The beginning of wedding prep for the actual festivities was back HERE...
...but then we were on to all that went into the wedding itself.
And, like many things in life, you can't really gauge how that will all pan out until you're right smack-dab in the middle of it.
As I write about all this, I want to emphasize that although there were a lot of details that went into the party/celebration (like what seemed like ten gazillion), the most beautiful part of the whole process...what it was all really about...was sitting in the temple watching those two be sealed together forever and ever. All the rest of this stuff is just fluff. Some not-so-fun fluff, some very fun fluff, some deep and wonderfully beautiful fluff, but the heart of the whole deal was that ceremony. And I'll always hold it in my heart as one of my favorite memories ever...Max and Abby just beaming in that beautiful place, committing themselves to each other.
Back to the fluff a little for this post though :)
Since the celebration was at our house, Max and Abby were in the middle of finals (plus Abby had mono of all things...can you believe that??), and her family was in Texas away from where we needed to get things done, we got to work around here (with M&A and Abby's family helping as much as they could from where they were). We rounded up a whole bunch of beautiful things to help adorn the yard for the big night. We are so lucky to have good friends with beautiful candle lanterns, tablecloths, picture frames, easels, etc. that we borrowed to spiff everything up. I don't know how we would have pulled this all off without the help of everyone in our "village." A couple friends dropped off dinners, people came out of the woodwork asking what they could do to help, it was pretty non-stop and I will never know how to thank everyone enough!
One example of many: our friend made this big wall of hexagons for their daughter's wedding (back HERE), and they gave part of that big wall to Grace to put in her room. But transporting back here from California it needed to be fixed up a little and we never got around to it. It was dusty in our garage until my sweet friend came over and knew I kind of wanted to use it for the wedding party, picked it up, worked with her husband to attach the pieces that broke off, gave it a fresh paint job, and brought it back delivered right to us all spick and span.
Here's a little peek as to how it looked on the big night:
(Thank you Tonia & Steve...and Del too!)
Man, friends are just the best.
Speaking of good ones, these ladies are the ones responsible for setting up all the beauty for that night:
Soooooo grateful for them. They made it so Dave and I could really just enjoy the whole process and with my friend Sandy at the head of the minutia of details we really could do that. Love her forever for that!
Back to the beforehand prep...one tiny example of things we did that I happen to have pictures of: Grace and I found this wreath at Target:
...and wanted to use two of them to adorn the gates going back to the back yard.
Problem was I could NOT find another one. I called every Target in the whole valley, no luck. I thought about making some when I checked out Pinterest (for the first time in years and years...man , you could really get sucked into that thing!). You can make a cool wreath thingy with a hoola hoop:
So I tried Texas Targets where Abby's family was coming from. No luck there either. So I tried Utah where my family was coming from...finally found one mid way between two towns my parents HAPPENED to be driving right by, and they snatched it up for me. Ha!
Here's how the wreaths looked when we were done:
Just one tiny example of all the countless silly little things that went into getting that yard all decked out.
On to other things, it was kind of fun to have boxes show up like this practically every day:
(such nice gifts coming from all over)
Trying to figure out ties:
Another friend offered to have cups made for the hot chocolate bar. (She and her husband own a dessert supply company.) Love how they turned out:
We got those and 593 other things wrapped up, plus as much Christmas as I could gather together so we wouldn't have to scramble after the wedding. I was pretty bound and determined not to turn into a crazy person in those days before the wedding and before Christmas. There was no way I was going to let the little things take away the beauty of those two events wrapped right in together. So I worked my tail off to be organized and get things done early and I must admit I really did surprise myself with all the things I crossed off my list!
And THEN, it was time for the guests of honor to arrive:
They also had mountains of things to do before the wedding. They had to move out of both their apartments, deal with final projects and assignments, take finals (early), find a new apartment, blah blah blah...all the stuff you have to do before you get married. And then there was that darn mono diagnosis. Yep, right after Thanksgiving she found out why she was feeling so awful, right at the end of the semester with all those big tests and assignments on the line. She was SO sick! But I tell you, that girl is a strong one, and she finally started to feel a little better right before the wedding.
And both these kids were glowing when we picked them up from the airport.
As we stood there, gathered in a huddle of happiness waiting for their bags to arrive I had a great moment where I dropped my phone and it shattered. Adding to the collection of shattered phones we have around here.
That deserves it's own post which I don't have time for, but check out more info HERE...it is really such a fabulous idea and it was so cool to have one so close to us.
What did we do? Played cards, of course.
Oh and face masks too. Because those are important!
Max and Abby got their marriage license:
And Abby's family arrived...after LOTS and LOTS of hours in the car.
We hadn't met their kids before, so it was so fun to meet them after hearing so much about them (Sam looks really happy about it up there on Ethan's shoulders...ha!)
Both dads were out of town at this point, so they missed the meeting-for-the-first-time party, darn it!
Abby's little brothers jumped in and were SO polite and eager to help any way they could. So I put them to work showing them how to trim vines:
In the midst of all this a very exciting thing happened: Claire got some hardware removed from her teeth.
Claire was SO excited (as were the rest of us) and got to go show off her new smile when we went to meet all the girls for pre-wedding pedicures:
These kids hung together like bees to honey, loved it:
Meanwhile, Bo couldn't figure quite what all the fuss was about.
(Had to include a little Bo action...)
One of Elle's best friends who happens to be her cousin returned from her mission from Spain the week before the wedding. She and Julie (her mom...Dave's sister) came to celebrate with us and these girls were head-over-heels excited to find each other at the airport. This is the picture my other sis-in-law sent of the action:
ANYWAY, Dave looks up to this man so much and we felt so grateful we got to go visit with him and his wife a couple days before the wedding. Wanted Max and Abby to get to know him and him to get to know them and we had a pretty beautiful visit sitting in their family room under the twinkling Christmas lights.
Then it was on to more dance parties at our house.
These kids were all just so dang excited.
I have videos that I can't upload so here are some little outtakes so I can kind of share a little of the action:
(Abby's siblings missed this one in particular because I think they were with their uncle at the time...)
As a side-note, I don't think Lucy could have asked for a better sister-in-law if she searched the whole world over.
We had the funniest errands to run, just Sarah, Max and Abby and I...long story but it involved going to the wrong house and some funny wedding prep (just some little inside jokes I want to remember) and then we got home to my parents who had arrived:
Although my Dad somehow missed that picture...
Here's another girl who thinks her new sis-in-law (and brother) are pretty cool:
Lance arrived (Abby's dad, below left), and we took a minute to watch the awesome video Grace made of Max and Abby and some little interviews of how they met.
And then all these kids gathered to put the finishing touches on their "coordinated dance" they decided they were going to do at the post-wedding celebration.
Again, these are blurry out-takes, but you get the idea:
Ok, and on to the Eyres who arrived late that night and we went to visit the next morning:
... the back yard starting to get all fancied up:
...and the wedding dinner.
To be continued...