This past weekend out middle daughter, Abby, married the love of her life in the most magical, spiritual, precious ceremony I have ever been a part of. I am putting my thoughts together for anyone who wants to read, but I also wanted to do it while it was fresh on my mind so I could capture my feelings and memories before they fade.

I’m going to start with the wedding day. I will come back to the rehearsal and the night before, but I want to begin with the wedding day. I had a friend tell me last week, “It will be the longest day and the shortest day all at the same time.” And boy, was she right! I tried to soak up every single moment. Even as fatigue set in, I would give myself a gentle reminder that it would all be over soon and to zone back in and pay attention!

Abby and Jake chose Southern Hills Country Club for their reception. One of the reasons that Abby loved it was because of the beautiful locker room that she and her bridesmaids could get ready in. It was spectacular. The day started a little frantic. Abby and I had stay at the Mayo Hotel (more on that later). She had told everyone to arrive at Southern Hills (SH here forward) at 7 am. She was running a few minutes behind. We got in the car and drove away from the hotel and she realized she did not have her engagement ring. She was in a panic. I turned the car around and she ran up to the hotel room and called me n a tizzy. She could not find it. I searched her bag that was in the car and it was in her bag after all. She came back down got in the car and we headed out for a second time. She realized she had left all of her bridesmaids notes she had written in the room. The tears began to flow. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a stressed out bride on our hands!

I calmed her down and she called the world’s best stepdad. He went back to the hotel and gathered the notes for her and then collected Starbucks orders from all the bridesmaids and delivered them to the club!! What a guy! SH hosted breakfast and lunch for all of us while the hair and makeup crew worked their magic.

One thing special I did was have this robe made for Abby to get ready in. The beading and lace was taken from my wedding gown I wore in 1996 to embellish this robe. Her sisters will also get ready in this robe some day. The sweetest seamstress in Sapulpa hand sewed this for me. If you are local, be sure and look up Lucinda’s Alterations and Sewing in Sapulpa. She did not charge nearly enough for her time and it was made with so much care and thought. I’m really grateful.

While we were all getting pampered, my friend and wedding coordinator, Alethia Reece was hard at work steaming every single bridemaids dress. I absolutely did not expect her to do this. It was above and beyond the call of duty. One funny moment that happened…While I was getting my hair done Alethia had my dress and shawl on a hanger and came to me and said, “Is this your dress?” I said yes and she scurried off. As she was scurrying I yelled after her, “please don’t remove that red tag until I decide if I’m going to wear the shawl or not!” She turned around and said, “Do you know that the security tag is on your dress?” To which I said, “no, no! It looks like a security tag but it’s a ‘once you pull this tag off you can’t return it tag!” The way that woman sighed with relief. She thought we had a crisis on our hands. I asked her later where she was going with the dress, and she said, “to the mall to see if someone could remove it!” Again, way beyond the scope of expectation and I’m glad I saved her a trip to the mall! She just did a fantastic job and it was fun to see her in her element!

I’m going to conclude this post at this point, but will follow up with more details for anyone interested. Again, it’s really for me to preserve my memories so if no one ever reads this it’s fine, but thought it might be fun to share a peek into the day with my friends!