Wedding Weekend

This past weekend my little brother, Tom, married a beautiful gal, Michelle.  This meant family coming to town, a day off of work, a night in a hotel, lots of driving to/from the Des Moines area, delicious food, and tons of wedding fun!

The ceremony and reception took place in Norwalk, which is just South of Des Moines, and everything was decorated beautifully- simple and elegant.  Michelle's mom is from a huge family and they all pitched in to make it an amazing day for my brother and his new bride.  Their photographer was a relative, her Aunts and cousins made all the food (which was SOOOOO good!), and it was one of the first weddings we'd been to where literally about everyone stuck around all night.  We had so much fun!

Cailyn was the flower girl, and, I tell you folks, I had my doubts.  But, she did just great!  She didn't necessarily walk down the aisle with the ring bearer- it was more of a dash ahead of him- but, she looked adorable and I suppose that's really all that matters when you're a flower girl or a ring bearer, right?

We had some family and old friends make the trip for the event, it was so great to see everyone!  Nothing brings people together like a wedding :)

Twirling is how Cailyn spent most of the day and night, in her, "Pincess dess."

She actually nabbed this cupcake before they officially cut the cake- when a girl's gotta eat, a girl's gotta eat I guess!

This is the happiest I've seen my brother in such a long time.  He found a beautiful person to spend the rest of his life with, and I'm so excited for their future together!

Mother/Son dance, that they had to hug my blubbering pregnant self through- it was like a faucet, I just couldn't turn it off!

My sister, and a couple of Michelle's friends having some fun with the champagne.  Everyone was so welcoming and easy to talk to.

And of course, there was a TON of dancing happening- with much of the music coming from 90's boy bands- which was perfect!

Doesn't she look like she's doing the funky chicken?!

And of course, no wedding is complete without us being coerced into karaoke singing "Love Shack"

I hope you can tell from this picture how much joy these two bring to each other.  Marriage really is something that you have to be committed to, through everything, no matter what.  I think with as much support as they received this weekend, they have a good start, and I pray that they'll be in God's good graces for the rest of their lives together, to help them through those things that make life so difficult. 

Congratulations Tom and Michelle!  We love you so much!