It's not what you say!

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I do have a bit of an addiction to color, every so often I need my fix. So last night I decided to pull up my paint program and just let colors swirl around the page randomly, then I played with different fonts to present my message! It was fun... 

 We were really fortunate to attend a very prestigious wedding on the weekend! It was done up in style and we all felt so blessed to witness this loving, generous, kind couple say their vows. Food and drinks were flowing. However because I don't drink and drive I abstained! None the less we all had fun!

 

 My daughter and son in law with the bride and groom!

Sunday Scribblings "A thousand roses"

Sunday Scribblings prompt this week is "Treatment"
of which we had the best! 

The Bride, a single  forty something business owner.
The groom, a divorced father of two!
The  theme, Music! 

The wedding, Spectacular! 

I cried and laughed through the whole ceremony!

Pleased I'd worn my sun glasses.

  Beauty abounding with one thousand red roses. 

(Inside scoop, straight from the wedding coordinator.)

The clouds parted so the sun could sparkle during the vows!

The room, 

Breathtaking!

The  bride, fabulous in a whimsical music note embossed wedding dress. Nothing minimal about this red and black embellished wedding! 

 Surprisingly my daughters former boss, normally a frugal  minimalist perfected the music theme   with everything from the treble clef ice sculpture, wedding rings and white sneakers (well hidden under her dress), to the  music note place card holders.

Treatment was exemplary, with full open bar,
excellent food, music, and
  entertaining tributes to the newlyweds!

  

My darling dancing queen boogied to each song.

As she joined in the celebration of the couple
who met while dee-jaying.

 As you can see, it was a joyful occasion!

 

 Trumping my brothers intimate wedding at a posh bed and breakfast!

 

They sang and danced until the music stopped!

Gratefully we left with one hundred red roses in tow,

bestowed on us by the bride who encouraged

 us to take as many as we could! And we all left with

that lovin feeling you so often hear about in songs!

Sunday Scribblings " No wedding for me"

Sunday Scribbling prompt this week is "Wedding"

“There’s one too many women living in this house.” mom said with a vengeance! I was seventeen. So we bought a mobile home, then asked them to sign the papers so we could be married. It was fully furnished, but wasn’t delivered until three weeks after the nuptials. We grudgingly stayed with mom and dad a few weeks longer.

It was a very small ceremony. Dad greeted me at the door of the church. A place I sought solace most of my childhood. I cried that ugly cry all the way down the isle. I hated the thought of losing my last name. Was it the sign of a mistake? Possibly! It was too late. With ongoing turmoil between mother and I it was a very cognitive solution for a mature teen.
I was homesick that first year, regularly calling in pursuit of a shopping date with mom. She was either busy or planned something with her sister. After months of attempts with a negative response, I stopped asking. I lived forty five minutes away; surprise visits seemed out of the question, yet I attempted that as well. In retrospect I can see she was relieved I was gone.
Soon I stopped being homesick and resigned myself to being a wife. A damn good one at that. Just seventeen I made bread, soups and baked from scratch. I bought only meager necessities in order to save. At twenty one we bought our first house and paid cash for top of the line appliances.

I sacrificed a lot back then. Would I do it again? Probably not! I would have married someone more suitable with common interests, someone kinder. For years, we ambled through. I was the dutiful housewife during the whole marriage. To be honest I became covertly ambivalent, and rebellious. Around the seven year mark I devised my own life within the marriage.

I had a good job, a great network of friends. He was anti social, would only drag along on rare occasions, where he sat staring at me the whole night as I flitted from place to place socializing. Angst befell me, knowing he wanted to leave almost as soon as we arrived anywhere. Eventually I went most places alone. I finally left for a stint, but returned Six weeks later unsure of my choice Back in the home I kept my new adopted independence within the marriage.

It was at the twelve year mark we decided to take a huge leap and buy a new home. Four times the size of our thousand square foot first home. It was on an acre property. The day we signed the papers for that big house, I got pregnant. I was shocked and thrilled all at once! It was a beautiful home with a circular staircase, as well as a cathedral staircase. I had it made, so I thought!.Beautiful new home and new baby on the way!

I worked like a Trojan to keep up the forty four hundred square foot home, painted the whole inside, raised a baby and worked full time. It was during that time I acquired the nick name midnight maid. I barely slept. We entertained every weekend, playing cards and board games with friends, I made gourmet meals of scallop St Jacques and we drank special coffees with whip cream. I was super woman, with a European work ethic.

Physically life was fun, I adored motherhood and all my friendships. But I was disconnected from my husband. Outside appearances, all was fine. Except for the continuous contemptible humor we slung at each other. A few ugly domestic occurrences gave me pause. Soon I was rethinking my life, my daughter’s life.
Three years later we bought another home, twenty two hundred square foot rancher in a quaint neighborhood for our child. The beautifully manicured half acre property with a gazebo covering the hot tub just off the master suite was a minor diversion from underlying marital discord . It was my dream home, with a huge country kitchen decked out in pink corian counter tops and a fireplace. Every single morning when I entered that kitchen I said a quiet prayer of thanks to god!
Still a huge void almost swallowed me up. I realized there was an entity living in my space that was emotionally unavailable to all in the home and those who visited. I sought help, to no avail. Things escalated to scary proportions. We were working on the logistics of a split. It didn’t end well, things got very ugly. Sadly I have no desire to even see or speak to him. Although I have moved on and forgiven all the ugliness that transpired in our relationship. I'm still forced to observe from afar the continued injustices with others. Be careful who you choose as a life mate, because it never really ends!

It’s exactly eleven years almost to the day that my divorce was finalized! A few years back three friends and I had a mock wedding. We dressed up, played the song "imagine", vowed to be true ourselves first, bought rings to commemorate the festive occasion! A reporter even entered photos of our crazy antics in the local paper! I have been living happily every after since!

Would I want a legal wedding again? Probably not! No wedding for me!

Last daughter married

Bryan's sisters special day! Saturday the second of August!

Bride and Groom pose for casual pictures!

Mother with three of her seven boys, the bride her lovely daughter!
Seven out of her ten children are now married!

Grooms Parents

I have no idea how this transpired. I just know it was a funny moment captured on film!
I can bet there was alcohol involved though!

Jason and his proud father who gave a heartfelt amazing off the cuff speech!
This man truly adores his six foot seven handsome only son!

Anita and Jason enjoy their wedding meal prepared by family and friends!

Because they never celebrated their marriage with a big party, Pepper and Bryan just had to get in on the action by standing in front of this car!

My daughters in-laws, nieces and nephews! Just the immediate family! Count them, it's twenty seven! The majority of them seem to have some kind of blue on!
No one conferred about it either!

Peppers sister in laws, and mother in law! She adores them all!
The family banded together to make this wedding happen! Lots of last minute
preparations, you'd never know it from these photos!

My daughter and I hamming it up at the wedding! A great time was had by all,
not without a few glitches along the way! You can't help but have a little drama with
that many people!

New Son-in-Law

Pepper went to the trade show in Vegas. So much to see and do with so little time. She met up with one of the proprietors from the London trade show he gave her the promised hat for her wedding. It's not due to come to the public for quite some time. I think it was one of the prototypes! She was thrilled.
The evening was spent at Coyote ugly where she celebrated her last night single. Bryan was there to cheer her on! They didn't get to bed until four in the morning! But it was a party to remember and my daughter had liquor poured down her throat....which is extremely rare as she's not much of a drinker at all! The next morning she had no hangover....that scares me! Here they are having breakfast....immediately after was a spa date for the girls! Refusing to pay the hundred and thirty dollars to have her hair done, they bought hot rollers, but one side of her hair didn't turn out! She tried not to stress about it, and is planning to get professional photos done in the next little while.

Bear hug!
Things do go better with coke!! Especially this couple.

The Bride Posing in her forties inspired "stop staring" dress. With her pill box hat, swag scored at the trade show!

A timeless look, down the road it will be hard to pin point which era this look is from!

Fun on the Vegas strip. It's all about vintage replication isn't it? And being who you are! This is my daughter! Actually if the truth be known I really felt ripped off not being born in the era true to my nature. For me it was the swing era! They were slightly late for the chapel, which was very busy on Valentines day. Having viewed the dvd I was so glad I wasn't there. When the two of us start giggling it becomes infectious with no hope of halting. As she entered the chapel she smelled something like potpourri. Her throat became dry and she started to cough randomly during the ceremony. Bryan's sister scanned the church in search of water, there was none. Almost a nervous cough, she fumbled her words. It was so cute, but I giggled hysterically, I'm sure we'll all chuckle for years to come... A slight metaphor for life....Nothing is ever perfect....but she didn't sweat the small stuff so it turned out as lovely as could be!

Sister of the groom.

Just Married.

A toast and a nibble!

Just before and after they came back life was a bit fast paced for me! I loved hearing all the stories and getting prepared for their return. Writing emails, making phone calls, loading and cropping pictures on to her face book, in between doing laundry and preparing for an art show has all been very time consuming

They will have a large party rather than a reception in a few months. With Bryan's basic immediate family being 27 people the rest will be my family and friends who she calls her aunties. So it won't be small by any means. They definately seem happier than ever so I guess marriage suits them well. Both tired from a few weeks non stop, I enjoyed my time home alone, but I love having them around too! They have no plans to move as we live so well communally! So everything is pretty much the same except it's official, I have a new son-in-law.