Rain or Shine

Last year I was talking to my friend Kari, who had let her wedding date come and go without having an actual wedding.  She seemed paralyzed about getting married, even though she had already let her fiance move in and was wearing a ring.  Without meaning to, I found myself telling her that I knew someone who would do it for free and that she could use my house for her wedding.  Oh my!  I ran it past my (very supportive, wonderful) husband, and we decided to plow forward with plans.  Yesterday was the day.  It turned out beautifully.

The week before the wedding Kansas City was flooded with many inches of rain.  Two days before this was supposed to go down in my yard, we had tornado warnings, severe thunderstorms, and a serious faltering in our courage as I looked at what we would have to do.  And the forecast only called for more!  I asked my friends to pray for good weather, we decided to have the ceremony in the house instead of the boggy back behind the greenhouse, and we kept going.  Luckily, our prayers were answered and we got a perfect day!  It took approximately a zillion hours of people-power to get our house and yard ready that morning, but we made it.  Almost on time. 

Willa made the cute sign.

Getting the girls ready.  Hair by Heather, Makeup by Willa and Krystal

Griff, Evie, Aralee, Natalie, Brittany, Kate and Bryan, who walked his mom down the aisle.

Griff being the "ring bear"

Flower petals are serious business.

Our bishop, Quinn Bennion, performed the ceremony, which was very short and very sweet.  We had about 50 people there.  One of Kari's childhood friends told me she almost didn't come because she was going to have to come alone, but she was so glad she came because it was the most personal ceremony she has ever been a part of.

I was terrible about getting pictures because I was also helping with food, but our yard looked beautiful.  We had a tent with tables on it and a DJ on the basketball court.

One of the best parts was that Kari's son Bryan is the same age as Wyatt, so a bunch of the very good boys he has been with since kindergarten came.  And their parents, who are my delightful friends came too.

Kari and Danny feeding each other cake.  They were very nice about it.

Griffin feeding himself cake a little less nicely.

The whole day was an amazing lot of work, but was so wonderful.  It felt blessed, like that lapse in judgement as I offered our house was actually an opening the spirit created for us to receive grace.