Pre- Wedding

Texas bound-3:30 am wake up, 4:00 Leave the house, 5:00 airport, 7am flight. Mark dropped me off in Des Moines, and I traveled through Dallas to  Abilene arriving at 11:30am. The clouds and sky were gorgeous and I slept a little. Jayden picked me up and we went for lunch and we got some wedding supplies. We had to wait around for Aunt B to arrive in from California. She flew in and we all drove back to Bwood mid-afternoon, she seems very nice. I got one day with my girl before family came in. I wanted to have some extra one on one time and spend the week with her. We were staying together at the lodge and sleeping in a room with 2 queen beds. It felt kind of  like a slumber party. I loved every minute of it. We talked, we kept the cat in our room, and it was peaceful and quiet. There was no television or distractions. It felt like she was just my little 16 year old girl, not a 23 year oold about to walk down the aisle.

Noah's parents had a group of people staying to help with all the wedding preparations. THey had already started decorating the garage and Bale put together a gorgeous chandelier.  Since Ester  had a broken foot, it was nice she had extra help. Jayden took me to her little one bedroom home at the hog ranch and fixed me supper. She showed me her horses and where she is keeping them. The owner has a bunch of crazy dogs that are real aggressive and one tried to nip the back of my leg. It is a great set up for her horses with shelter, pens, an arena, and pasture. The pasture is spindly bits of grass and lots of cactus and sandy ground. I think her horses have a pretty good life.

Jayden brought her miracle kitty, "Kat" to stay at the lodge with us. She doesn't seem healthy and has already been on a round of antibiotics. She sneezes a ton and kept me up a lot at night. I convinced her to take her back to the vet. Her little kitten has gotten sooo expensive. Also, Jayden recently bought a pregnant mare that is due to have a foal around the date of her wedding. So as not to have any big surprises on her wedding day, I went with her to take her to a foaling and breeding center in Stephenville and also brought back trailer full of hay. In the midst of a wedding, she sure seems to have a lot on her plate.   Many Iowa family came in on Thursday. My parents came and stayed at the Lodge for a week. Karen and Orrie along with Verna Mae and Lavern stayed at a house Lori reserved for her family. She reserved an amazing Air B&B. It was huge with tons of rooms, a swimming pool, a very neat, and fancy home. Lori and Jaynie got in late Thursday evening. The house ended up housing lots of our family, Melinda, Kyle, Abby & the twins, Rylie, Troy and Suzy. Jossie had Kit 9 weeks early, so her family would not be attending. She was so bummed to miss. Last minute, baby Eli had pneumonia, so the Mitchell's could not travel down. Tim stayed back and Torrie and Jake. Ali's family all stayed back in Iowa too. We were really pleased with how many of our family did make the trip. Thursday evening, my parents, Jayden, Noah, and I went out to a steakhouse and had supper together before visiting the Iowa relatives at Lori's rental home.

Jayden is so thoughtful and had gift bags for all the wedding party, grandparents, both sets of parents, Ali, and  Aunt Lori (for doing dress alterations). She had such sweet well thought out gifts and enjoyed handing them out.     Friday I got a phone call in the wee hours of the morning about a delayed flight. The Iowa crew was set to leave from Des Moines at 7AM. Their flight was similar to mine, leave home at 4:00AM, airport at 5, flight at 7. Ali spent the night at our house to be ready. Luke was just getting over a bout of strep throat and Mark had been sick too. The Iowa group that flew together was Mark, Jake, Luke, Ali, Suzy, Maggie, Troy, and Rylie. It was good they all traveled together to make light of the situation and have a little fun. I helped book all the flights except Troy and Rylie. With the delayed flight, Mark already knew that they would not make the connecting flight to Abilene. They would all land in Dallas and need a way to get to Bwood. My job was to book them a van or bus to drive 8 people from Dallas to Bwood. I was half asleep and feeling sick at 500 AM making phone calls to book a rental vehicle. I was running into problems trying to get a rental big enough for 8. I made lots of calls and many of them got dropped or disconnected and I would have to start the process all over. Finally, I was able to book a Suburban for the crew. I know it was an adventure they will all remember. I knew it was going to be a challenge for them to make it to the rehearsal dinner. Friday Jayden and I went to buy groceries and supplies for the wedding charcuterie board with Lori, Jaynie, and my mom, followed by lunch at a little sandwich shop. Noah joined us for lunch. In the afternoon, Lori, my dad and several others got a tour of the ranch cruising around on the ranger. Aunt Lori loved that and said that was her favorite memory of the trip. She also helped my parents make smore packs for the reception for guests to take home. Sadly, they were set in a spot where nobody saw them at the reception.   Back at the ranch we were helping decorate and getting ready for the rehearsal night. Ester had everyone help decorate all the tables for wedding day. I was a bit nervous as there was talk of late night storms coming in. I could just see everything blowing around and getting soaked. They were preparing the wooden doors that Jayden would walk through at the beginning of the aisle and there was talk of painting the hay feeder, but Jayden talked them into leaving it as is. So many details went into the decorations. Ester sure has a creative talent! Everything was just amazing, a dream wedding.

The traveling 8 did their best to arrive on time driving all the way from Dallas, missed the rehearsal, but made it in time for dinner. The rehearsal was windy and quick. Jayden looked adorable in her little white dress all slim and blonde. She is naturally beautiful. She doesn't have to wear tons of make-up, curl her hair, and wear fancy clothes, she is model material just as she is. Jayden thought there was no need for the pastor to be present. She knew what needed to happen and did a run through. It was pretty short and sweet. Jake and Luke were still on the road and they were the only ones who have never been in a wedding. It was plenty windy and we prayed for a much nicer day for the wedding. Some of the groomsmen were already enjoying the drinks before the dinner, through the dinner, and into the evening. The rehearsal meal was a little chaotic. The restaurant was anticipating a small number and we had around 30 people. They had to pull out every extra chair they had and shuffle people around. It was not ideal, but we made it work. Dan and Angelia arrived early and saved a spot at our table for Mark. We were so excited to have them present. Dan was there for moral support along with being our best friends. It was so amazing and meaningful to have them there with us. We knew the M family had done a tremendous amount for the wedding, it only seemed right to cover the rehearsal and Mark agreed. He got many thank yous and handshakes after the meal. It was kind of hard to meet people and converse during the dinner. The plan was to stay at the lodge that evening and Mark wanted to stay at the hotel. We knew the groomsmen would be drinking and partying at the lodge, so decided it would be best if the boys stayed at the hotel with him. They were not at all happy about it and it made for a quick negative change in everyone's moods. I think Bale was planning on Mark hanging out with the guys, however when we walked up to music blaring so loud that your chest vibrates and lyrics that made me want to crawl in a hole, Mark couldn't get out of there fast enough. Apparently, they decided this was Noah's bachelor party since he didn't get one in earlier.  The music was loud until late making it hard for anyone to sleep at the Lodge.  My parents were there and Wade's family with little Levi. Fortunately, they didn't go crazy late, but everyone was wanting to go to bed and rest up for the big wedding day. I was already feeling crummy from cold symptoms and hoping and praying I wasn't contagious. I certainly did not want to get Jayden sick! Or anyone else for that matter! She stayed with me after the guys all settled down for the night. A storm rolled in during the night with rain thunder and lightning. All I could think of was the tent blowing over with all the decorated tables. The tent was just below my window, and I would look out and check on it ash it whipped around and I did some praying.