A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Grub

Photo by Lauren

Despite all the fun, games and dancing going on, the people had to be fed. Well, I had to be fed! I hadn't eaten hardly anything all day, and not because I was nervous or worried about fitting in my dress, I was saving myself for all the GOOD food I knew was coming!

All the food you are about to see was picked specifically by me or Cowboy H and made in my mother's kitchen. Ok, except for the beans, which have their own funny story and the salsa, and oh yeah, the meat. Everything else (potato salad, macaroni salad, rice pilaf, you name it) was made by my mom, pictured here with her apron, which stayed on the rest of the night. I thought it was really cute.

Photo by Sarah

What you can't see is her tennis shoes. Also, notice her poor bout is hanging upside down. I love you, Mom.

Anyways, back to the food. I don't think I've ever eaten such good wedding food.

Photo by Sarah

Down on the far end of the buffet table, the ribeye hot off the pit was being sliced to order.

After piling our plates high, Cowboy H and I took our seats and were treated to a little champagne from The Desert Rose. Not sure why I'm making this face here, but notice that I made sure to wear my bib. I'm kinda a mess. (That's my bouquet stuck in a giant mason jar serving as our centerpiece.)

And everyone else feasted happily too.

Now. About the beans.

Photo by Sarah

See these guys here? They are two of my backpacking buddies. They live down in the San Diego area, but have friends that go to school and live in San Luis Obispo. Somehow, these two finagled a ride to the ceremony out of one of their friends. However, they had no ride to the reception and were just gonna walk. Well, my dad saw them and said "Hey, ride with me, I need someone to hold the beans anyways".

So, they got out of walking, but in exchange had to work. The beans (and salsa) were being picked up at Jocko's, which is my hometown's local steak house. (Best ever steak if you want my unbiased opinion.) My dad provided the kitchen with a pot and they proceeded to fill that pot so full the lid wouldn't fit on it. So, the two guys pictured above were sitting in the back seat of my dad's car, overflowing pot of beans at their feet, attempting to keep the lid on the beans, and the beans off them. Apparently, the car ended up with beans all over it, so I can't exactly say they did a stellar job. But, most of the beans made it.

And that is the story of the beans.

The end.

But not the end of the wedding!

To catch up on ALL of the wedding posts, from the very beginning until now, please go to this page, where I have compiled links to every wedding-related post. You're welcome.

Up Next: All that traditional wedding stuff like cake cutting and first dances. Yuck!

All photography unless otherwise mentioned credited to Applemoon Photography!

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: The Pit Crew

I must have spoke too soon, because we are completely socked in now. The rain started yesterday afternoon and is supposed to continue through the entire week, with some sources even reporting it will last until early next week.

This is our Pit Crew hard at work, 4 hours before dinner was even supposed to be served. The Pit Crew was comprised of what I consider my uncles (and maybe a real uncle or two), men who have been very close friends with my parents since their high school days or before. When my family has parties, these are the people that come. When, growing up, we would go camping, these are the people we would go with.

This guy was sorta kinda the head of the Pit Crew. He was my dad's Best Man at his wedding. My dad was also his Best Man. They are still best friends, and cannot go a day without seeing each other. His oldest son is my age, and we graduated high school together. Unfortunately, our parents also have pictures of us in diapers together.

Speaking of which, here's the son. He was a last minute addition to the Pit Crew so he did not get a custom-made apron. However, he played a crucial role in the ring saga, as he got married about 6 months before us and let us borrow his wedding band for the ceremony. Unfortunately, it wasn't a perfect fit. More on that later.

This is my Uncle Jimmy. He is my dad's youngest brother and my God-father. He is a surfer-dude and a beach bum. Really, he lives right on the beach. I love my Uncle Jimmy. And, there you see the custom aprons I made for the crew the day before the wedding. Not only did I want them to protect their clothes since they also were invited guests, I wanted to give them a "Thank You" of some sort. Plus, they looked really cool.

This is my Uncle Joe (or one of them I should say, there are two on my mom's side). He is married to my God-mother, one of my mom's older sisters. This guy is part of a Roadster Club and has a 1920's Ford Roadster, painted bright orange. When my brother and I were younger, we thought he was the coolest guy ever (okay, we still do). He was on the Pit Crew primarily to make is Famous Garlic Bread. Trust me, if you love garlic, you will LOVE this bread. If you don't like garlic, STAY AWAY.

There on the left in the burgundy shirt, is my "Uncle Paul". There really are no words to describe him, but I love this guy. He's the one that you want all your boyfriends to meet, cause he will scare off the weenies. He can also weed out the good ones. His ties to my family also go back to before high school. He now teaches English at my (Catholic private) high school, which is unbelievably hysterical if you know him.

Over on the right, is my "Uncle Marc". Unfortunately you can only see his back. Marc is one of the guys that goes on our annual summer backpacking trip. Again, my parents have known him since high school or earlier.

I know a lot of people could not imagine asking their guests to work at their wedding, but I couldn't image any other people doing it. First off, there isn't a better BBQ crew in the area (my completely unbiased opinion, of course). Secondly, I really wanted the wedding to be as personal as possible. In fact, the only people involved in the wedding who I didn't know before I started the planning where the photographers. And even they felt like old friends. Honestly, having these men cooking up our main course made me so excited.

See? Okay, well maybe the food on the grill contributed a little bit.

Or wait, it was time to head to the church!

Let's get these blue boots moving!

Up next: People are actually coming!

All photographs in this post (as well as all wedding posts so far) are credited to Applemoon Photography.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Best Friends and Brothers

This was our bridal party.

Unfortunately, that's the only photo I got back with all four of us, and the only one not making a funny face is Trent.

Originally, we weren't going to have a "bridal party" since Cowboy H didn't know who to have and I had three girls that I KNEW I wanted with me. I didn't want any of this lop-sided business so we decided to forgo the whole thing. Then, our officiant told us we needed two witnesses at the ceremony, so we decided to just have one person each, who would also serve as our witnesses. Fortunately Cowboy H's brother was able to make it out, otherwise he wasn't sure who to ask.

This crazy lady has out-grown the best friend title and pretty much moved to sister.

We met each other in FIRST grade. Actually, we met before first grade, in Albertson's grocery store after taking our entrance tests for first grade (private school). In second grade we wore the same dress to school on picture day.

We went to school together all the way until the end of high school. While we are almost complete opposites, we always fit together, complimented each other. I made Jenna tone down and relax; she made me act more like a girl and brush my hair. During high school we were almost inseparable.

Please note the creeper in the background is actually smiling.

While we have grown apart somewhat, we always come back to each other. I mean, after 20 years together, it just doesn't go away. That's why I call her my sister now.

Okay, let's put our serious faces on now.

Naw, don't let them fool you! While these two are several years apart in age, and haven't lived together for quite a while, they don't miss a beat. I was so so SO happy Trent made it out (from Missouri); it wouldn't have been the same without him standing next to Cowboy H. He seriously lived up to his Best Man duties too. He escorted me around, ran errands, and made sure to supply my favorite (and only) alcohol to the bar. Thanks bro!

While we were busy taking additional pictures such as these

Butt pincher!

and these

our photogs were also busy capturing some candid moments.

Talking to his beer can since I wouldn't allow it in the picture.


Pinning on a bout.


I like your skirt, Granny.

In the background, the BBQ pit was fired up.

Can you see us in the background? We love BBQ!

You know what, I'm going to save my BBQ crew for a whole new post! They deserve their own after all the rib-eye and chicken they cooked for us! Plus, I want to tell you about each of them, since they were not a hired crew. They were specially selected vounteers!

Stay tuned!

Next time: The Pit Crew and we finally head to the church

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Prep-Week

To say this wedding was a labor of love is to say the least. To say I have the most generous and talented friends is to say the least. To say we all worked our hinneys off the week before is to say the least.

I guess I don't really have a lot to say.

The weekend before the wedding, my mama baked 100 strawberry cupcakes. Yes, one hundred. From scratch.

Meanwhile, down at The Homestead, Cowboy H broke his wedding band helping me hammer the horse shoes into shape. And no, he did NOT hammer his finger.

Cowboy H's family then helped me tie the tags onto the horse shoes and box them up.

Back up in my hometown, between Thursday and Friday, my mama made homemade three-bean salad, homemade potato salad and homemade Mom's Macaroni salad. Enough to feed 200 people.

Having made it into town on Thursday, I got Cowboy H's family settled into their hotel rooms, dropped off mason jars at my "florist's" house, made personalized aprons for the BBQ crew, finished up the last of my wooden signs, and begged my way into an eye doctor's. In between visiting Costco and Michael's craft store a few times.

Cowboy H meanwhile, spent Friday afternoon lugging food down to the reception site and helping my dad prep the BBQ pit.

My mama also prepped greens and toppings for caesar and spinach salads. All in her personal kitchen. In her house. Where we also had the rehearsal dinner* Friday night.

Speaking of Friday night, my mama continued to cook, making homemade vegetarian rice pilaf, after the rehearsal dinner, while my devoted friends were frosting the 100 strawberry cupcakes with homemade strawberry frosting that my mama had just whipped up.

That's my Sassy Cassie on the left with her roomie, Katie on the right.

This is the lovely Lauren, who is currently blazing across Mexico with her padre. Read about it here.

While the cupcake frosting was happening (I LOVE my friends), I decided that I wanted the baby picture boards after all, so Cowboy H and I got to work.

Up next: the morning-of prep and Mama H loses the ring!


*The term rehearsal dinner is used very loosely here, because basically we just had everyone who attended the rehearsal head over to my parents' house so we could feed them. We had a Mexican taco/burrito bar and beer and sodas. We all got to relax and catch up and hang out. There were NO toasts, no speeches, no formalities. Kinda like the rest of the wedding festivities!

Thanks to Cassie for taking the photograph of the rice!