THE WEDDING!!! (part 2)

The wedding was held at Covenant Presbyterian Church where Abby and Neil are members.  It is a gorgeous church, formerly a Polish Catholic Church. It was the perfect setting for their wonderful marriage ceremony.

                                                 Neil and his Mom.....

...and his soon to be Mother-in-law.

Lighting the candles

Rachel, the Matron of Honor

Jeremiah, the ringbearer, who took his job very seriously!

Delivering the rings to the Best Man

Josie, one of the flower girls

I love this picture!

"Who gives this woman....?"  

"Her Mother and I."

A hug from Dad

He's given her away....I think I see some emotion there.

The vows

Lighting the Unity Candle

Sorry, no pictures of the recessional.  Abby and Neil greeted their guests as they ushered them out of the pews.  And everyone waited on the steps of the church for the new Mr. and Mrs. Okuley to come out. Instead of rice, or birdseed, or bubbles we showered them with paper airplanes!

There they are!

Love those blue shoes!

The kids were in charge of picking up the paper airplanes.

One shot I took during the photo shoot after the ceremony.

Then it was on to the reception at La Lucé.  I mentioned one "glitch" in the previous post.  I guess there was one more slight "glitch"--the downpour of  rain that pretty much drenched some of us on our way in to the reception. But it didn't dampen  our spirits!

Rachel's toast

First Dance

Father-daughter dance

All in all, it was a wonderful day!  The ceremony was beautiful, completely Christ-centered.  The music was amazing--especially the solo by Neil's sister and the trumpet solo. It was so nice to have so many of our family members there to share in our celebration.

We are so happy to welcome Neil into our family and we wish them God's richest blessings in their marriage. 

[Credit goes to Mark Diekema, who took almost all of these pictures and was kind enough to share them with me, since I took hardly any. The picture of Bob and Abby coming down the aisle was taken by Kathy Zago.]

THE WEDDING!!! (part 1)

It's time to get to the real reason for being in Chicago in June---Abby and Neil's wedding!  Up until Friday, it was mostly just having fun in Chicago and having some  quality family time.  When Friday came it was time to focus on the wedding. We had rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner at Pequod's Pizza.  Yummy!  I did not take any pictures at the rehearsal (bummer) and I only got a few at Pequod's.

Jeremiah liked his present from Abby and Neil!

Saturday, June 21, was the BIG DAY!  The kids couldn't wait to start celebrating! They were outside in their jammies, blowing bubbles with Evan's new bubble machine that he got from Abby and Neil. 

This picture shows how close we were to the El tracks--yes, very close.

The bride and the matron of honor went off to get their hair done in the morning.

The rest of us did things like---last-minute shirt-shopping,  getting lunch ready and delivered to the ladies of the bridal party, going to Walgreens, etc. etc. Oh yes, and also repairing a certain little bow-tie. I've heard that every wedding has some type of a little "glitch" and I guess this was ours.

Josie's cute hairdo was done by her Mommy!

Then it was off to church for the final preparations.  Josie could hardly wait to see Abby in her "fancy" dress.

Very interested in the make-up!

Josie and Abby having a "heart-to-heart."

                                                  The "fancy" dress!

 

 

My beautiful girls!

Two cute flower girls

Cousins!

And we can't forget about the men!  I'm not sure what they were doing while we were all downstairs with Abby.  But, thanks to Mark Diekema, I have some pictures of them. 

 The Ushers, Ben and Matt

Father of the Bride

And.....the Groom!

This post has gotten longer than I expected, so I am going to stop here and we'll get to the actual wedding in the next post!