And now I am a mother-in-law

It was a beautiful day and everything turned out perfectly. I was a basket of nerves before the ceremony and was so worried about how long it was taking for the girls to have their hair and make up done but it all worked out. Karen and Joe decided to see each other before the ceremony and had a private moment outside together for a few minutes before the photographer went out and took pictures of them together. In fact, we took the vast majority of the pictures outdoors before the ceremony. It was such a good idea. Every one was fresh and excited and the joyous expectations were on their faces. Seth was absolutely adorable in his little tux and Curtis never looked more handsome. The ceremony was beautiful, too. We had two men sing the Ave Maria. One of them is the youth choir director from our church and the other man who was also the accompanist played the piano at my wedding almost 31 years ago when he was only 14 years old. He is the younger brother of one of my best friends back then. Karen had several of her cousins in the ceremony as ushers, groomsmen, readers and hostesses. They are all such wonderful young men and women. Of course, her sister was the maid of honor.

At the reception, Karen had a surprise for Joe. She sang "When you say nothing at all" to him. It was just beautiful. For those who don't know, she has a beautiful soprano voice which won her a scholarship to Texas Woman's University but she hasn't sung much at all since Seth has been born. She chose to dance with her daddy to "Landslide." It was so touching to see them talking to each other and smiling and laughing together as they danced. I absolutely had a wonderful time. I danced and I laughed a lot. I invited several of my employees who say they now have videos of me on the cell phones they plan to blackmail me with later. LOL

When it was time for the best man and maid of honor to make their speeches, my sweet Allison told us about a "texted" conversation she and Karen had a couple of weeks ago. She asked Karen if she was getting excited and Karen said, "yes, but it is so weird." Allison asked what was weird and her reply was, "my relationships have always ended and this one hasn't." So, Allison turned to Joe and and with tears in her eyes and a breaking voice, thanked him for giving Karen back her smile and bringing happiness into her and Seth's life and welcomed him into our family. Let me tell you, there wasn't a dry eye in the place. Every man and woman was crying after that touching speech. It is making me cry again just to remember it. I have some pretty great kids.

Much to the surprise of my husband and family, I left my camera at home. I chose to enjoy myself and let everyone else take the pictures. We had a young woman who spent the entire day with Karen from about 10:30 yesterday morning until they drove away from the reception at 7 pm. She was the college room mate of Joe's sister and has been shooting weddings for several years now. I trust she got some great shots. I'm also hoping that my brothers and sisters will start sharing their pictures with me sometime today, too.

Finally, my really cute shoes got kicked off as soon as I reached the reception and I spent the night barefoot. I don't know how long I'll have these blisters but I sure enjoyed getting them.