I Now Pronounce You...

So Yesterday, one of my friends got married.  Yay Lauren and Rob!  She is actually one of the first of my friends to do so.  Lauren and I have been friends for what seems like forever...literally.  I mean we were playing in the church nursery together for goodness sakes, so, yeah...definitely my longest friendship to date.  My mother and I went over to Indiana (where she got married) on Thursday to help with the cake decorating and reception decorating, and anything else that needed helped with.  Lauren did a lot of practically everything (it felt like) by herself, and instead of a traditional things she took a different path.  I loved  how different her wedding was and how beautiful and simple it all was, if I ever get married I definitely know who I will be calling for advice.  Each of her bridesmaids held balloons instead of flowers as they walked down the isle.  For a center piece, she had a different cake made by family and friends on each table.  She made her wedding programs into fans and had either mad libs or crossword puzzles on the back.  For the food, we had a taco bar to choose from.  See what I mean.  Unique, fun, creative.  I absolutely loved it, but I am so exhausted from the past 4 days I came right home and slept for several hours, lol.  For the wedding I made a 1930's dress, with actual sheer vintage fabric.  The fabric is a floral print so you can't really see any of the detail in the dress, but there are tiny tucks on both sides of the top near the shoulder seam, and there is a draping of fabric right under the neck hole.  I also finally got a chance to wear this absolutely gorgeous hat my aunt sent me for my birthday.  She knows I love vintage and one day I got a surprise in the mail and it was this fantastical hat, a world traveling hat box, gloves, and clutch purse.  It took me forever to figure out an outfit worthy of this hat, but I finally did.  Yay!  And wearing it felt like it went with the theme for the wedding because Lauren wore a beautiful 1950's tea length dress and got superly cute headpiece that matched perfectly.  Her and her now husband looked absolutely adorable together during the whole night.

  I passed out programs before the wedding with Rob's sister and Lauren's sister-in-law.

The maid of honor.

We arrived at the reception early early so we had some time to kill.  Therefore, picture time!

These were our carpool mates, tablemates, entertainment for the weekend, lol

The parents of the bride.

Isn't that dress just fabulously vintage, and that hairpiece. ahh.  I approve LKBH, I approve.

The first dance.

The mother son dance

The father daughter dance.

Then they had a dance for all the father daughters and mother and sons.  Yes that is my father dancing...and not at gunpoint.  He got out there all on his own.  I expect him to go about 78 times better than this when I actually get married someday.

They had a married couples dance during the wedding, and they kept going by every 10 years of marriage you had to leave the dance floor.  Except for the two older couples, my parent's and Lauren's parents were the last to leave.  Yay for long marriages!

Everyone doing the cha cha slide. I got out on the dance floor a few times, but there definitely not enough alcohol in me to keep me going for long.

The perfect ending to their beautiful night.  Sparklers laced their way out to their car, just as it had stopped raining.
The End

For all wedding pictures: photobucket file

Midland, MI aka vacation

Every year for about the past 4 years, we have been going to Midland, Michigan to stay with my Uncle.  Usually it is just us and my uncle's family, but this year my Georgia Aunt and her family came.  Yay!  It makes things so much more fun with more family, don't you agree?  We had a blast basically doing nothing.  We stayed on my uncle's property almost the entire week, except to see a baseball game.  And you know what, I never got bored.  He has such a beautiful property with a gorgeous humongo pond, lovely pool, lovely big screen tvs...it goes on and on.  I hope we are able to do this every year! Enjoy the pretty pictures

I finally reshaped that poor misshapen hat, but I had a hard time keeping it on, even with a hat pin in.

My Uncle and his new wife.  She is going to have a baby soon.  Yay! More cousins:D

This golf game was actually really fun, even though I totally sucked at it

My cousin is insane.  I love him for it:D

This is probably my fav picture by far.  It is so crafty and surprisingly my mother took it.

I always eat so dang much on vacation, its like eating 6 big meals a day.

My aunt's husband.  They got married last October and he is definitely a welcome change to our family.  So sweet and hilarious:D

Everyone played tug-of-war and then had a water balloon fight right after.  My poor cousin totally got beat up.  His poor back was a mess.

My aunt definitely livens things up.  I love it, because otherwise this vacation would have been totally boring and mellow.

The only picture I got of my aunt, mom, and me, and dang it, she moved her dang head.

Yep, Dexter made it to vacation and he has never been so barky.  I was about ready to shoot him on multiple occasions....not literally

I wanted to fish so bad, but my idea of fishing is this: Someone (not me) puts the worm on the hook, someone casts the line (me) and catches the fish, and someone takes the fish off the hook and puts it back in the water(also, not me).  Yeah, I didn't think that would go over very well and would probably would be made to do everything by myself.  So, yeah, no fishing for me.

My uncle, whose house we were at, and the freaking humongoid fish he caught.  Don't ask me what it was, I'd probably be lying to him.

What I did for about 50% of the vacation: read.  I love to read and I bring a book with me almost everywhere I go.  So far I have read 3 books, all YA: Raised By Wolves, Betrayals, and The Reckoning.   My favorite was Raised By Wolves, which is a must if you are a fan of Urban Fantasy.  It is one of the best werewolf novels I have read besides the Mercy Thompson series.

Awww. Aren't they cute:D

Cousins cousins.  Love 'em.

We went to a baseball game.  If you know me, you know I am about as nonsports oriented as you can get.  I hate golf, don't understand football, think baseball is about as boring as you can get, and don't understand the fascination with soccer.  The only sport I do like is tennis, but that is because I played it in high school, and I respect the people that play it.

Okay, really bad picture.  I totally look like I am in pain, my dad looks ridiculous, but my mom looks pretty.

This was my entertainment during the game.  Is not that fabulous costume?  He was hilarious.

My aunt's family last night, we had a bonfire after the game and partied....and in the morning, I regretted it. bleh

My mom and her brother and sister.  Don't they all look alike?  I think they do.

Our first family picture in like 10 years, even though half of our family isn't there, the thought still is.
And that's it.  Here's the link if you want to see the rest of them.
We leave on Saturday and then I have to get sewing.  My friend's wedding is on the following Saturday and we are leaving on Thursday to go up early and help.  So, my new dress I want to get done better be sewn when I am doing some serious speed.