One roadtrip and a wedding

Well, it finally happened. My little brother found a wife! And what a wife! Elle is amazing, and just perfect for Nial. He's so lucky he found her.

Their wedding was on Dec. 20th, so we packed up the van and took off to Seattle for the big event.









We met up with most all of my Cluff family at a Hotel in Monroe. Daisha's family in one room, my parents, the twins and Shira/Sophia in another, and Tasha's fam with our fam in yet another. What a get together!!

The grandkids were very excited to see Grandpa again.


The 4 and 5 year-old girl cousins especially had so much fun. Talea, Dru, Tabitha and Sophia were to be 4 of the 5 flower girls at the wedding.

For the past few months, my sisters and I had been on the hunt for ivory dresses for our little flower girls, but we couldn't find any, so I took it upon myself to make dresses for the girls. I found these online and thought they were so adorable.



The only problem was, they aren't that modest, and it's winter. They'd freeze! So instead of putting flowers on the front, we decided on little jackets to keep them warm, and not so fleshy in pictures. Here is Talea trying on the first finished dress (minus the jacket, since Daisha was bringing those from England).



The finished ensemble? It was...well...poofy.


Scenes from the photography session:

Before the wedding began, it was picture time. Hyatt, being hopelessly attached to his big sister, Talea, felt quite left out when she was invited to be in a lot of the pictures (since she was a flower girl). All he wanted was to be in a few pictures also. The poor boy was reduced to tears before we managed to get him in a picture. But by that time, his mood was so sour, we couldn't even coax a smile out of him.


The chapel was old and charming. A perfect setting for pictures. I captured a couple of adorable vignettes of my oldest girls while there.



My parents and the boys (minus Dane, who wasn't able to attend).


My mom with 4 of the 5 flower girls (Dru, Sophia, Talea and Tabitha).


My dad with the flower girls.


The wedding was lovely and even brought tears to my eyes. They are an adorable couple and you can tell they're very much in love.

Scenes from the reception:

Weston, and his favorite niece, Kiersa:


Tasha, Daisha and Edward, apparently engrossed in some juicy tale:


Dakota (Daisha's oldest) and Cage (Tasha's oldest):


Hyatt (tying into the wedding invitation theme of loving trees):


Shira and Sophia:


Me with Nial and Elle. Elle was the most beautiful, elegant bride I've seen in...well, that I've ever seen, I think! Her hair, her antique jewelry from her grandmother, her dress, the bridesmaids dresses...it was all perfect.


Nial appeared to have a great time hunting for the garter. For a few seconds, it was unclear whether he would be able to find his way back out from under the folds of Elle's dress, since all that remained of any traces of him were his shoes peeking out from under the hem!


Aw, the first dance as a married couple.


Hyrum danced with the little girls, since they love that so much.





Poor Paisli had fallen off the hotel bed and scraped her nose, so she ended up looking like Rudolph just in time for Christmas.


I knew I should have triple stitched all the seams of the flower girl dresses!!! I was in such a rush, that I left the seams only basted, erroneously thinking the girls would be elegantly walking down the aisle and behaving, when in truth, they're only 4 and 5, and all they wanted to do was play, play, play!!!!




By the end of the night, my efforts to speed up the sewing process were embarrassingly obvious to all when all of the girls dresses (aside from Tabitha, who has yet to tear or stain a single outfit in her life) started falling apart. Poor Talea was half naked before the night was out. She came up to me like this, not knowing what to do.


Um, I don't know that I'll be commissioned to make anything again. And if I have already sewn you something, look out! It will most likely fall apart soon!