Three Weddings Later…

Wedding Final

What a year 2017 has been for the Birden family! The year has brought a mixture of heartache and happiness. All of the joys and sorrows of the year kept me from my blog.

I have realized that life, for me needs to be about focusing on the positive, and trying hard not to stress about everything. I have to say that didn’t come easy. I didn’t wake up and suddenly decide this. I had to get a slap in the face first! The slap was a diagnosis that required me to change my diet drastically, receiving some treatment and take a hard look at the stress in my life. I finally said, “enough is enough”! What a sigh of relief when I made the decision I would not stress over things or people who I cannot control. Wow did that lift a weight off me! I will share more on this in a future blog because I’m sure it will help some of you who may be experiencing the same thing. Ok, I am getting off the main reason why I sat down to write today.

Our three beautiful children were married this year! First up was my daughter’s engagement. I have to admit when my daughter announced her engagement, I had a mix of emotions. I was excited, and also sad. Sad because my baby was leaving home and as you mothers know who have married children, your relationship changes. The big difference is seeing her less. So we are now ready to start planning her wedding and our two sons both get engaged within a month of each other! Crazy I know! We were in a state of shock at first as you can imagine, but so excited too!

February 18th, May 6th, and May 20th, the dates of our children’s weddings. Yikes two in May you say! I am sure you know, finding the right venue and date you want can sometimes frustrating. Our two sons weddings ended up being two weeks apart due to venue dates and family availability. Despite the dates and stresses of planning the weddings, they all turned out beautiful. We couldn’t be happier with our children’s choices of mates. Our family grew, and we are enjoying this new chapter in our lives.

Here are few photos from our children’s weddings:

LaJourdain Jr & Rikki, married May 20th, 2017

536CRG_2139443CRG_1969178CRG_1258196CRG_1310201CRG_1323140CRG_1138

Dante & Emma, married May 6th, 2017

D&E+2017_Camera+A-339D&E+2017_Camera+A-335D&E+2017_Camera+B-308

D&E+2017_Camera+A-379D&E+2017_Camera+A-417D&E+2017_Camera+A-367

Camille & Blake, married February 18th, 2017

DSC_3776DSC_3871 2DSC_3896DSC_3933

DSC_3993

DSC_3824

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
– Maya Angelou

 

Wedding Planning!

I knew this day would come sooner or later. Raising eight children, it was bound to happen with one if not all of them. 🙂

My daughter is getting married! Of course, I have mixed emotions about this. I am excited for this new adventure for her. We love her fiancé, and he is truly a wonderful young man who loves and respects our precious little girl. It is so important to have a good if not great relationship with your children’s choice of mate. I am also feeling some sadness, my little girl has grown up and will be moving from our home. I am thankful for the close relationship we have, and that will make this transition easier. I know she will keep in touch with her mom and dad. She is a loving young woman.

Bride and groom decoration boards

So here we go, wedding planning. I haven’t planned a wedding since my wedding 26 years ago! Yikes, things have changed. We are learning as we go. My daughter and her fiancé know what they want which makes it easier. We are planning a lovely small outdoor wedding. Going for rustic elegance.

Wedding planning can be stressful and expensive.With their wedding being small we unfortunately cannot invite everyone we want to it.  I just hope people understand. 😦  We are working hard to stay on top of the budget. My husband and I want this wedding to be beautiful and as stress-free as possible for our child.

So what have we got planned? I will share a few of our ideas for the wedding below.

The ceremony and the reception will be at the same location which makes life a bit easier. We are using a DIY venue. My daughter and here fiancé found a couple that rents out their huge yard for weddings. The owner makes these beautiful wood tables that fit right into our rustic elegance theme. Gorgeous aren’t they!

img_5870

We decided that we would decorate the tables with burlap and lace table runners. I found a great site that shows how to make them. Here is peak at one of our table runners. We still have a quite a few to make before the big day. 🙂

img_5924

My daughter and I love hydrangeas, so we are creating these beautiful mason jar vases for the table which we will put hydrangeas and babies breath in. We started making a few and did a trial run with the flowers. We just love how they turned out. Here is another sneak peak. There is a great blog that gives you step by step instructions. Check it out here.

img_5911

Those are just a few things we have started for the wedding. We have a lot more going on but I can’t give away all our secrets just yet. 😉

I just have to say that technology today definitely helps make things a wee bit easier. Stay tuned for more!

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.                                        – H. Jackson Brown Jr.