One in Every Color--The Wedding Edition

Do you remember this adorable couple--Jessie and Luke?

And the quilt a lot of us worked on? From the many special people in Jessie's life who made a block to the friends and family who spent a weekend sewing the top together? It had a place of honor in Moscow, Idaho, this past Saturday as the backdrop for Jessie and Luke's wedding. In the meeting room at the LaQuinta Hotel.

The original plans were to get married on the golf course. Then there was a change of venue to the arboretum closeby. But then weather threatened to interfere as the forecast was for nonstop rain all weekend. Indoors or outdoors? Jessie made the decision to not worry about the weather and just plan to have the wedding indoors instead.

The quilt binding still needed to be completed.  I worked on Friday morning and afternoon (it is a big quilt) and finished the last side after the wedding rehearsal Friday night.

Decorating started in earnest early Saturday morning. The tables were in a U-shape and there was a color progression of colored water in different interesting containers, crayons that Jessie had made earlier, wedding-related quotes matted on matching paper. I wish I had taken a good picture of the tables. You'll have to use your imagine. It was really frugal, creative and beautiful.

Lots of twinkly lights. And these hung from the ceiling:

Pictures of Jessie and Luke's life on the wall:

(my favorite...)

We got a lunch break and went to Moscow Bagels. It was threatening to rain and I never turn down a chance to wear my awesome raincoat--Anna Maria Horner laminated cotton--I highly recommend it. But I digress.

Yummy. (I didn't take a picture of my bagel either so you will have to imagine that too!)

The weather cooperated in the afternoon enough for pictures. If you call freezing cold and gale-force wind cooperating. Okay, maybe gale-force is a little exaggerated. But it was really windy. It was a beautiful setting (and we all had lots of hairspray).

And then it was back to the hotel for the ceremony. I didn't take pictures during the ceremony as I was busy being a surrogate mother of the bride, which was such a special honor. Thank you , Jessie.

Instead of a unity candle, Jessie and Luke had a celtic handfasting ceremony (this is where the term "tying the knot" originated). Close family and friends each had a ribbon that we tied around their wrists, binding them together. It was an amazing part of the ceremony and really beautiful.

Jessie had made all the flowers for the ceremony, along with help of friends/family along the way. They were unique and beautiful  (I seem to be using the word "beautiful" a lot). Beautiful colors and lots of embroidery detail and vintage buttons, inspired by Princess Lasertron.

Aren't they AMAZING? Jessie's bridal bouquet is the silver and white one. The others were bridesmaids' bouquets. The three surrogate mothers each had a wrist corsage and the guys had matching boutonnieres.

It was a wonderful weekend. Jessie's mother, Sue, would have loved it.

As you start your new life together, Jessie and Luke, remember all the love that surrounds you, not just from those at the ceremony but from all the other people in your life.

Bad news/good news

The Bad News:

We are going to Minnesota in August. No, that's not the bad news. It's actually really good news because we get to see our friends, go to Mark's class reunion, and I get to meet in person someone I've been getting to know via email and I'm really excited about that.

No, the BAD news is this: What is up with the air miles you earn on your credit card and seat availability? We have lots of air miles. We wanted to cash them in to make our flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We wanted to fly for FREE. That's why we HAVE a card that earns air miles. So when I tried to make the reservation the other night, there were no seats available. Correction: there were no air mile seats available for the days were wanted to travel, nor the day before or the day after. There were first class seats available on a flight coming back, but not at a time we wanted to fly, and we were not about to bankrupt our air mile account anyway by using it to fly home first class. There were a lot of seats available on the flights we needed, just no air mile seats. When I asked about this, the reservation person said, "Well, it IS summer, and it IS Minneapolis." Don't get me wrong. Minnesota is a beautiful state and I love going there. But August in Minnesota? Hot, humid, mosquito-swatting August in Minnesota? A popular destination in August? Really?? So we had to fork over hard cold cash, ahem, credit card, which will earn us more air miles...that we probably can't use when we need 'em.

Now the GOOD news:

While we are there, we get to go to the Fairmont County Fair and see these guys! Phenomenal musicians! Never thought we would get to see them in person. And the price for this stellar entertainment? Free with paid admission to the fair...a whopping $6/person! Woo hoo! Almost makes up for having to pay for our plane tickets. Almost. Not quite.

Why it pays (literally) to be a blog reader

First of all, I got my new Comcast bill this morning and was so mad to see that it had gone up--again. I knew the rate increase was coming, but to see it in black and white just made me mad. Then I caught up on my blog reading before I started my work. And lo and behold,this was the first thing I read (scroll down to the one about "three phone calls..."--in case they update and you get a different post and I can't figure out how to link directly to this post...yeah, I know, more to learn about Blogger). Called Comcast, explained how long I have been a customer, yada, yada, yada. They signed me up for their "doubleplay" rates, which supposedly is only good for six months, but in the meantime saves me about $50 a month! I think I just justified my blog addiction...