Well, you should of known I was going to go ga-ga over my girl.

Time now for Laura Fest, where I indulge myself by posting a rediculous amount of pictures of my favorite nurse.

Jeepers, creepers, where did you get those peepers?


The sweet and innocent sweetheart.


















Sometimes there's a little attitude.
And sometimes there's a lot of attitude. 

One of the things I like best about visiting new places is getting the chance to sample the local cuisine. I happen to adore Scandinavian food.

In fact, I love Scandinavian food so much that when we got married, our rehearsal dinner was held at a Scandinavian restaurant in Lemon Grove.

For years our favorite date was to go out for a late breakfast on Friday mornings to the Dansk Tea Room in La Mesa, near our home for fourteen years in Southern California.









The tea room had walls painted Copenhagen blue, white lace curtains and red Swedish horses for decoration. It was easy to imagine we were in Sweden, as girls in Swedish folk dress brought us beautifully prepared dishes, their hair worn in braids wrapped crown like around their heads.
The table mats and wall art there showed Carl Larssen art, tender portraits of domestic bliss in Sweden.
Bliss indeed for us as well to be in that special place.

Now that we live in Houston we haven't found any Scandinavian restaurants to visit. We make due with occasional visits to IKEA's little cafeteria. Love those lingonberries and Swedish meatballs.

Now Mexican food is easy to find in San Diego, Houston, and even in Salt Lake City.
Just about every street has a Mexican restaurant.

But sometimes I just long for a good traditional Scandinavian meal.

Pictured above: The wedding rehearsal dinner.

(So of course the rehearsal dinner in Minneapolis, the center of Scandinavian people in America, was held at Dave and Busters. The fajita and taco buffet was outstanding. Really! I just love fajitas and toco! Eat them all the time. Who knew the Scandinavian people could cook fajitas and tacos just like the Mexicans???)

preparations

The day has arrived.
Feb. 2, 2007.
Candlemass.
Winter is half way over.
Andrea is laced into her wedding gown.
A veil is added, and it is clear: Andrea today has become a bride.

In the reception hall, the cake has arrived.


Florists and caterers create table settings that are elegant, reflecting the taste and style of the bride.















The wedding party was told to arrive at the church at 12:30.
Picture taking would begin at 2.
The Bridal room was warm and lively, with hair and dresses, jewelry and make-up transforming girls in jeans to beautiful bridal attendants.

At two, the bridal party withdrew, leaving the bride alone in her room.
The groom knocked at the door.
And the two shared a tender moment uncaptured except in their own private memories.

After that, for three and a half hours, picture after picture captured the wedding party and families.

That's a lot of pictures.
Whew.
I don't think I could have managed for so long in a corset, holding a heavy bouquet and smiling again and again.

(The groom looked just a little tried as the hours wore on, and pictures continued to be snapped.
Rented patent leather tuxedo shoes don't feel so good standing on pseudo cobble stones in the park like setting outside the chapel.
I stole to his side and whispered:
"You know, it's still not too late to elope."
"Here's my keys" he replied softly. "Quick, go warm up my car!")

Laura and I stayed together.
I changed in the bridal room once the crowd cleared out.
We walked and talked, and shared our thought about what she would want in a wedding.
We think alike.
No muss.
No fuss.

Laura's been in five weddings: One in a back yards, one in a park, one in a gazebo, one on the beach, and now this one, in a church.

I'm glad I was happy with my own wedding. Too many brides suffer for having to fulfill their own mother's thwarted wedding dreams.

It isn't that I think a big wedding is wrong.
I don't.
The wedding in Cannaan was a humdinger.
Far be it from me to disapprove of big weddings like that!

I think it is more that we think more of marriage than we do of weddings.

And it is hard to focus on the specialness of the day that vows are taken and a marriage begins when there's cake arrivals to notice and strangers to meet and dress steamers vying for your attention.

A weddings is a lovely scripted one day scene.
While marriage day by year unfolds, the creation of life together, unscripted.

Wedding, though, are a beautiful thing.

MN Wedding Journal: Rehearsal

The Brides Room.

So cute!










It facinated me that the ultra contemporary facility bowed to the traditional for this hard working space.
The furniture all looked antique, like well loved pieces from grandmother's house.
It looked like a cozy place to curl up with a cup of tea and a good friend for a nice long chat on the sofa.
The little dressing table was adorable, with a crystal dressing table set, lace and a tiny (wobbly) upholstered stool.
In another little room behind this table was a beauty parlor set up.
There was a shampoo sink with an indentation for the neck, a hard bonnet hair drier, a chair with lift and spin capacity, and a half wall of mirrors with make up lighting.

Cute, cute, cute!

It was the next day, as the bride stood getting laced into her dress, that she noticed one of the pink toile design was a girl milking a goat.

One of those whimsical things that makes you smile.

As charming and pretty and romantic and everthing that this room was, let me just make a suggestion for those designing Brides Rooms:

Once you add five bridesmaids, assorted mothers and grandmothers, hairdresses and photographers, crinoline petticoats, trains, makeup bags, clothing in bags, boots, steamers and waterbottles, the Bride's Room gets a little tight, and very warm.

This bride's room connected to the very large (like 16 stalls) bathroom, which helped.

But what is really needed more than crystal dressing table sets and big poofy pillows is:
Hooks on the walls that are slightly higher than one's head, to keep trains off the ground.
More hooks to hold bags of assorted "stuff".
A mini refrigerator so an ice chest isn't needed.
More raised flat surfaces, so everything doesn't have to go on the floo
A step stool so the veil can be placed/fixed on the bride without her having to sit down.
A stall with a door so wide bell shaped dresses don't get crushed going in and out.

I've been in several Bride's Rooms in the heat of the wedding preparation battle, and have always been stuck with how cute they are, yet impractical in function.

Maybe if the bride and her attendants were all to arrive at the church ready to walk down the aisle these rooms would be perfect.
A space to retreat to while guest arrive.
A cozy space for a cup of tea and a final visit with your girlfriends.

Um, again, maybe this is just me...but I just can't see that happening!
Except maybe in my white lace and promises dreams.

The rehearsal.
I liked the chandeliers!
The rogue gallery "before" picture.

I loved the Chapel's white pews, and the soft color scheme.
On the side walls were old plaster Stations of the Cross hangings.

A very serene place.

A traditonal feeling place, a perfect place for the more sentimental rituals of Christian life.

A perfect place for Andrea's wedding.

MN Journal: "Living Word Christian Center"

"Living Word Christian Center" is where the wedding will be held,

It is an ENORMOUS facility, with a bookstore, coffee bars, a sanctuary like a modern theater, PLUS a wedding chapel.

And that is only what I was able to see as I went to go to the wedding rehersal.





This is what you see when you walk in the front door.
There is also a very large bookstore and gift shop just to the right.
A nice plaza between the Sanctuary and the Chapel.
Perfect for mingling between services.
The fountains, clock, lanterns and arboreum create a feeling is both elegant and park like.




























Sincerely, I am impressed and approve of this kind of facility. Its design is fitting to accomodate the activities of this particular church.
Everywhere I looked I saw wise choices to facilitate large groups both efficiently and comfortably.

Even so, I think wistfully about white clapboard churches with soaring steels, and English chapels surrounded by cemetaries.

I've sat and worshipped in the church building where Bernie's ancestors were baptised and married, back in the 1700's, in Maryland. Around that church were the headstones of the families who have worshipped there for generations.

There's something powerful about considering those who have gone before, and imagining how the quiet setting will look when those dead in Christ shall rise again.

I really like how "Living Word Christian Center" performs.
I truly do.

But I think about the words, the titles:

"Sports Center" "Medical Center" "Business Center" "Media Center" "Shopping Center" "Community Center."

Whatever happened to "Church"?

"Church" and "Chapel" and "Cathedral" and "Mission"?

Those old clapboard steepled building really don't make sense any more.

But somehow I alway feel a comfort when I see them.