Wedding Pictures are here!

As promised! Here's just a few of the pictures from the wedding up in Ft. Bragg.

Ryan was the ring-bearer. Sorry the picture is blurry - had Kylie in one arm squirming while he was coming up. We had to bribe him to get him to do this. That is my step-daughter walking him up the aisle. The only way he would do it was to have her walk him up and I had to promise him I would take him to the mall later to pick out any Spiderman toy he wanted. Once he got to the pews, he said, "That was very scary!" Then he sat down and announced very loudly - "I'm never doing anything like that again!"


Here's my step-son Danny with his soon-to-be new bride. This is just after her father handed her to Danny.







This is our "Hallmark" picture of the day. As the services began, Ryan stood up to get a better look so obviously, his little sister had to copy him. Look at those curls!





I don't know if you can see this very well - this is the aftermath of sharing the cake. Danny made a very huge mistake! He went first! I don't know why people think they need to start their marriage off with a tradition like this..but..I know she was very mad! When it was her turn..not only did she smash it in his face, she rubbed it upwards to make sure it got into his nostrils as well!




And - here's my wife Mary and Danny - the newlywed! You can definitely tell he's her son! She had a very hard time with this whole thing. Afterall, she raised him as a single mom for 18 years. She is very connected to him. She has come to the realization that she is not the only love in her son's life anymore! It was both a sad day and a happy day for her.



And - finally - if you didn't see them down there - I also posted pictures of Crystal and her new pink cast!

My Step-Son is getting married next month!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post or not, but I have a 22 year old step-son who is currently in the Army and stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. He called us up last month to let us know that he was getting married!

Wow! He's only 22! He can't possibly be ready yet. He just met the girl only about 8 months ago. We barely know her. Actually, we got the phone call from him, AFTER we got the phone call from his father. His father called up Mary on a Friday evening to let her know that Danny was going to call her to let her know that he and his girlfriend were going to a Justice of the Peace the following Monday to get married!

Well - naturally - Mary flipped out! Within minutes of hanging up with Danny's father, Danny called. Mary was already prepared! She already got in to the whole they are too young, they should wait, yada yada yada. Danny never did get to tell her they were going to a JOP on Monday. Well, Sunday evening, Danny calls to let her know that after a lot of discussion they set the date for June 14.

Everything has been a whirlwind since! We got to "meet" the future in-laws by telephone and e-mails. Apparently, everything is being done on the cheap! The wedding ceremony is being held at the base chapel. The "reception" was originally going to be held at The Golden Corral! When I heard that, I nearly fell out laughing so hard! Mary and Danny's father were on the phone complaining to one another about EVERYTHING!. Danny's grandmother used to work in a bakery so she was going to bake the wedding cake until she heard the "reception" was at the Golden Corral. Anyway, Danny's dad started calling around to places and found a real reception hall. So - the grandmother is baking the wedding cake again!

We were told the wedding would be "casual." Danny said that his bride will be wearing a "wedding dress," he's wearing a white suit, and his best man (who just happens to be his father) is wearing a white suit, and the grooms men (my two boys) are wearing canary yellow button down shirts with tan khakis! Oh! What a picture I have in my head of how this is going to go!

Next thing you know, we get an e-mail from the future mother-in-law. Apparently, one of the sisters designed the wedding announcements and invitations on the computer. Well, they sure looked good on the computer! Once we received them, they were printed up on regular yellow printer paper. I sure wish we had heard of 1st Class Wedding Invitations before we said "okay" to the one's they made and printed up!

If we had known about 1st Class Wedding Invitations before we received that e-mail and subsequent invitation, we could have told them about the ZOOM feature that allows you to see their invitations in greater detail than what they provided us - and the fact this feature itself is pretty unique when it comes to wedding invitation websites. We would have been glad to pay for these for them. Based on their colors and the invitation we received from them, this is the one I would have recommended to them:


The next e-mail to come from the future mother-in-law was pictures of the "wedding dress" and the "dress" the Maid of Honor (which also happens to be her mother) would be wearing as well as pictures of the dresses the bridesmaids would be wearing! Oh lordy that sent Mary in to a panic. The so-called "wedding dress" as Danny put it is actually a formal Bridal Gown from David's Bridal. The Maid of Honor is wearing a full-length gown and the bridesmaids are all wearing matching gowns! I thought this was just supposed to be casual? Mary had already gone out and purchased a casual, and very elegant looking, sun-dress.

Of course, Mary immediately got on the phone with Danny. His response to the question about the formal gowns and the fact that he said it was casual - "I don't know about these things..here..talk to Nikki (the future daughter-in-law)." Mary talked to Nikki - which was of no help to her at all! Nikki's take on the whole thing is that this has gotten out of control and that it was never meant to go down like this. She says that "everyone can come however they want, it's no biggy."

Oh what a calamity this is turning out to be so far! I can't wait to see how this whole thing is going to turn out! I guess what really matters is that they learn on their own and that they can both be happy in love. I'll post on this in June when we get back and let you know how things turned out!