Nicholas and Mara Wed

The Church

Our nephew, Nicholas, got married last weekend. It was such a happy and lovely occasion and they did a fantastic job of creating the perfect day to remember all of their lives. Nick and Mara met at work a few years ago and it has been magical ever since.

This Catholic church is just beautiful. Very European and gorgeous. The stained glass windows are magnificent and the ceiling really high. The statuary was really nice as well. It was so cold inside on the night of the rehearsal, but they did warm it up a bit for the wedding. The immensity of it just made it too difficult to warm. But what it lacked in temperature it more than made up for in beauty.

This area was just to the side of the alter area. The marble was exquisite. The soloist sounded like an angel for sure, it was very moving. She sang a lot and that made the ceremony very special. Jim and I were asked to read the Prayer of the Faithful and that was a sweet experience. We were honored to have been asked to participate. There were 53 people at the rehearsal and dinner and all of them had a part of some kind in the ceremony. This was the biggest wedding we had ever attended for sure.

Note the hanging chandelier above the alter.

A kiss for the Mr. and Mrs. while
awaiting photos after the ceremony.

A small part of the wedding party!

Steve and Emily's Family

Raul, Alesha (Our niece) and Samantha whom you cannot see in her mom's arms, Mara, Nick, Emily and my brother, Steve, with his new, high fashion, white hair..and their grandson, Sebastian.

Photos

This is just a bit of Mara's mother's side of the family. They came out in force for this great occasion! Nick married into a really nice family. We had several family members there but nothing to compare with her side.

The Angelic Grandma Gloria

This is Jim's mother with a halo! This is what our son, Chris,
did for fun while waiting for the wedding photos to be taken.
Chris is a character and his Grandmother was eating this up,
I can assure you! That big chandelier came in handy!

Uncle Steve and Chris

My brother, Steve, whom many of you prayed for all summer during his chemo, with our son, Christopher. It was so wonderful to have him home for a few days. It was a rare opportunity for him to come home with his busy life. We had a nice dinner at home the first night with some of the family that was not coming to the wedding. The reception was in this amazing winery. The happy hour was in this room that was wine barrels from floor to very high ceiling and then in the center they had these tall tables where you could set down your drinks and h'oeuvres plates while chatting. Or you could just sit and talk with people. It was really nice. They had an open bar so people could have whatever they wanted. Our whole table was drinking virgin concoctions from one of the bartenders. He did a pretty fantastic job of mixing different juices, and sparkly water or ginger ale and it was fun. All the food for the entire evening was five star.

The reception!

This shows a portion of the reception dining room. They also had great music and one of Mara's cousins sang two amazing songs for them. Nick also made a wonderful video to surprise Mara and they did all the traditional stuff, garter toss, bouquet toss, first dance, money dance, dancing with the parents, toasting by the best man and maid of honor and special words from Mara's father and Nick's mother, Emily.

My sweet cousin Bob and his wife Beth

My youngest brother Gary and his wife Marilyn

Uncle Tom, Marilyn's Dad and Gloria

They even had a professional photo booth set up for everyone at the wedding to get pictures taken of their group to take home. They were just supposed to be goofy fun photos, four in all with various accessories available to add to the gaiety. Our group was not really too with it in this department until it was over. They were just taking the photos so fast. And we were a little slow on the up take.

The Photo Booth shots

I was going to have a hot pink boa but the little girl in front of us was still trying to untangle herself from it when we went into the booth. C'est la vie. It was a fun evening. We were gone a total of ten hour from portal to portal...a long and memorable day!

The cake was beautiful as you can see
and it was very delicious as well.

They even had their names
projected over the bar in huge letters.

We hope you live happily ever after, Nick and Mara!
We love you both! Best wishes!
Your wedding was beautiful!
May your life together be even more so!