The Wedding

In no particular order, our wedding:

Photo credits: Kirsten Shreiber Watson

Decorating the Gymnasium

Dad pushing the helium tank amidst the balloon arch platform and the thirteen bushel basket/maypole centerpieces.

Each balloon is attached to an upended party favor box with an "N" paper coaster glued to it. It is weighted by a little tub of play-doh.

Kale engineered the whole thing. His mock up of the centerpieces was made of paper plates, playdough and yarn. I tied together some 300 handkerchiefs collected from family, friends and ebay.

I spent a lot of time ordering too much stuff online - big balloons, ebayed handkerchiefs, bushel baskets, noisemakers, bird whistles. Man it was fun...well, it should have been. The truth is, it cost a lot, was stressful, became a source of contention between us (mostly a stuggle between myself and some other part of myself that doesn't get out much), and took up a lot of valued space in my brain. I got lost in it all even though I thought I was avoiding some of the more stressful parts of the planning. I didn't have bridesmaids, thus I neglected to involve my dear friends. I was unsure of having a shower, thus I didn't fully appreciate what a bridal shower should be. I was stressed and I was faltering. Life has a way of happening to you while you're busy making other plans.

The reason our wedding was beautiful - the thought and care my husband put into the details, the work and care our family did the days before and afterwards, the friends who came and shared in our joy, our little wedding party of littles who stole the show.

The School

One Sunday in September we ventured out looking for something new in town. I drove us out to one of those motherload junk houses, where you can find just about anything, whether it's a pink Colt 45 ceramic ashtray (like the one that holds my jewelry) or the Ghostbuster's ambulance (that Kale had when he was little). I had been there before and I had neglected to take my one true love to such a fantastic place. It is now one of our favorites. On the way out, I took us to the Old Bridgeport School, an abandoned school house turned antique mall. The school was built in 1941 and my father attened elementary school there. Old stuff is our bread and butter, I'm very fortunate to have found someone who shares the same distinct passion for other people's junk. As I recall, we bought some Star Wars and Strawberry Shortcake candy molds that day. But, the point of this is the way the gymnasium grabbed us both by the neck and slapped us around a bit, woke us up - this is it! This is where you will be married.

We walked in and it hit me and I said it out loud, "I wish we could have our wedding here." He said he knew exactly what I thinking. Maybe we could? We inquired. Yes, we could. And everything started to fall into place...

My Flowers

My wedding bouquet was created by DK Designs, which I found on Etsy. Each petal, leaf, stamen was hand formed in craft clay and made just. for. me. I'm a lucky lady. Kale's boutonniere is an orange ranunculous. I chose these glorious pale yellow peonies.

I'll share more of our wedding details soon.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Is there time to shop for Christmas? Is there time to embroider? No, not really.

Are there words to describe the month of November? No, absolutley not enough.

Dear Coat,

We will meet again soon.

Love, Betsy

I said you'll do to the dress. And then I smiled really big and thought about ties and suspenders, dresses with bows, and little cabby hats, handkerchiefs and my new name, leaves and coats and snow and Christmas and being a wife and what it will be like to call those babies my children sans the step.

The date approaches.

Yes, Even I have Dreamed of a Wedding.

Not my dress, but I sure do like it.
Cheap flower arrangements are the prettiest.

Candy is fun.

A little bit of me all over the place.

There, that's all you get. No more, the rest you'll have to wait for.

I'm engaged :)

Betrothed.