Good Things Come In Small Packages

Where to begin? My head is swimming and I need a nap, but I know from experience if I don't start to put some of my wedding-related thoughts into words the blog mountain will grow and feel insurmountable. I'm sure I'll write several posts diving into all the fun details but I need to start somewhere so let's start here.  

We hosted a wedding this past weekend. Yes. In the middle of a pandemic. And it was all the things a wedding should be...sacred and serious and beautiful and fun. So much fun! 

It was also small. Should weddings be small? Let's start there because I have a few things to say about that. 

If you know us in person you know we're social people. We've moved a lot and have friends scattered around the globe, and our daughters are both social creatures as well, with lots of friends scattered around the globe, and in fact our daughter1, the brides sister and bestest friend in the whole wide world is herself around the globe, which I'll get to in a minute, but the point is we like people. We like parties, social gatherings, laughing, dancing, music, and great big bunches of our friends and family in the same place at the same time. 

In 2021 that is just not meant to be. So what do you do? Do you postpone? Until when? Until summer? Next year? Nobody seems to know, and so we make a choice. We set new expectations and we laser in on the truly important. We find new ways of celebrating and marking life's milestones because by golly, they need to be celebrated and marked. 

Daughter2 and her oh so special groom joined hands and lives to become Mr. and Mrs. on a blue sky January day.  I think we all wondered how this wedding would look and how it would feel and I am here to tell you it looked amazing and it felt fabulous. 

For the record, I don't have many photographs to share because everyone was fully present which is how a wedding should be. I'm sharing a few phone snaps people have given me, but our fab photographer uses real film so the professional shots will take some time. 

We would not have chosen a small wedding were it not for Covid, but I can honestly say I loved everything about the size of our gathering. It was so wonderfully intimate and the venue was gorgeous. 

Then there was the bride. This girl was positively beaming, relaxed and happy as she marched confidently through the door God opened many months prior. She and her groom were able to thoroughly enjoy time with each other and with every guest present. We all were and that is so very special and something we've all taken away from the weekend. 

Quite a few of you who read here regularly have asked about the bride's sister, if she was there. In a word no. She had every intention of being there, she booked her trip, and later rearranged and rebooked her trip, but in the end she was unable to travel due to restrictions and complications on re-entry into S. Korea upon return. So that's that. Nobody needed the added stress of worrying about her coming to the states and getting stuck here while her boys were in S.Korea. We had many people praying specifically for clarity and the door was shut for her. It doesn't get much clearer than that. 

And you know what? There were some tears shed over this, BUT! they did not rule the day. If I were to make a list of my favorite moments of the entire weekend the video daughter1 made for her sister would be near the very top. She recorded herself giving her matron of honor speech and I have never in all my life heard a more perfect speech than this one. We played it as a surprise at the rehearsal dinner and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It felt like she was there and that was important. 

Our wedding planner (Beckon Events if you're in my part of the country-they are the absolute best!!) helped us set up a Facebook live feed so she could watch the ceremony, and we had other family members who were unable to travel view it there too, so that was something. Not the same as being there in person, but we are all doing our best in this season of uncertainty. 

And that's all I'm going to say about that, because it was not the main thing and I want to keep my eyes on the main thing. 

The adorable newlyweds. 

Who charmed their guests, danced every dance, and who know with God all things are possible. 

Five Minutes At The Table

Table? Huh?

We've hit the halfway point in the ten day writing challenge and today's word is a head scratcher. I mentioned our old kitchen table in yesterday's post which is unfortunate. Should have looked at the word for today before I hit publish.

Today's prompt-TABLE

When hubs and I built this house we had much discussion over whether or not there would be a formal dining room. Formal in the sense that it would be its own space with all the bells and whistles as opposed to us having one great big kitchen table where all meals would be eaten.

Hubs was inclined to nix the dining room from our blueprint, but I dug in my heels and was adamant there would be a dining room in this house. Where would our great big extended families sit when they came to visit?

Where would we eat Thanksgiving dinner? Store my china and all those rarely used but dearly loved serving pieces?

Celebrate a grandson turning two?

How would we solve all the problems of the world in a house without a dining room?

Because y'all. I'm pretty sure most of the world's problems could be solved if people ganged up less on social media and gathered more often around a dining room table with a plate of food and face to face conversation.



Of course a kitchen table works too, but meals eaten in the dining room take me back to childhood and a simpler time. My dad at the head of the table, carving knife in hand. My mom smoothing the last little wrinkle from her perfectly pressed cloth. My siblings and I using our very best manners because something about dinner in the dining room made you sit up a little straighter and listen a little more.

It gave me an extra oomph of love for these people who were mine.

Time spent at the dinner table can do that. It connects us to one another in a way very few things can, especially in this 21st century immediate-hustle-hurry up way we often live.

Don't we all need to tap the brakes and slow the pace once in a regular while?

Let's linger around the dining room table just a little bit more. Let the love we feel for the people gathered there flood our hearts and fill us till we're full.