Wedding!

I have been a little preoccupied the last month what with my older son’s wedding, so I’ll be catching up with my posts. This time, though, I’m starting with the most recent and the most important.

First things first—the wedding was gorgeous and went off beautifully. My new daughter-in-law is highly organized and everything went off without a hitch. The ceremony was held outside in at Carnton. After the ceremony, we had a cocktail hour and could tour the mansion which was pretty cool.

Just married!

Carnton that night

I was able to participate in all the bridal party stuff that day, including getting my hair and makeup done professionally. As I watched the bridesmaids and the mother of the bride get their makeup done, I realized what a smart choice I made to have someone do mine. Some things are much better when outsourced!

Here’s the start of getting my hair done. I have a lot of hair, but it’s fine and very soft so the stylist used texturizing powder, then backcombed my hair like crazy and then used probably 10 bobby pins and half a can of hair spray. My hair wasn’t going to move at all, which was also good since it was incredibly windy outside.

Here's me with a french twist (no makeup yet).

I was trying to get a photo of the the lines of the dress.

I'm not very good at the selfies, but here's a closer look at my makeup.

As the makeup artist started on me, she asked what I normally wore. “What you see is what I do,” I replied. “Oh,” she said, “you go for the natural look.” Yup, that’s true but as I told her I didn’t want that for the wedding. I asked her to glam me up and that’s what she did. I’ve never in my life worn false eyelashes (I don’t have the skill to put them on, I have tried and failed), but I wore them on Saturday!

Interesting factoid: it was so windy out, that the ends of the false eyelashes fluttered in the wind.

This is Karen (my daughter-in-law's mother) and me. Yes, we both have on navy. My daughter-in-law helped us each pick out our dresses.

This is Karen and my daughter-in-law's sister who was the matron of honor. 

Full on Hollywood with my sunglasses and stole.



















Kent and me in front of the front door to the mansion. You can see how windy it is because my bangs actually blew around.

The ring-bearer (also the son of the matron of honor).



















KU was playing in the NCAA tournament that night. My younger son sat with Kent and me at the reception, and all three of us graduated from KU. So Ben whipped out his phone and we sort of kept an eye on the game while eating dinner (KU won).

And a photo of my corsage.

The value of long friendships

I met P in 1988; I was married to my first husband then, and my kids were five and seven. She and I connected immediately and became very close friends. She was there with me through all sorts of major life events, good and bad, and she’s said I did the same for her.

We drifted apart in the mid-90s, partly because I wasn’t in a good place and also I moved from Lawrence to Kansas City. But a few years ago, she found me on Facebook and we reconnected. She doesn’t live all that close by any more (it’s a three-hour drive, much of it on two lane roads). Saturday she got married and I was there.

I was very nearly late, which always stresses me out inordinately, so I was a little anxious as I slipped into a pew in the back of the church. Then a door behind me and to my right opened, and I caught a glimpse of her dress—nothing but a flash of fabric—and to my surprise, I immediately started crying.

Now I am not a crier. Yes, I have feelings, but generally speaking I don’t express them with tears. I teared up at my own wedding just once, not at all at my younger son’s wedding and once at my older son’s wedding. Tears aren’t my normal way of expressing my feelings. But Saturday was different.

And she cried too. To be honest, I knew she would cry (she is a crier); what got me was that she cried because she saw me.

I had a lot of time to think over all of that the drive home and I think I know why we both cried. You don’t have that deep of a friendship and not carry the love forward even if the daily contact is no longer there. You can’t have the kind of shared experiences we did and not have that kind of emotional response.

Before I left the reception Saturday night, I hugged her and told her that I had never stopped loving her. I wish we lived a little closer to each other, but I’m so glad to have reconnected with her and so very glad she wanted me there at her wedding.