All about weddings!

Two of David's friends have gotten married in the last month and thus I have found out that Irish weddings are lots of fun, but VERY long! The actual ceremony is pretty short and sweet, but then there is the picture taking and that usually takes several hours. (It's no big deal if you are close enough to go home, but if you have to wait around...it gets a bit long.) Then there is the meal which is usually very welcomed by that point.

It's all very Biblical really. Remember the story of the 10 virgins that fell asleep waiting for the bridal party to arrive? I can totally relate now!

Here are some photos of the first wedding we went to in May:

The Bride and Groom

Paul and Karen.

Paul was best man and did an excellent job on his speech!

My beautiful sister-in-law!

This was the menu! Yummy!

Trying to get Mariah to look at the camera!

Success at last!

Mariah is wearing the dress that my Mom made her. She got loads of comments on it! Thank you Mom!!

Here is Maryann with Mariah

Our friends, Brian and Tracie, also recently got married. Their wedding was beautiful and so much fun. They had a caleigh dance at their reception and I managed to capture a bit of it on video for you.

So that's a wee taste of an Irish wedding or two for you! Celebrating marriage is always wonderful.

Wedding Day

I posted this before, but in keeping with my little journal of summer update events, here it is again! A beautiful slideshow of the wedding pictures. 

(If you want to see the pictures one by one, just go to the controls in the bottom right hand corner and click on the gallery icon.) 

Summer Update: Wedding day!

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008...

...a day that I will remember forever and ever! I woke up and immediately knew that this was a day that would change my life forever. I couldn't believe how calm I was! Soon after a good breakfast and chatting with all my dear bridesmaids (who were in the process of getting their hair done) I was off with Annika (my niece) to the salon to get myself all dolled up! Such fun! 

Annika was my personal attendant and she was such a huge blessing to me. She took all these pictures of me at the salon. She is such a dear. I love her so much!

All done! 

And now for the dress! Isn't it lovely? I felt like a princess wearing it! This dress was also worn by my sister Mindy. It was pretty fitting that we wore the same dress on our wedding days since most of our lives we have been wearing each other's clothes and when we were little my mom would dress us up like twins! It was special wearing this dress, which is destined to become a family heirloom I think! I wonder who will wear it next?

"I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothes me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." 

(Isaiah 61:10)

Summer Update: Wedding Rehearsal!

The day arrived for the wedding rehearsal and excitement was in the air! It really made the reality of our upcoming wedding start to sink in for me! It sort of seemed like a dream before that. The day was filled with lots of work and planning...

My wonderful dad (and I mean WONDERFUL!!) built us these stairs for in front of the stage (he also built the stage!) so we could walk up to the head table in style. Isn't he great!?

Okay, time to practice walking up the "isle". We didn't have the chairs set up yet so we had to use our imaginations a little. Paul (David's brother) and Mindy (my sister) show us how it's done. 

I believe the guys are having a discussion on where they should stand.

Waiting for his bride...

After the rehearsal, my Mom and Dad surprised us by treating everyone to an amazing dinner at the Douglas Lodge in Lake Itasca State Park. It was perfect and the lake was beautiful that evening! Thank you Mom and Dad! 

(Isn't my husband handsome!? Wow!)

Pre-Wedding Moments

Here is a majorly over-due update from our summer! I finally have a Saturday that is free from any other commitments and so here I am...ready to bring you some pictures! Before I can show you any Ireland shots though, I thought I should probably do a bit of an update first. So here we go!.. 

This post covers some of the crazy fun that we had before our wedding took place on August 3rd. 

After David arrived in Minnesota, on July 7th, we immediately jumped into our marriage counseling book that had been assigned to us. We had less than a month to go through it all so it was a tiny bit of an overload. But, as you can see, I didn't seem to mind too much...maybe I am just distracted by my sparkly ring!

Mr. and Mrs. Barkman met with us before our wedding and blessed us with their wisdom and example. It was a complete privilege to have them counsel us and have Mr. Barkman marry us. What precious people they are to us! 

Here we are with our official marriage license! That is a significant piece of paper to possess! 

Our family had a few concerts scheduled and one of the last ones was at the Aardahl Lutheran Church. This is where we had one of our very first concerts as well, so it was extremely significant for us to play there again.

Little Elijah enjoyed the concert too!

Dad, Ben, and David all took off one Saturday and enjoyed a good round of golf. Gotta love those sweet Father-in-law/son-in-law bonding moments!

more to come....

Addressing the invitations

Karen came over and helped me address all of the envelopes for the invitations. She is such a tremendous blessing to me! It was a lot of work but went so much faster with two of us...and it was way more fun!

Wedding flowers!

My mom, Auntie Eve, and I all headed into Bemidji Florist last week and picked out the flowers for my wedding. It was SO HARD to choose! All of the different varieties and gorgeous colors were amazing. Here is a little sampling of some of the ones I settled on finally.

You can see a little swatch of the bridesmaid dress material in the picture below. I am in the midst of sewing today and absolutely love the material. It is going to look so stunning on my beautiful bridesmaids! I can hardly wait. Only 5 weeks and 3 days to go!

Engaged!!

On May 22nd, 2008, I said yes to the man I love when he asked me if I would marry him! That little word has turned my world upside down! I am now a fiancé and the future wife of David! Whoa!

Okay, now for the story…

The Start:
It was a perfect day and we woke up early to head out to Itasca State Park for a good bike ride. But first we had a nice breakfast of Dad's famous oatmeal which was a lovely start to a perfect day. After chatting with Mom and Dad for a bit, they bid us farewell and off we went (they both knew what was going to happen!). The bikes were in the back and David was driving Dad's truck. He was feeling very trucker-ish and completely enjoyed the ride. I was entertained just watching him hang his arm out the window and pretend to be a country hick from the sticks. He really couldn't pull it off though, thank goodness!

The Proposal (my favorite part!):
When we arrived at the Headwaters to the Mississippi River, we got out of the truck and started off down the path to the river. I noticed that David seemed to be in some sort of an awful hurry and thought we should maybe slow down a little and just enjoy the walk but he was on a definite mission and there was no stopping him! When we arrived at the source I said, "There it is!" expecting some sort of exclamation of wonder and amazement at this humble beginning to the mighty river. Instead he took my hand and nearly dragged me across a log lying over the river. His mind was obviously not on the river. On the other side we stopped near the flowing water and David turned and looked at me. THEN he said it...those amazing words that have changed our lives significantly! He asked me if I would be his wife! I was shocked and delighted and amazed and…well, I think I nearly choked him with a hug and then said YES!! What an amazing moment it was, forever frozen in my memory. The sky was brilliant blue, the sun was shining bright, a pair of ducks watched us from their nest nearby, fish were jumping in the lake, and a loon was calling across the water and I became engaged to the man that I love with all my heart! It was a perfect day!

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Shannon and Nathan's Wedding

Our family played music at the wedding of our good friend, Shannon Maul. It was a beautiful event full of joy and fun. May God bless this couple as they embark on the adventure of marriage together.

Sweet Gwen, the sister of the bride and maid of honor.

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Shannon made all of the dresses including her own! She is amazing!

Audra and Justin

Ok--I realize that I am WAYYY behind in my blog but I will attempt to do a little catching up here.

The buzz around here for the past while has been the exciting upcoming marriage of my sweet cousin Audra to Justin Kastner. We are all greatly rejoicing in the news. They are two quality young people who love God and serve Him greatly through the quiet obedience of their life. I have been so impressed with the way they have carried out their courtship and the high standard that they have set for themselves.

We celebrated the occation with a bridal shower at my aunt and uncle's house.

Erica, Mindy, and Karen: dipping strawberries in chocolate!

Krista Fafach: Using her culinary magic and creating a masterpiece!

Congratulations Audra and Justin!