An outdoor wedding in the Northwest...

Well, did you see the bridal shower post from the other day? I promised to follow up with the wedding so here goes! As I mentioned before, Abby is the daughter of our pastor, Mark, and his wife, Lori. She is the youngest of their five children...yes, their "baby."

So not only did Mark and Lori have to prepare for and deal with all the emotions that can come from "losing their daughter," but they also had the added complication of preparing for an imminent move half way across the country! You see, our beloved pastor has accepted a call to another church in eastern North Dakota and will be leaving the first week of September. He has been our pastor for 16 years and we are deeply saddened to see them go. God definitely does work in mysterious ways sometimes.

Besides being a well loved and effective pastor, Mark is one talented guy! For this wedding, he engineered and constructed the tulle tent, as well as an amazing layered serving tray table in the center of it. (Remember the foam board banner he built for national church conference? Like I said, talented!) 

And, yes, Mark built this pond and fountain several years ago, to replace the trampoline they had at one time, as well as this beautiful pond below. He likes to mess around with concrete!

I digress...just had to point a few things out so you could appreciate all of it! Back to the wedding....I'm just going to post a number of pictures that speak with little commentary and let you enjoy the beauty of this ceremony and this setting.

Lois and I made a small contribution to the wedding by arranging the flowers, and putting the bridal bouquets and boutonnieres together.

The bride's aunts assembled this lovely arch...

The program on a fan...very clever for this warm August day!

The beautiful mother of the bride, Lori, with her handsome sons, Josh and Isaac, beside her.

Abby's lovely sister, Jess...

The best man, Anders, brother of the groom, and maid of honor, Cassandra, sister of the bride.

The two ring bearers and the flower girl...

Mark, the father of the bride and the beautiful bride, Abby...

The sun was bright...what can he say? You can see the beautiful bridal gown anyway!

The back of her gown was so pretty too...

Awww...time for the tissue! You can see the rest of the lovely bridesmaids, including two of the bride's sisters-in-law...both expecting babies soon.

A solo by Elias Horn, a member of our church...

Is that a happy groom, or what?

Do these log rounds and vases look familiar? :)

Now, you get to see the serving table Mark built that I mentioned earlier...impressive, right?

And since I bragged on Pastor Mark a bit, I must also mention his wife, Lori. She has been such a dear friend! Lori is one of the kindest, most loving, caring, soft spoken, generous, hard working persons I know...who loves to laugh! I will deeply miss her. She is also an amazing bread baker and I'm sure she baked many of the buns for the sliders served at the reception.

The other family member I need to brag about a little is Abby's brother, Josh. He is a gifted chef and baker (does catering on the side), and did the food for the reception, as well as baked the cakes. I've mentioned him before here, and you can also check out his blog, Essentially Josh. The mother of the groom, Ruth, is also a wonderful baker, and she made hand pies of various flavors, for the reception.

I lost count of the types of sliders and sandwiches and salads there were, but I can say all the ones I tasted were delicious and those eaten by others at my table got rave reviews!

The krunsekake and wedding cake...

Ruth's delicious hand pies...peach, blueberry, apple, and strawberry rhubarb!

And, really, could you find a cuter couple?

Just a few more photos of the grounds...I wish I could show you the scenes the drone camera took...so lovely. There were games set up for the children to play too...they had a ball.

Recognize the pendant banner above the pictorial time line...

The flower girl...there actually was another younger flower girl...who apparently didn't cooperate for the wedding ceremony...I saw her afterwards with her tulle skirt off...too funny!

And finally, the bridal couple at their first dance at the end...

Makes me happy just to relive this day through these photos! I wish I was a better photographer, but I hope you captured a sense of the beauty of this wedding. God was so honored in this place. Though I did not talk about Abby's other siblings, Jess, Isaac, his wife, Nakayla, and Cassandra much, each of them, with their unique and delightful personalities, were very involved in making this day special for Abby and Peder. We so love this whole family!

 Praying for many years of joy together as Peder and Abby enter married life. As my husband says, "Life's an adventure!" Warmly, Gracia