Tessa's Wedding: Extra Hands

Mrs. Beaver:

In yesterday's post I wrote about our desire to encourage, through hospitality, a sense of community among people who'd traveled from such distances for Aaron and Tessa's wedding. Sharing meals certainly contributed to a sense of fellowship, but so did working together. We were so blessed to have an army of helpers willing to take on any task to lift some of the burden off our family.

We had assistance in the kitchen. Here the groom, Aaron, and his younger sister, Amber, are constructing breakfast casseroles we'll share with out-of-towners the morning after the wedding.

Therese (in the pink), one of our photographers, helped also.

A whole crew then traveled to the reception site to help us set up.

Daria and Elizabeth

The people who ran the facility were so easy to work with and so accommodating.
All we had to do was decorate after they got the tables set up and covered.

They even loaned us some extra-tall vases which we filled with bling and wrapped each in a ribbon.

Once the vases were assembled, it was time to place them on the tables.

We were delighted when Aaron's family arrived.

When you're the bride, it's wonderful to have so many sisters who are eager to help.

At each place setting we put a bookmark, drawn by Jaynie.

When Mr. Beaver and I saw that everything was progressing well, we prepared to leave.

First, though, I asked Tessa if she and I could dance together to the song called, "Dancing in the Mine Fields." by Andrew Peterson. (If you want to click on the link, don't forget to mute our music on the right side just below the photos of the dogs.)

I love the lyrics to the song so much. Here's a portion of the song:

"And we're dancing in the minefields

We're sailing in the storms

This is harder than we dreamed

But I believe that's what the promise is for

So when I lose my way, find me

When I loose love's chains, bind me

At the end of all my faith, till the end of all my days

When I forget my name, remind me.

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man,

So there's nothing left to fear

So I'll walk with you in the shadowlands

Till the shadows disappear."

After 27 years of marriage, The song's words ring so true. So I danced with my baby and reminded her to hold on tight to Aaron, no matter what. And, of course, the key to doing so is to cling to Jesus who holds us on our trek through the minefields.

To God Be the Glory!

Tessa's Wedding: The Desire of My Heart

Mrs. Beaver:

 

Before we post more wedding photos, I want to back up just a bit and talk about one of my dreams for Tessa's wedding week.

I've always thought it a shame that so often at weddings, the people who gather hardly know one another. As we began our planning, I hoped for something different. When people began arriving in town in the days leading up to the wedding, I wanted our home to be a center of hosptiality where our guests could be fed and, hopefully, even begin to build friendships with the other guests.

The Lord was so kind; he gave me the desire of my heart. As the wedding grew closer and closer, the crowds grew larger and larger at each meal. By Friday, the day of the rehearsal, between fifty and sixty joined us for lunch and laughter.

Here we are gathering to say grace before we indulged in the delicious food prepared by my friends from church a week earlier.

Our photographers, Therese (l) and Lauren, who are family friends joined in the fellowship and festivities, too.

I was so grateful to the Lord for giving me a desire of my heart by filling our home with wedding guests from Massachusetts, Virginia, Texas, Washington state, and Illinois.

Through it all, the groom seemed pretty happy, too.

A Shared Moment

In the midst of all the chaos on the wedding day, I loved the ability of Aaron and Tessa to be alone in their own little world. They were relaxed, excited and full of gratitude to the Lord.

Tessa's Wedding: A Golden Opportunity

Mrs. Beaver:

I just took a look at the blog of our friends the Millers, and was both surprised and delighted to see the First Official Photos from our wedding, taken by their daughter, Therese, and her friend, Lauren, whom we hired as our photographers.

As beautiful as the pictures are, my reason for creating a link here is because Therese caught the most amazing shot of my parents dancing together. My mom and dad will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on May 6th so we began the dance on Saturday night with the two of them enjoying each other while the rest of us were privileged to watch their private joy.

"Mom and Dad, I love you so very much. Happy 50th anniversary! Thanks for teaching me so many things about having an enduring marriage. You legacy will now live on in Aaron and Tessa."

Tessa's Wedding: Pearls, a Veil and a Tiara

Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart,

in the company of the upright and in the assembly.

Great are the works of the Lord;

They are studied by all who delight in them.

Splendid and majestic is His work

Psalm 111:1-3

Mrs. Beaver:

Once Tessa had donned her gown, she gave me the honor of helping her with the finishing touches.

First, I hung my pearls on her. Mr. Beaver had give them to me as a wedding gift, and I wore them in our wedding 27 years ago.

Next, we hung the veil over her head full of curls. Since neither of us had any experience with veils, it took a bit of guessing and experimenting.

The next step was the placement of the tiara.

We tried once and then discovered we needed to try again.

Tessa's friend Leah watched and held the supplies for us.

The second effort proved successful, and Tessa was now ready for anything!

(Photos taken by Katherine Nisius)

Mrs. Beaver:

Before we post more photos from the wedding yesterday, I want to share some pictures from an outing the bride, some of her friends, some of her sisters, her grandma and her Aunt Jean had on Wednesday.

We dressed Tessa up in her gown and tiara, and went downtown looking for photo opportunities. We had so much fun! We laughed and laughed, as we did our best to to protect Tessa's gown in the wind. I have no doubt an outing like this will become a family tradition as each of our nine daughters marries.

Obviously, we couldn't post these photos until the groom got the chance to see his bride at the end of the aisle yesterday, but we're ready to share now!

The event started with a make-up session. the make-up artist was Tessa's friend, Elizabeth, who would be one of the bridesmaids a few days later.

Then we discovered how large Tessa's dress really was...

she had to sit sideways in our 15-passenger van.

We parked behind the church where Tessa and Aaron would wed. At first we were protected from the wind, and it only took a couple of the girls to manage her long train as we made our way to the front of the building. Later as we faced into the wind, it would take the whole group of girls.

There we took advantage of the building's beautiful architecture. The structure dates back to 1907.

Next we crossed the street to take advantage of some of our small city's other landmarks. We had to first learn how to manage the gown in the "breeze."

We were certain that we were quite a spectacle as we did all this during the late afternoon rush hour. (Okay, okay...our city doesn't actually have a real rush hour, just a slight increase in traffic.)

After crossing the street, we walked about a block.

Our destination was a building that has been very special to Tessa. For the past three years, she has played the violin in our city's orchestra.

The theater the orchestra plays in was built in the early 1900's but then essentially gutted and forsaken about 70 years later. About ten years ago, the Orpheum was lovingly restored to its original grandeur.

Tessa considered it a deep honor to play in the symphony and a thrill to get to do something she loved so much in such a beautiful setting.

We then got a photo of Tessa with the clock tower on the town hall in the background.

About this time Tessa started to get a bit silly. I began to get a bit punchy as the photographer. I didn't notice that in this picture and a few others that are similar, it looks as though Tessa has four arms!

We also began to worry about Tessa's gown getting dirty. We quickly captured a couple of photos of her across the street from the church where she was to be married, and headed home.

In His word, God tells us that laughter is good medicine. That afternoon all of us who made this trek downtown had a healthy dose of the world's most delightful health-inducing tonic. God is so good.

Another wedding photo