Zac hastily proposed to Erika in March, she said yes. We planned to have an actual wedding sometime in July, but we weren't sure where to have it. They decided on doing it at Zac's mom's house in Vancouver but had to scratch that idea because Zac's dad wanted to come. His parents don't like each other. Then my friends Lindsay and Justin said that she could do it on their riverfront property, we took a trip out there, but then we had to say no to that idea as well because of Mary, Zac's disabled grandmother. She needed an actual toilet nearby not a porta potty. We thanked Lindsay and Justin for the suggestion.
Then Erika got tired of renting and dealing with her landlord, so she and Zac started looking for their own place. They found one, but it required a lot of work. To make it easier for the home buying process they got married at the courthouse on June 10th, she asked Ben and I to be the witnesses. Afterwards, they were able to purchase a house with her VA loan.
Our family helped them move in before the 4th of July and it was a lot of hard work spanning several days. They were glad to be away from their rental and that location out in Hawks Prairie.
Then literally a week and a half before the second wedding, Erika decided to start planning the 25-person wedding in like four days because Zac couldn't decide on anything. Erika told us that Mary wasn't coming after all, ughh. The week of July 17th was a very busy one. Mom and I did most of it.
Two Thursday's before I had an idea that we could have the ceremony at Rainier Vista Park, the park that is literally next to my neighborhood. Everyone, except Zac's family knew where it was. Erika made online invitations and sent them out to everyone that was on her short list. I went and looked at possible areas of the park to have the quick ceremony at. I sent Mom pictures.
Friday, the next day, I didn't want to work that hard trying to find chairs, plus none of ours matched and would look like a yard sale, so I drove into Lacey and stopped at the Celebrations place to see what kind of chairs they had available and if I could rent them for fairly cheap. I chatted with Mom and ended up reserving 30 of them. We would pick them up on Friday morning and take them back Monday at lunch time.
The weekend before Erika and Mom looked for dresses in Centralia and ended up getting a wedding dress and a nice blue dress for Mom. Erika used her tax return to purchase them. It works out great because now Mom has a dress to wear for my wedding next summer.
We asked Josh if he and Ben would make the food on the grill, and they said they would. Erika said she would pay them in beer. Mom got a hold of Taya and she said she would take photos for us at the ceremony and the reception.
On Monday, I drove into Yelm to meet up with Mom at the office so we could go over to Taya's house to go through her wedding decorations from their wedding they had in May. She basically made us take all of it. Some of it we could use and some of it we weren't going to be able to. We packed it up into my Escape and I drove it home to go through. We plan on keeping it in the garage when we were done and finding someone to donate it to.
We contacted Aunt Janet to ask if we could go through some of her decorations and she told us we could come over and visit on that Tuesday. I haven't seen Janet in a while because I know she's been busy trying to navigate life without Manley. She has been busy going through everything they own, getting ready for a huge estate sale and we got to meet her little dog, Buddy. We went through several outbuildings but didn't find an arch or any other things we could use except a few fake flowers we could use to drape. We were over there for a while. She gave me some signs to have that used to be Manley's. She didn't want anything for them except hugs, so I gave her some hugs. We thanked Janet for having us over.
We were running out of time to find an arch, so Mom bought a small one from Amazon and we really hoped that it got here before Saturday. She also ordered some purple bows to go on the back of the chairs.
After Mom got off work on Wednesday, she drove out to my house, and we hit up a few stores. Fred Meyer was having a sale, so I ended up with a brown belt, brown flip flops, a new swimming suit and a few other things. The belt and shoes were for the sage summer dress I bought a couple weeks prior at TJ Max. We went to the Dollar Store to get a few decorations and to Michaels to get some more drapey flowers, safety pins and wire. Mom had an idea of what she wanted the arch to look like.
Mom met me at my house again on Thursday. We drove over to Erika's house to pick her up so we could go to Costco and Walmart to purchase the food for the reception. We basically just did burgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, fruit, the condiments, buns and veggies. Erika didn't seem to thrilled about anything but I think she was just tired of Zac not making decisions. We took everything back to her house including the stuff we borrowed from Kallie. Erika's office was covered in wedding decorations, containers, plates, cups and non-perishable food.
We all had Friday off so we could focus on getting Erika and Zac's yard and house ready for the event the next day. Doug and I picked up the chairs from Celebration's and put them in my living room so we could continue using the truck. We packed up the BBQ from the back yard and took it with us back to her house. Once at the house, Sonya met us there and we spent some time cleaning up the yard, the bathrooms, putting stuff away, filling in holes and preparing some of the food in advance like the potato salad. This was the first time everyone collectively met Sonya for the first time. That afternoon, Mom and Erika drove into Centralia to pick up the dress, I went to Party City for a cake topper and Hobby Lobby for some lavender table covers. Doug, Dad, Ben and Zac took a trip to the dump and Silver Springs to drop off branches and yard debris.
Somehow Mom found an arch through Rhonda. Her son Josh had a friend named Steve who lived in Rainier and said they would deliver it after they got off work. Mom and I went back to my house to go through decorations and wait for the arch to arrive. I packed up my two folding tables and a canopy we borrowed from our Rhonda, across the street, and delivered those to Erika's house. I wanted to make sure everything we needed to get done that day, got done. We knew the next day was going to be even busier and we were on a time limit.
Saturday morning, we all got up early. Mom drove out to Yelm to grab the cake and bouquet at Safeway. Doug and Ben helped me get the arch and chairs to the park. We did not realize that the entire park was filled with vehicles for pickleball, soccer and other activities for the day. There was no parking at all. Rhonda tried meeting me at the park to start decorating the arch and I had to tell her to park on the backside of the park. I took Doug, Ben and Grandma Karen with me so we could clean up the area a little bit. There was a bit of trash, sticks and lots of goose poop. We did the best we could to make it look good. Someone or something had ruined the cattails in the background of the willow tree we were going to use. It was not like that earlier that week so it must have just happened. We got the chairs all set up, got the bows on them and Mom arrived to get the arch put together. I took Grandma, Ben and Doug back to the house so they could get ready. I drove back to the park to help Mom and Rhonda. I got the table set up for the guest book with a couple pens and a vase with lavender to make it look like we were having a wedding.
Erika and Zac were supposed to be ready at 10 a.m. so Taya could start taking pictures, but they were very late. Zac didn't really want to cooperate. Mom had to apologize to Taya. Once we got everything looking good, I went home to go change into my dress I bought two weeks ago at TJ Max, I threw on my belt, my brown flip flops and did my hair and make-up. I am not a hairdresser nor am I a make-up artist. I did the best I could. Once we were all done, I took a bunch of people to the park and dropped them off. Erika, Zac and Zac's family finally got to the park. Luckily, some of the park goers started leaving so there were parking spots now.
Taya immediately started taking pictures since they were late. She spent about 45 minutes taking pictures of the different family groups.
I spoke to Erika on how she wanted to walk in and so I arranged with Dad how that was going to work. Shane, Zac's brother was the officiant, since Zac was his officiant at his wedding back in 2020. Yes, he wore the same robe Zac wore at his. It was almost time to go as it was nearly noon. I asked everyone if we were ready to go and everyone said yes. Zac's dad was in the back row videoing and taking pictures.
I sat in the front next to where Dad was going to sit and a photo of our grandparents who couldn't be there. They would have loved this little wedding.
For some reason the speaker I brought with me didn't work so we just had to use Ben's phone. Dad walked Erika down the aisle and handed her off to Zac. It was such an awkward wedding. Shane gave his speech; Zac said a few words and so did Erika. They traded their rings, they kissed and the wedding we've been planning for several weeks was over in about a half hour. I can see why you pay someone else to do this part in a much bigger wedding.
Ben and Josh left to go start the food at Zac and Erika's house. I thanked everyone for coming out and reminded them they were invited for the reception. We cleaned up the area, took the chairs and arch back up to the road and Doug rumbled up with the truck. We loaded them up and I went to go get the Escape so I could take people back to my house. I did it in two loads. I helped Doug take the arch out of the back of the truck. He took the chairs over to Erika's.
I got changed, some people hopped into the Escape with me, and we headed over to Zac and Erika's house. When we got there, we immediately started getting the tables and chairs ready, got the tablecloths on them, finished getting the food all cut up and placed on the island. I got the present table ready; we opened all the cups, plates and silverware (I had purchased a sage and a lavender set from Michaels and Party City), and Ben and Josh got the BBQ and grill going. Many hands made light work during that first half hour of the reception. Taya took pictures of just about everything.
It soon calmed down a bit and the burgers and hotdogs were just about done when we told everyone that food was ready and to come inside and grab a plate. I went through the line and grabbed a burger, the fixings, some potato salad, chips, fruit and headed out to the tables in the front yard to eat and visit with everyone. I was pretty hungry since I really didn't have time to eat earlier that morning with everything going on.
After we were done eating, we all went inside to watch Erika and Zac cut their small wedding cake. Grandma Karen made Zac an apple pie because he really isn't into cake as much as Erika is. I even brought over some sparkling cider, but we didn't end up getting to that. The people who wanted cake got cake and the people who wanted pie got pie.
We went back out to the tables and Erika and Zac opened their wedding gifts and cards. They thanked everyone for coming and for the gifts. At that point, everyone started thinking about heading home.
We got all the tables, chairs, leftover food, the BBQ, the grill and some of the stuff we borrowed from other people packed up in the appropriate vehicles. I took a few people with me in the Escape and headed home. Once we got back to the house, we brought in the stuff from the back of my Escape, Ben's Edge, the BBQ in the truck and stuff from Mom's Expedition and put it away. Trish, Ed and Amy headed back to Bonney Lake and Grandma also went home. Mom hung out for a little bit and told me the plan for the arch. She was going to meet me in Rainier once we got a hold of Josh and got the address to Steve's house.
It was a lot of work, time, effort and energy but we got it done. I am not sure if they appreciated what we did for them, but it was the thought that counted...and everyone's family got to be a part of it.
Next Adventure: Bonney Lake, WSGA Campout in Enumclaw and Lindsay's Birthday Party
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