Since I last posted we've had an addition to the family. Kerry met, dated (briefly) and married Jordan Kerr! Kerry and Jordan both said "when you know, you know!" Kerry also points out that she isn't a kid (31) so she's had a lot of time to decide what she wanted in a mate, and Jordan fits the bill plus a whole lot of neat qualities she didn't even know she wanted, but she's delighted with them.
I suppose I need to backtrack a little here and discuss my roll in all this. I was the wedding planner...sort of.
At first Kerry said that the reception wasn't really important to her and she didn't have any ideas, so I could just 'make it so'. Almost immediately she changed that to a whole lot of (often conflicting) ideas. It made planning a challenge to say the least, but it was her party so I became flexible. In fact, I think I only 'lost it' one time and that was on a relatively minor issue. The final plan was a Winter Wonderland/Scottish Festival.
The first issue was a place to have it. We looked at several venues. Oh, did I mention the wedding/reception was the weekend before Christmas? Oh, and did I mention that I had less than six weeks to plan? Minor issues of course to a mom committed to making the wedding for my last child to be something to remember. Remember the keyword there: committed. It will take on several meanings as I go on here.
I'm losing my place - back to finding a venue. We looked at some lovely places, my favorite being one of the historic officer's homes at Fort Vancouver. It was a little expensive, but would have been a little too small for some of the activities we had planned. Since we had no idea how many people would attend (remember, this is the weekend before Christmas) and the couple have many friends in Vancouver, we decided to use the Cultural Hall (read: gym) of one of the local church buildings. Jordan took me to visit the room so we could check out details. I now know that its' important to actually take measurements, because a large room looks even larger when it's empty. I made some assumptions about what would fit easily and we left. Hindsight is 20/20.
I will take this opportunity to mention that during the six week period, I had previously planned a trip to Austin to visit my son Kevin and his family. I decided to go ahead with the trip because I figured I would need a little time-out. Ten days of time-out. It actually turned out to be fruitful, because I was able to discuss a lot of the wedding issues with my daughter-in-law Stephanie and organize my thoughts. Also during this 6 week period, my granddaughter Ryann had an emergency appendectomy! Of course seeing to her needs took precedence over everything for a week or so. All these things turned out fine, but by their very nature took up a significant chunk of my planning/executing time.
Kerry and Jordan both work full-time jobs during the week (Kerry often works Saturdays, as well) so their help time was limited, and to be fair, they were still getting to know each other. They did all they could fit in. I discovered that Jordan is our local go-to guy. He's the kind of fellow who 'has a guy' to do all sorts of things. He was able to guide me to several helpful people, or he would contact his guy for information. I hope that makes sense...I know what I'm trying to say here. He's a very good addition to our family.
I need to finish this post for now, but I will add part 2 (and photos) as soon as possible. Stay tuned....
