Nicole and Andrew's Wedding

Saturday was our daughter Nicole's wedding. Over the past several months, she and Andrew handled most of the wedding plans on their own, but it seems like the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of last minute details.
As I mentioned in my last post, Nicole wanted blue Hydrangeas for her bouquet and we thought it would be neat to use some from my garden....so I tried amending the soil to a more acidic level to get them to change...I never did get the Hydrangeas to turn blue...I attained a lovely shade of mauve, at best, but that's not what we were going for, now was it? After more exploration I read somewhere that it can take several months to a year for the color change to take place....probably should have read that a lot sooner. Lucky for me some of my friends from farmers' market were able to bring me a few stems of the blue and I was able to get a few more from a local florist.

THIS is not blue!!!

I was able to get the rest of the flowers for the wedding from my friend Cathy's place-Miss Effie's flower farm. It is a good thing that Cathy's lives only 3 miles up the gravel road from me, because organizing the flowers for the wedding entailed several trips up the gravel road to her farm over the past few weeks, and a lot of planning; with Nicole, without Nicole, with the floral designer, without the floral designer, consulting with Cathy as to which flowers we thought would be blooming by the wedding, and Cathy trying to steer her 'you-pick' people away from the flowers reserved for us. The final straw was the Friday morning before the wedding when we intended to meet the floral designer at the flower farm at 8am. When I got up at 6am I heard some faint rumblings of thunder, so I brought up the weather radar on the computer and saw that there was a huge blob of threatening weather on the way. I called the floral designer and decided that we had better meet right away to get the flowers picked before the storm started. We (quite literally) jumped in the truck in our pajamas and flew up to Cathy's place where she (also in her pajamas) came running out handing us buckets and scissors...all while her dear, sweet husband watched out the window (I am sure he was amused, but he knows Cath and I well enough by now that he rarely asks questions...he is a smart guy). We snipped the final stems just as the skies began to let loose.
These are the actual blue Hydrangeas...and of course, me, Nicole, Gary and our son Justin.I am not going to say that Nicole was a little stressed while waiting for the start of the ceremony on Saturday, but........We also had a little anxiety wondering if Zach (our 4, almost 5-year-old, grand-nephew) would carry out his duties as the ring bearer, especially after I discovered that someone had tied the actual rings to the pillow, and expected said 4-year-old to safely deliver them to their destination at the end of the long aisle. I decided that we had better rectify that situation and remove the rings before his voyage to the alter and give them to the best man and maid of honor for safe keeping. Probably a wise move because, as you can see here, he decided that the pillow was best placed behind his back. That minor incident aside, both Zach and Aida (flower girl) did a great job.
Once the ceremony was over everyone was able to relax and enjoy the festivities and the fun of having all the family together.

Pretty bride and handsome groom pictures :).Nicole and Gary
It's hard to believe what good friends Justin and Nicole are now. As siblings growing up they drove me absolutely crazy with their fighting!
It was so great to have lots of old friends join us for Nicole's special day and to spend some time with my sisters.....I know we look like a group of random strangers, but we are really sisters! Our brother was not able to make it to the wedding.

Annette, me, Marie and Denise. Not sure what Marie is doing here, but we say that a lot about her...so we mostly don't ask.
170 of Nicole and Andrew's closest friends and family.

Those of you that know me will be surprised that, not only did I wear a dress (an event that happens about once a decade or so) but I also wore these shoes! This attire is a far cry from my customary Carrhartts and muck boots, so I wasn't sure that I would be able to pull it off. I survived just fine and I even kept the shoes on while we were dancing from about 7pm until midnight! After midnight I ditched the shoes and danced in my bare feet......the carriage had to turn back into a pumpkin sooner or later!

I am just glad that I wasn't wearing these shoes that my niece, Lauren, was wearing. I wouldn't even be able to walk in them, let alone dance!



It was a wonderful weekend and I am very proud and excited for Nicole and Andrew to start their new life together. As a mom, I am a little sad though that the plans for their new life include moving to California tomorrow in order for both of them to start Grad school this fall. We will sure miss them a lot. Congratulations Nicole and Andrew, I wish you every happiness!