Sunday, September 20, 2015

Let's Celebrate Love! - Will & Sean's Wedding

Both the sun and the sunflowers watched the ceremony

And love was all around - the newly married couple!

The wedding crew and parents - Emily F., Rachel, Gary, Julie, Emily T., Cathy, Piper, Derrick, Gretchen, Peter, Sean, Scott,
Will, John, James, Paul, Nina, Jack, Anthony, Heather, Josh and Zoe
August 15, 2015 - The Marriage of Sean and Will
photos by Mulin Xiang 

It was a beautiful day in every way. Will and Sean celebrated their love and commitment to each other in the presence of their family and friends. And their family and friends vowed to love and support them in their marriage. "We will!", and "We Sean!" rang out loudly from the audience. Officiants Gretchen Colby Rode and John Shellito blessed their union as did everyone there. A few pictures of the ceremony itself lead this posting but let's start back at the preparations for the wedding and continue sequentially. I'm including a copy of first page of the Wedding program here. As the photos are heavy on pixels, I need at least a second post to accommodate Blogspot's ability to display them. So bear with me - this is only the first release. Much more to come!

The living room is ready for action

Gretchen practices her Homily

The chairs are set up at the bottom of the lawn and the wedding
crew is still setting up the lawn games

Signs are all made and set in place

Bows and flowers adorn the chairs

And ready for the guests

Early on Sean and Will go over the planning spreadsheet

And flowers are arranged along the trail

Katherine Heald and I set up for the appetizers and drinks

While Sean and Will go over the game
plan

With Celebrants John and Gretchen

Cookie all dressed for the occasion

And so is the house with it's plaid buntings on the railings

The gardens are all in bloom

And that famous wedding dress goes up
on the trail

Katherine cuts the bread for appetizers


Some of the wedding crew go over the plans; Molly, Morgen, Sean, Will, Julie,
 Zoe, Piper, Nina, Derrick and Emily T.

Nina admires her wedding crew gift - a glass etched and
decorated by Will and Sean. They made one for each of the
wedding party.

The wedding rings of wood and granite nestle in their nests

Corsages and boutonnieres line up for their owners 

A photo of Sean and Will along with
the woodcuts from their invitations 

The welcome table with the "wedding register" - a poster made
by Peter for guests to sign and post best wishes


Will starts getting ready - he and his wedding crew used the
master bedroom

Peter gave him a hand with his cuff links

That's Julie putting a corsage on someone

Sean and his crew used the basement but Mom got to add the
finishing touches.

The grooms to be check each other out

While the guests arrive - that's Larry
Barns signing in

Shira, Cookie and Myles in front - behind are Nick and
Tommy. Parents, kids and crew waited in the garage
until the music started.

The Processional was "The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe" by Alexandre Desplat from Moonrise Kingdom. The front row here: left to right; James, Cathy, Gary, Heather and Scott

Will and Sean after emerging from the woods - terrific fun
move! Molly in the background did the music.

Starting the Wedding Program

Heather, Sean's Mom, recites Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Will & Sean's Wedding Sunday Brunch

Derrick, Anthony and Nina help out in the kitchen
Just one of the quiches from Baba-a-Louis in Chester
Most of us were up early on Sunday as today was the Wedding Brunch and everyone was invited. Memories of the fantastic wedding yesterday were spinning around all of us. Pictures of Sean and Will emerging from the woods, the crowd yelling after "We will!", "We Sean"! their exchanging vows and rings and of course the rainy procession to the reception - garbage bags overhead. There were wonderful toasts, great food and then - the dancing!!!
So the brunch was a chance to relive memories and get to spend more time with Sean & Will and other friends. It was a beautiful day.
Galen Miller, a friend and neighbor helped us out with the preparations and serving the food. She made fruit salad and veggies too. And went down to Chester early to pick up the baked goods/quiches/desserts from Baba-a-Louis (http://www.baba-a-louis.com). Formerly located near Tall Timbers, our  vacation home for 26 years, we went there pretty much every weekend to pick up french bread and sticky buns (etc.). After we settled back in the car, one of us would throw a loaf of french bread into the back seat for the hungry tigers to rip apart and demolish!
So this was Sean's first choice for a caterer. And John McLure, the Owner/Chef, did a great job - very little was left. In fact besides Scott's smoked salmon, which he made especially for the buffet, we ended up pulling out the left overs from Costello's appetizers from the night before!
And we had a big crowd to do the food justice. It was a beautiful day so everyone could eat and play outside as well as in. Officially the party was from 10 - 3, but it was busy most of the day. And this was a fun time for us all to visit with old and new friends.
Zoe, George, Nick and Tommy had to leave that afternoon but the rest of our family stayed until Monday, including the two grooms! So we had lots of help cleaning up. And of course there was lots to do. Then Sean & Will headed off for their honeymoon in Quebec City. Congratulations to the newly married couple and all the love in the world goes with you both!!!
Zoe, Cookie, George and Scott hang out in the kitchen


Looks like a bathing beauty pose Josh!

The real bathing beauty and champion swim racer - Wandi!

The buffet table

Marlena Fontez and long time boyfriend, Aaron
Gonzales

Nick and Daniel play Risk while Shira, Jonathan and Tommy
look on.

Jesse Adams-Doolittle, Lisa Gilbert, Will,
 Brent Cecil and Piper

James and Morgen cuddle up on the sofa

Joell Shepperson, Colin O'Neil and Tim Ebner

Pete Whinn, Emily Tyler, Aaron Jaffe, Lea Broh,
 John Tyler and Aaron Gonzalez 

Aaron, Marlena, Yosi, Michal, Lisa, Gabriel, Josh,
Cookie and Ana Lua

Luke looks rather pensive here

George, Cathy, Gary and Zoe

Scott, David Wood, Molly Bode, David Schmidt, Jenny, Julie
Kate Davidson, Annie Bennett and Shane Colegrove

Piper, Vasiliy Kisunko, Gynnie Robnett (facing away from the camera),
 Sam Jonas, Courtney, Molly Danahy, Colin O'Neil and Nina Liggett

Ludi Chow, Nicole Cannizzaro, George Cannizzaro
and Sean

Will with Myles, Johanna DeKrey's son

Julie, Rachael Ginsburg, Luke, Suzanne, Molly, David and
 Jenny (facing away from us)

Josh and Russ have a serious chat while in the background;
Debra, Molly and David talk

Sean with Elyse and Sam Seltzer with Kurt Mansberger

While in the kitchen Galen Miller works away,
here slicing up Scott's smoked salmon

Lauren Hassouni, Kate Davison and Annie Bennett

 Deb Newburg, Laura Flannery Masters and Colin Masters

Cookie presents her fantastic sculpture of the two grooms.
In the background Marty and Russ Wolf

A close up of Will and Sean in metal, notice
the eyeglasses and bow tie
 Isaac Thweatt, Ludi Chow, Derrick Smith, Will
Sean, Deb Newburg and Michael Beeler

Will, Sean, Cookie and Michal

Aaron and Marlena play some bad-mitten

Daniel and Josh

James and Morgen with Gary on the right

Our youngest grandchild, Shira Garren

Monday morning - it was clean up time and Sean & Will were
still there working. Here - some of the decorations from the
trail.

And some of the flower arrangements from
the tent. The fuzzy focus is not artistic - it's the
result of Shira's fingers on the lens earlier!