All about Saturday!

Okay, now I'm ready to write about Saturday.  This will be long, and there will be many, many pictures.  Again let me say that this blog serves as our family's diary, and I want to remember it all.  I really do understand that a gay wedding is difficult for many of my readers, and I'm trying to be sensitive, but at the same time I want to honor the love and commitment that Mike and Jeremy have for each other.  We love both of them so dearly.  They put so much effort and planning into this day, and that, combined with all that Anthony and Lori did to create such a fantastic venue, plus all the people who came from far and wide, made for a day that far exceeded our expectations.  In spite of the HEAT!!!  Oh, it was hot, hot, hot!!  But it did not rain!  Not one drop!  So here goes.....

Months ago Mike told me that his mom (Martha) really wanted to get her hair done with me the morning of the wedding.  Now if you know me, you know that I have a hard time trusting my hair with anyone ever since I was no longer able to have Jay, my most favorite hair dresser ever, in Manheim.   But I wanted to do this with Martha.  So I picked her up at Residence Inn and we got to Cherry Lane Salon at 10 am.  It was fun!  Here we are about an hour later.   (I confess, I went home and re-did it a little bit.)

I took Martha back to the hotel, then went home and actually had time to be lazy!  Miki and her friends and the dogs were all here too, and we just took our good, old time getting ready.  Dick had been over at Anthony and Lori's doing something (can't remember what), then he came home to shower and dress.

We loaded up the dogs, realized about five minutes down the road that we had forgotten their food, went back for their food, then found out that Bjorn and Jess had just arrived in town with Destiny, so we met up with them so we could get her.  She had a shoe decision to make!  She conferred with her mom by phone, tried them both on as we drove, we conferred with a  cool girl when we got to Anthony and Lori's.  Destiny decided on the burgundy ones, even though they weren't quite as dark as her dress.  The cool girl told her they matched her hair, hahahaha!!  So that was settled!

People were soon arriving by a trolley that Jeremy and Mike and rented for the day.

How about this cool little guy that arrived on that trolley?  Actually, I heard that it was really hot in there on this very hot day - no AC!

We were told that the parents were wanted below the pond for pictures.  As we walked down, Lisa and George (who had just been down there for wedding party pictures) were coming up.  Lisa was wearing HEELS!!!  You can tell how hot it was just looking at their faces!

Here we are with Jeremy and Mike.  I guess the pictures they took with Martha and also with Mike's dad and stepmother (Dave and Marian) had already been taken.  I'm really sorry I missed those.

We were going to be taking family pictures before the ceremony, but dear Lori had been helping out with appetizers, etc.  and still needed to shower and nurse Hunter, so we decided to do those afterward.

This guy, Anders Hyatt from the Philadelphia area, was the wedding singer and DJ.  He was really, really, really good!  His music and the setting were an absolutely perfect blend.

As the ceremony was about to begin, the benches where guests were sitting were beginning to be shaded by the surrounding trees.  The deck where the wedding party stood, however, was NOT in the shade!  (Except for Mike's sister on the far left.)

When Lisa saw this picture she said that apparently when ladies are trying not to cry they look down and men look up, hahaha!

Our handsome ring bearers had walked down the aisle with Watson (the dog,) then Miki's friend took him to his cage.

Sophie walked Molly (the dog) down the aisle, then Bianca came down throwing rose pedals on the ground with the SWEETEST smile ever!  Unfortunately, both Dick and I forgot that she does not like a big deal being made over her, and when she got to us at the front we both whispered,  "Good job, Bianca!"  That suddenly made her realize she was being watched, and that was it.  She would not go up to stand with Sophie like she had done at rehearsal.  I SO regretted that we had said anything.  But Jenn said she was also hungry, and probably would not have made it up there the whole time anyway.

There you can get a glimpse of beautiful Sophie as the guys were saying their vows.  Poor Mike.  He was facing directly into the sun and could hardly see!  Occasionally Jeremy would try to tilt his head just right to put some shade on Mike's face!  They had three-piece suits on and had to be absolutely melting!

I sang "Grow Old with Me," and the wedding musician accompanied me with his guitar.

Lori read a poem in her endearing, emotional style.

The guys mixed soil from Lancaster County, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and Washington DC together and planted something in it.  I honestly did not notice what they planted.  I'll have to ask them!  At one point when Mike opened a bottle of water, the heat had apparently created pressure in it, and water sprayed all over Jeremy's face.  Everyone cracked up.  I think we all were wishing we could have water sprayed in our faces!

Someone took this picture from the back.

Afterward we pulled the troops together and managed to get a family picture.  (Unfortunately, we were missing Frank and Lauren and their other children, and also Miki's husband Ingomar and her daughter Katrina.)   This picture filled my heart so full when I got a chance to look at it the next morning.

Here are the guys with the siblings, all but Frank, of course.  Left to right: Sam, Miki, Lisa, Mike and  Jeremy, Anthony, Ray.  For any new readers wondering if I gave birth to them all - no, I did not.  Lisa  was our firstborn, then Anthony, then Jeremy.  Miki came to us as a teen when the other children were  little.  Sam, Frank, and Ray also came to us as teens when our birth children were also teenagers.  They're all pretty close in age, except Miki.  She'll be turning 50 later this year!  I like to joke that I was 15 when she was born!  Lisa is 42, Anthony will be 40 next week, Sam is 38, Frank is 37, Jeremy is 36, and Ray is 33.

And now I will post a bunch of random pictures, some I took myself, many that I took from others who were there.

Father-son selfie!

Lisa and George.

Destiny loves her Uncle Jeremy.  I'm so glad she could come.

Miki and Thyda.  I LOVE this!!!

My beautiful Florida girls.  Before long people will think they are sisters!

Cousins in the hammock.

My sister Rose (from Georgia) on the left, talking with some of my sister Doris's children.

Another father-son selfie!

Destiny with Uncle Sam.

Lisa and Sophie with Sammy and photobombed by Miki!

Mike and Jeremy with Molly and Watson.

Jeremy with his big sister.  Lisa, George, and Sophie were totally Jeremy's family during the seven years he lived in Florida.  

My sister Betty and her husband Scott (from New Hampshire) with Jeremy.

Up in the tents there was a LOT of good food provided by Hoag's Catering.  I did not get one picture of the INCREDIBLE Pittsburgh cookie table. Guests had been asked to contribute to it, and did they EVER!!  Seriously,  there are cookies in the garage freezer at Anthony and Lori's to last a year, haha!!

Lisa was getting her Hunter fix!  (Notice she had changed out of her dressy clothes by this time!)

Down at the barn there were toasts from the dads, from Jeremy's friend Daryl and from Mike's sister Linda.  Again, I did not have my camera, but I found this picture on FB from one of Jeremy's friends. I so regret that I do not have one picture of Mike's dad.  He gave such a meaningful toast.  

I think it was around that time that we had the mother-son dance, but I haven't seen any picture of that so far.  By the way, here's where I'll talk about my shoes again!  Remember I had two pairs?  (See the Friday post.)  I liked the silver sandals best, but when I got there I felt like they were too slippery because of the hard soles, so I switched to the flats.  I thought they looked more dowdy, but I felt safer.  However, later in the day they were hurting my toes, so I switched to the sandals, and my feet felt great the rest of the day.  They didn't feel that slippery after all.  And I was glad I had changed into them before the mother-son dance!  

Then there was a lip-synch battle.  I missed some of it because I was feeding the dogs, and with Sam's help, taking them out to do their business.  

This was my niece Marcy's husband Scott.  He is normally a quiet guy, but oh my goodness!  Is he ever a HOOT on stage!!!  He had the whole crowd screaming laughing and singing along. 

Our girls (Destiny, Thyda, Jenn, and Jess) got up there and did one impromptu.

Sophie, Austin, and Sammy did one too!  So cute!

When that was finished it was getting dark, and we went down to the pond to do sparklers.  Wow, it looked so beautiful!

And then there was dancing.  I had given up trying to keep track of my camera by this time.  I got this one from Sam.  Isn't this just too cute - Jenn dancing with Bianca?

Before long Sammy found his way to the stage and eventually everyone turned to face him.  He was beyond thrilled to be in the limelight, and he IS a really good dancer!  Afterward he asked Jenn, "Did you see my show?"  He was even conferring with the DJ between songs.  What a guy!

When the trolley was ready to take the first load of people back to the hotel, no one wanted to leave.  It was cooling down and was so beautiful with the lights after dark.  Everyone was enjoying themselves so much.  Anthony was feeling really, really pleased with how well his place, and all the hard work that had gone into preparing it, had served for this huge event.  He has big dreams for more events. 

Of course, after the guests were gone, there was still a LOT of clean up to be done!  We and George and Lisa and a few others repackaged the cookies for the freezer, made sure all the garbage cans were emptied, etc.  We weren't interested in enticing any bears!  

And then we took our tired bodies and Destiny and the dogs home for some sleep!  Miki, Christel, and Maria had already gone home earlier.  I set up our cot here in my office for Destiny.  We had to sleep quickly because we needed to leave by 8:30 am in order to say our goodbyes to Lisa's family before they would leave for the airport.  

Next post will be about Sunday, and maybe some cute baby pictures from this past week.