Tina and Scott's Wedding

Tina is the youngest among my children so she's always been the baby of the family. This was taken during her bridal shower.

It was an event so I might as well use this for my Sightseeing, events or shopping Saturday post too. But I originally thought about it when I was invited to join at http://sugarnspiceinthelandofballsnsticks.blogspot.com/ for Before Blogging Throwback Thursdays . I had the photos all gathered up and ready because I intended to post them to link with Stephanie of http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com/" for her Wedding Blog Party but I did not have time because that was when the kids were over for a visit and I was extremely busy.

Tina and Scott's wedding definitely occurred before I started blogging. In fact, my very first blog in January of 2009 was about the wedding of my other daughter, Rochelle to Derek. So I am glad I got an opportunity to blog about Tina and Scott's wedding too. Someday, I will also blog about Jed and Becky's wedding.

Since the color motif of the wedding was champagne, chocolate brown and dusty rose (pink), I will also link with Beverly's Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

It all started with a proposal. Scott called Tina to meet him at the beach and when she got there, he kept leading her to a certain area of the beach and that's when she saw this, followed by an engagement ring. They have been classmates since elementary school and started going out in HS.

And so the busy preparation began. I still lived in Florida then and was working full time in a laboratory. But I would start working on wedding stuff before and after work. I sewed all 3 flower girl gowns from scratch. It always felt good after each project was brought to completion.
We bought a dozen black lanterns and painted them champagne. And then I embellished them with ribbons, pearls, flowers and a wedding ring. Sorry I cannot find a picture of a completed one. These were used as centerpieces alternatively with tall vases with flowers.
I found a plain birdcage at Joann Fabrics and I painted it champagne. Then, I embellished it with bows, ribbons, pearls, pink roses and doves.

I created all the corsages, bouquets, boutonnieres and flower girl baskets. Tina wanted something very simple but she wanted the handle decorated with Swavorski crystals. And her wish was my command! We ordered all the flowers from a flower shop. I think we paid about $300 and that included all the flowers for the church and reception too.

The shoes.

I also made head dresses for the flower girls. Here's AJ trying hers out. I bought plain baskets and covered them with pleated satin and added bows and flowers and strings of flowing ribbons. I found beige Battenburg lace doillies in Grand Cayman, bought them and used them to adorn the ring and coin pillows.

The little one would not wear her headdress, lol.

Here comes the bride!

I also made her veil, just aded pearls along the edges and gathered it on top and sewed the headband. She just wanted something simple.

The newlyweds with their grandmas and grandpa.

The wedding attendants!

Posing with Calvin, their late beloved dog in a bowtie.

Again, the couple with the attendants.

At the reception entrance.


Tina wanted the reception with a water view so we had it at the Rusty Pelican on Tampa Bay.

For the centerpieces, we alternated the lanterns with tall vases with flowers, mostly roses, which I also put together. And do you notice the party favors? I also created them, all 250 of them. They are champagne votive candle holders filled with shortbread cookies, the individually wrapped ones they give out in airplanes, wrapped in brown tulle and then tied with dusty rose personalized ribbons. I think I also added pink roses in the center. I cannot remember nor can tell from the pictures.

The bride with her brother and sister. I am very happy because the three of them are all very close to one another.

The couple with the bride's mom.

Note to myself: Never have my hair done again. I hated it!! LOL!

All my 7 close friends from College attended all the way from Canada, California, Illinois, New Jersey and Missouri.

the wedding cake

And here is the happy couple now with their 2 sons and 1 more coming (hopefully a daughter, but a son will be much welcomed with open arms too).

When I think about it now, I do not know how I was able to accomplish everything I did especially because I was working full time. The wedding was really beautiful and so perfect and it was worth all the hard work.

I don't work now and I cannot even finish everything I want to do at home, lol.

Thank you so much for stopping by and thanks to our hostesses!

Sharing My Secret With The Girls!

Last Wednesday, I invited my girl friends to have a luncheon picnic and then go swimming with me. I decided to have the picnic in the secret garden. I started grilling around 10:30 AM. I made some Filipino style barbecued pork in skewers, barbecued ribs and grilled some veggies (squash, zucchini, mushrooms and bell peppers). I just threw everything on the grill. I also served corn on a cob but I bought the frozen ones and just microwaved them.

This is one way of accessing the secret garden and probably the easiest.

Bird handled flatware is appropriate for outdoor use.

There is hubby spreading more moth balls in the yard. He did not know I already did that earlier but there is no harm in laying more. He is determined to keep those snakes away. He knows I will stop gardening if I saw even just one. I am so terrified of them.

I moved the picnic basket and flatware from the table to the railroad ties when I was ready to set the food on the table.
I wrapped the flatware with cloth napkins before I laid them down. This way the flying bugs would not get to them. I opened the napkins just for the picture taking and when it was time to eat.

I placed the plates in the picnic basket for the same reason, so the bugs would not get to them while I was cooking. This allowed me to set everything ahead of time in the garden.

Everything's all ready now.

But of course, we could not leave my mom out. While we were picnicking down below, I had her eating up on the deck where she could see us. I just did not want to risk her falling down the steps cause some of them are pretty steep.

Here we all are, the happy hungry bunch! John came home at lunch time but did not join us. He said he will leave us ladies alone:-)

I set the dessert table on one of the deck tables. I knew we wouldn't be hungry for dessert yet, right after eating all that food.
The cups had sea shell shaped saucers.

The teapot is a vintage Bavarian Tirschenreuth. I love the colors and the flowers on it. We had raspberry/cranberry tea. They loved it, in fact they asked for the site where I order them from. They are Whittard of Chealsea's instant tea. I don't think I have tried any of their flavors that I did not like. I kept the teapot in a warmer so we can drink tea anytime while swimming

I like using these screened domes to cover the food. Even if I do not see any bugs, it gives me peace of mind that the food will stay sanitary.

Yummy carrot cake!

Unfortunately, Doris and Mercy had to leave right after eating and could not join us to swim. Doris' office manager had to leave town to visit a sick brother so she had to take over managing the clinic.

Here's Brenda and Debjani.
Way to go, Brenda!

We really all had a great time. We even talked about going night swimming sometime soon.

Debjani shot this. Good thing my feet were clean, lol.

Linking with the following memes:

Sally's Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

SJ's http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

Lady Katherine's Teatime Tuesday at http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/

Martha and Terri's Teacup Tuesday at http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

Sandi's Teatime Tues at http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

WandaLee and Pam's Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday at http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/

Susan's Outdoor Wed. at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Watery Wed at http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/
Susan's Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
Sherry's Home Sweet Home Friday at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for hosting and thanks to all for visiting!

First Swimming Party of 2011

I am celebrating spring with Kathy. Are you? We'd love for you to join us at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

This post was ready to publish at a scheduled time when I woke up in the morning and looked out and saw the azaleas blooming. I grabbed my camera and just had to add it to the post to share with you. I was so excited! It does not take much to make me happy. Just show me a colorful garden and I feel like I am in heaven.

I have been having a blast spending time with my granddaughter, AJ, who flew from Florida to celebrate her spring break with us.. So lucky that the weather has been cooperating with us. We had our first pool party for this year a few days ago and I would like to share the fun with you. I am also linking with
Susan for Outdoor Wednesday at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Susan for Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday at http://www.tootsietime.com/

and for Watery Wednesday at http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Even though the temp. is in the 80's the water pool temp was too cold for me to swim in it. I want the water temp to be at least 82 degrees before I can dip in so John turned the heat on. Here he is by the vent waiting for the water to warm up.

It was a big challenge for me to prepare for the party. We have been trying to get 2 I Pad 2's, one for us and 1 for AJ but Apple stores are always sold out. I called a store in Jackson and they told us to go there when they open at 9 and take our chances cause they get shipments every morning but they sell them out really fast. So we did just that. It's a 2 and a half hour drive from home to Jackson so we left very early to get there on time. By the time we got there, they only had some with 16 MB left and we want 64 so we did not even buy any. But so as not to completely waste a trip, we went to TJ Maxx and Marshall's to shop for a while and then headed for home. We got home at 1:30 PM and I had already invited some friends for 3 PM, which means that I only have 1.5 hrs. left to do everything. I tell ya, all 4 stoves and the oven were all going, talk about multitasking, after all they call me the energizer bunny for nothing, lol

The guests arrived shortly after 3 and I was still cooking so I told them to go out and swim. AJ and John were already in the pool. I had everything set on the table by 4 and we ate at 5 so everything turned out just fine.

My guests brought some ribs and they were so yummy! Inside the bunny casserole dish is rice.

I made rice as usual, fish with sweet and sour sauce, crab omelette and chicken with mushrooms. AJ and I made brownies the day before and I had a coconut cake and also a pecan pie in the freezer that I defrosted so we just served them since I ran out of time to make dessert.


The kids had so much fun swimming.

We adults had fun chatting, eating and swimming too. There's me and my friend Brenda.

Jett is about to jump from the diving board here.

The ornamental cabbage is blooming.

and half of the trumpet vine flower buds opened up. I just had to show them to you.


The sun started to set and we were still swimming.

It got dark and we were still swimming. I don't think we stopped until it was almost 8 PM. We had so much fun and I was happy to get some exercise.

Thanks to our wonderful hostesses for these fun memes and I appreciate you all for coming by.