Dad's Wedding

Wow - it was a huge pain to get the family out for my Dad's wedding, but I'm so glad that we did. Due to the horrible timing, we couldn't get the family out for Mom's funeral, so it was important to get them out for the wedding. It was VERY good to get the entire family together again. We even had Mary Lewis fly out with Adam. I'm really hoping that the two of them continue to grow in their love and affection for each other. Mary is VERY good for Adam and he's happier than I've seen him in his entire life. He's starting to grow up and be a man!

I will type another entry to capture some of the events leading up to the wedding and use this entry to capture the details and thoughts of the actual wedding.

So - November 1st, 2014 - the Wedding Day had finally arrived. We were so excited! In spite of all of the fears and frustrations of getting the family to NC for the wedding, we were finally in Asheville and honestly - we were truly excited for the wedding. Amy had done such a great job picking out clothes for the family and we spent the entire morning doing hair and getting everyone dressed for the day. The best surprise of all was what we saw out the window (this is actually a view from the reception hall, but it was pretty much what we saw out the window as well):

Yep - the first snow of the year in NC happened to start on Halloween night (while we were out trick-or-treating) and kept snowing all day long on the wedding day. It was cold and wet, but it was a very pretty day. I should have taken more photos of the beautiful scenery as we drove to the wedding. Literally breathtaking and the perfect addition to the "White Wedding" Day!

 

We arrived about 20 minutes before the wedding started, but that was about perfect since the wedding started about 20 minutes late. Bishop Sanner did a great job with the wedding. It was intro was awesome - "2 things you should know about a Mormon wedding - we will always start late but we will be brief!". He was correct. The entire wedding only took about 20 minutes, but it was beautiful. These two ladies did an incredible job playing a violin duet as prelude music. They completely invited the spirit into the ceremony:

 

Then Dad came in with the Bishop and waited for Robin to arrive:

When Robin finally came through, wearing her beautiful green wedding dress, Dad's face showed it all - he was in tears and was literally like a school-boy with joy. It made all of our hearts happy! What a happy day for him - it's been such a long, hard year for him. I'm so happy that he has found Robin. Look at the two of them during the wedding - so happy:

After the wedding, which was very brief, we stuck around to take some photos and meet Robin's side of the family. They are very awesome people! Mike and Kathleen are her son and daughter. Their kids are just awesome. Ashtyn hit it off immediately with Sessily, Kathleen's daughter. They are the same age and they hung out with each other the entire time. Ashtyn was very happy to have a friend while she was there. Here are the two of them right before the wedding (they started chatting within 5 minutes of our arrival):

Jantzen and Tyler also had a good time with Eli, the smaller boy in the background of the photo above. I also got a close-up of the fireplace. Very original - there were geodes built into the masonry work. Cool concept. Not sure I would choose that for my house, but very nice touch for a place like this:

As you can see from the photos below, the place was packed for the wedding. It was great to see so many old friends and loved ones. We really enjoyed the entire wedding. It was super sweet, without much pomp or circumstance, which is how my dad likes it:

Here are a few more photos from the wedding of people in action. Tyler and Jantzen were so excited to be together. They really love playing together - its fun to watch!

My favorite part of the wedding was saying hello to my dad right beforehand. He's such a great man and I'm always very proud of who he is and what he stands for. He exemplifies integrity to me and I'm so proud of him. I hope I never have to go through the year that he's gone through this year, but I know I could make it after watching him. He's a great man. Honestly, I feel pretty bad that we haven't given him the support he needs through all of this. His children (including me from time to time) have been pretty hard on him. From my part, I was most hard on him because of the date that was chosen for the wedding. Well - it turned out beautiful and honestly, I loved the snow on his wedding day. It added an extra dose of beauty!

After the wedding, we all headed down the path to the reception hall, which was really just a barn. There was ZERO insulation, so it was a little cold inside, but we had a blast anyway. The food was great and we really enjoyed the dancing and the entertainment (a very talented juggler). I was able to sign the paperwork as a witness and Tracie and I both gave "toasts" towards the end. Dad actually took dancing lessons with Robin and they did the Rumba for their first dance. They looked great. I will say that Adam is an incredible dancer. It was fun to watch him dance with Mary, Melinda, Tracie, Amy, Ashtyn, Alyssa - everyone. He did great!! He definitely showed me up and I was very happy to let him do it!

 

 

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