Well, they (our daughter and her new hubby) pulled it off! It all came together nicely and OMG it was fantastically beautiful. Due to the predicted weather (extreme heat/high heat index and then severe thunderstorms), the "kids" decided to change from the State Park between our two family's homes to the home of his mom (dad passed away). This allowed the older folk in his family to be in the air conditioned house right up until the wedding and to eat in the house rather than outside after the ceremony. Wish more of my family could have been here, but just wasn't going to happen...
Don't remember exactly when Madira started dating Chad but she brought him home to meet us last June. We already knew that he had 2 small children, a boy and a girl, and that he had custody of the them. Then in January, during that really NASTY ICE storm we had, they came to meet with us and he did the "old fashioned" asking for her hand in marriage (made Larry cry!)... We were in a bit of a quandary because we simply didn't have the $$ at the time to plan a wedding - I was a little upset/strained as I knew Madira (our "girly-girl") wanted a planned out, with a super extravagant wedding gown and PEOPLE type wedding (& in the very near future would have lots of other things hit us financially - which if they hadn't already been planning for doing this pretty much on their own, could have brought it all crashing down). Good thing they understood and we all pulled together - the months of Feb/Mar/April would deplete the funds on our end almost down to zip... But we rallied, I ended up working more hours after time off for out of state emergencies and then when the Union went on strike - Larry got lots of overtime. We were suddenly able to help (quite a bit actually) BUT up until 2 days ago, Larry didn't even know if he'd get to "give his daughter away" himself!
Well, Madira did most of the decorating (design) herself! Again, it was beautiful but simple and relatively in-expensive in the end. She gave up the idea of the extravagant dress (I thought I was going to have a heart attack when one of the other girls' said that the 1st dress she looked at was over $1,000). Now, understand - Madira's just graduated from college - with a degree in Theater Arts and she ran the Costuming Department for almost the last 4 years! Much of her degree is in Fashion Design and Sewing. She can stretch a sewing budget all out of wack to get things done and still come in under budget. While I knew she didn't want to actually sew her OWN dress, I was at a bit of a loss...
She found the dress she eventually bought - on line. I'm pretty sure it was about 2/10s of the cost of the 1st one. She helped me find my dress on line - affordably. I'm not sure where the "matched" bridesmaid's dresses were done at - locally or thru a store or ?? Not sure about the Groom's or "best man's" attire either. Larry's clothes came from a combo of on-line and local JC Penney's and Belks... I was soo busy and stressed while dealing with my Dad's illness and 75th Bday in TX and then my Aunt's (mom's twin sister) passing/funeral in IA and my leg SX and my MRI for following the growth on my kidney, that the wedding planning was all in the background and was SOOOOO glad it didn't really need me in it!! Her two bridesmaids pulled the bridal shower together and it was really NICE and fun. It allowed me to meet with Chad's mom - since I hadn't had the chance before that. Then yesterday, at the Rehearsal Dinner, where we would be having the wedding, it was a similar feeling to what I felt when we looked at our new property. It was a feeling of right, of belonging and the worry and doubt disappeared. Chad has a rather large family! I do believe that she has made a wonderful fit for herself (not quite the right way to say it but I have officially hit TIRED again tonight or should I say today??)...
Here are some of the pics I took - with my phone and not in any way professional. I took many more - a lot of which didn't turn out. The T-storms held off - just long enough to have the two areas set up, the wedding ceremony, all the pictures, the reception dinner, the first dances, the cutting of the cake and then it opened up... and much of the dancing carried on IN THE RAIN... The wedding couple leave for the Grand Canyon on the 9th of June and will be gone until the 13th. I'm very glad that that two of them will be able to see some of our wonderful country...
Madira and her two bridesmaid's made - the corsages that the "men/groom's" party wore, the corsage bracelets Chad's mom and ( wore, the bouquets that bridal party are carrying, the bridal veil, the flowered rings on each of the girls' heads (not sure what those are called?), the table decorations, other decorations AND the wedding arch and I'm probably forgetting something!
