Holy Eucharist

"All the din and clatter of the streets, all the great factories which dominate our landscape are only echoes and shadows if you think of them for a moment in the light of eternity; the reality is in here, is there above the altar, is that part of it which our eyes cannot see and our senses cannot distinguish. . . . When death brings us into another world, the experience will not be that of one who falls asleep and dreams, but that of one who wakes from a dream into the full light of day. Here, we are so surrounded by the things of sense that we take them for the full reality. Only sometimes we have a glimpse which corrects that wrong perspective. And above all when we see the Blessed Sacrament enthroned we should look up towards that white disc which shines in the monstrance as towards a chink through which, just for a moment, the light of the other world shines through... " Msgr. Ronald Knox 

Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of you. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, dullness in prayer. Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you and your grace, your tender compassion towards me. The things we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labor for: through Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Prayer of Sir Thomas More)

Reception

Quick! its time to decorate the cakes!

So lovely!

Centerpieces

Greeting Mrs. Carroll

You could say she introduced them!

Well that's about all I have, but I bet there are many lovely pictures on Facebook.

What a tremendous grace it has been to know Crispin! We are so happy for her and Joe, blessed be God!

After the wedding photos

The sacristan told me that when she opened the church on Saturday morning before the wedding, it smelled like Easter Sunday because of the flowers!

A most happy and handsome couple!

Father flew in from Oklahoma after completing marriage prep with Crispin and Joe.

Charlotte and Kateri were both wonderfully cooperative.

Until...

...and i believe this was the one and only time! :-)

Wedding day!

The beautiful solemnity of St Joseph dawned with not a cloud in anyone's heart!

Since Teresa and Laura had taken the church flowers to the rehearsal, and Debbie had taken the centerpieces, Ken and I took the bouquets, corsages and boutonnières to St. John the Beloved Church in McClean.

Weddings to go!

The cooler on the right contained flowers destined to decorate the cake.

Crispin's bouquet was carefully packed for the 45 minute drive.

We brought the flowers into the vestibule, and passed out the bouquets, corsages and boutonnières as the vip's arrived. :)

Before the Mass began, a beautiful selection of music was played by the groom, groomsmen and friends on brass instruments. This group plays at the White House.  It was incredible, and added so much to the joy and intimacy of the occasion, as they shared their talent with the guests!

Immediately afterward, Jeanne and I pinned the boutonnières on the groom and groomsmen, and the wedding began.

Flowers 3

Soon after 8am on Friday we began work on the 17 centerpieces.  Crispin's Aunt Debbie provided the jars, which she had painted gold and silver. Each jar held about 10 roses. While we were assembling the centerpieces, Crispin was in the garage, pulling select flowers to be used in her bouquet.

After all of the centerpieces were finished they were moved to the cold basement (I had opened the windows a couple of hours earlier--it was 41 degrees outside, and we had a fan running down there too).  We wanted to make sure that they would not start blooming too soon.

From there, it was time to begin the bouquets.

Teresa and Crispin begin work on the bridal bouquet.

Charlotte also enjoyed assisting!

Each bridesmaid bouquet began with a similar set of rose colors per mason jar, and from there, snapdragons, sweet peas, ranunculus, stock and eucalyptus were added.  Then the bouquets were wrapped in floral tape, trimmed and wrapped with ribbon and pinned.

 It was a team effort.  Debbie, Erin Van de Voorde and Colleen came to help out too.

Included was a bouquet for the Blessed Mother and a tossing bouquet.

Don't the flowers speak for themselves?

This picture was taken Saturday morning after everything was cleaned up and the kitchen looked like a kitchen again. :)

Crispin's bouquet was put in the refrigerator and all the other bouquets were hustled down to the basement.

At this point Teresa and Laura began work on the church bouquets.

First the greenery.

And then the flowers...

the tablecloth was on the window to keep the sun from shining directly on the flowers.

Then the step back for assessment and "How does it look to you?"

It looks pretty good to me!

Shortly after this picture was taken, ken noticed that the containers were leaking...well, you could say they were draining more like it!  so from then on the bouquets had a gallon zip lock bag around them.

After this, it was time for the corsages and boutonnières.

By this time it was time for Debbie to take the centerpieces, table cloths, decorations, etc etc to the reception venue.

And soon after everyone left for the rehearsal.  

Wedding flowers!

piece of cake!

Flowers part 2

Bash and Kateri knew what to do with the empty boxes

They were such troopers the whole day!

we processed 810 roses

Wait, how many roses?

Crispin got a great deal at the warehouse, and the more the merrier, after all. :)

It took 6 of us over two and a half hours to process the roses

And move them to the garage.

With this many flowers we might even have enough to do a little something extra for Crispin on her special day....

Flowers....part 1

Well, you know a special wedding when you see it....

The planning, the colors, the elegance are all evident on the happy day!

And flowers are certainly part of the picture---

Adding that fresh and festive touch!

So, it was natural that tee and lu offered to do Crispins flowers!

And this morning was the day Crispin, Teresa, crispin's aunt Debbie, Laura, Jeanne, Kateri, Bash and I drove to Potomac wholesale flowers like the intrepid adventurers we are:

We arrived at the nondescript warehouse at the end of a nondescript road in a nondescript neighborhood off Georgia avenue north of DC.  (Even though it was a bit of a rough area, we noticed that everyone waiting at the bus stop was wearing green! Yay for St Patrick!)

During the hour long drive, everyone tried to get a clear idea of what the bouquets, center pieces, boutonnières, corsages and flower arrangements would look like...

ok maybe it was only a vague idea....

But vague or not,  we were on our way!

And soon we were immersed in a flower fantasy

So much to choose from :-) 

Sweet peas

Stock

Roses

No flowers prettier than this one 

But with so many decisions for Crispin to make....

.....Jeanne and I took the kiddos outside to enjoy the sunshine and a little grassy spot at the end of the parking lot.  

We collected sticks, stones and acorns etc and Jeanne used everything to build a little fairy house

After about two hours...

Two racks were purchased

And

And believe me, there was not an inch to spare in the van on the way home!