Saturday, April 30, 2011

Finished the race!

   Today is the last day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge! I did it...blogged 30 consecutive blogs in 30 days! It has been a great motivator and help for getting into a writing rhythm and for establishing a new habit. I hope  that I will continue to blog on. Thank you so much for those of you who came along for the ride, I hope it has not been to painful! Thank you Matt and Alex for letting me share my experience of your experience! Blogging about your wedding has been a great inspiration and source of joy. It is also a great coincidence that the first of Alex's bridal portraits were shared today and I can post them with this final entry for the challenge. Thank you all...it has been a pleasure! Here are Alex's pics! Matt will be in the next bunch!





check out more at www.elisabphotography.com  they were fab photographers  we highly recommend!

Thanks for reading,
Lynn

and don't forget to check out our online store atwww.chesapeakebaychristmas.com

Friday, April 29, 2011

Home from the Honeymoon! Turks and Caicos!

                                                                                                                    



   I have been asked to reveal where Matt and Alex went on their honeymoon...so I guess since they are back it is OK to reveal that they went to the Turks and Caicos. They have reported having a wonderful 5 days staying in a small cottage on a remote bay on south side of the the Island of Providenciales. They stayed in a cottage owned by Matt's uncle who graciously offered them a stay as a wedding gift! What a great gift John...thanks!  This honeymoon cottage is for rent so anyone who would like to experience what Matt and Alex did here is the link to it...www.TCvillas.com ...click on the Stones Throw Villa.  I am going to post pictures that say it all...no need for a bunch of verbiage! Caribbean bliss!

The Royal Wedding...



I have spent the wee hours of this morning watching Catherine and William's royal wedding.  It was really a beautiful affair full of pomp and circumstance.  It was very pleasing to the eye  and ear...full of visual fare! Everything was perfectly orchestrated...even the weather cooperated! Perfection...
    I must say however that having just experienced helping plan and pull off  my son and daughter-in-laws wedding two weeks ago, a wedding  that was everything but perfection and pomp and circumstance...I will stand by the unpredictable nature that our wedding embraced!  Our bride and groom were faced with challenges every step of the way. The guests also had to meet the challenges that the more than stormy weather of the day presented. The grace that was shown by all involved as each new challenge presented itself gave us a wedding that will be as memorable to those involved as the royal wedding will be to the world! I will stand by Matt and Alex's affair as the one that all had to rise to the occasion...the one that all did...and the one that produced an affair that even Kate and William could not best...not even with  Britain's Royal treatment behind them!
Good luck to you William and Kate and bless my royal couple Matt and Alex!
 
Thanks for reading,
Lynn
visit our online store at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
bringing the Chesapeake to your Home and Holidays!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Santa Workday!


  


http://chesapeakebaychristmas.com/test/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=41


  Today's blog will be brief as I am heading over to Shawnette's house for a Santa workday! We need to finish up a few of our Bountiful Bay lines and put together our first Sanibel Santas for a shop in Fort Meyer Fl. We are getting our spring inventory in order to take to our spring markets before we make our new designs for the fall. We offer our standard designs at about a 15-20% discount at our spring shows to encourage spring and summer sales.
   Our farmers market schedule starts this Friday and will continue until the fall. These short weekend selling opportunities have been a great new venue for us to showcase our Santas and nautical ornaments to a new customer base. This year we will be participating in the Irvington, VA (1st weekend of month) Urbanna, VA (2nd weekend of month), Yorktown, VA ( various weekends) and Tappahannock, Va (4th weekend of month). These markets offer us locations that are closely tied to the Chesapeake coastal river lifestyle and are also summer destinations for families going to the Rivah!
   We have our Farmers market schedule on our calendar at http://www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com/ so you can check out where we plan to be on which weekends. We hope you will all come by and see us and check out our spring/summer inventory for great bargains! We love these markets ourselves because they allow us to purchase locally grown produce and other amazing food products offered by Virginia entrepreneurs!  The food  and crafts that are out there at these local markets is mind boggling. Most of these markets are a short 4 hours on Saturday mornings...just the right amount of time to shop, get some spring sunshine and fresh air and visit with your friends and neighbors....and of  course stop by and visit us at Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co! We look forward to seeing you! But for now I must get myself together for a day of Santa making.  Have a happy productive Wednesday...

Thanks for reading,
Lynn
we welcome you to our online store at http://www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com/
bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Mentors and New Ideas!



  Ok...a friend and mentor of ours , Charlene Saunders from Women Working for Women (WW4W) www.ww4w.com  has been faithfully reading our blogs and giving us much needed encouragement and advise on increasing our traffic to www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com. She has made a video for us, taught us about social networking (off the clock) and always been there when we need any networking advise. Charlene is one of those rare individuals who has bottomless energy, a jy-normous heart, and a very acute business sense!  If you have spent any time around her at all you realize her business is such a natural fit for her because she genuinely cares about women succeeding in their businesses, more than anything! ( except her adorable daughter and family!) We know that we are only one of hundreds of others that she is working with, yet we feel like she is our own little secret...that she is totally focused on our success. That is her gift.  If anyone reading this blog feels in need of business mentoring please go to the above website WW4W.com and give Charlene a shout out! She is an awesome mentor who is always growing and  educating herself in the field of networking, marketing and branding.
   Now to the original title of this blog...New Idea!...Charlene sparked one for us! If you go back and read the past 10-12 blogs I have written you will see they have all been about my son Matt and his new bride Alex's wedding. I was very involved in this wedding but one of the major contributions I made was to design and produce wedding ornaments to give as bridesmaids favors, wedding guest favors, and family favors. So after consulting with Alex (the bride) we came up with the vision for each ornament and the rest was up to me and my friend and other Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co artist Mary Albert.
                                                                          
    For the bridesmaids ornaments we got pictures of the dresses including the wedding gown and painted sand dollars with the bride and two of her bridesmaids on either side of her with their dresses and shoes being showcased. We only did their bodies and dresses because we could not fit all of the bridesmaids on to any one ornament so we kept them generic.
                                                                          
    The wedding guest ornament was a revised version of our Love Sand-o-gram. It featured LOV E written in the sand at the beach with his and hers flip flops and Matt and Alex's baby's doggy prints in between. It had Matt and Alex 4-16-2011 written on the back.
     The third family ornament was a view of the building in which they had their reception, The Freight Shed in Colonial Yorktown . It featured a sign by the front door announcing their wedding and had pieces of their wedding attire draped on the bench in front of the building. All of the ornaments were hand painted and ribboned and tagged for hanging but also given with a small plate stand so they could also be used for home decor!
    So the new idea came from Charlene who suggested we start a wedding favor line to compliment our coastal Christmas line that we have done for the past 15 years. Shawnette and I  had talked about a bridal wedding favor line occasionally in the past but never really did anything to get it off the ground. So this is our first step toward getting it off the ground! We are  announcing that we are looking for bridal favor business. If any of our readers know anyone interested in bridal favors go to our site www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com and/or email us at sales@chesapeakebaychristmas.com. We would love to design and paint them for you!
     Thanks Charlene for nudging us to start this line! Thanks for your passion about what you do! Now its back to work... back to the drawing board...new ideas...new inspirations... new energy!

Thanks for reading,
Lynn

we invite you to our online store at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!

and check our Charlene's site Women Working for Women at www.ww4w.com
tell her we sent you!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Back to CBCC

2009 Ltd Edition Santa "Blue Christmas"
                                                                                   
Today I turn my attention back to Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co. It has been on the shelf for the past month while we worked on my Matt and Alex's wedding. Now it is catch up time! I still have so many items to get ordered to complete the new Santa designs we have planned for 2011. We will be doing a new Lighthouse Santa, our 2011 Ltd Edition Chesapeake Santa ( to be announced later) , a New England Coastal Santa (yet to be named), a Bath, NC Pirate Santa, and possibly a Sanibel Santa (inspired by our trip to Sanibel Island,  FL) plus our many assorted one of a kind Santas that we do every year. We love the design phase where new ideas swirl around us until we settle on fabrics, colors and all of the many coastal accoutrements that we must find to bring our Santas to life. It is once we have decided on all of the details that all of the glitches of production come to life. We need 300 of these and then found out that they are no longer available...we get our shipment of 80 of those and they are the wrong size...adjusting and  searching and redefining is how we must move forward.
    This has been a challenging year because many of our suppliers are having trouble getting their product from China. We also have had many of the items that we have used every year on our Santas for 15 years all of the sudden become unavailable for the same reason. Our little blue crab that we ordered over 1000 of each year is now no longer made. We have to figure out what we are going to do to replace it! It looks like we will have to go back to hand sculpting them out of fimo clay in order to fill our crab pots on our Santas this year! One more time consuming thing that we will have to work into our schedule! We need 300 oyster clusters for our new Ltd Edition...we must go to South Carolina and hope we can find this many clusters where we saw so many last year...fingers crossed! Everything is up in the air until we have finished an Edition!
    Now that we are wholesaling some of our Santas the pressure is even more intense. Shops expect to get what they have seen at the wholesale shows at their designated delivery date as we all do when we order something. We just have to pray and adapt our way around our own order and production shortcomings. We are just keeping all the balls in the air as well as we can and hoping we will have what our customers love and want when all is said and done! Challenges....daily challenges...catastrophes averted...problems to be solved...back to a normal day at Chesapeake Bay Christmas!
Thanks for reading,
Lynn

we welcome you to our website at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
bringing the Chesapeake to your Home and Holidays!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Celebrate!

PS04 Grace Psalms in the Sand
                                                                           
 Today is Easter. Today is a Holy day...the holiest  day in the Christian Faith. This day we celebrate the Ascension of Christ into heaven...not just His soul but His body and soul. A miracle. A miracle of a Father reclaiming His Son...a miracle  for a mother and family and friends who had to watch their Son and Brother and Friend suffer the insufferable. A miracle for us who are so far removed from this event yet are bound to what it offers us...today... now... Redemption...Renewal...and Life's ultimate Reward. It is spring and we feel natures energy ...we can feel our own life's blood rejoice. There is the promise of renewal and redemption in the air. All we have to do is to claim it.

Thanks for reading,
Lynn

Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Time is our life's potential!

SG03 Sandogram
                                                    
    Well I have been blogging all week about Matt and Alex's wedding...and here it is Saturday again! I am ready to move back into the present and get back on task! I am ready to start new lists and new projects. My business, Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co awaits, as does my home ( projects always to be done here!), and my book project with my friend Adam! I have much to do and I always feel like I do not have enough time!
    Time is so slippery and elusive...it leaves us behind so easily without giving us second chances. It is up to us to grab it, manage it,  and pack it full of meaningful work( that produces meaningful results). It is up to us to fill it with new experiences and friends and family! Time is the vessel that we must fill or it will leave us the same as it came to us... as unused potential.  If it leaves us without us converting that potential energy to real spendable energy then shame on us! It is lost forever...no second chances!
    Make your plans ahead of time...start each day with a plan ( I love lists!), keep moving throughout the day...avoid diversions ... end each day with at least one thing done...finished accomplished! Preferably something you can see and gaze upon and feel great about getting it done! There may be many things that will not get done in a day..so keep giving them a part of each day...but always pick one thing that you can finish and put away and  admire its accomplishment at the end of the day!
   I love to finish small painting  or writing projects daily...I love to hold them and look at them and say I created that...or read them and say I wrote that...(doing that right now as a matter of fact). I love to leave behind pieces of myself through work. Do something for someone that needs help...that is one of the best uses of time's potential energy. It will be passed forward through the ones that you help...gaining exponentially...( we all saw the movie "Pay it Forward"...awesome use of time!). Just use your time...do not let is slip away!  Procrastination is one of my worst personal flaws so I fight this battle daily and I know many others who do too! (all who I  have passed my genes to!). Fight the battle!...fill your time well!...energize your life and your world and leave behind your potential...converted!

Thanks for reading!
Lynn

visit our online store at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Wedding Day.... part 8....Cleaning up a Storm!

   The gift had been received, the riverfront restored to a calm moonlit vision. We stood outside for awhile reminiscing with family and dear old friends...winding down...laughing breathing the storm scrubbed air. I was reminded that the whole day had been out of our hands but firmly in much more capable ones. We had been blessed. The bride and groom were happy and still celebrating with their  friends inside ... the music still spurring them on...but time was winding down...it was time for the party to end. I do not think anyone wanted it to stop...but we had a contract we had to honor.
   Van and I and our rock solid friends would be the ones who stuck it out til the end..Chris and Allison, Jeff and Carolyn, Shawnette(of course!) and Gary, Dean and Tucker all cleaning up around the edges of the party. We  let the kids continue to dance and started to load the gifts and the leftover everything into the cars. Some of the kids stopped what they were doing and pitched in...thanks Genevieve, Elyse, Tuller, Matt , Nick, Cole  and many others ( I know there were many more if I missed you please forgive!) for being so thoughtful! Clean up is always such a let down. This night was no exception. We were all weary...feeling our age...our feet....our aching lower backs ...just wanting to get it done.
    We could not get  Amanda  to stop the music so there were kids still dancing on ( champagne bottles in many of their hands!)  We were 45 minutes past our end time when the music finally silenced... and then the final wow moment of this celebration...the lights came back on!...as if to say...now the party can be over!  The lights came on sending the last of the revelers out into the night to party on at the hotel...and left the rest of us with weary backs and feet to finish up the clean up! I was barefooted slushing through the puddles, panty hose shredding with each step as I picked up the flowers on the floor, broken beer bottles, and all the trash that had not made it to the cans ! Van and Chris had supervised all the heavy moving of everything. Matt and Alex left after helping...Van who was crippled by foot pain gave the word!...we  had done all we could do...we closed the doors, locked up and ended the most memorable wedding EVER!
    Our Plan B had taken many turns...Plan C, Plan D and on and on, but the miraculous quality of the entire day culminated with an event that surpassed anything we could have imagined! It dwarfed plan A...it taught us all a lesson...and increased our Faith that all things work together for good!
    I would now like to challenge William and Kate to throw a wedding(royal or not!) that is as much fun as Matt and Alex's was!  We will be available for consultation if you would like to talk!

Thank you!!!    Shawnette & Gary,  Mr. Chris and Ms Allison, Carolyn and Jeff, Deane and Tucker, Matt Smith, Genevieve, Ryan Tuller, Wales and Lauren, Jake and Josh, Nick and Cole and everyone who helped set up and clean up this wedding...but most of all thank you Matt and Alex for loving each other and Alex for the impeccable vision and planning! ( even though it was taken out of your hands!)
Pictures will be coming soon...check back!

This is the end of "the wedding blog"...thanks for letting me blog on...as a part of "the ultimate blog challenge" a 30 day consecutive blog challenge to help me sharpen my skills and help me get ready to blog about Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co! Welcome to the world of social networking....aaghh! ;(

please visit our online store at  http://www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com/
bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!


Thanks so much for reading!
Lynn

Wedding Day... part 7...Calm after the Storm





                                                                
   Alex threw the bouquet and Matt threw the garter...wow is that a different tradition than it was back in the day! It was like a nightclub act..very burlesque...everyone knew their part...so adorable...I loved it! The music continued on and the dance floor stayed full! Several people left and changed clothes and came back including Alex. Shoes were off...people were searching for their things in the dark when they took their leave. Generation Y danced on!  
     It was hard to have conversation in the room with the music and now that the storm had passed, people were migrating out to the river front to breathe in the fresh air and have the conversations that they could not have inside. It was clean, cool, and fresh outside. The wind was gone...there were stars, the water was like glass and there  was a full moon that we had not been able to see earlier in the evening. When I saw the moon I was reassured in an earthly yet superstitious way that the whole day had played out exactly as it was meant to. This calm... on the benches... behind the tent that was lifting off only a short time ago, was a reward. It was the calm after the storm, it was the gift at the end of a crazy night! God's Gift.
Continued...Wedding Day part 7...Cleaning up a Storm!

Pictures coming....check back!
Thanks for reading,
Lynn

visit our online store at http://www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com/
let us bring a little bit of the Chesapeake into you Home and holidays!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Wedding Day... part 6...Dancing in the Dark!



    
   The music was now in full swing...Matt and Alex had had their first dance and it was fabulous! The other planned dances had been aborted due to the lights out conditions. The dance floor was alive with beautiful 20 somethings( generation Y) celebrating ...something they do very well by the way!  I had just happened to look out the window to see a very conspicuous "cloud" across the river that looked suspiciously like many I had seen before in Oklahoma. It was a dark solid mass...a wall cloud was what they were called...massive... reaching down almost touching the ground . Others must have been concerned too because just as my nephew announced there was a tornado warning in Gloucester, others started coming forward with the news. The music played on! I started out to the tent to bring the brave (or foolish) souls who were out there into the building. Of course it was mostly men and they all assured me that they were watching and they were safe...not to worry...it would be OK!  I heard statements like "tornadoes don't cross water!"  I thought...Yeah right let's stake our lives on that one!

     My concerns were overruled and I took myself back inside to wait it out...why worry?...the music was so enticing...everyone was dancing...young old and in between...so....I joined them! We were celebrating with a vengeance ...storm or no storm... this party could not be stopped!  Of course we did not know that at that moment the storm was  destroying a middle school 5 miles away and taking lives of innocents in their Gloucester homes. We did not know that. We are so sorry for that today and offer our prayers for those who were affected. We only knew that we were not in control and that we were happy and  that  the storm was moving away from us...we partied on!  Baby Boomers along with generations X,Y and Z!!..we were united in our celebration of Matt and Alex's nuptials...we were  all dancing in the dark!  Go Carter!...Go Carter!... Go Carter!...  my 5 year old nephew...(generation Z) he  had the moves...he was amazing! and Elizabeth you were so beautiful and so grown up!
 
    Our DJ Amanda   (http://www.fatcatdjandkaraoke.com/ was great. She did not miss a beat. She kept the party going as if it was any other normal event. The catering staff did the same...our two bartenders kept pouring...out in the tent with no concern for the weather. The waitstaff had smiles serving in the dark, cleaning up and whatever needed to be done! Everyone was high on the celebration and the weather and the candlelight! My mom said she thought maybe someone had drugged the food because everyone was so crazy happy!  I am sure the alcohol had something to do with it but it was so much more...it was energy without bounds! It was a storm that left us untouched...it was Plan B that morphed into plan C and then went on to incredibly surpass plan A...it was Memorable...Memorable!
to be continued ...Calm after the storm!

Pictures will be coming!!! Check back... go back and catch up if you have missed posts!

Thanks so much for reading!
Lynn

we welcome you to our online store http://www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com/

bringing the Chesapeake to you Home and Holidays!

Wedding day...part 5...Celebration Time...Come on!


             
                                             
    We had made it through the ceremony and actually got the photography (www.elisabphotography.com) (all the family pictures) done. The wind was still raging but the rain had held off until our guests had all made it into the Freight Shed to be seated at the tables, or to the bar that was set up in back of the tent. Our tent was quickly changed over from ceremony set up to dance floor, DJ and bar set up with the dance floor in the middle. By the time we finished with the photographers the cocktail hour was in full swing...the drinks were flowing and the appetizers being passed. There was a sense of having survived something ...as the weather continued to deteriorate! We were no longer checking on the storm as we felt we had overcome the most important obstacle...that was probably  a mistake! The caterer Alex and her mom had chosen (http://www.sweetwatercuisine.com/) set out a beautiful appetizer spread that flowed seamlessly into a scrumptious dinner buffet. Everyone seemed happy and busy getting to know their neighbors. Van and I both went from table to table welcoming guests and meeting those we had not yet met. It was a festive mood. The room was lovely and all seemed happy young and old!

    Matt stood as dinner was coming to an end and welcomed all and gave an amazing tribute to his family and to Alex's family especially her dad Brad Hardy who had passed away when Alex was in her second year of UVA. After hearing him speak there was no doubt that he was no longer my little boy but a man that  stood alone, firmly rooted in his love for Alex. I cried...again! Jake gave his best man toast and once again this mom was so proud! Julia (Alex's sister and maid of honor) gave her toast and made us all cry again. She was beautiful and it was so obvious how much she and Alex loved each other and how much they missed their dad. I know it must have been very hard for Melissa (Alex's mom) to celebrate her daughter's marriage without her husband Brad by her side. She looked beautiful and proud and I wished I could take some of the sadness that should not have been there that day away...but I could not. She carried the burden for herself and her children, and showed my son that he was now her son too... and I was proud of her. Melissa we did it! 

     I forgot to mention a very key  moment that happened during the toasts...right after Jake gave his...the electricity went out! Dark...but amazingly Alex had decided to use colonial lanterns as the focal point of her center pieces and we were now sitting in a candlelit room in colonial Yorktown with a storm raging outside. It was pouring rain, thunder shook the building and lightning illuminated the sky and the wind...the wind was incredible....but it was cozy and romantic and a bit exciting in that darkened room. Everyone just carried on almost as if we had planned this to happen. I heard  people  speak that this is how it was when Yorktown was first established so it just made this wedding historically correct...but there was one major problem....no music!!!
   One of Alex's bridesmaids who was from Yorktown offered to let us borrow a generator from her parents home, so we sent her with a close friend and a pick up truck to get it...and an hour later the DJ had moved inside and hooked up her equipment. The kids had pushed the tables to the sides of the room to make room for a dance floor and we were back in business! or were we? There were waterfalls flowing off the tent...it had a life of it's own  and it was not a safe place to be  any more. At that moment I looked up and over the tent and saw a cloud on the other side of the river (Gloucester) that sent chills through my body. I had lived for 5 years in Oklahoma and I recognized a wall cloud when I saw one! I had my nephew get on his I-phone and pull up the radar....Tornado warning in Gloucester...we were in harms way!

To be continued...Dancing in the Dark!

Pictures will be coming soon...waiting for them...check back!
Thanks for reading!
Lynn


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wedding Day...part 4..."Did he Kiss her yet??"

                                                                              
       The glass doors opened and Alex and her brother William stepped through. Just the music "Canon in D" brought my emotions to right behind my eyes..but laying  eyes on Alex ... more beautiful than you can imagine...exuding a bridal aura that was almost visible...like the Old Masters used to paint around their Madonnas, was almost more than I could bear. I saw her tears and mine started to flow in response. Then I looked at Matt and saw that aura reflected in his eyes, a look that told me all I needed to know. I reached out and took Van's arm as a new level of calm enveloped me...but it was quickly interrupted by the tent rising up and crashing down... still tethered but trying very hard to free itself. The level of noise was deafening. Alex and Matt joined hands to say their vows. I sent up another prayer..."Please Lord we are so close...be here in this tent with us and help us get it done! " There were a few more groans and flaps and minor lift offs and then the wind subsided. We could hear Pastor Dave miraculously! We could hear Matt and Alex say their vows and exchange rings.  The storm seemed to have calmed. As I watched, Carter (the ring bearer) stood behind Matt, at perfect attention with his hands behind his back gazing up so seriously. Then he turned to Jake (the best man) and tugged on his pants and whispered something to him. I saw Jake smile and answer but I did not know what had been said. Later when I asked, Jake told me Carter had asked him  "Did he kiss her yet?" A few short moments later Carter got his wish and Matt kissed Alex and it was done. The bridal party filed out and went to get their portraits done. We were married, Matt was a husband, Alex a wife, and we were in-laws! The McPherson family had a new daughter and the potential for future generations. God had heard our prayers.... and it still was not raining!                         
                                                                
    Hope...Faith...Love...Joy...Grace ...I had witnessed and experienced  each of these on the amazing journey this wedding had provided. Each of these words expresses an emotion or quality that is so essential in  living a meaningful  life. Each word is a gift from God. He provided  all of these and blessed this marriage with His protection....and now it was time to celebrate!

                                                        
to be continued ...Celebration time ...Come on!!!

Thanks so much for reading!
Lynn

Will be adding pictures as soon as I get them! Sorry for the wait...check back... as they come in I will add.

Please visit our online store at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
Bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Wedding Day....part three...shake rattle and roll!

                                                                    
  
Ready...groomsmen on their way...ready....shuttles from motel running....ready...guests arriving at Freight Shed...ready...Carter and Elizabeth (flower girl and ring bearer)...ready...transportation for bridesmaids and bride ready...Shawnette at the tent handling timing for ceremony...ready...Van and I leave motel arm and arm into the raging wind to walk to the ceremony!  Once the wind hit my face and hair I knew that worrying about anything was futile. I did not even take a purse with me...no brush or makeup or anything else to try to "fix" myself later. I would arrive windblown and stay that way for the rest of the evening. The miracle was that it still had not started to rain yet! We had 140 people coming to Yorktown to celebrate Matt and Alex's marriage at a time when most people were at home glued to the weather channel watching a deadly storm zero in on Yorktown. Thankfully we had not taken the time to know the strength and breadth of this storm we were just happy that it was not raining yet...our mantra was ...just get us through the ceremony and let us get a few family portraits done before it does!
     Van and I got to the Freight Shed at about 4:10 for the 4:30 ceremony. I had not seen the room since the caterer's and florist had worked their magic. That is exactly what they had done...it was amazing. the linens and centerpieces were elegant and simple...the food tables looked lovely....the cake classic...it was everything Alex and Matt had hoped for! A new sense of calm settled over me.
    Guests were arriving and being seated by the groomsmen. Even the tent had a simple elegance to it, the Florist had placed the Hydrangeas on aisle seats and the twinkle lights and lanterns brought a subtle elegant ambiance to the shaking, rattling and rolling tent!  The violinist was playing gentle classical music but there was still a sense of adventure in the air. The impending storm had everyone's expectations on edge,  would we beat this thing...or would we end up in OZ!
   I stepped back into the Freight Shed and the first thing I saw was my niece and nephew dressed in a beautiful dress and the smallest tux I had ever seen. They looked so sweet it almost made me cry. Then the Bridesmaids arrived and they were...I guess the young people would say "hot"...I would say breathtaking! but I had not really imagined breathtaking until Alex walked in! There was that combination of Joy and Beauty again...intoxicating!
    I went back outside to get ready to be seated and there was my first born son... my Matt. He was as handsome and radiant as I had ever seen him... almost as much as the bride. I felt so happy and proud and relaxed at that moment. He offered me his arm and we walked down the aisle...he kissed my cheek and then went to stand with the pastor. I briefly thought about how I felt the first time I held him...but my thoughts were soon brought back to the present. The tent heaved and strained against its tethers, it groaned and creaked and flapped its sides...everyone was hushed and expectant. Mother Nature was telling us that only with her blessing would we get this thing done...another prayer ( probably many at this point) went up!
   The violinist was cued and the music for the groomsmen to take their places began. They were all very gorgeous too! I mean elegant and handsome! Then the girls came down the aisle...they seemed to rush a bit...but who wouldn't with the tent shuddering and complaining the way it was. Next it was time for the kids to walk Bella (Matt and Alex's shi tzu) down the aisle. There was a delay...had Carter decided he would not do it?... Another 30 seconds passed and then they emerged from the building with Bella leading the way....they made their way down the aisle exuding an aura of pure sweetness. They were Poster children for a bridal party...they could make a living doing this! ( Yes they are my niece and nephew!) Carter handed the dog off to Alex's mom just as he had been instructed and then they both went right to their marks and stood...perfectly! The music changed and that was  the cue for the entrance of the Bride! The glass doors opened....
to be continued....The Wedding Day part 4
Thanks for reading,
Lynn




Wedding Day ...part two....Joy, Beauty and the Calm before the Storm










                                             
The Caterers www.sweetwatercuisine.com and Florist www.flowercupboard.com were readying the Freight Shed for the arrival of 140 wedding guests. The violinist (elegant music) was arriving shortly along with the Pastor Dave.  The bridal party was out getting their pictures taken by the photographer www.elisabphotography.com as was the bride... all those hours of Alex's planning were approaching the final hour. Alex's time line printed and distributed was now being followed by all involved and it was timed down to the minute!
                                                            
    The wind was now  registering at about 30 mph sustained reminding us that the best laid plans... and Shawnette and I were fighting the valiant fight with getting on our panty hose!!    Aghhh !!! getting through this step was  like squeezing through the eye of a needle...the price of wearing a dress...the price of hosting a wedding...the price of not embarrassing your kids! Once done dress was on...shoes on...make up on (once again with Shawnette's help...I usually do not do make up!) jewelry on...Ready!
     Now keep in mind that my cell phone was now registering about 50 calls since 10:00 am that morning...how did they do weddings pre-cell phone??? My body was dressed and ready but my brain was mush! What was the weather doing??? Still no rain ...hoping and praying...but the wind was relentless and the sky getting scarier and scarier...and the promise of the weather forecasters was inescapable! We were in for a wild ride! Please Lord let us get through the ceremony and then we can all get into the Freight Shed... a nice brick building decorated  and ready for the dinner reception! But first we must get through the ceremony in a wildly flapping, ready to lift off tent!
   My heart was with Alex  and what she must be feeling on this much anticipated day. The day that was supposed to be warm and mild and sunny...the day that should have been a perfect outdoor wedding day! I was so afraid she would  fall apart...that she would let the wind take her composure, and the storms her ability to enjoy her day...
                                                           
    I saw her coming back into the motel after her outing with the photographer and she was radiant! Joy and beauty together is the most intoxicating combination and she was it!  Why was I worried?... Alex was a survivor a seasoned trooper. She had already suffered true loss in her life when she lost her dad a few years prior to this day...a day that she surely longed for him to be there! She had embraced the importance of this day...and what was  the real truth about its significance...and weather was not going to stand in her way. After all she was marrying my son Matt...how could a little rain and wind get in the way of that! Alex was composed, radiant and beautiful and that was all I needed to settle my own fears. At that moment she became my role model...I was so proud of her! We were ready!

Wedding Day to be continued in Part 3

thanks for reading,
Lynn

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