I am still kind of in shock that my baby sister is married. Because 4 of us got married in one summer back in 2008, MY wedding was the most recent Cruess wedding until....January 30, 2016. That's the day when my little sis got married and joined the ranks of married Cruess sibs. And now all 7 of the Cruess kids are married. I can tell you that I am pretty sure I heard a very loud and audible sigh of relief escape my dad's lips (probably mom's too) after the wedding. No more weddings to plan, no more stresses of how it's all going to work logistically and artistically, and no more weddings dresses to pay for. hahaha.
The wedding day didn't go exactly as planned. With 20+ small children combined with the normal craziness of any wedding with a fairly large bridal party, we ran behind schedule, but you know what? Shannon and Mark got married and there were no major meltdowns from any of the kids (for which I will give God ALL the credit). So in my book that equals a smashing success. :)
The beautiful bride.
(photo taken by my sister-in-law Priscilla)
Here's a quick run down of the day.
In the morning I had to meet the pianist at the church to do some mic checks (because we still hadn't been provided with adequate working mics so that we could sing at the wedding....)
After that craziness (which did not get resolved yet by the way, so I still had to make a few phone calls and pray that when we got to the church for the wedding, it would all be fine), I headed to Target to pick up a few bobby pins, then drove to my parents' house to drop my bridesmaid dress off to be steamed. Next I headed to my brother's house where my sister in law was going to help me with my hair. She had gone to run a few errands, so I got the chance for a little visiting with my grandma, a few of my brothers, and my aunt and uncle. When my sister in law arrived, she did my hair and I jetted out to our friend's home (where we were staying) and did Kayla, Elise, and Ava's hair. We loaded the whole family up and drove back to my mom's so that we could all grab a quick bite to eat and so that I could do my make-up. Chris was already in his suit, but the 5 of us gals had to put our dresses on and finally it was starting to feel real.
My cousin did the photography and she arrived to take some pictures of Shannon getting ready. You can see some of those pictures here, but I'm hoping to get her permission to share a bunch of the photos in a big picture blog post at some point in the not too distant future. It was cloudy all morning, but the rain held up and only sprinkled here and there between pictures outside (which happened next) and during the reception later. God is good.
So that brings us to some sweet pictures (also taken by Priscilla because I didn't have my camera with me the entire day).
Sara, Tracy, Christy, myself, and Karen
(just missing the lovely bride and Priscilla to make it a shot with all the "Cruess" gals)
Are they not the sweetest thing ever?
The taller gals, left to right: Mia (Shannon's niece on the Mazanowski side), Grace (Scott's), Kayla, Sorcha (Christy's), Lily (Kevin's) Grace (Shannon's niece on the Mazanowski side)
The shorter gals, left to right: Christiana (Robbie's), Gianna (Scott's), Eilish (Christy's), Ava, Elise
Confused yet? :)
And then we headed to St. Anne's for the wedding.
Shannon asked me to sing a number of songs, so I spent most of the wedding in the choir loft (great view from up there!) except when I was walking up or down the aisle. The wedding was during nap time, so Chris spent most of it in the back with Sophie who was a bit cranky, but did not have a meltdown (little blessings!). The other three gals sat with some amazing family friends (with whom we were staying) and were very well behaved I was told (yay! Big blessings- because with kids you never really know how it will go!)
The wedding was beautiful. Mark's brother is a priest and he did the ceremony. Very touching. A dear family friend from when we lived in Spokane (Jon Van Vogt) played piano and organ and sang. It was lovely. Our "second parents" (dear family friends from Spokane) read the readings. Her dress was lacy and lovely. And the celebration of the Eucharist was incredible and at the center of their new beginning together as one.
Then it was time for more pictures with everyone.
And on to the reception!
Sara, Heather (my cousin's wife!) and Priscilla
The bride and groom
(also from Priscilla's camera)
And I did, in fact, take a few pics on my camera at the reception. They were all such poor quality though that I gave up after only a few, but here they are!
He's so handsome
some of my sweet VA nieces and nephews
"second mom" MaryAnn
prayer partner, Cath, with Elise
Our table with my sister's family
(oops, my arms aren't long enough and I cut out half of my family- ha!)
My parent's purchased a "cottage" (basically a suite) for us for the night of the wedding (thanks, Mom and Dad!) so we wouldn't have to drive the half hour home and could just get the kids right to bed. Glad they did, because the reception ran late and the kids wanted to dance all. night. long! We finally dragged them out (not kidding- Ava was crying, "I don't want to go to bed. I want to dance!!") around 11pm. And they fell asleep in 1 min after we laid them on the pillow. Ava and Kayla shared a bed and it was totally adorable. This is them 5 minutes after we tucked them in.
All in all, a beautiful, joy-filled (albeit crazy!) day.
Congratulations, Mark and Shannon! We love you!
