A Slice of Smith Life: wedding

Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Jan. 4th: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Feast Day (and a Few More of My EpicPew Posts)

11:52 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Today, January 4th, is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was a wife, mother of 5, widower, convert, teacher, religious and a very special Saint!

This feast day post is a little bit different than many of those linked on my A Slice of Liturgical Life page because I didn't make any creative food or craft this year using the Saint Elizabeth theme. (But see photo below from Kendra's blog Catholic All Year of a creative themed dinner for Saint Elizabeth's feast day.)

Rather for her feast day today, I just thought it would be fun to share the EpicPew post that I wrote with facts about Saint Elizabeth. The post was published today on her feast day! How many of these facts did you know already?

35 Facts You Didn't Know About St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

And here is Kendra's feast day food. She writes on her Catholic All Year Facebook page: "Not-particularly-New-York-style pizza (but still good) and little New York cheesecakes for the feast of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, native New Yorker and first American-born canonized saint!"

Photo Credit

The St. Elizabeth Seton post was the 4th one I wrote for EpicPew. Below are listed the other ones that were published already on the EpicPew site.

26 Reasons You Should Leave the Catholic Church Immediately

40 Saint Quotes To Get Your Mind Off Politics

What This Little Girl Does For This Widower Might Make You Cry

In closing, I want to wish you a blessed New Year! This year when we attended Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, we were happily surprised to have the priest that celebrated our wedding on July 12, 1997, visit our parish and he said the feast day Mass. He was a new priest back in 1997 and we have kept in touch through the years through Christmas cards and our family would see Father Ned at various retreats and conferences. He always jokes around with us when he sees our family and sometimes says, "See what I started!" :) Our brief visit with him after Mass was a great way to end 2016 and begin 2017! Here is a photo we took after Mass with Father Ned, our very special and holy priest friend.

God bless and Happy New Year!

Labels:EpicPew,Happy New Year,wedding | 2 comments

Monday, September 8, 2014

7 Quick Takes a Few Days Late...Races, Mary's Birthday, Anniversary, 9-11, Blog Break

12:19 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

This post contains affiliate links.

I have posted 7 Quick Takes hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary many times before, but last Friday was not one of those times. One reason I missed last Friday is because life for me is going faster than I can catch up sometimes! I'm sure many of you can relate...

So here's 7 Quick Takes a few days late as I blog about last week and events coming up this week...

-1-

My oldest daughter ran in a 5K race last weekend with some of the members of her homeschool cross country team. I also ran the race along with my other daughter, though we didn't register and get a bib. It was a great race and the team did so well! My younger daughter beat me and her sister. Despite the heat, it was a great time and I'm so proud of my girls for their good run!

-2-

Speaking of 5K races, my oldest daughter had another 5K race with her homeschool cross country team this past Saturday. It was cloudy and stormed a little so the trails were wet and muddy. There were schools from all over the state competing in the various races. Our ream ran hard and had a great time!

-3-

Today, Sept. 8, is the our Blessed Mother's birthday. Our homeschool group plans to meet for Mass in the morning and then if the weather corporates (we have been getting a lot of rain lately) we will go to a local park and have our annual birthday party for our Blessed Mother complete with a doughnut rosary. Here is my post from last year about our annual birthday celebration. If you want more great ideas to celebrate Mary's birthday, be sure to check out Monica's post HERE from Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families for more fun ideas!

-4-

Tuesday, Sept. 9, my parents will celebrate their 47th wedding anniversary! WOW! I'm so very grateful for my parents and blessed to live close to them to share memories with them with my family. Thank you Dad and Mom for sticking through the good times and the not so good times, through sickness and health. Congratulations! I love you!

-5-

This week is also another year since Sept. 11, 2001. HERE is my blog post from last year with memories and photos of the trip my husband (then boyfriend) took to NY and went to the top of the Twin Towers. Each year I try to read The Little Chapel That Stood to my children about that incredibly sad day. It's not easy to read it and I can't imagine what so many are still dealing with from this sad time.

-6-

Me with my two older brothers and younger sister at my sister's wedding in Oct. 2012

At the end of this week I'm so excited that my family will be getting together for the first time in 2 years! The last time we all were together was at my younger sister's wedding in October 2012. We are heading for a beach vacation soon with my parents, my two brothers and their families and my younger sister and her family! Since two years ago we have added 2 babies to my parent's grandchildren count, one being our littlest one! So for the first time my parents will be surrounded with all their children (me and my 3 siblings) and their 8 grandchildren! It will be a fun time and what a great way to have my parents celebrate their wedding anniversary this week!

-7-

Photo credit: Google image

With a busy week this week and preparing for a family vacation, I'm not sure the next time I'll be updating my little corner of blog land here. This upcoming time with my family will be so precious for so many reasons so I want to savor the memories as much as possible. But, I hope to update my blog with all the family fun when I can! Have a blessed week!

Labels:9-11,Blog break,happy birthday,race,wedding,wedding anniversary | 4 comments

Saturday, July 12, 2014

17 Years Ago We Said "I Do" and 17 Wedding Mementos in our Home

5:55 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

17 years ago today we made a covenant and said "I do!".

Together, hand in hand, we have shared so much since first meeting on the beach in 1992.

Today we celebrate our marriage of 17 years.

This wonderful journey has been filled with many memories, blessings, trials, and joyful tears.

With 5 blessings, I continue to love growing old with you!

Everyday with you is a gift and so much fun too!

Happy Anniversary to us!
I love you!

This photo of the church's ceiling is one of our favorites.

The photographer captured this beautiful shot during our

wedding ceremony.

On our way to the reception after our ceremony

Since my hubby and I met on the beach we had a beach themed wedding cake complete with realistic-looking and delicious candy seashells cascading down the cake. The cake was so beautiful! She also made the shells so realistic that some of our wedding guests would not bite into them because they thought they were real seashells!

A close-up photo of the candy shells on our cake. Thank you Nancy for your beautiful cake art!

On top of our cake was this cross uniting 2 wedding bands placed in the candy coral. This cross is now hanging in our home as a constant reminder of Who keeps our marriage and love strong.

Two are better than one: they get a good wage for their labor. If the one falls, the other will lift up his companion. Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm. How can one alone keep warm? Where a lone man may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12

In our home we have wedding momentos hanging or displayed in various locations. I always enjoy looking at them as a constant reminder of our marriage promises and gifts. To celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary I thought I would share 17 wedding momentos that are dear to us that decorate our home.

Warning: long post with even more pictures. I feel like I'm back 17 years ago as I make this post so scroll down fast if you don't have time to read everything and walk down memory lane with me. Plus, 17 years ago I wasn't blogging, but if I was, you can be sure I would have our wedding posted in more detail and pictures :)

Memento 1: This is a pre-wedding picture that I thought I would throw in here. This was taken on the beach in July 1995, two years before our wedding.

Memento 2: We have this poem hanging near our kitchen/dining room and it was written by my mother-in-law one night in the middle of the night when it just popped into her head, as she explained it. She surprised us with this framed poem and read it to us at our rehearsal dinner. She scanned my husband's and my foot prints from our birth certificates and placed them onto the poem. Anthony's prints are in the top left corner, while mine are on the bottom right. We will treasure this gift always and it's one of my favorite wedding gifts!

It reads: God Knew...

God knew what He was doing when He made these little feet.

He knew it would be our destiny that someday we would meet.

He knew that we would fall in love and eventually wed.

He knew the path we would follow and in His foot steps our feet would tread.

Memento 3: Here is a Marriage Prayer that was a wedding gift from one of our friends (who is now a priest). We have this prayer hanging in our bedroom and I love its simple, yet meaningful words.

It reads: Lord, help us to remember when we first met and the love that grew between us. To see the good within the other, and to solve our problems. Help us to say the kind and loving things and to ask forgiveness of the other. We put our marriage in your hands. Amen. ~N.V. Pearle

Memento 4: This was a gift that we have hanging in our bedroom...an apostolic blessing from then Pope John Paul II who is now Saint John Paul II!

Memento 5: Here's the church ceiling picture, as posted above, framed on our wall. I love this picture!

Memento 6: Going to the reception photo in a glass frame

Memento 7: My wedding portrait taken by my Dad who is a professional photographer, but he hired his photography friend to take our wedding.

Memento 8: Mr. and Mrs. Smith at the altar

Are you still with me? Halfway there until Momento 17... :)

Memento 9 & 10: Our wedding invitation that my parents framed for us. Our invitation has seashells on the border to go with our beach themed wedding. I edited the bottom of it to distort some location details, hence the funny looking print :) Our wedding album sits on our dining room buffet and occasionally I'll see our children flipping through it.

Memento 11 & 12: I love this bride and groom plate painted by our friends from college. On the back of the plate they accidently wrote "Love one anoter" so we all had a good laugh about that. I love the plate for the fact that they took time to make it so cute and unique with it's own "unique" spelling :) The white candle is decorated with our wedding invitation that was glued on by a relative and given to us as a gift. We light it each year on our anniversary.

Memento 13 & 14: Our unique starfish frame that was gifted to us that holds a picture of us cutting our wedding cake at the reception. In the background is a picture of flowers that are popular in St. John Virgin Islands where we went on our honeymoon. The picture on the right side shows the cross that was on top of our wedding cake and also hanging on our wall is a plaque with a beautiful marriage blessing on it.

The marriage blessing is so beautiful I'll share a close up shot so the words can be read:

Memento 15: Here's another unique and special gift that we have hanging in our foyer. It reminds me of Asian artwork. When you look closer, what do you see? The drawing is actually each letter of my first name and my husband's first name. Tracy...Anthony

Memento 16: Our "domestic church" was established in 1997

Memento 17: Scenic pictures hang in our home from St. John, Virgin Islands, where we took our honeymoon. We would love to go back to this beautiful place. Maybe one day...

OK, so if you stuck with this post to this point, I'm impressed and I thank you for taking the time to read it and view the pictures. If anything else, maybe some of my momentos will give someone wedding gift ideas :)

One tradition that we have done each year on our anniversary since our first anniversary is watch our video from our wedding. Now we did get married before the digital age so the color quality is...90ish, but the memories of our day continue to be with us each time we play our video. We did copy it onto a DVD to help make it last longer.

It is a joy to now watch the video with our cupcakes as the younger ones have asked through the years why they weren't there to celebrate with us ;-) Each year we are not only reminded of our holy vows we took in front of our Lord, family, and friends, but we also get to see friends and loved ones that are no longer with us here on earth. You know I still get "butterflies" and filled with excitement just before I watch the part of the video where I'm about to meet my true love at the altar and begin our lives as husband and wife!

Finally I'll sign off this looooooooong wedding anniversary post with one more picture (I really promise, just one more) :)

The reason I post this picture is because recently I came across this blog post about Why Should Men Propose on One Knee? and I thought I would share the author's insights about this honorable and well-known tradition. Of course, my husband isn't proposing here, but you get the point.

I've been blessed with 17+ years with my husband and I look forward to the many, many, many, many years ahead as God wills it.

Labels:wedding,wedding anniversary | 12 comments

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

My Sister's Wedding: Part 1 (Rehearsal Dinner)

8:16 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

I'm finally getting around to posting about my younger sister's wedding that happened on Saturday, October 13, 2012. What a beautiful and blessed day it was!

This post is Part 1 of 3 posts about her wedding.

You can read My Sister's Wedding: Part 2 (Wedding Preparations) HERE
You can read My Sister's Wedding: Part 3 (The Wedding ) HERE

Family and friends gathered for bridal showers prior to the wedding date in July 2012 which you can view pictures HERE and then as the matron of honor, I hosted a shower for my sister in my home in August where I blogged about that fun day HERE.

On Friday night, October 12, 2012, family and friends gathered together for the rehearsal and dinner and here are a few pictures from this fun night....

My children meet their baby cousin for the first time. Miss Piper is my brother's baby and she is so sweet and my children and I couldn't get enough of her!

This is the groom's cake which is a Rottweiler dog because my sister's fiance has this type of dog.

This creative and cute cake was made by Larita at Carolina Cakes and Confections

This is my cousin Jennifer who I haven't seen since my wedding over 15 years ago! It was great to see her after so long. Jennifer is an author and wrote the book The Sassy Spoon Fun with Food by Jennifer Arricale. "The Sassy Spoon is a collection of delicious yet easy recipes that are fun yet healthful, and is full of vegetarian recipes and ideas that are mainstream enough for even the heartiest of meat eaters to enjoy." Be sure to visit her website and check out her book!

Cousins

My family

My parents, my sister, my future brother-in-law, and his parents

Bridesmaids with the bride-to-be with me on the far right

My 2 older brothers, me, and our sister

All the siblings from both families with the future bride and groom

It was great to see so much family!

Here is a picture of me reading the rehearsal dinner toast that I wrote in the form of a poem. Here's what I read for my sweet sister and her soon-to-be husband as I read it for everyone for the first time.

A Wedding Rehearsal Toast for Soon-to-Be Mr. and Mrs. V. from the Matron of Honor, Tracy

October 12, 2012

On March 14th of ’78
my sister was born, it was great!

A few years after in ‘82,

a boy named Nick was born, it’s true!

One in the south, the other in the north, they lived and grew,
many miles apart, but neither knew
that they would someday meet and fall in love

and stand before us all, a blessing from above.

Jeanne, a NC State fan, through and through,

But little did she know that love can grow via connections with ECU

Michelle and Erica know the details of how Jeanne and Nick met

It was in June 2010 when Nick wanted to hit the beach and get wet.

I’m sure Jeanne agrees that Nick’s visit to the East Coast over two years ago

Was a wise decision since they felt how love can grow

Hearts flittered and fluttered after Jeanne met Nick V.

Next came many phone conversations and emails, the rest as they say, is history.

As the matron of honor, I have been asked to give this toast,

Ah, growing up with Jeanne has been fun and now it’s time to boast,

Of some memories I have with my younger sis

Listen carefully, these you don’t want to miss…

Nick, you must know that Jeanne almost lost a finger when she was about one

Yep, I slammed her thumb in the car door and it bled a ton!

Off to the emergency room we sped!

Miraculously, she’ll have all ten fingers when you wed.

Jeanne was in kindergarten when she wrote a book about how Jimmy and Matt liked to scream and shout,

These two special brothers loved to duke it out,

Basically the storyline was Matt ended up punching big bro,
Jeanne’s teacher was alarmed by the story, and Jimmy got in trouble, how was this so?

My sister learned very young about phone etiquette,

She was left at a friend’s house all by herself because Jeanne wasn’t out of the bathroom yet,

When a grown-up learned they had left Jeanne at home alone,

They called the house and Jeanne answered with a “Who’s this?” in a sweet, innocent tone.

I think Jimmy and Matt would agree with me,

That Jeanne always got her way as baby of the family,

I was sent away to college with a lemon that didn’t take me far,

And Jeanne enjoyed driving around town in a white Saturn, a shiny new car.

Jeanne has a way with words and there is one question she asks a lot,

“Is that normal?” is her most popular question whether she knows what she is talking about or not.

Another question my parents heard quite a bit,

“Daddy, can I have some money? I’ll be your best friend and I won’t throw a fit.”

Watching Jeanne in the kitchen has always been an adventure and that makes me smile,

As I witnessed her try to peel a bag of baby carrots, now that’s going to take a while!

It’s a good thing at her bridal shower I made her that recipe book,

Nick, Jeanne has come a long way from an amateur to now a great cook!

I promise this is the last story from me,

At age 4, Jeanne was in New York shopping with our Nanny

Nanny asked Jeanne if she liked toys,

With her big brown eyes, Jeanne looked up to Nanny and emphatically said, “No, I like boys!”

I’m happy to say that Jeanne found her boy

Jeanne, may you and Nick always know love and joy.

This toast is almost over and has been so much fun

Here in this River Room in downtown Wilmington.

We’re here to celebrate
your two lives leading up to this date
and the one life you’ll share starting now,
forever blessed by your wedding vow.

Jeanne, though I’m older than you,
you’ve always been one I’ve looked up to.
You’re full of class, spirit and life.
I know you’ll make a wonderful wife.

Nick, I’m proud to call you brother.
For Jeanne there could be no other.
Your love and humor are perfect for her.
I know you’re the one if ever there were.

So now let’s raise a glass and cheers:
To Jeanne and Nick, many happy years!