June 14, 2015

Sock Monkey Goes to THE Wedding

Four months I've neglected this poor blog. But enough of that.
Let me sum up...

The day before I left I had a toothache and my AC quit working. An emergency visit to dentist and a call to my HVAC friend T.B. put it all to rights. Thanks to T.B. for putting in a new fan on Tuesday (who would not tell me how much it cost! That got him a case of champagne), so the poor cats and sitter did not die of heat stroke while I was gone.

I left Durham for the wilds of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, June 2 and right off the bat the joys of traveling presented themselves - my flight to Chicago was canceled before I even arrived at the airport. (random trivia - did you know the list of passengers is called the "soul list"?)
United did a good job of recovering, putting me on an American flight to DFW, then Alaska to PDX and gave me $14 worth of food vouchers to boot. Alaska Airlines was so great I sighed up for their mileage program. The 20 minute baggage guarantee was the clincher; I think it was less than 10 minutes before I was flying out the door to catch the shuttle to Salem. All in all, I was only 2 hours behind my original schedule. Not bad.

Thursday my sister and I headed up to Lyle, Washington, the nearest town to High Prairie. Beautiful day with amazing scenery along the Columbia gorge, watching all those crazy windsurfers.

After stopping in at the amazing cabin of our hosts for directions (follow the mowed path, turn right at the bluebird house), we arrived at our home away from home, a fantastic tricked out yurt (complete with icemaker!), with spectacular views of Mt. Adams and the tip of Mt. Hood, kindly loaned to us by a neighbor of the bride's parents.

Glamping at its highest level
Mt. Adams from the yurt deck

At night the skylight was full of stars
I could get used to that place. So quiet, nothing but the sound of insects and birds (wild turkeys!).

After oohing and aahing whist examining all the nooks and crannies of our lodging, we headed down to the big house, about a 10 minute stroll through the fields, to meet the rest of the family.
Much laughing was done on that front porch

Afternoon shadows on the goat barn

The Boy, The Most High Unicorn, and the Maid of Honor have a moment


Friday saw all of us hard at work - sorting through grasses and flowers gathered by aunts, friends, and cousins, filling vases with water, hanging bistro and fairy lights, sweeping, food prep, and a bunch of other stuff I've already forgotten.

More people arrived throughout the day - The Boy's almost step mother, who I hadn't seen since his sixth grade graduation (she is wonderful); his friend from Reno who came with a broken wrist because she didn't have time to set it before leaving (she broke it the night before playing softball); childhood friends; former neighbors; travel companions. There was laughing and hugging and meeting of old and new friends.

Cousin, aunt, and mother of the bride doing flower prep in the hay barn


Some finished vases lining the barn walls

Flower prep area still life

Daughter and mom hard at work with flower prep

MOB
Let me take a second to heap accolades on the Mother of The Bride. She planned for months and months - sorting out where people were staying, making arrangements, shopping for food, and any and every other detail that needed to happen. She did a spectacular job. Really, there are not enough words of praise.

At night we sat on the porch and laughed so hard The Boy bruised a rib. I may have spewed my hard cider, but just once. There were some funny, funny people there, one of whom was my sister (pretty AND funny!).

Saturday, the day of the wedding, dawned sunny, cloudless, with a lovely breeze, and thankfully 10 degrees cooler than was forecast. We did more prep in the morning and early afternoon - setting the tables for the reception, arranging flowers and rocks (from the couple's rock hounding obsession).

Everyone's labor of love

After getting dressed in our wedding finery, my sister and I missed a critical turn on the way down from the yurt which necessitated an approximately mile long very, very, very painfully slow backup up a hill in The Most High Unicorn's rental car.
I watched the minutes fly by while thinking on the extremely bad form it would be for the mother of the groom to be the reason the wedding started late, but we made it in time.
And I only freaked out a little bit.

The wedding party ladies received this beautiful silk scarf from the couple:


The men had ties with the same design.

We clambered on to our transport to the wedding site (thank god for that ladder):
That's me standing on the far left
Our awesome driver, cousin of the bride (I love her so much)

Mt. Adams from the "altar"

Altar flower close up
The wedding venue
The wedding music was the theme song from "The Princess Bride". The officiant, The Most High Unicorn, did the entire bit from the movie exactly like Peter Cook before launching into the vow portion.

 Mwarriage

Ring exchange. The rings were made by a New Zealand artist, Ash Hilton,
of reclaimed ethical gold and recycled stones.
The married couple


The Boy cried. The best man had to get him a Kleenex, which I happened to have. My eyes welled up but did not spill over, I'm happy to report, because people, I am not a pretty crier.

Cousin, father, mother of bride, and the ecstatic couple
The bride and groom and me

The Boy and his dad
Three gorgeous ladies: the bride, her aunt, and her cousin
Goat barn through flower vases
Tucking into a strawberry cupcake
The reception was wonderful; many people said lovely words and made people cry. There was much good food. And company. And cake (who suffered a wee accident traveling on the washboard roads). And cupcakes (lemon pistachio and strawberry cream cheese).
A toast!

After dark, we wandered off to our beds, full of love and good cheer.

The next day we headed down to the big house one last time to say our goodbyes. Phone numbers, emails, business cards, and hugs were exchanged in large numbers.

Sadly, there was one causality right before we left; the sweet little farm dog Zoe, was bit on the face by a rattlesnake. She is making a good recovery and hopefully will have little to no nerve/tissue damage. (You could say a wee prayer to the dog gods for her if so inclined)

Doesn't know she was bred to be a lap dog

The rest of the week I spent with my sister and brother in law, wandering around Silverton, Corvallis, and Salem.

I dropped quite a bit of cash in the Lunaria Gallery in Silverton after lunch at Mac's Place. 

Our table view at Mac's

Corvallis was great. Vibrant downtown. Much shopping was fueled by a huge breakfast at The Broken Yolk.

Got to hang out for a few hours with my niece, her kidlets, and chickens.

Urban chickens
It was a great trip. Full of family, friends, and lots of laughter.

(photo credits: B.Q., S.K., R.C., L.C., me, and probably many others)




3 comments:

  1. What a wonderful presentation of a most beautiful day!

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  2. Happiness! Lovely photos, lovely folks.

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  3. I so enjoyed your photos! Almost felt like I'd been there with you all. Congrats to the bride and groom--and you! Blessings, Debra

    ReplyDelete