July 16, 2011

Saturday 16~~~~I was up early this morning getting last minute things done at my house before I left to go decorate the reception hall. I never did any decorating for any of my 5 kids weddings, here I am a grand mother and learning how to do it. My sister and brother helped do the decorating at my kids weddings, I was busy fixing food with my mother. LOL Jen's (the bride) mother really put a lot of time and thought into the decorations. She had everything so planned out and all we had to do was listen to her instructions. She had a "Sweet table" that was very different from any wedding I have been to. It had all kinds of large candy jars and containers and every kind of candy imaginable, in the color of blue. The tables had beautiful scarves on them and she sewed all of them. She had a table with a tree branch on it with circles of paper for everyone to write a thought for the bride and groom on and to hang on the tree. There was also a beautiful album with pictures of Jen and Justin on each page and everyone wrote their thoughts in the album. It took us several hours to get the decorating done, it was a lot of fun and I am glad I took part in doing it. I worked with my grand daughter Breanna who was home from Portland for the wedding. She was such a big help and we had fun together. We slipped out to the coffee shop for a latte, as we were the first ones to be there and we needed a coffee break. LOL Justin was there trying to help, but not a single groomsman was there, maybe they partied a little the night before????
The wedding was so beautiful out doors at the Old Mill with the creek running through the park, everything was so green and beautiful. The weather was supposed to be rain showers, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day. The ceremony was out doors and after the ceremony and pictures, the party began in the reception hall. They had a real neat Disc jockey who played a lot of music that he led the dancers to all the different moves of the song. Kind of like line dancing, only more fun and everyone caught on to the dance steps real easy. The dance floor was full of people all the time. Joel was his brothers best man and Jen's sister Sherrie was the Matron of honor. Joel gave the funniest toast to the bride and groom and he had everyone in stitches. I never knew Joel had so much humor in his body. After a delicious buffet dinner the dancing began and of course the famous "hanger hat dance". The disc jockey announced there was going to be a hanger hat dance and he didn't know what kind of dance that would be, but everyone was to make a hanger hat. The tables from the food had been cleared, so we put all the hangers there and lots of crepe paper and junk and all the guests came over and they had a ball making a hat to wear. The young men really got into their hat making. Lisa got up and told the story of the men at FHO who wore Stetsons and the Toupal kids version of a "Stetson" was a "coat hanger" on their head. The disc jockey played the Hank Wm's song, "Family tradition" and everyone on the dance floor with their hanger, sang the song with the music. I think this was the biggest hanger dance I have seen, because everyone came to the hat deco table and made one for them self. It was sure a lot of fun and all of you in South Dakota, Nebraska and Seattle missed a real fun time. I think it is time for some of you to head to Oregon!!!