My Brother's Wedding

The last week in March, my sisters and I traveled to Oregon to help with our brother’s wedding. The last few days were rather hectic, by we managed to squeeze some non wedding events into the first part of the week.

Early on the morning of the 22nd just as the sun was breaking through the morning fog, we set out to meet one of our brothers on a hike at Silver Falls State Park. It was lovely to hike the wet trails, enjoying the lovely twists of the paths as we followed the creek and wound through the woods. Spring was evident everywhere, parading forth in fresh greenery and wild flowers.

Early in the week, we met a good friend for coffee at Starbucks. Over various and assorted beverages, we caught up on the happenings in our lives, debated on just which language the guys at the other table were really speaking, wondered who the guy was that two police officers met for coffee, tasted the coffee cake they were giving away because they couldn’t sell it - no surprise, I thought it had too much flour. And finally went our separate ways, knowing we would see each other again later that week sometime over the wedding festivities.

Then it was wedding preparation time!

We had a bachelorette tea rather than a wild party. We couldn’t help getting our sister-in-law to be this ring that lit up. We’ve long teased our brother in emergency personal about his love for lights and joked that he was going to get his bride a flashing ring. Well, it didn’t flash, but it did light up. Can you see her real engagement ring in the photograph? It is a beautiful vintage ring and I absolutely love it.

And here is the wedding cake. My sister-in-law and I combined efforts for this confectionary masterpiece. At least we thought it was a masterpiece. It wasn't perfect (thanks to me) and I'm a perfectionist, but for a first attempt, it turned out relatively well. Everyone seemed dually impressed with the results. I rather was too, and very relieved. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate filling and a mint frosting. I baked the cake, and did the basic frosting. My sister-in-law did the decorative frosting. She did an amazing job- though rather tired being several months pregnant!

And another first – I put together all the bouquets! The bride was there to approve the bridesmaid’s bouquets but then she took off before I started on her bouquet. It had to be done that night, and fortunately she had mentioned what she wanted, so I put it together and hoped she liked it. I did. I actually even wanted to catch it! After I made up example boutonnieres and corsages, my sisters helped do the rest of those. Thank goodness!

I don’t have any of the professional photographs, but here is a back view of the bridesmaid’s dresses. The bride wanted a vintage themed wedding. She chose a very basic style for the dresses, and with the right hats, shoes and gloves, the look came together beautifully. All the gloves were authentic vintage, borrowed from my sister’s collection and my grandmother brought some in from Colorado.
And the lovely little vintage inspired caps. I thought up the design, my sister CheeringOn made the design work and then it was team effort to put them together at the last minute. We weren’t sure the bride was going to approve the hats, so we hadn’t made them yet. Yikes! We did get them done at the last minute.

It was a very busy time for me as maid-of- honor, wedding coordinator, as well as heading up almost all of the decorating! It was a lot of places to be at once. I did enjoy the challenge and it was a good experience. Oh, but lots of sleep was needed afterwards!