Ferry Boats and Cupcakes

Hi everyone!

Yesterday my hubby bought a computer gizmo that makes it easy to retrieve files and photos from old computer hard drives.  A co-worker asked hubby to help him get photos off of a computer that has expired.  And since we have several old computers and hard drives in the house he worked on some of ours too.  The first old drive he dug into had some old photos that I love and missed.  Pictures from our wedding!

Hubby and I are going to celebrate 19 years of togetherness in November, but we have been married for only twelve of those years.  We decided to get married on the anniversary of the day we met since we already remembered that date.  :o)  This was the second marriage for both of us so we did not want the big, elaborate wedding.  Plus, we did not have a lot of money so we needed an inexpensive location.

After mulling over several options for wedding and reception halls we still had not decided on a venue.  We looked at several local halls that were available, some were very nice and some...not.  But they all had one thing in common, too expensive!  We had a date that was approaching, but no location!  I was chatting with my, soon to be, mother in law and we were tossing about ideas and she said "what about the ferry?"

The ferry??  Brilliant idea!  Washington has many lovely ferry boats and hubby and I both loved to ride them.  And best of all...they did not charge for using the boat for a wedding!!  We only had to pay for the ride.  We chose the ferry boat that was closest to our home and one of our favorites.  The ferry Rhododendron went from Tacoma, WA to Vashon Island.  We would just have everyone walk on the boat, ride across to the island and back.  Perfect!  We bought every guest a walk on ticket and this was much cheaper than any of the rental halls we had looked at.  Plus the scenery would be beautiful!

We finally had our venue and the date!  Next up, the usual wedding suspects.  Dress, suit, invitations and flowers.  And a cake!  Oh yes, we needed food for the reception! 

We worked out the details, I printed and cut and pasted the wedding invitations.  I found a pretty dress to wear and we bought hubby a suit.  Dear daughter was my maid of honor.  Dear daughter is actually my step daughter but since we have been together since she was five, well she is my daughter.  More on that story another day.

Next we needed to decide on what to serve at the reception.  Did we want a traditional cake?  Nope, nothing was very traditional up to that point so why start now!  I went to our neighborhood Safeway store and ordered cupcakes for the reception.  We had white cake with white frosting cupcakes.  They were decorated with little wedding rings on top.  The store put the cupcakes in individual plastic cups with lids so we could easily pass them out.  We bought white lunch bags and every bag had a cupcake, a few Hershey's hugs and kisses and a small bottle of Martinelli's bubbly apple cider.

Dear daughter with her cupcake bag.

Now having our wedding on the ferry we had a time schedule to adhere to.  We had to time our plans to the length of the boat trip, over to the island and back.  The Point Defiance / Vashon Island ferry trip is one of their shortest.  The ride is 20 minutes each way with about 10 minutes island side while the cars unloaded and reloaded.  We had less than an hour for our wedding and our reception!  We had the wedding on the way over to the island and our reception on the way back.

Since we were not in international waters the captain of the ship could not marry us.  Yes, I checked.  We had to hire a minister to come with us to perform the ceremony.  I looked into hiring a judge but they wanted too much money.  We finally met with a nice minister in our town.  We met with him to discuss our plans and when we got to the part about the whole thing taking place on the ferry he got a funny look on his face.  We had picked a minister that was horribly afraid of boats and crossing over water!  We explained that it was a very big boat and a very safe ride.  He still looked kind of green about the idea but we left it to his wife to change his mind.  She did and he overcame his fear and performed our ceremony.

Everything was all set, we were going to get married!!  I was so excited and exhausted all at the same time.  But wait....hubby had not proposed yet!  I know, cart before the horse.  Well, after seven years of living together and periodically discussing marriage, when he finally said OK, I jumped!  The morning of our wedding hubby and I went out for breakfast, an egg mcmuffin and orange juice.  We drove home with our breakfast and hubby drove through the park just a few blocks away from home.  He pulled over at one of the prettiest spots and proposed.   Awwww... ;o)

Our family and friends gathered in the waiting room for our ferry to arrive.  Everyone was given a treat bag with their wedding cupcake.  A friend had gone on the round trip just before ours and decorated the boat.  It was lovely.  When the ferry arrived at the dock we all trooped on board and up to the passenger deck for the wedding.  It was so nice!  The boat had plenty of seating for everyone and once we were all settled we started the ceremony.

Family and friends waiting for the boat.  See the little boy in white tennis shoes?  He's now six foot, three inches tall!

Our nice, brave minister started in, hubby and I were gazing into each others eyes and hubby whispers to me "yada, yada, yada".  Well that is just about all I can remember of our wedding vows.  I do know they were lovely and sweet.  And we both said " I do".

We got married in late November.  See how bundled up my nephew's wife is?  And see me with no coat?  I was freezing!!  But my dress is pretty and I had dyed to match shoes.  They lost their color in the rain.  :o(

My brother and hubby.

Just after the "big kiss" we arrived at the other end of the boat ride.  While the ferry passengers drove off and more drove on we started our reception.  We visited with friends and family and everyone enjoyed their cupcakes.  Everyone but hubby and me!  We forgot to take one of the bags for ourselves!  The boat captain slowed the boat down a little and we had an extended trip back across the sound.  It was just the perfect reception!  Short and sweet.

When we returned to our starting point everyone gathered for goodbyes.  We loaded wedding gifts into the back of our SUV and headed off into the sunset!!  Well, almost.  We actually had dinner with my brother and got ready for our honeymoon trip to Hawaii.

Hubby's side of the family.  :o)

The nice man in glasses is my father in law.  He has the ring from his cupcake in his nose.  :o)

My wonderful mother in law and her late husband.  Right after the minister pronounced us married she came up to hug me.  She also whispered in my ear "he's all yours now, he can't come home anymore."  I am pretty sure she was teasing.  ;o)

My family.  :o)  My sister on the left and her husband behind her.  My niece, L. in the red coat, with her husband and son.

Family leaving the ferry. See that little girl in the red sweater?  That's our niece.   She's about to turn 17 and she's still cute as a button.

We had a truly memorable wedding.  Family and friends have told us that we had the best wedding.  We think so too.

hugs,

Judy

:o)