Normal wedding preparations

Thursday morning we wake to find that the dog ate the wedding cake.  Yes, really.  Two cakes had been made to layer together for a tall, special and delicious cake.  I was woken very early to be asked, “Where was the second cake”.  ‘What second cake?”  All that was left were some slobber marks left by one black lab.  We didn’t agree on what to do, but did agree to ‘not tell the kids until after the wedding’!  The cat is out of the bag only because Pat made another cake, cooled it, frosted it, packed it and continues to hope that the dog has a belly ache.

Two cars packed and ready to go, the best man notices that the baby bird has actually made it through the night and is demanding fresh flies to eat.  No one can bring themselves to leave it or ‘dispatch’ it, so it too gets packed for Spokane in a soft sided lunch box with a stop at the pet store for some meal worms.  This slows the second car down a bit as they are now stopping every 30 minutes to feed the bird or ‘Moses Squeaker Pants’ as he is now named.  (Moses is a well-traveled bird by now going to the bachelor party and the rehearsal dinner in his lunch box).

Friday morning began with the groom being shuttled off for the white shirt he forgot to buy, hair cuts for the girls, normal wedding rehearsal stress added to by the fact that in my effort to be helpful to the wedding party, I made copies of the directions to the restaurant with the wrong address, sending people on an unplanned sight-seeing tour of the more ‘colorful’ parts of Spokane.  The wedding day will start in the same fashion as the best man, realized he’s left his white shirt in Ellensburg, my boys are nothing, if not alike!

The truth is that this is our life with many mishaps the more people and animals we add to the fold, yet how delightful it has been to continually run into friends and family at the hotel who are here for this one special day.  What fun to watch the groom (the same guy that really likes to ‘knock stuff down’ on the farm) put together the flowers for his bride’s bouquet.  There is stress and mess, forgotten shirts and shoes…… and laughter and tears and joy.  I am grateful.  When my son was a small baby, I worried like new mothers do.  I knew I could worry really well and imagine all the dangers that awaited his life, it would have made me crazy.  In those moments holding my small sweet babe I chose to imagine this day and dancing at his wedding with a smile on both our faces.  Today, I am so grateful.