It was wild party time at The Holler! Break out the moonshine and the possum-pie! My daughter is getting married in two weeks and she is after all my first-born, my only daughter, and the first to get married! Here she is at about four.
Her name is Andrea, but for some reason, I started calling her Dre a couple of weeks after she was born. I changed my son’s name too, after he was born, from Matt to Matteo. These are nick-names though. How can you pick a nick-name after-all, for someone before you even meet them??
Here is Dre piloting our raft on a seven-day trip down the Grand Canyon when she was in high school. She was already a black-belt and intensely-committed water polo player at this point.
And here she is now with Clementine.
She and her fiance Sean both just finished graduate school in May and she is working as a bi-lingual therapist in the Bay Area, Sean with the University of California.
For her party I brought the flowers inside, including her favorite, ranunculus and hydrangea:
The Tables:
The menu:
Appetizer: Pecan Stuffed Mushrooms
Champagne & Raspberry Lemonade
Main Course: Curried Cashew Shrimp
Blueberry, Cranberry & Banana Mini-Muffins
Artichoke, Mushroom, Tomato, Olive
& Pepperchini Salad
Dessert: Fudge Frosted Chocolate Almond Brownies
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Chocolate Chip Cashew Oatmeal Cookies
Scotch Short Bread
I went all out with the deserts. Why not, my daughter doesn’t get married every day!
We all had a blast at the shower, but I still can’t believe she’s getting married. My mother was there, so there were three generations, which was wonderful.
Life flies by! Make sure you take time to appreciate it.
Cheers and many happy memories to you all!
Great post. All the best for your daughters wedding. May God bless the couple with a long and happy married life.
The menu seems to be great too. Wedding generally bring everyone together and there no happier times than it. Enjoy.
Very true! Thank you for your kindness. It is very much appreciated. Blessings to you & yours as well~
What a beautiful hootenany. Flowers are gorgeous. Blessings to you all.
Thank you my dear. Much appreciated~
A wonderful post!!!
“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ” ~Albert Einstein
Amen! It is amazing how our lives play out and Albert certainly understood this more than anyone. Cheers & thank you Rebecca~
Congratulations!
I will pass this on to Dre & Sean. Thank you!
Looks like it was a grand party, Cindy. You outdid yourself. Congrats on the upcoming celebration. Blessings on the happy couple and may they know only happy days.
Paul
Thank you dear Paul. I will pass on your kind wishes. We never know what will happen next, so we must try and enjoy every second…You know this first-hand more than I. Cheers to you my awesome cousin!
Congratulations, Andrea and Sean, the Parents, the Grandparents, Siblings and All!
Fae.
Flower arrangements are beautiful and the menu is pretty delicious too!
If only I had you to help me cook!!
My ears started ringing! Were you and Judy discussing and mentioning me?
))))
I envy you both with lovely daughters. Judy’s is just married and your daughter’s coming-up.
I wish I was able to cook for auspicious events, but I don’t think I am qualified. You both are too kind and I love you both. I look forward to having a daughter-in-law… and Mama-Fae is going to spoil her!!!
Lucky daughter in law to be!!! You are so more than qualified…..I can imagine no finer meal than one cooked by you and Judy, I can supply the appetizers and the wine!!! It would be so much fun, not to mention incredible…….
Congratulations. We’ll be waiting for the wedding photos as well…
Yep! Just around the corner….I will strictly keep to a small number….LOL!!! It will be hard~
Congratulations to your daughter, a very special day! Warmest regards to all, best wishes, James
Thank you James. Very kind and very much appreciated!
Wow! Fantastic post! Congratulations to your daughter and future son in law. =^.^=
Bailey, you are such a nice cat! Thank you~
A big congrats, what a new adventure coming your way. Enjoy
I got a fortune cookie recently that said, “You love challenges.” I wanted to send it back!!
I don’t love challenges. I love peace and tranquilty, which is what I hope for Sean & Dre. Thank you for your kind wishes~
Congratulations to your daughter.
Merci my friend!
Yee har. The redoubtable chuckwaggoneer was on top form. Congrats to your daughter.
Yup I fixed up sum good vittles…..Thank you!
Yer sure are welcome ma’am.
Congratulations! exciting times. I sure know what you mean about time flying by. I have two sons (who both also did the whole graduate school thing…. all the way) and both are married, now. But to me, the days when they were young’uns (your term
) … well, it was just yesterday.
Yes it is bitter-sweet, but mostly sweet. What more could we want than happy children? I am amazed now with how fast the years whiz by…..
Congratulations! Great looking kid. ken
Mil grazi. She’s a good person, inside and out!
And this, looking at the pictures: “…tiny ghosts of your living children haunted your heart; they could never know, and would hate it if they did, how their growing was a constant bereavement.”
Rowling, J.K. (2012-09-27). The Casual Vacancy (Kindle Locations 1862-1864). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
JK is fabulously wealthy for good reason. What a beautiful quotation and how very true. I watched her commencement speech at Harvard on youtube and cried buckets and sent it to my family. She is just remarkable and thank you so, for sending me this prescient quotation…..
Beautiful! From your daughter right down to all the goodies at the party. What fun! And now I’m hungry.
That’s what looking at the incredible food photographed by bloggers does!! They should come with warning labels….”Caution this post may cause unhealthy cravings…….” LOL!
Oh this is so exciting Cindy – I’ll bet there will be many, many happy tears at this wonderful occasion. I loved reading this post, new chapters for everyone with many memories to carry your daughter forward into her pending marriage. Wonderful! Gorgeous flowers, wow!!! and the menu looked fantastic.
Experiencing the wedding of your child I suspect will be quite remarkable. I will attempt to keep the puddling to a minimum, but will probably fail. Thank you so much for your lovely words~
Congratulations Cindy…such an exciting time for you and your family…yes I agree, time does fly so we need to make the best of every moment!!!
Sometimes people figure this out when it is too late and that is a shame. We all must find and grab our joy. Thank you for appreciating this. I wonder if photographers realize this more than other people, as we are always seeing and catching beautiful things. Nice thought huh? Cheers to you & thanks~
Definitly a nice thought Cindy…and possibly correct!
welcome!
Congratulations to your daughter on her upcoming wedding. Nice layout Cindy. Great menu also. It must have been super to have three generations there. Did the “holler” require visa’s or does it have a reciprocal agreement with the USA?
Put down the knife – - – it was a joke.
It is an IQ and endurance test to get to The Holler. Anyone who makes it here alive has passed both tests!!!
What happy times! Congratulations to your family and especially the young couple. This was such a fun post – you are obviously a talented party creator!
It is so fun to cook and and create pretty environments, especially when people appreciate the effort. Thank you for your wonderful comments and cheers to you!
Congratulations to your daughter, she looks very likable! I can image that the wedding of the first child it is a huge step in parents life (I hope having still a few years before it will happen to me!). Can you help me with the word “Hootenany”, what does it mean exactly? Best wishes Thomas
Hi Thomas! Yes that is exactly what it is….a huge step. Thank you for the perceptive comment. A hootenany is a hillbilly party. Moonshine is illegally made liquor and possum pie must taste absolutely vile! Hilarious! Love your questions about the terminology! I can envision the puzzlement if you ever use these terms in Switzerland or Germany! Too funny. Let me know if you do….You could say on a Monday….I am quite tired…attended a wild hootenany last night~
Thank you, Cindy! You are my very best teacher by internet!
Oh yes…of phrases you will never need to know!!!
Blessings from Creator to Dre and Sean on their day and prayers that Matteo, Clementine, you, your husband, Grandmother and Grandfather make it through that day and many more days to come.
I am so grateful that I met you in this internet world Sachem. I consistently feel the strong presence of your kind spirit drifting over here across the miles. Maybe the hawks carry it to me? Thank you my friend and the same blessings back to you and yours~
Check my post! You are nominated!! Thank YOU, and KEEP INSPIRING!!!
aaaaw!! Thank you! So very thoughtful and appreciated! Cheers to you~
I am sure we are not the only ones…but my hubby jokes that he has been to one, no make that two, to many weddings. As we met at a wedding. Over 30 years strong.
May you and your family have a wonderful celebration and may each day up to and after be filled with blessings.
Hiarious!! One’s husband must have a sense of humor if you are going to be married to him for 30 years! How perfectly wonderful. Blessings to you and yours as well & thank you!
Beautiful Cindy! And heartfelt congratulations! Everything looks delicious and superb!!
It would have been beyond belief if Fae cooked the main courses and you did the desserts! Now this would be a feast for the history books!!!
Oh Cindy, I would love to have Fae cook the main courses. Your daughter is absolutely beautiful, just like her mom!!
Sincerely,
judy
Judy-
If you two do the cooking, I’ll take the photos and we can all post it. What an incredible time that would be & what a wonderful post it would make! But, the best thing of all would be the company and the food!!! Cheers & thank you my friend
Best wishes to Dre, her fiance and to the whole family… What a delicciously lovely and tender post!
So sweet Bette. Thank you! It is hard to sum up how much we love our children isnt’ it……
Beautiful daughter, and it looks like you threw a beautiful and fantastic shower! Congrats, Cindy! You’re not losing a daughter but gaining a son (how cliche is that, lol)!
No cliche here because Sean is who I would have picked for Dre if I were in charge. Humble, sweet, brilliant guy who loves my daughter. What’s not to love? Cheers to you Becky!