This is my dedication going out to you tonight – with a house full of grandbebes (the fruit of our lives and love) and “Gilligan’s Island” too loud on the TV and Star Wars guys strewn all over…dedicated to the one I love:
There’s no, no looking back for us
We got love sure ‘nough, that’s enough
You’re all I need to get by…
All the joys under the sun wrapped up into one
You’re all, you’re all I need to get by.
We are simplifying the look a bit. Think Mac. Cleaner. Pure color (not grayed over, nor muted, pul-eeze). But putting the Pinterest board together was just bringing various things that struck-my-fancy to one spot, my fancies (not Heaven Fest’s ,necessarily). When I think festival branding, these things all have a tiny piece of it in my collaged-head. You can see the whole board here:
http://pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/festival-graphics/
I spent years liking muted color (think antiques, think Starbucks-coffee-house colors). And while I still appreciate sort of the aged sophistication of those colors, I have increasingly been drawn to pure, bright color.
During 7th grade, I got to board a psychedelic-painted church bus and travel downtown to Christian Coffee Houses where the “One-way” chant became our cry. Songs reminded us there was only one-one God-one book “and that’s the Holy Bible” to get us to the promised land! There was a zealous passion of Jesus during that time. The media took notice.
My dad made me come out of my room to watch 3 televised days of Explo ’72 in Dallas. I was hooked after 5 minutes and it was the first time I realized I was part of a huge move of God in the earth. I wasn’t alone, just a little Christian girl in a small church in my small city. People everywhere loved Jesus. It was there I first heard/saw: Give me a J…give me an E…Give me an S…Give me another S….what’s it spell?….J E S U S….the crowds would yell, over and over.
Except it would be “One day, one stage, one purpose.” See how it is all coming together? 
I am not sure why I wanted the Vertigo poster on my Festival Graphics Pinterest Board, but I think it is amazing design.
I hope some one really does this and I get to meet them.
Except it isn’t really carved wood. That is me looking through it, there on the left.
The M-O-B and the M-O-G (mother-of-the-bride and the mother-of-the-groom, me and Tammy)
I needed a good-sized, ornate-ish frame for the old-fashioned-family photo booth and just didn’t have time to go shopping for one. So one afternoon when Hunter came over. We decided to make our own.
That is it the “open” frame on left. This is Ryan and Tredessa “trying out” the photo booth a few days before the wedding when we were at the barn decorating. When I was finished, I realized that I really could have accomplished the same effect with a much larger “frame” by using a piece of foam core or cardboard cut into a frame shape. Just a little FYI on the DIY!
Niece, Elise posed in honor of her lover-husband who could not attend.
Dana and Jason hammed it up for quite a few good shots!
Two of my grandbebes, confetti girls Gemma and Averi with Ryan’s little flag-boy, Cody. CUTE!
~~~
Photos: Chronos Images (Matthew Greenlee and Rachel Ruge) and Lilac Photography (Eldeen Pickett)
A casual, vintage scene has been set. Welcoming!
On the right, you can see the jars hanging from the tree with subtle (and non-fire-hazard) illumination.
This pretty little sign was painted by Mairin Bierer. It hung across the aisle before the bride and her attendants came to walk it. We were all family.
The centerpieces included old books from the bride, French labels with romantic quotes and song lyrics, milk-glass containers, candles, dusty-green sprays…
As soon as that was over, we met weekly to create and glue and make and dream and talk and laugh and plan and gather supplies and create timelines. It was a very DIY vintage-y wedding, for sure.
It is hard to recall who exactly saw which idea first but along the way we had giant paper flowers, and old frames with lace. Tredessa brought a big stack of old lace curtains over and we created “lace balls” by using a glue mixture on the lace and forming it around balloons. When it was dry, we popped the balloon and voila: a lace balloon ball to hang from the ceiling.
Tredessa really liked the idea of a barn for a wedding and in short order her old roommate introduced us to a family who’d built a small barn on their 17 acres. They used the downstairs of the barn for the owner’s hobby of hand-carving wooden carousel animals (which are amazing!) and the upstairs for family celebrations. It was perfect!
We realized that to have a wedding ceremony, a celebration dinner, and photobooth and a dance floor all in one spot would be a tight, tight fit. So Dessa decided to pray about finding a nice, small church for the ceremony and the next thing you know, New Horizons Christian Fellowship opened right up for us. It was so cool, right across the interstate from the barn!
We used things we have, antiques and vintage items to decorate at the wedding. This old typewriter was at the guest table.
I have to say I have some talented kids. Stormie designed and printed the super-cool wedding programs with the full love story on them.
Jovan created the flower mobile that hung over the guest table.
The wedding party on a framed poster. Jar candles on a rustic candleabra for ambiance.
A felled branch was wrapped in white satin ribbon and candles in jars, along with lots of glass and heavy crystals embellished the “tree” we created. The whole backdrop was draped in cottons and canvases creating a living room atmosphere.
The sidewalk to the church was lined in the trademark-Rhoades-family luminarias. We used framed lace at both the church and the barn for the dinner celebration.
The gift area was comfy and merchandised with antiques. Mercury-glass love birds on an old window from Tredessa’s grade school, touches of home.
Left, Tristan playing at the wedding. Right, Tredessa and Ryan scattered photos of great-grandparents around the reception, witnesses to long love, a nod to their heritage.
An old brass and crystal chandelier got a coat of white paint for the wedding. It hung right over the bride and groom during dinner.
Chronos Images* Tredessa at the barn a couple of hours before the ceremony.
Tredessa and Ryan having fun in the photobooth. Tredessa with her matron-of-honor, big sister (by 1 year and 3 weeks), Stephanie
Tredessa was radiant. Beaming, even.
After her engagement, she wrote a wedding plan. Most brides decide on definitive colors and places and and details concerning things. And Tredessa had thoughts on that, but her main wedding plan was about it being fun and family and intimate and closeness and relaxation and rejoicing. She wanted everyone who came to feel peace. She wanted everyone to have a romantic night of dancing and celebration. Her plan came together!
Seeing Guini tapping and twirling, dancing with abandoned glee with her daddy, turns and twists and getting-dipped. She looked beautiful. She felt beautiful. She was free and full of joy. One of the favorite moving-picture memories I now carry in my heart.
I had this magnificent bridal bouquet in mind and it did not turn out that way at all, which was stressing me out the night before. I dreamed of it when I barely slept. But in the morning, I remembered that Tredessa wasn’t all “flowery” anyway. I disassembled everything I had begun the night before, left 75% of it on the counter, put in the 6 white roses, the spray of naked-lady lilies, the small bunches of white spider mums and lots of vintage buttons and a couple of brooches and the succulents I had grown just for the occasion. I hand tied the smaller, very specifically-structured bouquet and wrapped it in satin ribbon overlaid with chiffon to match her dress. And in the 5 minutes it took to assemble after all the worry, it looked like a reflection of her ring – a perfectly lovely, vintage-y, love-with-a-history bouquet. And I knew it was perfectly right for the slender, beautiful hands that would carry it.
Delicious food made by loving, generous hands of a good friend. Vintage-y. DIY. A barn wedding. Using old family photos, chandeliers, creating a “living room” experience for the church-front. These were bits and parts of the the most beautiful wedding in 2011!
Dave barely even sniffled during the ceremony. Shocking! He is tender-hearted towards his kids. He was engaging, effusive and funny, even. Everyone loved the ceremony.
Three days with our familia from Florida. Ryan’s brothers and their fams and his parents and grandparents and uncle…We gathered in tight for traditional Thanksgiving on Thursday, had rehearsal and dinner on Friday and danced together on Saturday. We loved them all and just melted together. Familia!
Ryan’s mom (my new “sister” from Florida) told me, just before Ryan walked us to our seats, “You are beaming.” And I knew I was. I could feel the glow, so proud of my daughter and so pleased with her choice.
Ryan’s vows to my daughter were beautiful. Hers to him nearly knocked breath from me, so full of promise and depth and wisdom from observation. I was unprepared for the tears that bursted forth.
The church was very small,. We draped everything is fabric, off-white cottons and canvases, and used lace-filled frames and big paper flowers strewn about as a backdrop.
First dance: “You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you…”
There were lots o’ Pinteresting-gifts among our family at Christmas. But I will save those for another time. These are some of the images and where to find them from my “Pinterest Board,” which I so aptly named {Love & Joy Come to You~Christmas Celebrating.” These are just odds and ends that struck my fancy.
You may see all of my boards at http://pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/
or the Christmas board specifcally at http://pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/love-joy-come-to-you-christmas-celebrating/
The {link} for this simple red and white staircase on the left doesn’t work anymore. I couldn’t find {source} info for the staircase on the right. It was just a repin.
The snickernoodles lik came from a bright, beautiful beautiful blog: http://www.joyshope.com/. And don’t you just love these peppermint Rice Krispy treat snowballs? Almost too pretty to eat {source}.
My daughter, Stephanie had a white tree this year. I just love the classy, subdued colors on this softly glowing tree. It came from {HERE}. People are so clever when they don’t have space for a tree, as shown by this tree-on-a-wall that was from Apartment Therapy. {see here}
FINALLY bought Christmas in Connecticut on DVD at Kmart for $5 this year. We’d still been using the old VHS. Zooey D. totally reminds me and everyone else of one of my girls (guess!) and I love her voice! So this is delightful. of course!
This was my very first Christmas-board pin, from www.megdeurksen.com We are actually still working on these…almost finished. It is not too late!
(I only have 6, remember, but I am thinking/praying/hoping there is a fruitful year ahead!!)
Can be purchased for me (*ahem), here!
There was a whole series of the cutest retro-looking cards (left) at {THIS SITE}. FREE Christmas printables on the (right). Isn’t that cool? You should bookmark that site. Better yet, PIN it! CLICK HERE
The angel on the left? That is one I had on my tree top this year. My mom gave me our actual 1964 grocery-store-purchased paper and carboard angel with the spun-glass “angel hair”. I saw several blogs this year with it. Thrilling! Mine does not have a box and has been quite used. {source}… The centerpiece on the right reminds me of my mom’s well-worn white, leather ice skates she had for many years from her childhood. {source}
Stephanie Morgan brought me a book by that title yesterday at Starbucks. The premise of the book, the author explained, is that in life, we record and particularly note and celebrate all sorts of firsts. There is a baby’s first tooth, first steps, first day of school – all beautiful milestones that deserve our attention! Yet, we are unaware of the things that pass, last things. She explained it by recalling a beautiful day outdoors with her kids when one of the little guys ran up, jumped into her arms, wrapped his legs around her waist and while touching noses told her, “I love you, mommy.” She noticed how big he was getting and how heavy he was, realizing he probably wouldn’t be doing that too much longer. Then she looked across the lawn and saw her oldest son who was about to enter middle school and realized that he used to run and jump into her arms the same way and that at some point it had been the last time.
And the thing about last times is, you usually just don’t know they are happening, and if you did, you might want to take closer note.
O my goodness. I tried to tell Stormie about it when she came by earlier today. Cry. *Sniff, sniff. And to be silly and try not to be all melancholy, I grabbed Gavin, who was here helping us take down our Christmas decorations and cuddled him on to my lap like I have been doing since June 2003 and kissed his cheek and he is getting so big. At 8 1/2 he doesn’t quite melt into his Nonna’s lap anymore (he just told me he has an adult-sized head). He still likes the attention, but is slightly embarrassed. And I jokingly said, “Everybody remember this in case it is the last time.”
There was practically a boooo and an eye-rolling moan from everyone, but also a palpable realization that this – this moment, this totally open relationship between a little boy and his Nonna, is a relationship that will grow and change and be re-defined as he becomes who God created him to be and has to pull away to become independent before he can, with full confidence in who he is, move back in closer with appreciation for these two old people who have loved him since the day he was born. And there is realization that time is flying and kissy-cheeks from Nonna, at least in their present, freely-flowing form, are making their way into a land of remember-when-memories. And growth is good and the destination is the point, but it changes everything you love in the moments that make life worth living to begin with. Nothing stays the same.
I don’t recall, though I love baby’s feet, when the last time I kissed the bottoms of my children’s feet was? I know I kept kissing them, even when they were “too old” for it because it made them laugh and I wanted them to know I adored them all the way from the bottoms of their little feet. They weren’t babies in age, but they were my babies. I can’t remember the last time I braided my little girls’ hair (I remember combing long, silky locks – or terrible tangles…lots of them) or what year I quit weaving red ribbons into their braids at Christmas? In my ornament box, I found a note my mom tucked into the branches of our Christmas tree in 2001…was that my last Christmas with my mom? I don’t know when the last time we sang “Testify” together at some church or played Risk as a family or any other number of mundane things that make up life. When was the last time Tara baked Jiffy pizza-bread sticks, anyway?
I do know the book struck a chord, something deeply reverberating through my heart. I am past the halfway mark now, but my senses and ability to feel love have increased exponentially with age, with experience. When the years rolled out ahead like there was no end in sight, I didn’t have to be as cautious in gathering memory, in recording the story, in remembering. But now that the lasts are happening, I don’t want to miss anything, not one thing.
One year rolls into another. And the year we have just lived, all the beauty and joy and ups and downs and round-abouts and surprises and laughs, the tears, the disappointments, the things that did not go our way – all of it, with the slightest move of a second hand on a clock becomes {*tick} last year, {*tock}.
We get this brand-spanking-new-year in just a few hours. It will be filled with so much yet-undiscovered adventure. I am hoping for 3 new grandbebes in 2012 – or at least some good work toward that! *smile. And I am excited to see what God is going to do through Heaven Fest this year and the songs I have yet to sing and the seasons changing and the garden tomatoes filling my counters and time with the love and watching the incredible lives of my children whom I cherish and the children they share…but like the author of the book, my prayer is, even as each day brings new things in a new year, “Let me hold on longer, God, to every precious last.”
Gavin took a quick break from Christmas packing-away for a snack. I turned on the TV and an old Rockford Files episode was on. I said to the grand-boy, “See James Garner? Now that is some swagger.”
“What show is this, anyway?” he asked me.
“‘The Rockford Files’ from the 1970′s!” I told him.
He grimmaced and asked “Why do people want shows from the 70s anyway? Do they wish they had a time machine so they could go back there or something?”
Haha. Laugh. Laugh. Maybe…
Just now, as I was about ready to push the “publish” button on this post, Gavin was leaving to go home to have a special New Year’s Eve night with his family, games and snacks and good times. He came to say good-bye and I hugged him tight and said, “One last kiss in 2011.” He kissed my cheek. I feigned sorrow, “But now my other cheek needs one last kiss in 2011 – for you and I will never hug and kiss in 2011 ever again.” He giggled and kissed my other cheek before bolting toward the door
as he quipped, “Nuh-uh, Nonna – I will build a time machine to come back to 2011.”
{Heart m e l t i n g } And I would get into that machine, Gav, to collect all the lasts I have maybe missed.
