The Party ~ Tuesday 4

Another week has flown by and we are already staring a new week in the face.  Time for  Toni's Tuesday 4.    

Everyone loves a party.  Imagine you are arranging a party or an affair for a friend.  Perhaps a home wedding or a milestone birthday.  Share with us your best ideas please.  Money is not a concern.

1.  a. What is the occasion?  

The occasion is a wedding. 

    b. Will there be a theme to the party?

There will be a spring theme, assuming the wedding is in the spring season.  Colours for the theme will be in pastel shades of rose, pink, lavender, creams and whites.

2.   Will there be music in the background or perhaps a hired band or DJ?  What music will play?

There will be beautiful classical music in the background selected for the ability to create a sense of elegance, grace and calm. Perhaps there will be some other music that is prepared for weddings and receptions.

The music of Pachelbel Canon in D will be played as the bride makes her way to the floral arch to meet her groom. 

3. Describe how you will decorate the house for the party/wedding.

The wedding will be held on the patio and the entire home will be festooned with tall, elegant and extravagant floral bouquets. Some will be selected for fragrance but nothing too overpowering as some people have allergies.  On the patio itself there will be bountiful flowers all around the perimeter. There will be a floral arbor under which the bride and groom will stand for the ceremony. The arbor or arch will be something like in the photo below minus the bouquets at the bottom on each side. Instead those lower arrangements will be arranged all around the patio and indoors.

4. What kind of foods will you serve and will it be finger foods or a sit down meal? Catered or home style?  What kind of cake?

In keeping with the simple, yet elegant nature of the wedding we will have finger foods catered by a company known for healthy and elegant finger foods (click the link for some examples). There will be a variety of both hot and cold foods to ensure people have what they would like. There will be wedding punch to drink and toast. There will also be a beautiful yet simple cake with ivory frosting and more flowers all in white and off-white such as in the examples below. I like the first cake but the floral arrangement in the 2nd photo.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the wedding plans. Please be sure to RSVP.

A Special Event on this Sacred Weekend

Hello friends,

It is a special weekend for Christendom when we mark the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, otherwise known as Easter by most people.

The month of April was actually set aside to worship the Anglo Saxon goddess, Eastre, the goddess of birth and fertility. Eastre was symbolized by the rabbit.  Eggs and rabbits symbolize birth and fertility in many cultures but I am not sure how the eggs and rabbits came together to be associated with Easter since rabbits do not lay eggs.

Emperor Constantine gave the edict of the Easter rule in 325 AD whereby Easter had to be celebrated on a Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th.

These days many Christians celebrate Resurrection Sunday rather than the early pagan worship of the goddess Eastre.

This is a special time for me when I remember the sacrifice that God and his son Jesus gave for all mankind that we might have the gift of eternal life.

This year, the holiday weekend has an added significance for me.

A young Kenyan man I call my little brother has become a married man. His name is Enoch and his betrothed's name is Angela.  They are both members of the Kalenjin tribe and come from Bomet, Kenya.

(The red symbol "B" shows the location of Bomet in relation to the city of Nairobi at "A". If you travel north and slightly west of Bomet you will get to Kericho. Travel even farther north and slightly west of the Kerio Valley National Park and you will see the location of Eldoret, site of the huge prayer meeting over the weekend).

The wedding was held in Bomet, Kenya.  My friend Jonah had a difficult time getting there on time as it seems he had to compete for public transportation with those heading to Prophet David Owuor's prayer meeting in Eldoret, Kenya.  Matatus (mini-vans which transport the public for a small fee) were in short supply on Good Friday, the day of travel.  Over 500 buses and many matatus were in demand to transport the countless people from all over Kenya and neighbouring countries who flocked to the town of Eldoret to participate in the prayer meeting.

You can see how muddy the village roads are. It has been raining a lot and it is difficult to drive through this mud in the village.

In the end, Jonah made it to the wedding and I was able to get photos of the special day. I'm sharing a few of them here so you can see what it is like to have a wedding in the village.  I am always amazed at how people in general, and women in particular, walk through the mud all dressed up and with heels on and yet they don't seem to get dirty!

Here is the happy couple. I wish them a long and blessed union.

I want to thank those of you who read and commented on my Elvis post. I am still praying for financial supporters who can help make his final term at university a reality.  Time is short. If you can help, please let me know. You can read more at the GoFundMe post at the right of this blog.

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend!

A Wedding for Two

In the last week we covered a lot of miles going to visit relatives and to attend a wedding. After returning home for one night, we then went south to Whidbey Island in Washington State.

Here is a map for those of you unfamiliar with the geography.  This  map give you a sense of the size of the Province of British Columbia  and also, of the State of Washington, to the south.  Believe it or not, I cannot remember when I last took a trip south of the border. I do know that it was long before 9/11.  Of course after that tragic event, I did not have the heart to deal with border crossings and high security checks.  I am pleased to say the trip was very pleasant and there were no unnecessary delays at the border dealing with customs officials.

The map above gives an overview of the the trip from point A (Vancouver) to point B (Kamloops). It is a distance of 710 kilometres or 441 miles round trip.   The trip south was about half of the distance but it is made longer by being "processed" at the border crossing. We didn't have unreasonable delays but it still takes time to wait your turn in the queue.


The weather in Kamloops was fantastic throughout the several days we were there. The area is a semi-arid climate and it often very hot, especially in summer months. We were fortunate to have hit a cooler bit of temperature. Just the week prior to visiting, the temperatures were in the high 30s.  While we were there, the temperatures were in the mid-20s (celsius).

In my last post I showed a sneak peek of the wedding.  Here are more photos. I hope you like them. I have a lot more photos but tried to pick those that would give you an idea of the overall theme of the wedding.

The chair ties are made of cedar boughs which are very important to native people. Traditionally the native people in this area made baskets out of cedar roots. The colours of the bow represent the white, black and teal blue wedding colours.

Little dog, Maisie. She was very friendly but she would not let me pick her up. Her owner said she won't let anyone pick her up.

 

Before he was a Marriage Commissioner, this man was a world reknowned Indian dancer. He opened the wedding ceremony with a song in his native tongue.

The sweet little ring bearer. I thought he was so cute.

The beautiful bride is walked down the aisle with her father. Her stepfather was also included as he walked her part way down the aisle and then handed the bride to her father.

The Marriage Commissioner is explaining the smudging process (purification) before the wedding ceremony begins.

A lighthearted moment for the bride and groom. The Marriage Commissioner said he wanted to make sure they were relaxed.

I don't know what the Commissioner said, but he made my nephew laugh.

The wedding party after signing "the book" and before posing for photos.

Newly married couple.

Signing the register.

A fun photo of the groom with his new bride and her bridesmaids at the reception.

I mentioned in my previous post that my nephew is a cowboy. He marked the occasion of his wedding with a horse race and won! I caught the end of the race on film.  He heard about it and came over to view the film on my Blackberry Playbook. He was excited about that.

Victorious in the race, my nephew raises his hand in the air.

I enjoyed the wedding a lot because my nephew and his new bride infused their own personal tastes into every aspect of their ceremony. I also liked the relaxed atmosphere that everyone tried to create so that all could relax and have fun.

I haven't been to a wedding in a long while and it was especially nice to see my eldest nephew get married. I pray a long and happy union for him and his new bride.

Come back next time when I will share photos of my journey south.

A Whirlwind of a Time

Thank you to my new followers. I appreciate you and hope you will find some interesting posts in the weeks and months to come. I will stop by and visit you too if you have a link on your profile pic.

I've been away for a few days and am home for the day before heading south for a short tour.  In my short visit, I had a chance to visit mom several times, attend my eldest nephew's wedding, meet his little boy for the first time, and visit my niece who came to the wedding with me.  My hotel was located next door to a quilt fabric shop so I had time to squeeze in some shopping. I was across the street from a mall so I also ran some errands for mom and managed to stumble upon a used book sale run by the local SPCA. I bought several new books, including "Out of Africa" .

Here is a little peek at my weekend.

First my mom's birthday. We always have a small celebration with a fruit cake and real cream. In this case the filling is made of bostom cream and the top layer has whipping cream and fresh fruits.  There is a little plaque on it which says Happy Birthday since we cannot write on top of the fruit in a legible way.  We had a feast of deep fried chicken, a couple of salads, french fries and gravy as well as sodas. Whenever we visit, mom wants to eat food she doesn't usually get and we always try to make her happy.

My mother's small birthday cake and her home made birthday card from one of her granddaughters. The cake was delicious  and so filling after eating dinner.  Though it was a small cake we couldn't eat it all and just like last year we provided some pieces for the elderly residents.

Here is some of my shopping. As you can see, I have added to my craft stash and to my reading hobby.

The wedding of my eldest nephew was the other main reason for my recent journey.

My nephew is a cowboy and he absolutely loves the lifestyle. He and his new wife both love animals and it was an obvious choice for them to have an outdoor wedding with a western theme. The weather cooperated very well.  The day was quite warm.  There was an intermittent breeze and we were happy to have the cloud cover.  Otherwise the sun would have been unbearably hot.

These two tipis (traditional Indian tents) belong to the groom's aunts. One of his grandmother's stands in traditional regalia.

The arbor under which the officiant and the bridge and groom said their vows. You can see the two saddles in the background. both the bride and groom love animals.

A close up of the saddles and the stunning pendleton blanket.

The Commissioner of Marriages is having a word with the groom while they are waiting for the ceremony to begin.

The groom, my eldest nephew,  waiting to make his entrance. His groomsmen were dressed in complementary western attire and also saddled up for the entrance.  I love this young man so much. He has always been a very responsible and loving boy and now a handsome and responsible young man.

The weather on the way home was perfect. This was the scene as we crossed the bridge on the last leg of the journey home.

I hope you enjoy this sneak peek at my weekend.  I hope to have at least one more post of the wedding once  I get the photos organized. I'm also making a video for my nephew as I managed to capture some of his unique day on film and want to put it together for him along with some of my stills.

I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday. Please click on the link and join in for wonderful posts from all over the world.  A big "thank you" to all the ladies who keep this meme going in memory of Klaus.

Preparing for the Wedding

The eldest of my nephews is getting married on September 1st. It is a garden wedding in a hot city (semi-arid) so I didn't know what to wear. I wanted something cool and unfussy.

This is what it looks like on but that isn't me in the photo.

I found just the dress on line.




It is quite comfortable and very light in weight though lined.  I like the colour very much.

I am thinking of buying these Birkenstock sandals for comfort and for keeping cool. I actually had my eye on these since long before I decided what I will wear to the wedding.  Now is a  good time to order them on line.  I should have them by the time of the wedding.



 I think I've also found a dress for my niece who doesn't normally wear dresses. This maxi dress is very light and cool.

Since she is much smaller in the neck area, this higher neckline will be great for her.

You'll notice the dresses are both simple and flowing.
I think this shape is my new favourite for dresses and I will likely use it as a base pattern to make myself some new ones.

I'm glad to have the "what to wear" decisions out of the way so now I can focus on planning for the trip which will also include a birthday party for mom and visits with other relatives.  There is a lot of activity to pack into a couple of days.