Christmas Bells ... Wedding Bells

My sister Brooke was married yesterday in a beautiful Christmas wedding. She married her sweetheart, Chris, on our parents' 40th wedding anniversary. I was honored to be my sister's matron of honor. Our brother was the minister who officiated the ceremony. The large sanctuary was a sea of red poinsettas, while twinkling white lights ordained trees in the choir loft and baptistry. It was a beautiful setting for a happy wedding.


Here are some snapshots taken on my camera yesterday ...



Brooke with her bridesmaids. From left to right:
Madison (daughter of the groom), Betsy (cousin of the bride), me, Brooke, Nan (sister of the groom), Karen (college friend of bride), Rachel (niece of bride)




Brooke with the children in the wedding.
On the left of the bride are Micah (nephew of bride), Haelyn and Suzannah (nieces of the groom) and Madison (daughter of the groom). On the right of the bride are Rachel and Julia (nieces of the bride), and Joel and Nate (nephews of the bride). The two older girls were junior bridesmaids. The three littler ones were flower girls. The boys escorted the flower girls and rang bells to announce the entrance of the bride.



Our family ...
(from left to right) Back row: Dad, Mom, Brooke, me, Heather and Reid
Front row: Joel, Rachel, Julia, Micah and Nate




Last picture ... Betsy snapped this picture of Brooke and me upstairs in the dressing room before the wedding.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me this past week. I was a bit more emotional than usual, but I did very well. My heart was happy for Brooke and not too terribly sad for me. I got a little teary watching her walk down the ailse. But mostly, I had a great time seeing my family from out of town and visiting with people I rarely get to see. I enjoyed a little late night shopping both nights ... the first night with my cousin Betsy for undergarments to wear underneath my dress and the second night with my Aunt Beth and Gail for Christmas gifts. Oh, and my favorite part of the weekend was that I got to spend lots of time holding babies ... Beau (my cousin Steffi's 5 month old son), Jude (my cousin Clay's 6 month old son), and Caleb (my cousin Andy's 8 month old son). No baby girls, just boys this time around! And while all 3 of them were just too adorable for words, Jude especially stole my heart. He reminded me of Nathan. He kept "kissing" me on the cheek. Nate used to do that. He'd pull my face to his and give those slobbery, wet baby kisses. So Jude scored big, big points with me just for that!

My kids loved the family time as well. My cousin Andy, his wife Gail and their 3 children (Nevin, Kayley and Caleb) drove all the way from Kansas for the wedding. Nevin is just 3 months older than Joel. Both of my boys loved playing with him. But it was Julia and Kayley who hit it off the best. They played together Saturday night until we made them go to bed. Gail said that Kayley went to sleep saying, "I'm going to love Julia forever!" And Julia brought me to tears when she said, "I've waited all my life for a best friend, and now I have one but she lives in Kansas!"

I just realized that I don't have a picture of the groom on my camera. I guess that would be because all of these pictures were taken prior to the wedding. Brooke was very traditional and didn't want to see Chris before the ceremony. So while we did a lot of picture taking prior to the service, all joint pictures of the bride and groom were taken after the wedding. I forgot to get a family member to take pictures for me then. Sorry about that, Chris!