Started out this day with a practice blowout by the hair stylist KT is using for the wedding.
I always love having my hair look amazing so it feels like the wedding season is officially getting kicked off.
Went home and picked up KT to head to Costco and pick up remaining items needed. Wrapped up in time for the noon final dress fitting. The fit is perfect and things are getting real. El arrived in town and we all ate lunch at the Indian Canyon Golf Course cafe which has this spectacular view of the city. I drove onto a friend's house to cut greenery from trees on their property. We braved the wild mosquitos and accomplished our goal w/ four garbage bags of pine boughs. My friend woman-handled the truck that she'd brought down and drove it in reverse back to the house.
Where do you hang a wedding dress that's already been steamed? How about from one of the railings of your canopy bed?? Works.
Picked up El and realized we needed nylons and I also needed foundation still. The stuff I tried this morning at the hair salon made me look like I'd just done a few too many visits to a tanning salon #TrumpOrange
Before that though, I wanted to test out the wedding rehearsal diner video at the Steam Plant. I've had way too many experiences going someplace where everything is "standard" only to have nothing work, or the video but not the audio, etc.
This is exactly what happened. We were assured by the event coordinator that the audio guy had just been there and fixed everything. Nothing worked. We tried several different options and were only able to get audio to work with the iPod cord they had. We sprinted back up to the office and had our IT specialist hook me up with every possible cord adapter and combination. We went back and one combination did end up working. We finished our other errand downtown and met Jay and the Bee's, minus Bee and KT, for dinner at the Elk. Pleasant, story-filled evening, met an aunt in town and saw them all for the first time. Headed home for another couple hours of tasks to be done before tomorrow.
*****
Our hope as a family has been that this event would be one shared by many communities, that people would come together, celebrate old bonds and create new ones as families and communities merge for several days to send off the happy couple well.
I can sense that energy building. Houseguests arriving, visitors to town, shared meals, borrowed items, cookies baked, nature procured, decorations crafted, errands run. Is that a definition of community right there, or at least a list to get started?
I imagine any shared event has an element of community; we wanted it to be truly a component of how this all unfolded from the beginning to the event itself and afterwards.
Last Saturday, Jay and I started celebrating. We enjoyed that bottle of mead and had one waiting with a card for the bride and groom as well. That spirit, that seems so important. I've had years of stories of the Jewish people having celebrations that lasted for a week or more, not a day or afternoon. We've lost that. These events seem to have more evolved to a "Most Elegantly Styled" Pinterest competition.
How important are the guests?
For us, important.