I am starting to get a backlog of photos which need to find a place in my blog somehow.  I have discovered, through a friend's blog, that blog entries with no photos are completely ignored.  I guess in this modern age of television and videos, words no longer count for much.  Ah, how much we miss by not opening a good book and letting our imaginations paint a picture much finer than any that could be captured by camera.  Except I'm not sure that people have imaginations anymore, with all the work being done for them by the movie producers.  So, for those who want photos, I will begin with one that I would be hard-pressed to describe in words, even for those with a great imagination.



This is the little niece of Shannon Dodge who was recently married.  While everyone else was busy trying to get photos of the cake cutting, I couldn't help but notice that this little girl (whose name escapes me right now) was watching all of the onlookers during the cutting of the cake.  She was such an angel during the entire wedding, despite the fact that no one was really paying attention to her.  I did manage to snap one photo of them cutting the cake for those who actually would like to see the bride and groom.



The wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding in June, however like most outdoor weddings I have been to, the weather did not cooperate.  Right during the vows the rain started and quickly became a very cold downpour.  The pastor hurried through the prayer while some in the crowd secretly made their escape.  Women were scrambling to protect their expensive hairdos from being destroyed by the elements.  Finally, the bride and groom made a hasty, and wet, retreat for cover.



No, those aren't tears on their faces, those are actual raindrops dripping down from their foreheads.  Yet, in all of this, Shannon did manage to keep her composure, and her sense of humor.  It will be one of those weddings that no one will be able to forget.

Tags: weddings
Current Location: Olympia, WA

This weekend I attended two more weddings, both on Saturday.  It was about 96 degrees outside so thankfully the first wedding was in an air-conditioned church.  The second wedding was not, but the church was in a fairly shady location and was quite short, so it didn't turn out too bad.

First, in early afternoon, I attended the wedding of Megan and Ryan, which was a beautiful wedding with excellent music.  A very talented pianist played classical music during the time the guests were entering and also accompanied other musicians throughout the ceremony.  I really appreciated the choice of songs that was used.  To me, good music really sets the tone for the whole wedding.



It is interesting that in both weddings the pastor brought out details about the covenant of marriage based on the original Old Testament practice of cutting an animal in two and walking between the two pieces which was a way of saying, "let what happened to these animals happen to me if I should ever break the covenant".  It was brought out that this is pictured today in the bride and groom walking down the aisle between the two different families.



Just about the time I had enjoyed enough goodies at the reception for Megan and Ryan, it was time to move on to the next wedding which was the wedding of Kristi and Jacob.



I loved the setting of this church with the tall fir trees showing in the background behind the cross.  Jacob must have been pretty excited to get on with the ceremony since he said "I do" almost immediately after the pastor said, "Do you take this woman..."  Other than that both weddings really went very smoothly with no other rough spots that I noticed.  Well perhaps with the exception of the fresh, unused unity candle that wouldn't light at the first wedding.  It finally did light, but it points out the wisdom of pre-lighting the candle to test it and "break it in" so to speak.



This unity candle lit just fine.  Perhaps someone was smart enough to test it ahead of time.  You can see here the beautiful outdoor backdrop to the wedding which sure beats an ugly white wall in my opinion.  But of course you know my opinions on the outdoors.



This is Anna, the flower girl, who did a perfect job of quietly standing up in front, despite the uncomfortable heat and having to stand still in front of a large audience of people.  Isn't she precious here coming down the aisle?

The last wedding had a full dinner reception with salmon and chicken and a host of other deserts besides the wedding cake which was pretty nice for someone who had spent the entire day just attending weddings.  So I did not go away hungry and really was pleased to be able to join both couples on this special day.

Tags: weddings

Today was a very hot day.  It got up to about 90 degrees in the shade and the sky was perfectly clear so the sun was really hot.  Not the very best day for an outdoor wedding, but better than a rainy day for sure.  Toby Haapala got married today to Sarah Wheatley.  The setting was quite a beautiful one for a wedding and thankfully there was really lots of shade from all the trees around the grounds.  The wedding was rather short and simple with a message from the pastor and exchanging of vows.



After the ceremony I proceeded straight to the receiving line so as to avoid any long wait before getting fed.  As another blogging friend says, "get to the food before all the greedy people do".  As I met the happy couple I was very impressed when Sarah knew my last name after Toby introduced me as Carl.  I had never met Sarah before so I can only imagine she must have memorized the guest list or something.



The food buffet was just great, none of that high-falutin fancy stuff (except some really great chocolates with peanut butter inside), just good, basic food like sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, crackers and cheese.  Just the kind of stuff to fill you up on a hot summer day.  There were plenty of tables set up outside to sit around and enjoy the food and talking to people I haven't seen in ages.



Doesn't the Best Man look great here?  I thought it was really neat that Toby's brother Caleb got to be Best Man.  To me that was a really special touch and his sister Hannah was a Junior Bridesmaid too.  After the reception there was plenty of time to walk around and talk to people and someone set up a croquet game which you can see here Toby and Sarah took advantage of.  By the way the hats were graciously provided for those guests who needed some relief from the sun and were available out on the lawn for anyone who needed one.  Someone was planning ahead on that one.



Toby & Sarah are spending their honeymoon in Maui which neither of them have been to before.  As happy as they looked together at the wedding, I'm sure they will have a wonderful time there.  It was a real treat to me to see Toby happily married since I have known him since he was a little boy (that makes me sound so old) and have always been impressed that he was a very friendly and thoughtful young man whom I always hoped would find a good wife.

Tags: weddings