mawage.

So, Kat's wedding was darling, completely and utterly spectacular. I'm going to fuss over it for forever with that high pitched squealing easily excitable girls do that goes something like eeeeeeeOOOAAaaaahhhhhhhHHH!!!

My Internet was down today for the billionth time so I ramble on over to Baine's to see what the general biz is and to get more understandable directions from my old stand by, Mr. Google Maps. But, he wasn't any help as is commonly the case for Appo back roads so then Dustin helps me out and by that time it's 2:20 and the wedding starts at three so I jump back over to the house, throw myself into a dress and demi heals and some handy mascara, put Lil in her kennel, kiss her good-bye (by this time my sister and parents had already gone somewhere else) and scamper off down 460 while counting the ever escaping minutes. I turn off the highway onto a back road, onto another back road, which leads to a gravel road (which is highly washboarded and as I fly down it my teeth chatter and almost fall out of my mouth), which leads to a driveway full of rocks and I'm there. But where is there? I see absolutely no tulle (which basically is the sign of a wedding anywhere) but the cars keep rolling in and I'm directed into a shuttle disguised as a mini van and driven down to a turn around that drops down into woods. There Bryan greets me, seeing as in the last 3 months or so he has been ordained, not only as the owner of the store, but also as (a commissioner of weddings...?) and will be legally wedding the lovely bride and groom. So in I go down the path through the woods, thanking my lucky stars I went out and bought a pair of almost flats before the wedding instead of all the pairs of 4-inch heels I have floating around in my closet, and I walk into a little cleared "valley", which on one side of a creek holds the wedding party and the other side holds the guests who sit upon the hill in white wedding fold up chairs as the party and band slowly trickle down the slightly treacherous path to sit under a huge and handsome, gray barked Beech.

Deja Moo and Ken and Bonnie strike up wagon wheel as Kat walks down and looks stunning, shes had the family (and minister) bedecked, not in flowers, but in peacock flowers, and all the girls in the ceremony where feathers in their hair, which I must say looks gorgeous and makes me want to rave (and copy) the whole design. The flowers are all from a friend of the family and are all wildflowers and they look delicate but not too arts and crafty and then they say their vows and they pop on their rings and doves fly out...not really, but we all get up and clap because the whole ceremony smelled like sweet leaves and cedars and everybody is hugging and the sanctuary is made of trees.

After we all hug and shake the hands of the groom and hug the bride and some of us hide from the cameras because they haven't worn a dress since the 5th grade (not me, I assure you) we all make our way up to their newly built pottery workshop that has beer and sweet tea, which by this time we are all dying for, it hasn't rained in decades, and sit in the shade. The band strikes up and a million pictures are taken and I write a message to Kat on her white board and the food is amazing, sweet couscous and grilled chicken, and barbecue because well, this is very much a southern affair. All the people fan out and the Baine's group, older and newer sit together for support and gossip and I just lean back and sip my tea and watch all the black and white clad ladies fan themselves as the late afternoon sun turns everything red. It smells like freshly brewed coffee and ladies perfume and sweat and the cold smell of clay and fresh flowers and candle wax and the band sings Sippin Cider and my other favorites and I watch as the crowd becomes steadily more intoxicated and friendly, but I have to leave and go to work and now I smell like coffee and my feet are still dirty from the wedding. All and all, a good day for the sanctity and harmonious binding of mawage.