A Son is a Son Until he Takes Him a Wife

In my previous post I spoke of our trip to Missouri, where our youngest son Matthew was getting married to his true love, Samantha. I didn’t want to leave out the most important part, the wedding.

Now that Matt is living halfway across the country, we don’t get to see him as often as we’d like. I’m the kind of mother that needs all her children close and by her side. So Matt left me. Wink, wink. The other two however, are still living at home and that’s perfectly fine with me. I would have liked to be more involved in the planning aspect of the wedding, but Sam was great in that she kept me in the loop of all of her plans. She sent me photos and text messages and made sure I felt included.

When we arrived, everything was a bit chaotic due to all the final preparations that had to be done at the last minute. We helped where we could but we mostly tried to stay out of the way. My husband Mike’s job was to make sure that Matt was taking care of his truck. One of his tires was practically bald and he needed new ball joints. Enter Dad and his open wallet…ouch!

With that being taken care of, our daughter Megan was in charge of the cake. Sam wanted a “naked cake” to go with her rustic theme. I’d never heard of it before but it was basically a cake with minimal frosting. Our friend Anna is an artist when it comes to cake decorating and after Megan completed all the baking Anna put everything together and created the most beautiful cake.

The day of the wedding arrived and everyone was excited, to say the least. I was an emotional wreck but as someone who’d been crying since Matt left town I think I held it together pretty well. Watching Matt stand up there in his tuxedo looking so handsome made me melt, and it wasn’t just because it was 90 degrees outside. He was dressed in a tan tuxedo with a pink vest and tie.  The rest of the groomsmen wore mint colored vests and ties.  He was smiling through the whole event, especially as he watched his bride come down the aisle. She was beautiful! Megan was the maid of honor and our son Michael Jr was Matt’s best man. The bridesmaids were dressed in different dress styles, but they stayed with the mint color theme.  To see all my kids up there was an experience I’ll never forget. Now, since they said “I do”, I have a fourth child. I am truly blessed.

The reception was held at the Simple Blessings Farm  https://m.facebook.com/simpleblessingsfarm1/ in Warrensburg Missouri  which is a beautiful barn. Sam had it all decorated in accordance with her rustic theme. There were lights hanging all along the ceiling.  The kids spent a lot of time making DIY decorations, including painting mason jars for their flower centerpieces.  They served barbecue for dinner. The DJ was great. He led the festivities and the bride and groom had a great time with a couple of games including the bouquet and garter toss. Michael Jr gave a wonderful toast and then we danced. The couple led out in their first dance as man and wife and it was beautiful. Then it was Matt’s turn to dance with his mom. The song, My Wish by Rascal Flatts played and I balled my eyes out. Even dad cried. Everybody cried for that matter. From that point everybody danced and had a great time. It’s quite a sight to see a limbless woman in a formal gold gown shaking her booty to the Backstreet Boys.

And then it was over. All the planning, organizing and money spent culminated in an evening that we soon won’t forget. We had reserved a suite at the Fairfield Inn and Suites for the couple and earlier that day we had a blast decorating the room with rose petals and pictures and chocolate dipped cherries along with other munchies. The kids were saving their honeymoon for the winter when work slowed down for both of them. That would allow them to save up for the trip as well.

The next morning the new couple joined us for breakfast and church. Then everybody went in different directions until we saw them again in the evening for our final visit before we had to head back to New Hampshire the next day.

I am so very thankful that we were able to make the trip to enjoy this wonderful experience with our kids. The countdown is on until we see our kids again, hopefully at Christmas.