Tags

, , , , ,

We sat at a little table for two.  The children’s table was set up right in front, across from the table where we sat our parents, so we could keep an eye on the two most likely sources of trouble.

Kelly Rashka Photography - Sarah and Tony

My sister-in-law helped the children get their plates of food and tried to get them to sit down and eat, a difficult endeavor at a party.  We watched Bean get up, sit down, get up again, sit down again.  My friend’s three-year-old, who has a girl-crush on Bean, popped up each time, until her mommy told her that if she got up again, she would have to leave the children’s table and sit with her parents.  Bug was running around, too busy to eat, as he does.  Suddenly, my brother came up to our table.

Bug had to use the bathroom, my brother told us.  It was a number two, and Bug, being only four years old, is still learning how to wipe.  Apparently, he didn’t do so well.  Bug is a neat and tidy kid, the kind that schools other children in proper handwashing and toy-clean-up methods.  Every week, he receives a “Super Cleaner” award from preschool.  Bug cried to his uncle, who had taken the little boys to the restroom, that he had a tiny poo streak on his underpants.

“I didn’t have anything to change him into so I cleaned him up, and tucked a little bit of toilet paper in his underpants,” my brother told us.  I looked at Tony; he looked at me.  Bug’s overnight bag was in the van, with clean underthings packed for his sleepover, I told my brother.

“Do we need to change him?” I asked.

“Nah,” my brother told us.  “He’s fine.  I just wanted to let you know.”

Soon after, Bug walked up to our table.  He had one hand in the back of his pants, digging. 

“Uncle Daniel didn’t do it right,” he complained, pulling a small piece of paper out of the back of his pants.  “This needs to be fixed.”

I looked at Tony.  He looked at me.  We burst out laughing and heard the “whirr click” of a camera behind us.  Tony hustled Bug back to the bathroom to clean him up.

Kelly Rashka Photography -- Sarah and Tony

We wandered the grounds of the Botanical Gardens, taking family and couple portraits until Kelly Rashka told us she had what she needed.  We had about fifteen minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin, and the guests were starting to arrive.  I suggested that the photographers get the detail shots that they wanted, and shots of kids or guests.  Bean and Bug were too busy playing with their cousins to notice us, so I grabbed Tony’s hand, and we wandered away from the ceremony site, looking to get lost.

We hid among the cactus and Palo Verde trees, holding hands.

“I want to read you my vows before everyone hears them,” Tony told me.  I think he was hoping that he wouldn’t cry in front of everyone if he had already shared them with me.  So we stood on the quiet dirt path reading our vows.

We cried, we kissed, Tony gently suggested that I might want to edit out a paragraph or two of the three-pages of vows that I had written.  I reapplied my lip gloss, using the reflection from his glasses as my guide.

We wandered a little further until we found a small bench.  We sat there, holding hands, talking, listening to the distant chatter of gathering wedding guests.  Through the trees, Tony spotted the bartender setting up.  He decided to sneak over to her and get us a Dr. Pepper.  Neither of us had eaten lunch, and it was a hot desert day.  A little liquid, a little sugar, was needed.

He slipped back through the trees with a soda in one hand and a water bottle in the other.  We took turns, sipping carefully through a straw, feeling refreshed, getting ready. 

Suddenly, I heard Kelly whisper loudly to her second-shooter, Jen, “There they are!  Work the trees.”

And then the click, click, click of cameras began anew.  “They found us,” Tony whispered, and I laughed, leaving my head where it was.

Kelly Rashka Photography

Kelly looked from me to Tony and back again.  “Tony, stand on that bench,” she instructed.  He climbed up onto a stone bench, curious what Kelly had in mind next.  Then Kelly looked at me.  “Put your bouquet on your hip,” Kelly told me.  I did.  “Now stick your hip back.”  I followed orders. “Now look up at Tony.”

Tony and I looked at each other and laughed.  We are, essentially, the same height in bare feet.  In my kitten heels, I was about 1 1/2 inches taller.  This was as close to the bride gazing up at her groom as we were going to get.

______________

All photos are by Kelly Rashka and/or Jen Hoffman.