My youngest daughter got married this month. As a bride once, I was convinced this would be one of the chosen few best moments of my life. I had no concept of the deeper and more awe inspiring fulfillment in my heart as I watch my children make the decisions that truly bring the greatest joy in my life.
From the beginning, Schuyler let me know that she would love any ideas that fit her theme – VINTAGE. DONE! Anyone who has been in my loft can tell you, I really like old stuff and that like my oldest, Aubrae, I love any decorating challenge. Botanica offered a clean, stark palette. Aubrae and Chris spent August and September cleaning up trees on their property to cut wood rounds for each table. Schuyler and I had several practice runs at the self taught art of wedding flowers in September. She and her grandmother and I got to experience a decadent wedding cake tasting and choosing. She and I spent the night before the wedding in their hotel room after Ezra got to sleep making all the bouquets, boutonnieres and flower arrangements from her selection of varieties of eucalyptus leaves, babies breath and the most beautiful autumn toned ranunculus I have ever seen. All these years I have always thought of them as a type of rose. Who knew? You should Google them…amazing. I taught myself how to make mercury glass and had the dangerous thrill of perfecting the art of wood burning. I am sure that my Dad is smiling down on me, because in standard form, I am still healing from several severe burns, or “well earned war wounds” as he would have called them.
I am proud to say that I didn’t end up in jail for ripping open hot dog bun packages like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride. The company I work for witnessed a complete mini nervous breakdown, but I am here to tell you that it was all worth it. When it came down to the wedding weekend , our two (multiplied by divorce) families rehearsed, lunched and ultimately pitched in to pull off a breathtaking event. We all know that “it takes a village”, and let me just say, I love the villages that my girls have discovered through marriage.
At 6:30 , outdoors on a beautiful October evening, I was honored to be walked down the aisle by my oldest grandson, Boston. The multifaceted similarities of this entire event were not lost on me. Watching my two other daughters walking down the aisle as bridesmaids for their younger sister took me back a little more than 15 years to when the two younger girls stood as bridesmaids for my Aubrae and Chris’s wedding. Seeing the joy and pride on Schuyler and Jerod’s faces as they watched their two year old son, Ezra, playing with the new baseball and mitt that his Daddy gave him after after he safely delivered the “rings” down the aisle also held small echoes for me. Thirty years before, outside on a Hawaiian waterfront, a six year old Aubrae acted as my bridesmaid.
As Gena Rowlands character from the movie Hope Floats simply and eloquently said it best… “my cup runneth over.”
