Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Wedding Number 2

Mr. and Mrs. Blake Kjoes. 

This is my eldest niece, Christina and her husband, Blake, leaving the church after their wedding on June 11. Christina had a big wedding. There were 6 bridesmaids and 6 groomsmen. Her colors were burgundy and lemon yellow which, when you first think about it, don't strike you as going together. But, as the decorations on the table show, they worked very well together. 

Blake and Christina have been together for 5 years now. They have three kids, Makayla, Wyatt and Kalub. The wedding was kind of the icing on the cake of their relationship. They have had their ups and downs but they obviously love each other and this event showed everyone how much love they have.

I think the best part was seeing my youngest brother in a tux. Yes, we teased him about how nicely he cleans up. That's my other brother, Steve. My sister, Sharyn, is in the Outer Banks of North Carolina working for the National Audubon Society counting birds so getting back was an impossibility for her. The outfit for Carole's wedding made appearance number 2 here.

It was also nice to see my niece, Amber, who is expecting her first child any second now, as I type this. Here we all are, with Steve's wife, Diane and my mother.

As part of the whole event, all the women in the bridal party went to a local cosmetology school to have their hair done by the students. You do have to sign a waiver that you know these are supervised students and you understand the risks associated with having students do your hair. But there is a tremendous cost savings. As all the attendants had long hair, there were curls all over the place. There was one oops. I mention it because it was striking to me.

My mother has lovely salt and pepper hair. It's more salt than pepper now, but it's curled and she takes a curling iron to it and it looks very nice. She looked lovely at Carole's wedding.

She was having her hair done by a gal at the school. It had been spritzed and sprayed and the gal started in with the curling iron and it changed color. My mom became a strawberry blonde. I'm told it was a little more strawberry than blonde but they were able to tone down the red.

I picked up Steve and Diane and drove them to the wedding. When we walked into the church, I wasn't quite sure where mom was. Then I spotted her husband Dale and the woman sitting next to him stood up. "That's my mother?" I thought. "What happened to her hair?" Now, it's not obnoxious, in fact, it's quite elegant. They did a wonderful job of styling it and making it frame her face perfectly. She does, however, look very much like her mother. Gram's hair was strawberry blonde to the day she died. It was quite interesting to see Gram. When I pointed it out, my mom agreed. In a way, it was nice to think that Gram was with us at this very special event.

After the mid-afternoon wedding, Christina and Blake drove around to various bars. There is a custom where if a bride walks into a bar, people supposedly buy the party a round of drinks. I'm not familiar with that "custom", but they were off to frequent some spots in Cedar Rapids as well as have more photos taken.

The meal was buffet-style followed by dancing. We had our choice of chocolate or vanilla cake. Christina and Blake danced their first dance to Frank Sinatra and "The Way You Look Tonight". I'm finding a number of "kids" chose that song as their first dance. Frank does a great job with it but you really need to rent the movie Top Hat and watch Fred sing it to Ginger. Her dress was light blue in the movie.

One of the amusing things in the dancing was the selection of 1970's-era music to dance to. Yes, I do know all the words to all these songs. It was like walking into my senior prom or attending the weddings of my high school friends. Perhaps it's a reflection of the kind of music produced today. There's nothing that's really danceable. You have to go backwards, back to a time that often gets derided for the quality of music, to find love songs and danceable songs.

It was a fun event. It was nice to be with family and to celebrate a milestone.

Beverage:  Huckleberry Tea

Deb

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