Congratulations, Nate and Kathy

Congratulations and best wishes to Kathy and Nate, who were married today at St. Marie. The past few days have been a whirlwind of events: bachelor party on Thursday, rehearsal on Friday, and the wedding itself today. We also had one of the groomsmen and his girlfriend staying with us, our first house guests since we moved into the house.

I sang for the ceremony, and Matt was a groomsman, so neither of us were able to take pictures of the actual ceremony. One of the coolest things for me today was well before the ceremony. For the entrance, the fabulously talented Mary Copely played the organ, and I sang while Danny C played violin. So we were up in the balcony waiting to start playing the pre-ceremony music, and the Cicarrello boys and I had the opportunity to climb up inside the belly of Ste. Marie's enormous pipe organ while Mary played and demonstrated for us the way the different pipes, stops, and shutters worked. The bellows themselves were amazing, two giant squeeze boxes each the size of a double bed. And the pipes are so cool -- I had no idea how many there were, or how they are made out of so many different kinds of metal and wood, and different shapes. The tiniest flute-like ones were the size of drinking straws, and the largest were tubes as wide around as a beach ball. There were square wooden ones, and cone-shaped ones which looked like they were made of aluminum, and Mary showed us that some have reeds in them, just like reeded instruments, to imitate the sound of a clarinet or oboe. Standing in the middle of all these pipes, I was impressed that they really aren't all that loud; it's the design of the church and the position of the organ (so close to the ceiling) which carries the sound through the whole building.

But I was talking about their wedding. The ceremony was of course beautiful, and they both looked so happy up there. The reception was at the Audubon society in Concord, a really beautiful setting. It was just a shame it was so cold and rainy, because we weren't able to enjoy the surrounding park as much as I would have liked. But it was nice to see friends from SMYAM, and be able to chat and enjoy the party. I even got Matt to dance several slow dances with me and even one fast one.

Don't these two look handsome?

Also, I used my anniversary gift to make the wedding card. Matt decided to buy me a Cricut machine, but wasn't sure which one to get, which accessories, etc. So I wound up doing some research and ordering a bundle from HSN which came with several cartridges, inks for printing, and other cool tools. The cricut is a scrapbooking machine, but it can also be used to cut vinyl, stencil material, cloth, and had a ton of applications. Of course my main plan is to use it to make a baby book for jellybean, but I'm also planning on making some wall decorations and possibly use it to make some appliqued curtains for our bedroom.