Beauty from Ashes

Rhoda and Emily took off early to pick up the table cloths and coffee makers from American Rental. Amanda was in charge of stopping at the other rental place to pick up a few more table cloths while I went to Sams to pick up fruit, pies, King Hawaiian rolls, spinach and lettuce mix while Sarah drove to GFS to pick up the boneless chicken wings, meat balls and water carafes. We drove straight to the AC church to drop off all the food then to Eastvew to start setting up the reception room. The theme for Rhoda and Lee's wedding is Beauty from Ashes.

We started with an empty room. Below the tables have been set up and the girls are discussing what needs to be done next.

 Taunya brought Jace and Jack to help. Their job was to look cute and they did that very well.

 Below are Lee's parents, Debbie and Lyn who just kept bringing in the supplies. They are bringing in the candy machine for the party favors which was filled with all kinds of goodies.

Amanda was amazing, she had a car full of supplies she was more than willing to lend Rhoda for the wedding then worked tirelessly helping to put everything together. Below she and Emily are putting together the centerpieces.

Below is the centerpiece for one of the tables. There are ashes in a small vase with one rose in front of the sign and behind that are the beautifully decorated mason jars.

 Below is the wedding party table as we were finishing up. The lights will be dimmed before the reception starts. The room was transformed into a beautifully decorated formal dining room all ready to celebrate the wedding of Rhoda and Lee.

 Rhoda reserved 2 hotel suites for the women in the wedding party and as soon as we finished some of the girls, including Rhoda took off for the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. I had just packed my dress and decided to just change at the church. All was going fine until I put the dress on and only then remembered this dress was too low cut to wear without a cami under it and I didn't bring a cami. I looked around to see if there was a scrap of material left to pin to the chest area but couldn't find any when I remembered I had duct tape in the van. That was slapped on the chest and worked perfectly. Isn't duct tape amazing? Now just so you know the picture below is NOT how I went to the rehearsal. The hair was brushed and put up and the duct tape was fixed so it went horizontal not vertical. For some reason no one thought vertical was proper attire for this fancy dinner.

Below are Rhoda and Lee waiting to walk into the sanctuary.

 Below is Mark practicing walking Rhoda up the aisle.

 The wedding party was getting all of their instructions from the wedding coordinator. I don't think Sarah and Emily are paying attention in the 2 pictures below.

 The practice went well. After that we all headed over to Avanti's where Lee's parents held the dinner. The food was good and the evening was a delight. Although I did get choked up when Rhoda's brothers were complimenting Rhoda and giving the young couple advice. We are all just so happy for them.

 See the flower arrangement in the picture above and below? Well one of Lee's Aunts made them and placed them on each table.

Now see the metal twirly thing sticking up? I had mom and Karin pose behind the arrangement not noticing that twirly thing and when that picture was downloaded only then did I see that those twirly things looked like they were coming out of mom's nose. Nope, I'm NOT posting that picture.

We had a good day but tomorrow comes the main event. We have plenty of food and room for anyone that wants to come help celebrate the wedding of Rhoda and Lee. The wedding is tomorrow at Eastview church in Bloomington at noon with the reception to follow.