Sandy Supposes....

Family Fuel

September 7th Prompt: "Passion is an energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you." Oprah Winfrey Write about something that fuels your heart at the moment.

         At the moment and in recent days family fueled my heart. It's been a whirlwind summer season of family get-togethers.

         My youngest postponed her wedding because of Covid. The wedding gown, the rings and the bridesmaid dresses have been shoved into closets waiting to awe us all for two years. That's a long time to anticipate a ceremony and that bride-wannabe has never been a patient person.

         To complicate, or rather stretch my eldest daughter's seamstress abilities, the bride designate decided to pursue fertility options. As she fretted she's not getting any younger. For this pregnancy she needed a bit of specialty assistance that required her participation back in the early summer. That offer had a time limit. One child already arrived on the scene because of that concern and she wanted another. Yes, she'd always dreamed of a house, a marriage and a child in that specific order, but, hey, life had other plans. Anywho, for the wedding that finally happened in late August she was pregnant and this meant extensive alterations to her gown. Eldest child worked her magic and her sister glowed in her new and improved regalia.

         Weddings especially the do-it-yourself variety are exhausting! Preparing and sending invitations is the least stressful activity. Sodding the couple's entire yard so they'd have lush, green grass to walk upon proved to be back-breaking labour. Rebuilding and extending their deck gobbled up several weekends. Creating a lakeside deck for the ceremony strained time and muscles.

         The day of the long sought union turned out to be a non-stop blur. Whew, I need to stop and breathe just recounting/reliving it. In the morning I cut out arrows from neon green bristol board to create directional arrows. The couple reside at the end of a long dirt road that extends off yet another long secondary road. I wanted to give attendees a fighting chance to find us. I wrote 'D & Y Wedding' on one arrow with a black Sharpie. Hubby, wishing to help, wrote on the rest. His version seemed a bit unclear because he'd used a '@' or a scribbled combination of an 'a' and a '&'. He attempted a fix and added 'and.' Our son laughed and noticed the arrows now read 'D and Y Wedding', or 'Dandy Wedding." We sure hoped it would be!

         We were blessed with a gorgeous, sunny day so at least the weather accommodated us. Of course, there were to be other snafus or glitches. A temporarty panic ensued when the wedding rings could not be found. The photographer had snapped pics and then placed them into an open bag in the bedroom. The child of the soon-to-be-married couple, my three-year old grandgiggle had her own ideas of what she should do. She seemed to love her 'princess' dress, but she wasn't keen, or inclined to'keep'it on. She seemed to resent a wee guest who dared to not only touch, but play with her toys. She did like that Mommy's attention leaned towards hair and make-up. For the bride's grand entrance the daughter clung to her and had to be bribed and held tight by her aunt, the maid-of-honour's hand. We all heard her displeasure. During the ceremony she insisted upon being held by her Mommy in her own 'princess' dress. Oh, and the lovely, lush grass proved to still be quite wet and squishy in the afternoon.

         Did I mention all the decorating? The day before the big event we drove forty-five minutes to beautify the chosen reception hall and then we returned to the house to decorate the lakeside deck. All of us repeated that trip the next day.Oh, and the morning of the wedding my eldest stopped her own primping for emergency tailoring of the best man's tuxedo which was a rental and still hung on him. Whew!          

I suppose childbirth isn't an easy 'thing', so why should that child's wedding ceremony be without a wee bit of effort? Two down and possibly one more to go? ( 694 words )