The Wedding Week-end, Part I

I recuperated from the concert week-end in time to head into the wedding week-end - well, week-end plus Monday.

David is my youngest brother's eldest son (from Oklahoma), who just graduated from West Point in May. Kelsey is a young woman he met at a conference on his campus. She had gone out from the University of Wyoming and their eyes locked across a crowded room, or some such romantic event. I kept seeing this beautiful girl with David on Facebook and asked him several times who she was. He, like his dad, didn't get around to answering my question. Until the day he e-mailed me with the news that he was heading to the Denver airport to visit his girlfriend. When I questioned him about how he happened to come to Denver to visit her, I learned that she grew up in the town just north of us, where I worked for 15 years. I could not believe it.

David and Kelsey got engaged on her birthday, June 30, at the Lincoln Memorial in DC. She was interning there this summer and he was staying with a good family friend. He did it up right, with rose pedals and kneeling proposal - all with an audience of excited tourists.





After we met Kelsey and learned what a great pair they make, they called and asked the big girls to be flower girls. What excitement! Kelsey's beautiful little cousin, who was adopted from Ethiopia, was the third flower girl. The three girls, shortly after meeting, had great fun and decided they wished they were cousins with each other.

Kelsey's final shower was held Saturday afternoon, the theme being ornaments for their first tree next Christmas. I hadn't had time to shop before, so the two flower girls and I headed for Hobby Lobby - the closest to my house and usually a great selection. Whoops - very picked over and not great. But too late to go anywhere else. So we "settled," at least I did, and we headed home for a quick lunch and headed north. If I"d only known the spread that was going to be at the shower, I would definitely not have eaten. Guess who forgot the camera to capture this beautiful table full of wonderful food?

We played a game that showed me how little I really know about my new niece-in-law.

My sis and the hostess - Kelsey's best friend's mom.




It was a beautiful home with a wonderful view of the mountains - where they cut down these two trees - one large one for the family and the small one for Kelsey and David's new ornaments.

The bouquet for the rehearsal --

Sunday was another very busy day. We enjoyed our morning service very much. The wedding was to be held at a venue called Tapestry House north of Fort Collins, where the bride grew up. I had heard of it often, but never been there. I will share more of this beautiful spot later.

The rehearsal itself was in a building with hard wood floors and only a few chairs set up for the wedding party. The groom loves his second cousins and started the game of sliding around the polished floor - scooting them around like hockey pucks.








The rehearsal dinner was at a popular Mexican restaurant in town. It was a fun time with a great slide show of the bride and groom as they grew up. A really fun time was when David's best friends from West Point told stories about him. Josh is a very close friend who has run many miles with David, all up and down the East Coast. He had on a bright pink shirt with a madras jacket of pink plaid. The little flower girls got a real kick out of that and were discussing him the next day as "the guy with the pink shirt" - giggle, giggle. It was really cute. Josh joked a lot about his "man crush" on David and that also sent these three little girls into gales of laughter the next day. I guess "real men" do wear pink!

The groomsmen were all his best buds from West Point - holding their gifts from the groom.

I love this picture of my brother when he signed the credit card receipt for the dinner --
his comment was "I got off a lot easier than the Kurtz' did, though. There is a reason there's never been a movie entitled Father of the Groom..."

Next time - the wedding day.

Have a blessed Christmas!