Note: As with the previous wedding posts, almost every picture below came out of Shawni’s fabulous camera and was taken with her expert eye. I was just too busy to stop and take a picture plus, the Iphone 4S just wouldn’t do this event justice. Thanks Shawni!
After months of preparations engineered by Charity, those hours of thought, arrangements and dedication to having the Wedding Reception of her dreams paid off! The list of assignments for parents, siblings and friends (who were happy to help) looked like plans for a Presidential Inauguration. The bottled flowers and bistro lights hanging from the rafters, giant baby’s breath balls and gorgeous flowers sprinkled on the tables, delicious food and six flavors of French macorons were Charity’s ideas (with a little help from Pintrest), but it was the army of helpers who brought it to pass! It was a dream-come-true!
My sister’s daughter Lindsay Spencer, who is a born designer, arranged flowers to die for, all over our house and in the side-yard tent. Here is a glimpse of her creations in our large Balinese wooden boat:
Don’t you think this is “dripping with passion”?
The bridesmaids, darling cousin Jessica (also Lenna’s daughter) and sisters and sisters-in-law all dove in to help pull everything together and to create these beautiful wreaths for the adorable flower girls:
All the furniture in the Great Room was cleared out for the dancing. The bottles and bistro lights were hung with care and cute little Poem is there enjoying the fun pictures of Charity and Ian on the canoe/coffee table.
The weather was exactly what we had prayed for and we were SO grateful!
Let’s take closer look at those boys out on the waterfall! This was better than most “little groomsmen” have it at a wedding reception. They had a ball!
The perfect cake, made by Charity’s grand friend Dani was ready to be admired and devoured:
Individual family groups took the opportunity wihen they saw Shawni with camera in hand to get some group shots before the festivities began:
Here are Jonah and Aja and their darling family. Sorry Jonah…that beard must have weighed your eyes down!
Adorable Julie, Eli and Zara:
Spunky Saydi, Jeff and kiddos:
Splendid Saren, Jared and their crew:
We’re missing a few kids and grandkids in the photos for various reasons but what a JOY it was to have all these good people together!
The gorgeous and delicious buffet was set up on our big square table and the delectable six flavors of macarons were prepared from scratch by one of Charity’s gifted friends were ready to be enjoyed!
Here’s an outtake for a little comic relief before the formal picture-taking began. I look a bit worried, Jonah looks a bit jolly and Chris (Lenna’s oldest son) looks a lot like a bodyguard! Noah is directing Lyla on the left and I have no idea who that photo bomber is in the background!
Amidst the chaos of assembling for the photographer’s pictures at the front entry, Noah and Kristi’s Sprinter, driven by a friend, pulled through the middle of the crowd on it’s way to the first guest pick-up at a nearby parking lot. It’s a 12 seater and two other large vans transported about 325 people that night from place to place:
And here we are…the whole of Eyrealm who were able to make it.We’re only missing eight of 45!
One of the funniest events of the night were the parents who were trying to get their kids to smile and behave for the pictures. This was the scene from across the driveway where the kids were posing:
Here is what they were looking at. Even though it was pretty much mayhem with all those grandchildren on both sides of the family, Charity and Ian didn’t seem to notice (note Zara on the far left and the baby Ian is holding). Hilarious!
Quite a lot of fun ensued with the fabulous flower girls:
And the adoring sisters:
By now, everyone was getting a little punchy. I promise there was absolutely NO drinking of strong drink at this party! LOL!
SO LET THE PARTY BEGIN!
The food by our caterer Cossette Carlson was fabulous. She even invited us to her home for a “Tasting Party” so we could be sure of what we were getting. She was extraordinary! Here are a few of our favorite people enjoying the food on the deck, on the pavers and in the tent next door (thanks for these photos Saren).
One more shot from Shawni of that tent with the creative baby’s breath balls and hanging bottles filled with flowers:
The boys were very careful about their messages in the Sign-In book where every guest or group was memorialized with a polaroid picture and a short message:
Although I wish we had a picture of all those dear friends and relatives who came, here are a few that Shawni caught:
My one and only sister and best girlfriend Lenna Carver with some of her kids who are always there to help at every Eyre event. Lindsay, the flower designer is 3rd from the left. As per usual, Nickie offered to hold someone’s baby and the parents didn’t come back…for a long time!
Cute Cousins….Aubrey and Serenity who manned (womaned?) the Guest Book, along with Serenity’s husband Scott.
And three of our finest missionaries from the ELSM 1976-79, with their wives!
And our darling semi-adopted daughter and Shawni’s lifelong friend…Mo Mo:
The dance was truly spectacular! Eli organized the playlist and after the fairly serious first dances, the dance floor went wild! So much fun!
The kids had a grand time! Eli got them rockin’!
These people are all serious about catching the bouquet:
There she is, ready to throw it from the balcony at the top. The person who got it….deserved it!
The sendoff sparkled….literally! Ian and Charity floated down our gravel road through a tunnel of well-wishers brandishing sparklers, signs of love and congratulations (prepared by Dani) and into their little red get-away car.
AND SUDDENLY IT WAS OVER! LOVE, JOY AND WHEW!!! An evening none of us will ever forget, partly because everyone helped so much to make it happen! A dream few days for our cherished youngest daughter which she says exceeded her expectations by 100%!
This picture of the Father of the Bride speaks for all of us after the glow dissipated:
Let’s take a closer look!
It will be sweet dreams for all of us!
Even though this was posted for the sake of family history, thanks to those of you who made it to the end! Photos from the official photographer coming soon on Charity’s blog at drippingwithpassion.blogspot.com.
The 3 1/2 minute video of all these events so far was done by a remarkable videographer and can be found here. It makes me cry every time but you don’t have to 
We are just so happy for our baby girl!
The Texas and Palo Alto receptions coming next!
14 comments:
Ya mom! Perfect overview. That was quite a party!
Those flower crowns and cream dresses are just beautiful on all the girls big and little!!
What a spectacular wedding! Do you know where the bridesmaid dresses came from? So hard to find pretty dresses with sleeves! Thanks!!
Love it, Mom.
OK Papa. I had these questions, which you ignored. Please answer as best you can.
Can the first husband look down from heaven and see that the wife has married someone else, so he will be expecting, shall we say, a little bit of drama when they all die...?
Or is he up there blissfully thinking, as a "forever family" that his wife is still his wife even in death, as she promised to be?
(Still trying to have a nice, friendly tone...:))
October 30, 2014 at 12:45 PM
Blogger Madam Queen said...
"Temple marriage ceremonies do not use the words "till death do us part" but rather "for time and for all eternity." You can imagine how seriously a commitment is taken when it is believed to last forever!"
That being the case, I would think if your husband died, you could no more marry someone else than if he was still alive.
Forever, unless the wife gets lonely, or more likely needs financial support for her and her many many kids?
October 30, 2014 at 1:13 PM
Blogger Madam Queen said...
But Cheryl - do they have sex? Isn't that being unfaithful to the one they are "forever" married to?
I'd be pissed if I thought my "forever" husband was having "companionship" while still married to me. Even if I was dead. Since the sealing made them married forever, how - without being adulterous and polygamous - can you marry someone else - you are already married?
October 30, 2014 at 1:31 PM
Blogger Madam Queen said...
Forever and for all time and eternity - doesn't mean you can take a break and come back. It is continuous - or it should be or this whole sealing thing is a farce.
October 30, 2014 at 1:41 PM
Blogger Madam Queen said...
How is having questions making light? Mr. Eyre said a few comments up that it is FOREVER. When you are sealed, the marriage is still valid even when one person dies.
So it's a valid question:
How can you marry someone when you are married to someone else? Obviously their being deceased does not negate the marriage. At least that's what Mr. Eyre just said.
October 30, 2014 at 2:06 PM
Blogger Madam Queen said...
Kersten - that was his answer to my question about who would be married to who when they all get to heaven.
I didn't even ask at that point about the immorality of marrying and having sex with hubby #2 when you are still forever married to hubby #1.
I'd love to have Mr. Eyre's answer to these questions.
The most honest answer I can give on hypothetical questions about heaven is "I don't know."
But I have faith in the goodness and love and wisdom of God which will prevail within these areas.
(And that's not a cop-out answer....Religion doesn't answer many of our how questions. But it answers our why questions, and the big why question of why are we here is partially answered by "to learn to love more deeply and gain qualities like patience, loyalty and creativity--all of which make us ever so slightly more like God.
Thanks for the answer. I can accept that God knows things we don't and will make everything right in heaven.
But the more I thought about it, I wondered, as you can see from my later questions, how the dead mate in heaven feels when the live mate on earth breaks their forever marriage vows and is intimate with someone else.
Is that something you have any thoughts on?
It just seems very unkind to me to ask provocative questions about this family's faith on posts about their daughter's joyful wedding celebration. I am not LDS--but I love following Charity and this whole family because their love for each other is so evident and they have such wonderful family activities. I admire their family and hope to take what I can apply to my own family. You treat challenging comments with such kindness, probably much more so than most others would be able to do.
I have genuine questions based on things they have spoken of in these wedding posts. I'm not being provocative at all. I think they welcome the chance to witness about their faith to people who had questions, and I look forward to hearing their answers.
I think in their church they are married while they are both alive and are sealed when both of them are dead. It isn't contiguous. I'm wondering what form of Christianity you are a part of Queen? Other than LDS, Heaven is about being with God. Jesus also said our concept of marriage after we are dead is nothing like what we think of marriage being on earth. We aren't supposed to worry about which brother the woman is with later who married more than one brother as was the custom. I take it mean we aren't married anymore. No one is looking down and feeling sad in heaven. It's not possible. You know that. There are no tears in heaven. I personally don't get how it's a problem to have a civil service for marriage and you have to wait a year to be sealed. But only if they live in three countries, And a woman can't be sealed to more than one man. But a man who loses a wife can seal to another woman. It's all for naught if they don't all get the proper level of heaven. But a woman can remarry in a public service and there is no shame or questions of worthiness. Because she can't be sealed anyway unless she cancels it. It is hard for a man to want to marry her because their children would not be sealed to both of them later without the cancelation of sealing to the first husband. Maybe if he is already sealed and they are past childbearing age it is easier? It seems with these more detailed answers there are more problems in the details. Asking questions on a personal blog isn't all that different from walking up to someone's door trying to get another investigator/convert. Something the entire family has done.
Kris
I get what you're saying, K - no tears in heaven, not married anymore after you die. That's what I always thought. But then he said here, that when you are sealed you ARE married after you die - that's the whole point of sealing - to become a forever family in this life and in the next.
My questions stemmed from that thought. If you are a forever family, sealed as such to be together in the here-after... second marriages kinda put the kabosh on that...if you are married to someone forever, aren't you cheating on them if you marry someone else?
I'm not going to pursue the questioning any more - obviously Mr. E's answer is that there is no answer....which I can't really accept...
BTW I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and now am a happy agnostic.
Madam queen you are clearly obsessed with harassing this family and ruffling feathers. Are you truly that bored or are you looking for a place to argue? If you need to pick a part a family and criticize there every move I highly recommend the Kardashians. Not this wonderful family who inspires so many and spreads and does so much good in the world.
I really liked your blog!! Actually, I am also looking a place for my wedding reception in Chicago. And my first preference is outdoor venue. Can you suggest me some good venues? I need catering facility also.
Post a Comment