Family Wedding!

Well, we had all been looking forward to the weekend of August 1st for a long time. My next youngest brother, Darren, and his fiance Kristen were married on Saturday. Both our girls were in the wedding, and actually performed remarkably well. (I am always prepared for Juby to become overwhelmingly shy and refuse to cooperate in public.) However, both girls did great! The music was simple and beautiful. Valerie and her boyfriend Erik played violin and guitar. The two instruments actually sounded really good together, and they played arrangements of several songs Darren and Kristen love. The effect was beautiful. The location was a VERY tiny chapel in Brookings. It had a stone floor, a timber ceiling, and was almost entirely glass, besides. I think construction was only finished on it this year, so although it had an old world appeal, everything was sparkling and new. In fact, there was a very calm and almost surreal quality to that afternoon. You would never guess that just two days before, things were a bit hairy . . .

I had been working on the wedding cake for days, and planning and preparing the rehearsal dinner. If you know me, it probably doesn't come as a shock that I am somewhat of a perfectionist. Okay, a lot of a perfectionist. Anyhow, we had decided on Thai food for the rehearsal dinner which was to feed anywhere from 30-50. We tried to keep the menu relatively simple, but classy. This means that I tested, re-tested, and took copious notes on all the recipes I was to use. I am not trying to make the new couple feel bad, but I was up preparing food and working on the cake by 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning, and was following a detailed schedule that left no room for error all day. If my lovely sister-in-law Beth had not shown up at 10:00 a.m. to help for an hour, I would have been TOAST. TOAST, I tell you.

So later that afternoon, already exhausted and maybe a little punchy, I was making one of the sauces for the two rices and the satay. This involved dicing 12 serrano peppers. Now, it wasn't my first time, but it turned out I had two paper cuts on one of my hands and I didn't know. I got through cutting the peppers and thought all was well. Heh, heh. Over the next nine hours the agony grew to where I could not accomplish more than five minutes of work without being overwhelmed by the firey burning on my hand and plunging it into either milk or bleach or ice cold water. None of it helped for long. Plus, I really didn't have ANY minutes to spare. We still had not figured out how to fit al this and a wedding cake safely in our car. It was almost funny if you were watching. Well, I made it through that night, and somehow we finshed packing and got out early the next morning. Every mile we drove was scary for two reasons: 1) a 4-tier cake already finish-frosted jammed in the trunk with everything else (every curve and hill and stop sign caused low-level heart attacks for me) and 2) a six hour drive with the girls who had never gone more than 1.5 hours anywhere. We simply had no idea if any of it, or us, would survive.

It turns out the girls never once complained, never once needed a bathroom when we weren't already stopping, and behaved like perfect angels in general! Maybe we deserved it after our harrowing day, Thursday? I will never know.

We arrived in Brookings mid-afternoon on Friday. We had never met Kristen's family but were soon to arrive at her grandmother's house to store the cake and unload all the food. Unloading was frightening! As soon as I could I got to the cake. It was in perfect condition! My sense of elation and well-being began at that moment and only grew as the night wore on. We felt a little bad about barging in and taking over someone's house. Boy, were we wasting our time with that- Kristen's grandparents and family could not have been more amazing or more welcoming! Soon we had the food prep under way and were laughing and flying around that house with everyone else. Sure, stuff went wrong right and left, including 3 peach shortcakes that turned into 3 strawberry shortcakes at the last minute. THAT is another story that invloves my mom, Val, Erik, me, my dad, and possibly Moses Tatman. I can't remember.

Despite all that went wrong, that food turned out the best it ever had! The guests were happy, we were happy, and we continued to laugh and enjoy the night with all of Kristen's family. It took a LONG time to clean up the disaster we had made, and when we arrived back at the hotel we all collapsed. But it was a good type of tired, and Kevin and I talked about the wonder of it with each other after the kids were in bed.

The next morning started smoothly, as we felt the most difficult tasks were behind us. The day quickly filled with things to do, but Mimi and Val rescued us with some childcare so Kevin and I could pick up the cake from Grandma and get it across the border into California for the reception. All the cake assembly went well, and Kevin got to help Moses and Darren hang lanterns from the ceiling. Correction, after Moses and Darren left to get cleaned up and into their tuxes, Kevin started hanging the extra lanterns they had been forced to abandon. Once we were forced to abandon them, Kristen's dad and brothers took over. And that was the theme of the weekend. Everyone working together for the common good. Where one person left off, another stepped to the plate. When one huge glass structure holding candy for the candy bar shattered, it was dealt with. We even sort of laughed about that one. Well, not really.

The ceremony and reception were wonderful. Sophia and Juliet will remember two highlights, above all else, I assume: 1)The Candy Buffet. This thrilled them to no end. They ate a ton of candy, and filled their baskets with more to take home. This couldn't have made them more happy. 2) Dancing. Both girls danced their hearts out. Juliet got painfully shy when anyone tried to dance with her, but Sophie had a grand time. Sophie and Aunt Karen tore up a rug for most of the evening after eating. Soph had a BLAST!

I, or we, have truly never felt so instantly welcomed by strangers in our lives! It was the highlight of the weekend for us, and what I feel is the point, in the end. Two families came together. Cooked, cleaned, laughed, ate, played music, and supported the young couple we loved. Darren and Kristen, if your wedding weekend was any sign, you will be surrounded by love and support your entire lives. And we were honored to be a part of it!

(We forgot our camera on this trip! But we will add pictures once we steal some from Mimi's camera.)