Wedding Dinner

The night before the wedding, August 4th, my parents hosted the Wedding Dinner at their house. It was a very casual barbeque, as the kids wanted, and it was all going so well....until the weather wouldn't cooperate. Stupid rain. Why couldn't it have stopped for two hours???? There was a window when we thought it would be done for the night, so we were all outside with squeegees and towels, drying off all the tables and getting ready to decorate....only to have it come down again as soon as we were done. At seven, guests started arriving...and with no where else to put them, the chairs were re-dried and brought inside and all seventy to eighty guests were crammed into the house. It's good thing my parents have a huge kitchen/living room area.

Because my mom put in the work to make the dinner as nice as possible, I couldn't just let it be. I wanted to outdoor dinner, dangit!! I sat out front and watched the sky and waited and waited for it to stop drizzling. As soon as it did, I grabbed the squeegee's and towels and my sister and an uncle and a cousin or two and out we went to do it again. We got the table cloths and centerpieces set up, unfortunately it was a little too windy for the candles to stay lit. But for a very short time...all was as it should be, except for the fact that everyone had already eaten.

The bride and groom sat at the head table, flanked by their parents:

And anyone who wanted to, came up and told whatever cute and funny stories they could think of about the bride and groom:

A group of Gaven's friends...many of which were his groomsmen:

My brother Morgan and his wife, Sam...:

My oldest sister with our grandma:

The rainbow that signaled the end of the storm....for a while anyway:

Gaven and his bride, Xanni:

It started to get dark outside and people were bundles up in blankets so we cleaned the tables off again, and most people were on their way home. The parents chatted for a long time and Gaven's friends all stayed and hung out.

A few of them still had to get their required hair cut for the wedding. Gaven has a faux-hawk with steps on the sides and a pyramid in the back. He made all of his groomsmen where the same hair cut :) It is so 80's with a modern twist and they all looked fantastic! I loved it. Amanda did all seven of the grooms hair, along with the brides hair and make-up:

Even my nephews had it done to them! They look super cute with them!:

Two of Gaven's best friends: Benny and Cody...see the steps???:

It was a very long clean up process....and Gaven discovered that, contrary to what he thought, he needed his living ordinance recommend...something he didn't have and very much needed in order to get married the following morning. How Gaven never made it in to see the Bishop is beyond me. There was a very stressful fifteen minutes and then Gaven was able to arrange a meeting first thing in the morning with the B and the S.P., which was cutting it close since the Bishop was on his way to Girls Camp! Agh! Talk about a disaster barely avoided!

Paul and I went home and looked forward to sleeping in a little on our day off, before it was time to get ready for the temple :)