I now Pronounce You 'Man & Wife'!

Well, it's Thursday and the wedding is over and the newlyweds are safely (except for a sprained wrist) on their honeymoon. There was a point last week when I wondered if we would all survive the big event, but we did!

As much as I'd love to jump right back into to thrift-treasure posts, the good-mom in me just has to share a little about THE WEDDING.

From Wednesday afternoon on, this yard was just a beehive of activity!  The tent (complete with side-walls, tables, chairs, dance floor, and linens) was supposed to be here on Wednesday at noon.  Without  going into too much detail, I'll just tell you that it all arrived in 3 stages over 3 days, with the LINENS arriving on Friday afternoon.  Needless to say, the bride was not happy (and was really just a step or two above frantic)!

The tent on Thursday morning

The tent on Friday morning

The new dock (complete with the groom and best man fishing on Thursday afternoon) 

There were so many people in our house on Friday and Saturday, getting things ready, running errands, getting showers, getting 'beautified' and changing clothes (I estimate 15-18), that you could barely move. At one point about an hour before the wedding, I walked past a young man who'd obviously just showered in our basement bathroom and I had absolutely NO idea who he was! I just smiled and said hi!

Here's the funny part -- I grew up in a household where my mom would freak out if she even had 4 people over for dinner, unless they were very close friends.  Every entertainment was a major event, causing so much tension and upset that it just wasn't worth doing it.  My husband (and his family) couldn't be more opposite -- they love nothing more than opening up their home to people.  Thankfully, I've learned a lot from him in 35 years and have gotten much more relaxed about it all.  Still, my sister said no less than 6 times on Saturday night, "I can't believe you did this!  Our mother would be amazed!"  Well, I'm amazed, too!

The weather was absolutely picture-perfect... 75 and sunny, with a light breeze, a brilliant blue sky and big fluffy movie-clouds.

At about 11:00, the 'venue' was ready and that's when I shot these pictures:

Even the scarecrow dressed up for the wedding

The gate & flowerbed leading to the garden

This picture and the one above are the bed where we had 3 dead pines removed.  The flowers were hanging baskets I bought on Wednesday!  As a thrifter/hoarder, I had plenty of containers for them...

This bed was completely dug up, 'repaired' and the plants replanted.  They didn't come back very well, so they were helped along with some annuals.

The inside of the tent on Saturday

No venue is complete without the 'necessaries'

50 to100 guests sat (and stood) by a 275+ year-old oak tree as my son & his bride were married.  It was his special request to be married there because of the age and strength of the oak (pretty neat imagery, I think).

The wedding site & the old oak tree

I got as far back as I could
and you still don't get a feel for how big the tree is

The reception was in the tent between our barn and garden and about 125 people were there for that.  We celebrated the bride & groom, at cookout food, wedding cake and danced the night away.

I had cleaned out the chicken coop on Tuesday and it's a good thing I did -- lots of people wanted to see the girls and get their picture taken with them.  It was sort of a poor man's photo booth!  Between the loud music, extra light, 'tourists' in the hen house and people walking back and forth, the girls were NOT amused!

I can still hardly believe that we actually hosted a wedding here!  I was busy Saturday night being 'mother of the groom' and didn't take a single picture -- fortunately, we have the wonder of Facebook!  Within an hour there were pictures online that I could grab for this post.

The happy newlyweds

First dance as man & wife

As a parting shot, I'll share THIS parting shot -- it's one of my favorites and the one I thought they should use for an engagement picture.  That's Sylvia, the world's sweetest dog, in the foreground!