Zachary & Hannah’s Wedding – A Rustic Elegant Affair

Then it was the morning of the wedding! Rebekah was running on PA time so she was always awake early in the morning.  So about 5:30 I texted my friend and said, “You awake?”  She was and in about 30 minutes there were about 6 of us gathered in the hotel lobby discussing last-minute details.

We headed over to the church about 7.  The wedding was to begin at 12.  The reception was outdoors, so we had been unable to do much setting up the night before. We had a few hours to set up and everyone was scurrying around, myself included, until my personal hairdresser showed up.  Cassia was married in November and had one of the most organized weddings I have ever been to and beautiful, too.

She had volunteered to help with hair but apparently they had enough hairdressers that they thought they wouldn’t need another one.  When I heard this I said, “I want Cassia, if she’s willing.”  She was very happy to lend her services and showed up on Saturday at 8:15.

I said “Goodbye” to the kitchen crew and went to get my hair all prettied up. 🙂 It only took 1 1/2 – 2 hours. (gasp!!) I had no idea hair could take that long!

The wedding was beautiful.

As the girls walked down the aisle they deposited their bouquet of flowers into the cans that were sitting on the stumps.

Then because he couldn’t contain himself, Zachary gave her a big hug after the kiss.

As the groomsmen started to escort the bridesmaids back down the aisle, the groomsmen picked up the bouquet of flowers and handed it to the bridesmaid .  The boys hammed it up in their presenting. (don’t have a picture of that, but you can see from this picture of Wesley that they were feeling pretty cocky) 🙂

The reception was gorgeous but first I want to show you how we reheated 99% of the food – a large propane smoker/oven. A friend of ours knew someone that had one and arranged for us to borrow it.  It was totally awesome and I would love to have one.  Since we weren’t smoking any meat, we just heated it to the temperature we wanted and put ALL our pans of brisket, chicken & potatoes in – all 21 of them.  It worked wonderfully.  The food was ready almost immediately after the wedding was over – but we had them hold off for about 15-20 minutes while the family got their pictures taken.  I received so many compliments on the food (all I ate was Serenity’s left-overs) but I was sure happy to hear that everyone enjoyed it. 🙂

The wedding & reception were on the same grounds right next to each other so there was no traveling from one place to another. The weather was beautiful and thankfully, there were no gusty winds.

There’s no way I can show you everything, the pie bar, the cookie table for the children, the funny song that was written and sung at the reception, the poems written in their honor or the cannon that was shot off to announce the arrival of Zachary & Hannah.  The cannon was great because everyone was already eating while the bridal party were getting their photos taken & the cannon blast, which everyone was given warning of, made Zachary & Hannah’s entrance pretty grand.

So these are only a few of the pictures but I hope you enjoy.

Seth carved & wood burned a stump which they can use later as a plant stand.

Since we had a pie bar, the wedding cake was very small.

The same weekend as the wedding, there was a rodeo going on.  Russell went there to see if he could find someone with a carriage and team of horses that Zachary & Hannah could use as their getaway transport.  I couldn’t believe it but he found someone AND they didn’t want a dime, they said this was their gift to the bride and groom.  How nice of them to do this!

Our new family.