Posts Tagged ‘lake tahoe’

Family Wedding Update

We were fortunate enough to finally celebrate with our son and his new wife in Lake Tahoe for a delayed reception. It was really nice because it took off the pressure for them to have a huge wedding especially since they were only 24 when the married in March of this year. Even nicer for us was that it was held in a small town called Kings Beach, right at the north end of Lake Tahoe.. and it had been on our bucket list for years. Since it had been the first vacation we were able to take in many years (except for family reunions) we were really looking forward to some well-deserved time off.  I will brag a bit too – Bill’s wedding was months earlier and their niece wore really one of my favorite dresses from my Pegeen Fairytale Collection of flower girl dresses, The Opal Fairy, our version of Elsa’s dress from Frozen.  I was so proud to see the dress in “action”.

We loved how Bill and Juanita were going to be able to get formal portraits done the night before the Celebration Reception by a photographer friend, happy that they were able to get professional shots done that I could put my newly acquired scrapbook skills to use. I think they came out beautiful so for anyone who is waiting for a trip, I recommend going to Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe. Before I forget however, a few funny stories, but I will be brief. First, when you capture the last flight into Reno and are lucky to get to the car rentals in time before they (yawn) close at 1230 pm, get a hotel in Reno. DON’T think that you can just wing it, finding a place between Reno and Kings Beach. You can’t. Boy these people go to sleep early.

dancing bears

So – we drove to Tahoe, and it was about 4am our time and when we arrived we drove around briefly looking for a place to grab a bite. Wasn’t happening (the town was fast asleep) but we found a sort-of 7-Eleven (maybe it was, I was exhausted) where I remarked to my youngest and to my husband, “look at that beautiful carving of that HUGE bear.” Only it wasn’t a carving, it MOVED and this big bear was hungry but the attendant there simply and calmly closed the door until the bear moved on. Later that morning, now 5am our time, we found the grocery store (it was filled with a wonderful selection of California wines) and the clerk said – “Oh, that’s Bob the Bear. He’s just looking for some watermelon and treats”. Anyhow, after several drive-bys to see what Bob the Bear was up to in this quaint little town, we decided that napping on the beach (we couldn’t open the lock box for some reason) was out due to the presence of Bob the Bear.  Instead, we decided to go to sleep in the driveway of the rental in, as my son called it, “the van by the river”. Spreading our our luggage and sweaters on the van’s floor (because we couldn’t believe it would ACTUALLY get down to 40 degrees, we didn’t bring coats) we nearly froze our Floridian skins in our overnight stay.   Honestly, I can’t remember what fresh pine air was anymore so it was lovely. End of stories. Anyhow – we had a great weekend and thank you, Billy and Juanita, and to their mom for your hospitality and to the lovely town of King’s Beach, Lake Tahoe.

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Now that it’s the new year, I have to get going on my MOG responsibilities….

I suppose it hasn’t really hit me until just recently that my son is getting married.  It still seems strangely odd that I am actually going to go through all the motions of preparing for his big day with his lovely Juanita.  Throughout the past 5 months I have been saying “after the New Year” and remember my previous post about being the Great Procrastinator, well it is true.  I always wrap my head around something and then I am all over it.  SO I think the all-over response just clicked in.  I have been thinking about the rehearsal party that I would like to have in Lake Tahoe because it’s on many of my sibling’s bucket list to visit, and the planning responsibilities that will entail as it will be long distance.  My goal is to make this a special water day of sorts so I have been weighing the idea of boat rentals and a beach picnic of some kind SO for any of you that know what is called Inverness Village, HELP.

Rehearsal Party Invites

I also managed to find musicians for the ceremony (which is being held in Reno NV) because my family is very musical.  My son was like, ” I want some guitar or something new age”, but this is something, actually the only thing I won’t budge on, in honor of my parents that brought music into our lives.  It’s funny, when I was married some 30+ years ago, my husband came from a family of printers and while I was picking out the most beautiful invitations, my Mother-In-Law-to-be said she would only accept us using engraved invitations and honestly, I understand now.  SO for my parents, I found a wonderful string quartet. Although I am staying out of most of the wedding planning because I am just the MOG, at least I have input to the music which, if the Hyland’s know anything, it’s music.  My brother will sing “Our Father” as a tribute to my mom, a wonderful lyrical soprano who trained not only at USC but with some of the best vocal teachers in and around New York.  It is going to kill us siblings, but for us, a wedding or funeral isn’t the same unless we hear it.  And for my father, who was such a fantastic influence in all of our musical backgrounds,  I have already corresponded with and can’t wait to hear TheStringBeings.com.  For the rest of preparations, it’s okay if I don’t get a say…. after all, this is something that Juanita and her mom have dreamed about her whole life I am sure.  What is nice however is that she is a wonderful daughter-in-law to be and Jim and I couldn’t imagine better.

For the rest, well, as I start to work on the children’s wear sketches for the wedding, I will bring my ideas to them on paper.  I also said there was no limit to the number of kids in or around the wedding (cousin dressing and so forth) but I just need to know the colors.  ANYHOW – I am working on some ideas and surprises for them both.  In the meantime….

I thought this a great idea for my son’s wedding. We still haven’t designed the flower girl dresses or suits for the wedding, but they are going to be SUPER special, but I thought that we may use this idea for my nieces, should we coax the little darlings into making their first flower girl appearance.
Flower girl wagon

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