YA GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS

Well, we got the link to the professional photos from our son's Hill Country wedding several months ago, but what with a new grandbaby coming and a week in Dallas and then a 3-day art workshop, it took me a while to narrow down the hundreds of options to just 50 or 60 that I wanted to have printed up for us. I thought that was the hard part, but no. The hard part was then narrowing those down to just 10 or 12 photos to share with you here on the blog. It forced me to do some serious thinking about what made this wedding wonderful, and I came to the conclusion that it had very little to do with the outfits, the venue, the food, the flowers and decorations, or the music, though all of those were wonderful. All those things we tend to lie awake at night stressing out over in the weeks leading up to the big event (the weather)?  Totally superfluous to its success. What really made this wedding wonderful was the people.

Austin has an amazing group of friends -- the kind who would do anything for you, and have! One has been his buddy since kindergarten in Indonesia, took him to Disney world twice, invited him to Houston for a week at a time when we moved back to a different city, and introduced him to all his computer nerd friends. Which meant that, when we later got transferred to Houston ourselves, he had a ready-made geek gang to hang out with all through high school. Two of his friends were fellow computer engineering majors at A & M, one of whom was willing to live with him all four (five?) years. One was his best buddy when he went to work for my hubby's consulting company straight out of college -- the only reason he was able to survive working for Hubby's two ex-partners for as long as he did. Two are his wonderful new brothers-in-law, one of which introduced him to the world of white hat hacking, lured him to Austin, and got him not one, but two jobs in computer security, which turned out to be his true forte. These friends made this wedding wonderful.

The fellow on the left above, the one who worked with him at Hubby's company, was Johnny-On-The-Spot when, moments before the guests were due to arrive, we discovered that, though we had an over-abundance of wine and champagne, we had no flutes or glasses to serve it in! As it turns out, miscommunications like these can make a wedding wonderful too, for they make the best stories afterwards. I am so grateful that he has all of these young men in his life. I am also grateful that he has this not-so-young man in his life. A man who, just a few years ago, had so many near death episodes that he honestly didn't think he'd be around to see his kids get married, much less play with his grandbaby!

He did so much to make this wedding wonderful, the very least of which was monetary.

I am so grateful for the way the sibling rivalry between my two kids, which made my life a trial when they were young, just disappeared somewhere along the way. I love it that, the minute Austin's lip began to tremble while saying his vows, big sister Lex burst into tears, and kept crying throughout the entire ceremony! She blames it on pregnancy hormones.

Her love for her little brother made this wedding wonderful.

Check out these purple tennies the bride and groom changed into after the ceremony!

I am so grateful for the wonderful family our son has married into, and the way they have embraced him into the fold. One unexpected bonus is that they are a dancin' family, and they know how to get a party started!

Thriller!

I love to dance too, but hardly ever get the chance anymore. Between their Sudan wedding and this one, we've danced more this year than in the last ten! This family made the wedding wonderful.

Austin and Areej, no matter what life sends you in the years to come, with friends and family like these, you'll never have to handle it alone.

We gotcha covered!