Tobin and Erin

Congratulations, Micah and Betsey!  My younger sister got married on the 4th of July, 2009.  Elizabeth Rose Vastbinder…I’m going to have to get used to that one.

This is going to be a ginormous post, but I had to put some awesome wedding pictures up here; thank goodness I had a great photographer along for this trip (thanks, love!).

I threw a shower for Betsey the day before her wedding; yikes!  It turned out to be a lot of fun, thankfully everything was pretty much ready and we only invited a few people to keep the level of stress low.  Here is the cheese fondue and chips all ready to go (thanks for your help, Lacey!); we had a dessert later (YUM, Em!).

One of the games was a scavenger hunt, which didn’t really have any winners, but we got some nice shots of wedding day things.  Here are some of Betsey’s centerpieces.  She made a paper lantern with vellum sides and lit candles in the middle.  Gorgeous!  The fortune cookies you can see on the table were the wedding favors; and EVERY ONE hand-made by the bride!  She’s so creative!  Other tables had white paper Japanese lanterns on them with candles inside.

This photo was to check off the item “something from the college the bride and groom graduated from”.  Yes, all three girls in the photo graduated from Grace College.  (See the “G” and the “C”?)  But it was also a cute photo of Betsey and her friends, Sara and Cassie.

Now the wedding day!  Here’s a handsome schmandsome usher escorting mother-of-the-bride down the aisle.  Way to go, Zach!  You did great.  You can also see some family members heads.  I couldn’t believe how huge JC (the shaved head) has gotten.  He’s a bodybuilder now!

Here’s Elyse, a beautiful junior bridesmaid!

Emily…and her hair looks pretty great if I do say so myself.  That’s the first time I’ve ever returned the favor and fixed HER hair.  But she already had the hard part, curling it, done.

Me, all blurry.  Tobin must have teared up when he saw me coming down the aisle, couldn’t even focus the camera right. 

Caleb and Grace, ring bearer and flower girl for a second wedding!  They did GREAT…aren’t they super adorable????

And finally, the stunning bride!  Seriously, she glowed!

Introducing the bride and groom as husband and wife for the very first time!  Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Vastbinder!

Caught ‘em.  Aw, so adorable.

Ok, really, I think she’s physically glowing.  Don’t they look happy?

CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!  This was before the plug was found slightly unplugged.  After that was fixed, it flowed SO smoothly.  But it’s still nearly perfect here!  And let me tell you, it was fanTAStic!

Being ladylike.

“Cutting the cake”.  Best cake ever.  Period.

Under he goes.

Sparklers lit as the bride and groom leap into their getaway vehicle!  Hopefully we’ll get some good photos of that from the official photographer, because it was neat to see!

That was our Fourth!  We didn’t see very many fireworks, but it was so great to see all my family again.  Luke and Lacey’s family was there through Saturday (Grace, Caleb, Ava, and new baby Jaden).  Dan and Emily stuck around with us through about noon on Sunday.  Then we said goodbye to Mom, Dad, Zach, and Elyse, and headed out on our long drive south.

A couple of minor snags and we got home safely!  There was a tiny incident when a wallet was misplaced on the roof of our vehicle (whoops, thought I learned my lesson after the basketball shoes incident; those were And 1’s and everything!).  Then, during the last 40 miles, we narrowly escaped hitting a deer; I am SO grateful that Tobin was driving at that moment, or there would have been one less deer in Florida, and our car would have been a lot shorter.

We’re glad to be back.  Titus is missing his dog cousin, George.  He whimpers because we don’t play quite rough enough for him.    Poor little guy.  He’ll have a sister soon enough!