Friday Before the Wedding

This is pretty much what we did on Friday. It was the day before the wedding. We woke up to cows gently mooing again. More coffee and laughter but with an undertone of seriousness.

We spent the day putting centerpieces and bouquets together. Brooke was stressing but, how sweet it was to watch her future husband lending a helping hand and speaking words of affirmation. And then, she snapped at him.

He took it in stride though and used the opportunity to lighten the atmosphere by putting his smartphone to his mouth and asking Google, "How can I fix my future wife's bad attitude"....Oh yes he did! The room bust into laughter, including the bride to be.

The centerpieces came out beautifully.

 

That morning I had to step out to get some things. When I came back Brooke had the bouquets done including hers. Now mind you, I had planned on giving her a special gift that day for her bouquet as a surprise. She showed me her beautiful pink and white bouquet and I proceeded to put my plan into action.

"That's beautiful but it's missing something", I said.

"What do you mean, she said, it's perfect!"

She was so annoyed at my comment, not knowing I had a trick up my sleeve.

I walked into our bedroom and grabbed the box and gave it to her.

"You're right mom. It was missing something; thank you".

It was a broach I had special ordered for her bouquet with a picture of her late grandmother.

You see, Diana wanted nothing more than to see her first born grandchild be married to the love of her life. She didn't make it though.

On September 23, 2015, exactly 7 months before the wedding, my mother in law passed away.  Before she died she would tell me how she had hoped she'd be well enough, and live long enough to see Brooke be married.

She was very ill with end stage COPD and was in and out of the hospital the last several weeks of her life.

She actually was in the hospital the day we went dress shopping for Brooke and demanded to be discharged because, "I need to be there for my granddaughter".

She died two weeks later. We miss her so, so much.

After completing the bouquets Brooke decided to make sure Seth's suit was ready for Saturday. It was a good thing she did because she discovered that it still had the security tag on it! Ahhh!!!

Now remember, we are out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest JC Penney was over an hour away!

Brooke and Ruth started to call around to see if any stores closer to us would be willing to help get it off.  They headed off, hopeful that the long drive could be avoided, but of course, none of them fit. They came back feeling defeated and faced with having to drive over an hour to JCP. 

Thankfully, Ruth bravely volunteered to make the drive to have the tag removed. I felt terrible because before that Wednesday night, Ruth had never, ever driven such long distances (let alone, by herself) and now here she was driving a long way for her BFF yet again! Lord bless that sweet girl.

She saved the day.

But the day is not over yet.