Didn't Somebody Here Get Married?

(Apparently, this post got lost in the Blogger ether; I started drafting it *months* ago but didn't post... Gremlins. Or more likely, procrastination. But I want to share while it is still 2008!)

Wedded bliss, that's my home these days. Yep, I'm all hitched up with nowhere to go but stash-diving. After a two-month hiatus to wed, celebrate, and recover, I've got my fiber mojo back!

Before diving into the knitting, how about a wedding recap? We spent all our money on the party, so my Flickr account expired (I can still upload our pics, but can't put them into their relevant sets; I'm holding off 'til I've got the 20 bucks in hand). So, our photos *are* available, just not on Flickr yet. You can see photos on our 'wedsite', Cole Loves Velma, though; they're already up there. Pics from the July 18 ceremony are HERE, and the August 16 luau reception HERE. There are more pics on the wedsite for those looking to *really* get a dose of us in our our smoochy glory. Look for the 'Photo Galleries' link in the sidebar.

The picture above is my absolute favorite from our wedding, held in a spectacular meadow in the Siskiyou Wilderness. It was taken just after our ceremony ended. Me so happy! Check out the cute shawl I'm wearing; I knit it using my own COLORBOMB Creations handspun yarn! And the wire necklace? I knit that too!

We were married in our favorite place in the whole world, and The Hitcher was our good friend Mike 'Seldom Seen' Franklin, who came out of internet-minister retirement to marry us. Besides the bride and groom, there were 10 other souls present to witness our exchange of vows; just enough for everyone to have a role. There was the Family Wild-Tobish: Best Dude Jim, who read 'Oh, The Places You'll Go' by Dr. Seuss; Best Babe Brenda, who dressed & coifed Velma; and their boys, Augie & Gavin, Awesome Ring Dudes; Sean 'Mad Pup' Foster played Papparazzi; and Steve 'Boomer' Cox, Richard 'Woody' Seigner, Mark 'HRD' Cox, and Clark 'Not Just Clark' Schweitzer were our witnesses.

The setting could not have been more spectacular. A summer meadow, a July afternoon, sunny skies; all the ingredients for a picture-perfect wedding. Even the wildfires only about 10 miles away cooperated: the smoke didn't blow in to camp until the next day. After, we brought out the cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Lil' Debbie for our 'champagne and cake' toast! (Cole and I each had the bottled beer we'd carried in for the occasion, and saved our PBR for a more private moment.) Later, Steve and Mark set up a chocolate fondue and strawberry shortcake bar at the campfire (remember, now, we all backpacked in to this site!).

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Our reception was a Full-Moon Potluck Luau-Stylee party, complete with tiki torches, Hawaiian shirts, leis, and the coolest cake you've ever SEEN! The weather wasn't quite warm enough to really warrant our tropical attire, but we donned it anyway, despite the fog. Can you see my goosebumps? ;)

We had our party at the home of our good friends Essence Torres & Grant Roden and their son Griffin, whom I occasionally get the pleasure of babysitting hanging out with. They have a couple acres above the Pacific up by Big Lagoon, and they really put on the dog for us. Check out the potluck spread behind us in the photo!

Here's the cake, I gotta show you the cake! I told my friend Kat, who baked it for us, that I wanted a 3-tiered cake with a tiki theme, and I showed her the image we used for our party invites (you can see it here). And THIS is what she came up with, exceeding my wildest hopes for a cake, and far surpassing the the one I found on the internet that inspired me. And did I mention it tasted good, too?

Besides Essence & Grant, our hosts, and Kat, baker extraordinaire, we got help from our friend 'Mix Master Max', who spun tunes for us into the night, by the glow of the Christmas lights strung along the fence.

In addition to the Full Moon we had for the party, which just barely peeked through the high, thin clouds, we also had a small earthquake. Just big enough for everyone sitting around the 10 foot bonfire to to turn around to see who had shaken their seats! We took it as an auspicious portent.

Most of the revelers camped with us overnight, joining us for coffee and muffins in the morning. Thanks to Nels (and his truck!) for all the help he gave us schlepping gear up there and back; couldn't have done it without you!

So began our new married life with each other, Velma and Cole, Cole and Velma. Couldn't ask for anything better.

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That was my wedding post! Since then I've gotten all the wedding pictures up on Flickr, and I'm gonna put up the pics from the party there too. So if you want to see more photos, here are the links to our photosets (the sets are not identical):

The Courtin': on wedsite - on Flickr
The Askin': on wedsite - on Flickr
The Batchin': on wedsite - on Flickr
The Hitchin': on wedsite - on Flickr
The 'Moonin': on wedsite - on Flickr
The Partyin': on wedsite - on Flickr

There are some funny pics of the wedding party HERE, if you want a sense of what we're all about. And, oh yeah, I almost forgot: OffbeatBride.com featured our wedding! You can see their feature of us here (I love that one of the post tags is 'long-haired groom'.

Thanks for reading - now I'm going to get back to my state of wedded bliss!

Tags: wedding, reception, backpacking, photos