May 19, 2019

Saturday before the wedding


Saturday morning was apparently the best time to move Cody's Cadillac that has been sitting in the lane for the past several years. Because why not? Cody towed it with his truck. Tyler steered it with a lot of help from several boy passengers, and Ty's local childhood friend followed along behind just to observe the proceeding.


Justin was exercising the neighbor's horses and brought them down to do buggy rides with the kids. 


We were busy bees in the haymow, trying to make some sense of the floral cacophony of a lot of farm filler and costco flowers. Because Tori wanting just farm flowers wasn't working out. So Costco came to the rescue with white roses, pink alstromeria, and baby's breath. 

Interesting story. 

I was tasked with ordering the flowers, so I ordered 200 stems of baby's breath from Costco.com a week and a half before the wedding. (Costco.com was the cheapest spot, I could find, if you ever need to know.) The other websites I had been looking at required a delivery date before adding the flowers to the shopping cart. I assumed the specified delivery date was already in there like it was on the other website. But it wasn't. 10 days before the wedding, I got an out for delivery notification. Whaaaat? A teensy bit of panic set in. In case you were wondering, Baby's breath lasts about 10 days. So it could theoretically still be just still alive, but it wouldn't be gorgeous. Not knowing what else to do, I called costco and asked if there was anything I could do, like refuse delivery, etc. They were so nice. They gave me a refund even though the flowers wouldn't be worth anything to them by the time they got back to them. 

It was like a practice run of ordering flowers and seeing exactly how much baby's breath two hundred stems is precisely. 

But if you are ever wondering, costco has pretty good customer service. 


Anthony cooking up a potion. Or curry. 


Elsie and Abilene were trotting around together as JoAnna and I walked over from the barn. 

Cousins are just the best, whether you are 6 or 36. 


Anthony's Travelall was misbehaving. He thinks it is an alternator, but he had to fly away to Tennessee, so we aren't totally sure yet. 

And these guys get a large kick out of poking at engines, so they didn't mind giving opinions and advice. 



My camera was on the wrong setting, but it looks so 1970's, which suits Anthony's travelall and his corduroy sports jacket that I decided to use it anyway. 


Orianna working on centerpieces. 


Jeff and Bonnie Brown came over from Plattsburgh to help. Monty and Jeff, both avid hunters, hit it off! They were admiring the antler sheds that Justin's parents sent out. 

Hey, we realized we needed something to make the wedding Craigen-ish too, not just Tori-ish. So Mick and Dawna came to the rescue with some Western antlers. 


Livie doing flower things while Evan covered up the door so the pictures of the wedding would not be backlit. 


For Saturday lunch, Anthony and Ashley made a curry feed. It was SO GOOD.  



We ate up in the haymow. 


The juxtaposition of the work bag and the wedding finery. 


I did another foraging run, but this time in the suburban on the roadsides between my house and the farm. I dug up a bloodroot to put in my little woodland scene before gathering up a few armfuls of marsh marigolds for the barn entrance. 

I just want to say that gathering up armfuls of flowers makes me happy on a very deep level. Even when I am thinking things like, "I hope there aren't any ticks on these things..."


Tiny bit of blooming things


Sitting around watching the 7 briskets smoke. In a smoker you can't see. Don't worry, we were not smoking them in the dumpster.


Owen broke out the tiny tractor (we have referred to it as the Shetland tractor) and gave the kids tractor driving lessons.


Owen taking a seat in the wheelbarrow to chat with Monty and Eileen. 


Lily and Marilla spent a considerable amount of time creating Tori and Craigen's name with things they found outside in the sawdust on the barn floor.


Craigen


The antler boutinerres--thought up by Amanda, antlers and leather cut by Justin and the floral stuff added by Amanda. 


Aren't they adorable? 

I know a lot of clever people.


And THEN. The church van (AKA, Clover and Evan's 15 passenger van) pulled in, full to bursting with Wyoming people. Clover and Evan had parked it at the airport so they could all ride up together. There was a little head scratching for them to find it in the airport parking lot, but it all worked out and now, they were finally HERE.

Including the bride and groom!


Much rejoicing ensued. 

(And these next few pictures are from Aunt Geri!)
 

Of course, they had to be trotted out to the barn first thing, to see the barn all dolled up for their wedding.


Enough emotion ensued that Tori had to borrow Dad's blue bandana hankie. 


All the sisters! 

We are some lucky-ducky girls.


Tossing out Costco flower remainders on the stinging nettle that have never seen something as exotic as baby's breath or roses. 


The stairway up the haymow. Cara cleverly did the lights!


This group right here was trouble! Levi and Elliott have a hilarious time together when ever they get together. 


The barn, looking a wee bit festive. Evan carefully tamped down the gravel to make it a nice walking area, Dana and Ashley spread out some mulch, Livie made the swag, Ashley and I did the evergreens and antlers in the water troughs and there are the marsh marigolds I gathered up from our creek! 

It was an everybody pitch in kind of wedding. 


Supper was a large quantity of lasagna, bread, and caesar salad thanks to Clover and followed by cheesecakes by Anthony.


Mothers, talking things over.


Evan and Owen finally conceding that that very soft spot might actually need to be fixed. Evan fixed it quick as wink. 


Starry looking lights


There were a lot of vehicles hanging around.


Kids were all over the place.


Tori and Owen took Craigen and his brother, Corey for a walk around the farm. So everyone had to go see them when they got back.


NY Farm/WY ranch talk.


The evergreen/baby's breath/antler water troughs. 


We ended up just plopping a few big flowering branches here. 


JoAnna made these fabulous sap buckets of ferns, baby's breath, and roses. She even stuck some alstromeria in this one for filler.


The meeting room all set of for Sunday morning. 

There were close to 60 people, so it was a big circle. 

See JoAnna's sap buckets full of flowers? 


And the rehearsal starts! 

Monty looks pretty stoked. And Craigen looks a little concerned about his father. Or maybe Monty just made a wisecrack and Craigen is giving him a look. Knowing them, probably the latter.



The Longs heading up the aisle.


Mom was resting, so Cheyenne stepped in to walk up the aisle on Tyler's arm.


Here is the best man and the two maid of honor/bridesmaids.


It was a carry-your-tea-cup kind of rehearsal. 

Which I fully support. 


Who says what and stands where.




I think bridesmaids with tea cups will become the next big thing.


One go through was declared to be sufficient and we all went off to get ready for bed, meeting, and a wedding. 

The Wyoming people had all gotten up around 1:30 AM to catch their flight here, so there was a good bit of tiredness. 

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