Wedding Anniversaries

Today is my daughter's and my nephew's wedding anniversary. Five years for my daughter and ten years for my nephew (more like a son). Of course, I designed and made both of their wedding cakes. Not an easy task when you are the mother of the bride and the aunt of the groom.

For my daughter's wedding we had an outside wedding at my home. I tented most of the property, decorated it with thousands of twinkle lights, beautiful gossamer swags, four foot silver candle holders, silver punch bowls, crystal bowls with floating candles, doves and love. I did it with the help of my sister and my friends and it was the Wedding my beautiful daughter had always dreamed of when she was growing up. That was until the hurricane came in about 4:00 am in the morning!!!! Oh yes, I said hurricane. Massachusetts does not get hit with many of them, but of course with 180 guests for a sit down formal dinner and another 75 guests expected for the after party, it was belting us with everything it had. My beautiful gardens that I had tended and groomed for 3 months were drowned. There was a river of water flowing through the tents, over the dance floor and taking all the grass uncovered in it's wake. And where was I you ask? In my shop of course; making my daughter's cake. Every once in awhile someone would come in to dry off and tell me: "Oh, it's fine. Don't worry. We have everything under control". Oh yeah! Some of the guests that had come in from out of town were in the back of my house digging a moat to redirect the floods that were cruising through my property. Another person had gone to HOmeDepot to purchase yards and yards of indoor outdoor green carpeting to cover the acre of grass that had turned to a muddy mess.

The wedding party had gone to the salon. I did not go, I was still in the shop. The photographer came to take photos. I was still in the shop. My daughter was getting dressed. I was still in the shop. The limousines came for us to take us to the church at 3:00 pm. The wedding was at 4:00 pm. I was still in the shop. Until finally, the limousine driver (a woman) dragged me out of the shop to get dressed and go to the church with my daughter. At least at this point the cake was finished. Yippee!!!!!

With a flutter and many other obstacles, my daughter, the wedding party and I were ready to leave the house. We walked outside and the sky cleared and sun came out. On the rose bush outside my shop was one beautiful pink rose that had just bloomed. The only one on the bush!!

Now all the way to the church I kept thinking how terrible all of this was on my daughter's special day. Not knowing what the property looked like and how much damage the hurricane had done to our reception area. Many of our friends stayed behind to help with the damage and that made me sad that they were going to miss the wedding ceremony. But knowing how blessed I was that I had such good friends to jump in and take on such an arduous job. I was relieved however that it had stopped raining for the time being so at least my daughter and the wedding party would not get wet going into the church. Not knowing though whether the storm had passed or if we were in fact in the eye of the storm?

The ceremony was beautiful and went off with out a hitch. No pun intended.

On the way home from the church I was notified that our caterer's truck had slipped off the soft shoulder of the road because of the storm. OK, Now I started to worry. No one could tell me now that it was going to be OK. The good thing was that I was not in the same limousine now as my daughter and she did not know this. I could only pray now and give it up to God. There was nothing else I could do. So I sat back, took a deep breath, and thought of that one beautiful rose that had bloomed earlier that day,anxiously awaiting that moment when I would walk through the garden gate and celebrate the union of my daughter and the love of her life.

The time had come, the limousine pulled up to my house. The valet opened the door and offered his hand to me. My this was lovely! I had never experienced this at my home before. Such treatment. This was good. I walked into the driveway where my daughter, her husband and the wedding party were all standing together, outside the garden gate. They all had wine glasses in their hands. They were smiling and laughing and all looked so happy. I kept asking: "How is the garden? Are the tents still standing? How bad is the mud? Do we still have a dance floor? Is the DJ here? Did the caterer get his truck out of the mud? WILL SOMEONE GIVE ME A GLASS OF WINE?????????

Finally it was time to introduce the bride and groom. Well, I said: "That's a good sign." I heard the DJ introduce them and the garden gate opened up and they went into the garden. I still could not see into the garden. That made me nervous. I still did not know what we were walking into. Then the wedding party was called. Then the Grandmother of the bride. Then: The Parents of the Bride. Oh my, that is us! Let's go! The garden gate opened and my husband and I walked into the garden arm in arm! We walked up the garden stairs and BEHOLD! The lights were twinkling,all the candles were lit, the tents were standing, the doves were singing and my beautiful daughter and her new husband were standing there in front of me with their arms outstretched. I nearly fainted. Really@! My knees got weak and I started to cry. I was overtaken with the beauty that was before me. It was truly a Ethereal dream come true. Absolutely magnificent. A moment I will never forget.



Dear Petra and Foster congratulations on your fifth Wedding Anniversary. God Bless you and your beautiful family. I love you dearly.