I was waiting to post this until I could download some facebook pics from friends, but my computer is not cooperating so I thought I would just share a few of our post-wedding thoughts (and I promise the wedding porn will come later!)
First of all, the weekend was extraordinary. The work was backbreaking at times, but it was incredibly worth it to be so surrounded by these amazing people we have the privilege of calling friends and family.
And you don’t need to take our word for it- all weekend long people would come up to me and say (with this look of joy, shock and delight on their face) “You have the most AMAZING friends” or “You have the most WONDERFUL family.”
And you don’t know the half of it.
Kira and Carson collectively logged more than 20 hours in various cars and vans picking up pigs and boxes and linens and dishes and food and… well you get the idea.
My dad spent all day Saturday finding the perfect sized logs and cutting them into inch high disks, sanding them for hours to perfect smoothness and then lacquering them to make perfect woodland trivets for the table.
Morgan’s dad spent something like 14 hours in the kitchen working with a rotating band of our friends to prep all the food that got served.
My mom, my Aunt Francy, Morgan’s Aunt Robin and my Grandma Kay transformed a few peacock feathers, flowers from Mom’s garden (and the local garden store) into beautiful bouquets and corsages ( a mere hour before the wedding took place).
Our friends Manny and Ryan leaped into the fray when it became apparrent that more help was required to get plates cleared of tables and the next round of food out to the tables.
Nina’s husband Mike and my friend Ian put together playa tech benches to scatter around the grounds for extra seating.
Kira, Flora and Zoey created a beautiful odalisque tent for the ladies of the wedding party to get ready in. Draped in fabric and open to the ferns and creek, it was a place of calm in the eye of the last minute chaos.
Rocket, our burner friend from L.A., was a lifesaver- running last minute errands, doing last minute food prep, and most importantly, providing a welcoming and soothing listening ear as various members of the wedding party released their anxiety and excitement in preparation for the day.
Morgan’s mom took charge of making our decoration plan happen when Morgan and I got called away to deal with other crises.
Jaime stepped in when we learned that Bob (the owner of the property) would prefer that we didn’t dig a big hole in the ground to hold our central pole for the lights. He created a stand for the pole the was super stable and didn’t leave a dent in the surrounding ground. Jaime’s friend Ken came over to help when Jaime realized it was more than a one person job.
Briana and Troy spent a week making gorgeous soups that became the centerpieces of the tables, scattered like jewels in hurricane glasses across the tables.
Natalie, Amy, Cynthia and Patrick came through with an amazing keg of beer that literally brought the party to life.
And Morgan’s stepmom Christina, and his step brothers Chris and Nick (and their dates Gracie and Emily) dropped everything when we realized our servers were going to be 5 hours late to finish prepping the food and helped preparing it for transport so that Morgan’s dad could get ready for the ceremony.
And then after the dancing was over and the boxes were hauled away…
there was 15 hours of dish washing that would not have been nearly as pleasant without the generous assistance of Carson’s fiancee Melissa and Morgan’s mom.
I could go on and on and on, and still probably not record all the various ways that our friends and family helped to make the wedding extraordinary.
So. Was it worth it?
Well, we had people pull us aside again and again to tell us that it was the most personal, fun, and wonderful wedding they had ever been to in their lives.
Morgan and I couldn’t stop laughing, couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t stop hugging people.
People asked us if the wedding met our expectations. We had to admit that it had far exceeded our expectations.
Some favorite moments:
We had asked our wedding party to each bring something to place on the wedding table that symbolized their contribution to our relationship. When Jaime placed Harold, our plastic hoot owl, on the table, a range of giggles erupted from the audience and a slew of uncomfortable questions came from my family later about what, exactly the significance of the owl was. I refused to explain. It was hilarious.
When Jack pulled the rings out of his pocket, he looked so proud to have a position of responsibility in the wedding. And he looked so dapper in his suit!
When I put the ring on Morgan’s finger and for the first time ever it slid right on without catching.
When Ben, our “officiant” said that by the power invested in him by the internet he pronounced us husband and wife…
The giant wedding party huggle that we suddenly had right after the ceremony was over.
Seeing everybody get settled at their tables and start sampling the soups and the salads that we had been planning for so long.
How beautiful the peacocktail (a bright blue concoction with some very high proof vodka Rich from Integrity had distilled especially for us) looked in the vintage champagne coupes we had collected.
The gracefulness with which everybody adjusted to the fact that our pig had not survived the process of being cooked in the ground (an event which was quickly shorthanded to just “PIG FAIL.”)
The incredibly eloquent toasts given by Carson, Holly and Ileah- funny and sweet and insightful and wonderful.
Dancing our first dance to the first version of True Colors to ever be played on Steel Drum, Marimba and Stand up Bass.
Watching Michael Buchino leap into spinning hoedown action, inspiring a giant pile of people to create a big square dancing swirl of folk when Tapwater let out a little country twang.
Realizing we would never get everyone to sit back down for the cheese course and instead just whacking big chunks out of the cheeses and handing them back through the crowd with handfuls of crackers.
Tapwater starting an impromptu drum march through the reception that turned into a congo line.
Watching Flora’s painting take shape, and getting to watch as she builds the bottom layers of a painting we will keep for the rest of our lives.
Sitting around the campfire with the folks who decided to camp with us, passing around bottles of mead and seeing a ring of happy, sated faces of our favorite people sharing our wedding night with us.
Waking up the next morning in the ladies tent with friends coming in to hug us and say hello before they slipped away back to our lives…
There’s more. And pictures, I promise. But right now I just want to say to all of you: THANK YOU. You gave us an absolutely extraordinary weekend. We are so grateful to you!
1:00 pm Ladies of the wedding party, out of town guests (and anyone who has the day off) are invited to join us for a trip to the 
All: Disc golf at 
9:00 pm Cheesy Wedding Music Dance Party out at Horning’s. You know all that stuff you always have to dance to at weddings? YMCA? Lady in Red? The entire pop catalog from 1984? Black Eyed Peas? Yeah we’re going to dance our little booties off to all that stuff the day before the wedding (get it out of our system!). Who’s invited: EVERYBODY
5:00 pm You are in your places with bright shining faces. Trisha rides in on a deer. Magic ensues. Some people cry. Some people laugh. Some people squirm in their seats and wait for the mushy stuff to be over.
Trisha and Morgan Get Married 