Some where along the way a larger eat in  kitchen had been added along with a very large upstairs bedroom with a tiny full bath.

It all added up to a lovely 1100 square feet.  Small, but not unusually so.  The large patio and garden became our family room and we spent much of our time outside.

There was a clothes line poles at the foot of the upper yard and some one had even made a cement pad beneath the line run.  Why we didn't string up some line I have no idea; instead we stung up a hammock and enjoyed that while our clothes tumbled away in the garage.

There were black widows in the garage I should note.  I kept a can of insect killing spray handy at all times...

Once we left there I gained "modern" laundry "rooms": pass through areas between the garage and the kitchen,  pantry like areas in the kitchen and now I have a full blown entire room designated to laundry.

I must say I really, really, really like my laundry room now.

But....

Sometimes...

Just like it was back in the days...

Occasionally there are still...

Spiders in my laundry room!!!

You know, throughout history women did laundry together, gathering either down by the river or the lake's edge, and with their skirts tied up and sleeves rolled up the women would suds out the clothes while talking and sharing their lives side by side.

Men never seemed to do laundry, even in times of war women would be camp followers and earn a living by doing laundry. 

I think that loss of womanly camaraderie is the only down side to our modern laundry methods.  I imagine that women still do most of the laundry and do the task regularly and totally alone. 

My short times of college laundry being a time of hi jinx with dorm mates was probably the only time that I have ever done laundry with friends, and actually it made doing laundry a lot of fun.

Pretend that you have dropped by with a load of wash; we've hung our laundry out to dry and now are relaxing in the Adirondack chairs, listening to the stream rushing below, watching birds and butterflies flutter over head and enjoying a cold glass of herbed lemonade.

What laundry memories have you recalled after reading about mine?  How was laundry done at your house as a child? As a young bride, a mother, an empty nester?

Do tell...it is a simple way for us to share in doing a bit of laundry together.

Modeled by the Bride

She has been racing around getting stuff done and was tackling the housework when I dropped the hat off.
If only I could look that great while doing housework on a hot day....

See prior post for details on the hat...

A bride in the neighborhood

It was a lovely weekend here.  I spent most of it making a bridal head piece for a neighbor. 

Here's the back story on how that activity came to be:

Last summer a neighbor hosted a neighborhood potluck block party.
It was the first time I had met a lot of my neighbors and found them to be a really great group of people.
The young "hostess" introduced me to her children and her fiance, (a really nice guy) and said they were going to get married the next summer.

We got chatting about hats (the party was outside, and hats were to be seen) and I mentioned my collection of hats.  Later on we ambled over to my house so she could see the hats.  Turned out she was one of those people who looks terrific in any style of hat...she had a "hat friendly face".

Picture the girl who plays the violin in the group Celtic Women, and you now know exactly what she looks like.

"Next summer" has now rolled around.  My neighbor is getting married next weekend, and last week she dropped by to ask if I could help her figure out something to wear on her head for the event.

Her dress is an ivory satin fitted gown, with a square neckline and somewhat broad straps.
The wedding will be up in the mountains, outside.

She is very relaxed about the event (she has been married before, but this is his first marriage) and said she wanted something "funky" for a head piece.

I took her into my hat room and after trying on various hats and bits, she decided she liked the look of the three minute rose (picture above) that I had made several years ago and how it looked atop dotted veiling.

It could be made up in ivory of course...

I sent her off to buy ribbon and order the veiling.  A couple of days later she called and said she had the ribbon and veiling.
She and another neighbor sat and watched me start in on the project.
(I quickly discovered I was very self conscious having someone watching me knot thread after licking my finger...and that I had to keep shifting my glasses on and off to see what I was doing.)

The making the twisted satin ribbon rose part was easy.
The edge trim took a couple of tries.
The stamen...well...I had to rethink how I placed it.
The veiling...veiling done birdcage style is so tricky.  She wanted it just at nose tip, and if the "billow" doesn't happen just right, a bird cage veil will brush against the nose tip and drive a bride crazy with the tickle.

I figured I would make up the head piece in two or three hours.  
(It wound up being closer to eight...or was it nine? just on the sewing time.)

So here is the final edition of the "funky" bridal head piece: 

As usual, I fretted about the hat overnight.
The original version looked like this:

She had selected several kinds of ribbon for the ruffled edge: a white sheer ribbon with white pearl edging that didn't suit as it was just too white.
She also had a white striped ribbon; I had the same ribbon in ivory so I had to give it a try.
It looked really nice, but I feared it was a bit too fussy looking for her elegant satin dress.

Plus I felt the dots and stripped and ruffles just made the piece too busy against the fluid feeling of her dress design.
And for some crazy reason I "forgot" that stamen doesn't pop up out of the flower center like that.
Now the whole time I am working on this piece I am mentally flipping between "oh this looks so home made" and "oh everyone is going to just flip when they see this and (Walter Mitty like) I will suddenly be the most in demand bridal head piece maker in America".

Now I just hope people will simply think the hat works with the dress and think that she looks lovely.

I've had two reviews so far:
Bernie thinks it looks great.

Tate LOVED it!

I had pulled out the stuff needed to photograph the hat and Tate showed up out of the blue.

Tate loves orange...my model Jane has orangish hair.
Tate is clearly smittened.

Kitty kisses for the bride!

Funny...it looks like a flower but doesn't smell like a flower...

Whoa whoa WHOA!
At that point Tate had to break up with Jane.
I tossed him out of the room.
The brief romance was over.

I won't be attending the wedding; we will be at Gail's daughter's wedding in Colorado as my neighbor's wedding occurs.
If I can, I try to get a picture and show you how she looked!