Just for fun, I'm throwing in a few pictures of scenes before the wedding...
such as when Danny and Jonathan were shopping for new cowboy hats at Tractor Supply in Denver.
We
heard one of the groomsmen had found a nice hat at Tractor Supply for
less than $40, compared to many hats that cost much more. Jonathan's
poor black felt cowboy hat has seen its better days, and thrifty as we
are, both he and I decided that Rose and Tom deserved for the father of
the bride to have a new hat!
Even Danny squeezed some money out to pay for a new hat, since he was one of the groomsmen.
It didn't have to be top of the line, but Tom deserved for his groomsmen to have nice hats for this special occasion.
Thursday,
after Jonathan, Crystal, and her boyfriend Ricky picked me up at the
Denver airport (having flown up from Phoenix after cancer treatments) he
and I went shopping for menu items for the wedding meal we were hosting
Saturday. One problem was that we had limited space in the back of
Jonathan's truck, and the weather was hot! We had to try to get dozens
of cartons of potato salad, pasta salad, and coleslaw into coolers or
under bags of ice to last until the next day, since we were staying
overnight with friends.
By
Friday evening, we were arriving at Ranch Haven. Ricky was such a help
with unloading. Crystal gave him the honor of carrying Rose's wedding
dress up to the bridal quarters. Somehow, miraculously, our family had
managed to get that wedding dress all the way from Missouri to South
Dakota to Denver to Ranch Haven--without a rip or a spot of dirt or an
oil spill on it!
Whew! If you knew our family, you would know that was a Herculean feat!
Friday
morning every available person, young and old, boy or girl, pitched in
to help with things to do. I even delegated kitchen help to the boy
cousins and Ricky since the girl cousins were dealing with gathering
flowers, decorating, and preparing for the wedding in other ways. I had
Samuel Morley chopping onions with a chopper for the meatball sauce
(thankfully his family had just purchased a chopper like this recently
so he knew how to operate it), Danny helping with food for lunch, and
Ricky cutting up watermelon. Over all, our family hosted over a hundred
people for the wedding meal and 40 to 60 probably for 8 or 10 meals
before and after the wedding!
We were grateful for the ways God provided and for all the help from the young people.
Rose
had asked Fern Lefever to oversee the cooking for the wedding meal.
She and Robert arrived Friday evening as well. So
while Fern got a couple hundred rolls rising and sauce mixed for the
meatballs, I mixed up a chicken/cheese sandwich filling for Friday
lunch, and Carrie spread it on a bunch of slider buns that were offered
Friday morning that had been leftover from another group at the ranch.
They were the perfect fit for what I'd brought.
My niece Elisa Miller arrived at the Montrose airport Friday and came in to be one of the servers and kitchen helpers.
Tom's sister Shelby made the wedding cakes Friday.
She is decorating the cowboy boot cakes.
Her aunt helping her make the sheet cake for extra cakes. As it turned out, we had lots of cake leftover!
Rose going over plans with her cousin Susanna, whom she had asked to be wedding coordinator.
Susanna had just gotten married in February and Rose assumed she was a pro! She was!
The
dining hall, already rustic with unmatched tables and chairs of all
kinds, was being turned into a wedding reception hall by cousins
Natasha, Pearl, Krissy, and others! Above, the cousins are deciding how
to arrange the tables for the wedding party.
Below
is a photo before it was all done. Our family brought all the wooden
wheels we had, and Rose brought boxes of things she had collected and
then turned the decorating over to the cousins.
Those
burlap-looking bows (on the front of the table) I got at Lowes long after Christmas when they were
marked down by about 75%. I thought surely they would do for some kind
of decor for Rose's wedding, and sure enough!
She
and all of us were keeping an eye out for decor that wouldn't cost an
arm and a leg. I am so proud of Rose and Tom for trying hard to keep
wedding costs low yet come up with a totally delightful wedding.
I loved how the girls put some of the wagon wheels we brought in the windows.
Krissy drew the menu items on little chalkboards I took from home.
At
the last minute, Tim found out from Rose that the one arch he had
already built for the wedding ceremony was not quite enough. She also
wanted one for inside the reception hall.
Soooo---all the bachelor guys (and otherwise) gather around and help put another rustic arch together.
David has the honors of leading the way for the arch to the reception hall.
And
up on the hill in the sunny field that Tom and Rose had picked for
their wedding clear back last winter,
the guys set up chairs, and Rose
had Candace supervising the girls with setup and decor.
Then too soon it's time for the rehearsal.
Candace practices making Rose's hair for rehearsal and wedding.
The girls practice their hairstyle for the next day.
Mother of the bride sits down in a rocker to try to calm her pounding heart.
After all, it's one of her worst days just three days after her herceptin infusion at the cancer clinic.
But it's so wonderful to be well enough to be part of everything--I just had to sit down every once in a while and take some hawthorne berry capsules which always work to settle my pounding heart.
I also accepted a ride on the four-wheeler when one came by and a Hagerty boy offered that I could ride with him! I hopped on, hung on to the groomsman with one arm, and onto my hat with the other, leaving father of the bride and Ricky in the dust!
While we were in rehearsal, elk came out to graze on the hillside a little to our left. And a meadowlark, upon hearing "The Lord's Prayer" sung by Krissy's beautiful voice and accompanied sweetly and gently by David Morley's guitar, flew up on the tip-top of a nearby tree--
as if listening to this strange new lark!
Just before the "Amen," the meadowlark flew away.
But for Jonathan and me sitting there, it was a very special moment--
crowned by our Lord with one of His humble, beautiful little creatures!
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