Maggie's Wedding

Even after four years of living in Utah, if you asked me who my best non-family friend was, I'd probably say Heather Daybell.  That's not to say that I don't have other wonderful and important friends in my life here and in Idaho, but Heather and I have a very special friendship.  We were in a primary presidency together, we were running partners for years, we've been through some pretty rough and pretty amazing times together and we just fit - like sisters-by-choice.  We have the kind of friendship where we only speak to each other three or four times per year - we're both busy living our busy lives - but whenever we do catch up, we just pick up where we left off.   I feel very blessed to have such a friend in my life.  All women need at least one.

Anyway...Last fall, Heather called me up and said that her daughter, Maggie was having a rough time.  She was having boy problems and kind of struggling with her life decisions, etc.  Heather asked if I would be willing to give Maggie a call and just talk to her as someone who Maggie likes and looks up to that is NOT her mom.  Of course I said yes.  Maggie and I texted back and forth for a while and when I came up to Idaho for general conference, I took her to lunch.  I'm not sure if anything I said helped, but it was super fun for me to listen to her and give her whatever insights I could.  I've known and loved Maggie for the bulk of her life, so it was really crazy to sit and have a  chat with this used-to-be-my-kids-babysitter-but-now-she's-grown-up lady.

A few months ago, I noticed through Facebook that Maggie was engaged.  I instantly got on the phone and offered my services to Heather.  She was so relieved.  I guess she had been pretty stressed out with all the wedding planning and just the day before I called, she was in tears to her husband about how to get everything done. I was the answer to her prayers - someone who wasn't family and didn't have to attend all the functions who could be trusted to do all the running and last minute errands.

So, after Alison and I walked in the door from our Young Women overnight trip on Thursday evening, we showered, ate dinner, packed up the van, loaded up the family (minus David, who had to work on Friday) and started driving to Idaho.  In retrospect, it was not the best idea.  I was dangerously, deliriously tired.  I'm sure more than one person thought I was a drunk driver.  Somehow, we made it to Idaho alive (and very late).  I basically said hello to Grandma and Grandpa Gee, then put everyone to bed.

The next morning, I left the kiddos in Grandma and Grandpa Gee's care and I met Heather at the chapel where the wedding reception would be held.  I helped set up tables and chairs and decorations.  It was just Heather and I for a while, until Heather's husband and one of Maggie's friends came to help.  Around lunch time, I left them to finish up, and went back to the Gee's house.  We spent the day with them.  We visited with Kristi's family, went to the farmer's market, ate at our old favorite Chinese restaurant, and watched a movie on Grandpa's huge TV.  It was a fun day.

Here are a few of he decorations.  It was kind of rustic chic.

Its so hard to show how pretty the flowers were with my camera.  

Of course, this is before the reception, but here's a little display and the table where gifts would be placed.

On Saturday, the day of the wedding, I was put to work.  The first thing I did was drive to St. Anthony to pick up the flowers.  There were three large ice chests packed with them.  I dropped off a couple of coolers at the Gee's house, then took the bouquet and other personal flowers to the temple for photographs.  It was fun to sit outside the temple and watch all the brides and grooms come out with their families.   There were two or three before Maggie.

But finally, they emerged.  

I snapped a picture of Heather talking to her sister.  That's Heather's mom to her left and Isaac, Heather's second child, who will be a senior next year.  He was a little eight year old boy in my memory, so this huge hunk kind of freaked me out!

Maggie's friends are Brea and Darby - two of my little teeny primary girls all grown up!  Darby just got a mission call.  Time is such a strange thing!

So after the temple photos were done, the family headed over to their luncheon.  I grabbed a bite to eat and said hi to my family for a minute (David have driven up that morning).  Then, I took my girls over to the chapel to meet the cake decorator.  She was 45 minutes late.  45 minutes!  At 15 minutes, I wondered where she was.  At a half hour, I started wondering if I could run to Walmart and buy a few birthday cakes and stack them up myself into some sort of wedding cake like tower.  At 45 minutes, I was starting to panic.  But she showed up - she just wanted to drive extra carefully to protect the cake.

It turned out lovely.  The florist was stressed out about fresh peonies on the cake because they are such fragile flowers, but they worked wonderfully.  It was funny to watch my girls' faces when she first brought out the plain, white iced cake.  They were not very impressed.  But then, as she added the ribbon and flowers and transformed it to a thing of beauty, the girls lit up with excitement.

So by the time the cake lady left, I barely had time to run the girls home, change my clothes, run to Walmart to buy 10 gallons of milk for the reception, and get back in time for it to start.   David took our kids over to Kristi's house.  They had a fun family birthday party for Grandpa Gee.  I was hoping to be there for at least part of it and I think they bent over backward to try to accommodate me, but there just wasn't enough time.  That's okay - I came to Idaho to help Heather and she needed me, so I was where I belonged.   It sounds like everyone had a really great time at the party.  

The reception was really fun!  They served little single-serve pies, along with white or chocolate milk.  They also had a little candy bar (a bar where they served different candies), so my job was basically to keep everything stocked.  I saw a few of my good friend from the old ward and had a great time catching up with them. Super David brought ALL of our kids, looking darling and grown up, to the reception. I enjoyed all the "look how grown up they are!" and "what a beautiful family" remarks our friends showered us with.  

One of the best parts of the whole evening for me was being able to work along side some of my good friends: Heidi Rassumssen, Tracy Jacobson and her daughter Rylee, and Laura Luthy.  What great women!  We had so much fun!  I was sad for the evening to end.  But my feet weren't.  I could barely shuffle out of there and collapse in my bed that night.  Wouldn't it be great if that was an exaggeration?   But sore feet and all, I had a wonderful weekend helping my dear friend.