Dave's brother Wes got married this weekend to a wonderful girl named Michele. This has been a long time coming, and we were all so excited to share in their wedding!

Originally they had planned on eloping (if one can "plan" to elope...), but her family talked her into a small ceremony. Wes' parents were unable to attend as they are missionaries in Africa, and can't exactly stop in for weekend visits. To solve this problem, the happy couple will be going to Africa for their honeymoon and having another small ceremony there so his parents can attend.

They got engaged on December 30, so their wedding plans came together quickly! Shele already had a dress, so that part wasn't an issue, and they had one attendant each. Will, Wes' identical twin, was the best man, and Beth, Shele's younger sister, was the maid of honor. Coordinating matching outfits for one is easy!

They chose a lovely bed and breakfast in our area and rented it out for both the ceremony and the reception. The bride also stayed there the night before the wedding.

The ceremony was a very short affair at 1:30, after which they had a lovely hors doeuvers reception. They had scones, finger sandwitches, and the cutest collection of china tea cups with a selection of loose teas.

And the cake.

Can you believe she made that herself?? I don't know when she found the time! It was absolutely beautiful.

They had a short time for dancing, kicking it off with their first dance and the father-daughter dance. The rest of the dancing consisted of the "couples songs" of the various couples in attendance! Grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters all heard their first dance song dedicated to them in a tribute to the wonderful families supporting Wes and Shele. It was absolutely adorable.

Dave has a small wedding DJ business, so Wes asked him to DJ for the reception. This is the first wedding I have attended that he has DJed, and I learned a few very important things.

First of all, when the DJ is your date, you never dance to the end of a song. At least not when he has improvised his set-up to deal with the limited space availiable.

Secondly, when set-up is improvised and space is limited, problems are more likely to occur. A cable went bad in the middle of a song, and Dave is convinced that it wouldn't have happend with a sound board. And when things go wrong he feels personally responsible.

I also learned that I'm really bad at encouraging when I am tired. And I was tired. I meant my encouragement to sound like this: "I love you darling dearest mister! I think you did a beautiful job at the wedding, and the music was fine. The small kinks that happened are the sort of things that happen, and they certainly didn't ruin the wedding! Everyone was happy and still dancing after it was fixed, and it was wonderful!"

Instead, it ended up sounding more like this: "It was FINE. Nobody cares. It was great. Shush. I'm tired. Take me home."

Aren't I a good encourager?

Speaking of minor wedding snafus, we arrived on location (I came with Wes and company), Beth came down the stairs and asked Wes if he had the ring. Needless to say, Wes hurriedly sent someone home after that very important band. Also, shortly before the ceremony, he realized that he had forgotten the marriage license. So after the ceremony someone else ran back and picked that up.

But over all, the wedding was beautiful. The reception was only about 2 hours long, but it was perfect. It was a day full of loved ones for Wes and Shele, and a wonderful time for all of us, witnessing the ultimate expression of their love for each other. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Wes' parents could have been there!