Thursday, August 30, 2007

Cupcakes & Mountain Lions, or: the bride had a snake tattoo. . .


Woo hoo! There's my baby sister Emily losing her garter to her new husband Marty on Saturday, August 25, 2007, in Paso Robles, California. Love that snake tattoo! In the past I have called Emily a "snake doctor" -- but in reality what she is is a PhD in biology who did her dissertation on rattlesnakes, and who happens to love the beasties. Fortunately, Marty loves them too -- a match made in Heaven (or at least, a match made in the Arizona desert!). Their living room and study are both dominated by custom cabinets filled with snakey after rattling snakey. At the wedding, the only snakes around were the ones on the wine glasses -- here is the art Jim did for them:

Funnily, when the glasses arrived, there were a few stuck in there from "Kate and Dean's Wedding" or some normal thing, and we were laughing to imagine Kate and Dean pulling rattlesnake glasses out of their own order!

So, there were no real snakes at the wedding, but there was a mountain lion skulking nearby. When we gals drove back in to the ranch Friday night after our "bachelorette party" we saw very plainly a very large mountain lion in the brush, only a few yards from where our husbands were gathered around the campfire. Yeeks! We could see its tail swishing as it prowled away. After that, the younger children were kept close. I was thrilled by the glimpse, though, and this makes it extra cool: at the wedding of Emily's best friends, Dawn & Rob, a few years ago in the Sonoran Desert, a bobcat prowled right past in a dry creekbed, just minutes before the ceremony began, in full view of all the guests. So, Emily and Dawn both have some kind of big cat karma, I guess.

And besides the mountain lion, there was a pig very much in attendance. Her name is Polly By Golly and she lives on site and wanders happily around, grunting.

Here's the spot, The Dancing Horse Ranch, in the middle of Central California wine country:



And here's the wedding:




Don't they look great? This was surely the first time many of the guests had seen Emily in makeup and a dress -- she's a very outdoorsy biologist-type girl, and she looked so beautiful! She got that stunning dress here in Portland from a designer on NW 23rd St. It's hand-painted silk from India. Lovely! And her hair was done by my Aunt Joyce, who was also my bridal fairy godmother.

Here's my extended family, my parents and siblings and niece and husband and honorary family members, Dawn and Rob:

It was an informal, non-religious ceremony, without a minister. Dawn was the "rev" as we called her, just as Emily was for her wedding. It makes things personal and very lovely. (I want to say thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions for readings! There were some terrific suggestions, and I ended up reading from Poetry & Marriage by Wendell Berry, as suggested by blue poppy, and Dawn incorporated the final two stanzas from Marge Piercy's The Implications of One + One** into the ceremony. I love that poem -- thanks, Tinker, for pointing me to it! And thanks to everyone else too. Marty's sister read the fabulous passage from The Velveteen Rabbit about becoming "real" -- if you haven't read it in a while, check it out.)

The bride and groom with their parents:


And lots more pictures:
Me and Jim and my freshly empinked hair:

Me with my brother and sister (Alex looking thrilled to be with us):

He looks a lot happier here, with his daughter, Isabella:


Something you see a lot of at weddings, nieces in pretty dresses:

And here's Marty, who has "a way with the ladies":

Smooch:

And more and more:






(Acting out the song "Kung Fu Fighting" -- )

Oh, and did I mention there were cupcakes?


**from "The Implications of One + One" by Marge Piercy:
Ten years of fitting our bodies together
and still they sing wild songs in new keys.
It is more and less than love: timing,
chemistry, magic and will and luck.

One plus one equal one, unknowable except
in the moment, not convertible into words,
not explicable or philosophically interesting.
But it is. And it is. And it is. Amen.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

laini!!!
*LOVE* your post. these pics take me back to that gloriously beautiful and graceful place. you have such a wonderful presence augmented by color! :)
jimbo!!!
awesome job with the pics! each and every one was perfect.
looks like em was targeting someone with the bouquet...is that against ceremonial protocols? :-0
and darn! go deb!
and alex...oh alex.
the family pics are great, although i think the smooch ones are my favorite.
love to you and jimbo.
xoxo
~the rev

Amber said...

It looks like so much loving fun! yay for love! I really like her dress. So pretty, and simple, but not. Lovely choice.

Your brother is cute!

:)

Kristy said...

Please pass along my best wishes to your sister Laini...all the best to her!

And, wow, those pictures of your family! Your mom, your dad...all of you -- it's very surreal. And "Tigey" is the spitting image of himself so very long ago...hee!

Anonymous said...

This looks like such a great wedding! Love the photos, everyone looks gorgeous - that is a fabulous wedding dress (I had to click on it to see the fabric close up - fantastic!)
I can just imagine the look on the other wedding parties faces if they got the rattlesnake glasses, hee hee. Jim did a great job on that design. Cupcakes! Great idea -I want one now...
Glad the poetry suggestion worked out. Best wishes to the happy couple!

Anonymous said...

Did I mention I love the color of your dress with your hair? Very cool. I think they'd look great in an impressionist-style portrait.

Left-handed Trees... said...

Aww...such sweetness in this post! Congratulations to your family for all of the L-O-V-E. (My brother got engaged a couple of weeks ago, so I know how nice this is).
Love,
D.

[a} said...

i love that illustration of the intertwined snakes. my compliments to your husband.

And about the mountain lion: you have such a knack for randomness. It's attracted to you, maybe. Bobcat + pig @ wedding also a sure symptom of Randomitis.
xxoxxo