Wedding Cake, Flowers and Music

My sister Rachel made my wedding cake. Isn't it incredible? I love roses, especially pink roses, so she designed our cake with that in mind.

         Rachel also baked and decorated an impressive number of cupcakes. They were delicious!

                  She even used gold glitter sprinkles and small pearl sprinkles. So pretty.

                                             A close-up of the beautiful roses and pearls.

                                       Left to right: Rachel, Sarah (me) and Hannah.

Rachel and I made the wedding bouquets the morning of the wedding. The afternoon before I went to the grocery store and purchased a variety of pink and white flowers. Rachel made my bouquet, it had a large white peony in the center, it smelled wonderful!

Hannah and Adam's brothers Asa and Noah lead worship during the service. We all sang "As the Deer", one of my favorite songs, and "Here I am to Worship". They also sang a special love song called "If You Could See What I See". They sounded terrific. I wish I could have included a video of them singing, but here is a video I found on Youtube so you can at least hear the song by the original artist.

                     And to close this post Hannah and grandpa dancing. I love this photo. : )

Wedding Preparations

 The two days leading up to our wedding were two of the rainiest days I can remember. For the entire week leading up to the wedding my family and I anxiously watched the weather report, praying that Saturday, the day of the wedding would be beautiful.

I never imagined what damage the rain would bring, as it was unlike anything that had ever happened on our property. You can see the huge mud puddle behind me in the photo above.

 Here is a close up! The day prior to the wedding I would occasionally walk out to the tent and inspect the conditions, wondering how our guests were going to manage walking through all that mud and water. We did rented a huge industrial fan and my uncle attempted to dig a trench to drain the water away from the tent- all to no avail. I was growing rather depressed. What were we going to do with 100 people coming to enjoy a beautiful day?

 We thought maybe straw would do the trick! It did help, but still not quite enough. The morning of the wedding mom and I were ready to say we had made a huge mistake, that planning a wedding in the field next to our house was crazy, and we would relocate to the church in town. But the LORD in His mercy provided an amazing miracle!

The day previous we had had a problem with some of the equipment we rented  (we rented the tent, chairs, tables, generator etc. from the same company), and the owner of the company came out to take care of the problem we had with the generator. At that time we told him about the difficulty we were having with the mud, and he offered to loan us special flooring at no cost! The flooring would have been far too expensive for us to afford, so this was a huge blessing!!

 The catch was we would have to find the means to transport the flooring and lay it down. The flooring was very heavy and rolling it out was quite the undertaking. In the photo above you can see the flooring being rolled out. I was so grateful for all of the hard work family and friends put into making the wedding come together.

Our original plan had been to decorate the tent and tables the two days prior to the wedding, but due to the weather the tent was delivered later that originally planned. We all were decorating for the wedding right up until the time of the wedding! Considering all the delays and problems I thought everything looked beautiful!

In the photo above Beulah, Hannah's dog, is doing her best to help put up the Chinese lanterns. Oh, the limitations of being too short. : )

In this picture you can see that we used the straw part of the way as a trail for our guests to walk on in hopes everyone would not become too muddy. I loved how the straw looked so cozy and rustic. 

The Chinese lanterns and lights. You can also see that sun came out for our ceremony! I was so blessed to see the sun shining for our wedding vows, and time of worship. It had been raining lightly just two hours before.

As I walked down the "aisle" a friend played "Great is Thy Faithfulness" on his violin. I chose "Great is Thy Faithfulness" because it is one of my favorite hymns, and also because God has been so faithful! Faithful to send me the most wonderful husband and friend, as well as provide all that was needed for a beautiful wedding day- even sunshine! : )

"Great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:23b

June 8, 2013

On June 8th Adam and I were married at my home where I had spent my entire life. It had always been my dream to be married at home and have an old-fashioned wedding. Growing up I read of Meg March's homemade wedding in "Little Women" and how the morning sun glimmered on Green Gables as Anne and Gilbert made their vows. It seemed like a wonderful and fun idea, and it mostly was. : ) I will explain more later.

As you can see in this photo we rented a large tent for the wedding and reception. I sewed my wedding gown and my flower girl's dress, Hannah sewed her dress as well as Rachel's dress.

We found a pretty pink calico for their dresses as I wanted the wedding to have a fun, old-fashioned, rustic feel, less formal than most weddings.

A photo of both families. Doesn't Adam look handsome?! : )

Mom and I. We had soooo much fun planning this wedding together. Mom was such a blessing to me throughout this exciting season of my life.

Adam and I eating our dinner and laughing a little. Adam toasted our wedding with lemonade and I with peach Snapple, that is my favorite summertime beverage and we offered it to our wedding guests. Notice the crepe wedding bells behind us? When we came back from our honeymoon my sister had hung them front our chimney damper. I was very reluctant to place them in our wedding memory tote and did not do so until this past week!

Adam and I cutting our wedding cake, beautifully made by my sister Rachel! What an amazing labor of love. I will be sharing some additional photos of her artistry in a future blog post.

Our first dance! We danced to Elvis singing "When Fools Rush In". We had originally hoped that our first dance would be a Strauss waltz, but never could manage to learn how to waltz.

I thought the tent looked so lovely at night! I will share more photos in the near future. I think my next post will feature photos of the preparations. We had a rather difficult time preparing for the wedding as we experienced torrential downpours the two days leading up to the wedding. But nonetheless the LORD provided, and blessed us with an absolutely beautiful time.

 "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" Song of Solomon 6:3

Beautiful Words of Hope and Encouragement

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8

All the images above were found on Pintrest. I have been so blessed by this beautiful scripture art that I had to share. : )

Life, and My New Sewing Machine

It certainly has been a while since I posted anything on my blog. The past month has been so busy. Sometimes I am amazed at just how fast a month can fly by. My life has been filled with sewing, preparing for my upcoming wedding and thinking of how I will decorate my future home, but late last month everything was put on hold for a little bit.

On February 22^nd  mom, Hannah and I were in a car accident. Unfortunately mom’s beautiful 1984 Volvo wagon was totaled, but God was so good to protect us from great harm! Mom and Hannah were bruised but otherwise fine, however I did up with a pretty deep gash on my forehead. This resulted in my first trip in an ambulance and 17 stitches. I cannot say enough how grateful I am for the LORD's grace in this situation. When I see how close the cut came above my eye, I am amazed at God's incredible protection. I am also thrilled to see how quickly the healing process has been- it is truly the LORD!

The day following the accident Adam stopped by with a large mysterious box. He told me that he had decided to give me my wedding gift now rather than waiting until June, in hopes of brightening my day. I was thrilled to discover that the box contained a beautiful Bernina sewing machine- the sewing machine of my dreams!!

About 10 years ago, when I graduated, I purchased a Brother sewing machine. At the time it was a beautiful machine, but over the 10 years it has seen some serious use, more than it was designed for and it was beginning show. The computerized push buttons were failing, among other problems. For awhile I had been dreaming of the fabulous Bernina machine I had seen. The feature that most attracted my attention was the lack of computerization! The rugged simplicity really appealed to my old-fashioned taste.

Adam also suggested that the new sewing machine would help with sewing my wedding gown. : )

See the neat knobs that select stitches, and the reverse lever? This machine sews beautifully! It was one of the best surprises ever. : )

Now that the pace of life has evened out again I was able to find the time to list some books and Regency dresses on Etsy. I added some lovely books by Mary J. Holmes and Grace Livingston Hill, as well as a few others.

To close I wanted to share Isaiah 26:3. This verse was such a comfort to me the day of the accident! What an important truth to remember no matter what.

Valentine's Day

I am always looking for tasty recipes for snacks that do not include a lot of sugar or other unhealthy ingredients. Recently I found a couple delightful recipes on Pintrest that are not only healthy but delicious! Today I made up a double batch of Crispy Chocolate Almond Butter Bites. I altered the recipe a bit by changing out the almond butter for peanut butter. This recipe is definitely one I will be making again. : )

Crispy Chocolate Almond Butter Bites

♦ 1/4 cup coconut oil

♦ 1/2 cup cocoa powder

♦ 1/2 cup smooth almond butter or peanut butter

♦ 1/4 cup raw honey or maple syrup

♦ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

♦ 1 cup crispy rice

Directions:

Melt the coconut oil in a microwave or stovetop. Add all the ingredients (EXCEPT THE CRISPY RICE) in a blender or food processor. (I prefer my food processor) Blend. Dump in the crispy rice and stir

Place the mixture in silicone trays or mini muffin tins with muffin tin wrappers. Put in the refrigerator or freezer to set. (Minimum 10 minutes.) If using a silicone tray and you want a smoother finish, really press them firmly into the tray. You may have to play around with a few!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Embroidery

Recently I completed embroidering this beautiful pattern from Clementine Patterns. It had been a while since I had worked on an embroidery project for myself. This was so enjoyable! I anticipated the arrival of each Sunday afternoon, as this was my designated embroidering time.

The "raspberries" were created by stitching french knots in different thread strands, two strands towards the center and one strand around the outer edges. This really gave them a wonderful dimension.

The instructions were easy to follow, and the presentation lovely! I would highly recommend Clementine Patterns to anyone who enjoys embroidery.

This pattern is part of a series representing the four seasons. I originally ordered "summer" which is "His Merceis are New". I was delighted when the shop owners offered me second complimentary pattern since the wait was longer than originally estimated.

Here is a photo of the second pattern I began recently, "Praise God" (spring). I look forward to seeing both framed. They will be a lovely addition to my home, especially since they will be a beautiful reminder of God's great mercies and blessings!