Well, first off, Happy Halloween!
And I have to say, this past weekend was one of the most interesting and heart-touching Halloween-themed experiences that this Kat has ever experienced.
My cousin got married! And it wasn't a regular-type wedding either, nope, the entire thing was Halloween themed.
Not that that should have been a big shocker to anyone in our family. My little cuz walked around as a child with her nose stuck in Harry Potter books and her favorite movies were The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride, so when she invited us to her Halloween weekend wedding this past spring, I knew we were in for a spooktacular treat!
And oh was it ever delightfully frightful!
To start with, my cousin lives a six hour drive away from us. And it's quite literally over the river (The Columbia) and through the woods (The Gifford Pinchot National Forest) to Grandmother's house we go.
You see, my cousin and her husband bought my grandmother's farm from her, which is the most awesome thing ever as the place has been in our family for a hot minute and we all have all the memories there!
So Friday morning when we started our journey from Idaho, let's just say the mood was jovial. It was also a mood of firsts, as my daughter was driving us to the wedding in her new SUV.
I am so dang proud of that kid. She worked hard waiting tables all summer to buy her car, and the hubs and I were all smiles as we sat in the back and let our seventeen year old drive us across the state of Washington and our fifteen year old do all the navigating.
Okay, I did pay for all the fuel, but I try to be nice, on occasion😉
Our journey over was double the fun because we caravanned with my Mom and Dad, and before you could say sibling disagreement on music choice we were in the Valley.
My cousin lives in The Big Bottom Valley or as I like to call it, The Butt Crack Of The Earth. Okay, it's a beautiful valley that winds towards the ocean and is set between Mount Rainer, Mount Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. If you like endless rain, towering mountains, and moss, you'd love it there!
And elk. We arrived at the Cowlitz River Lodge to check into our hotel room and giggled at all the elk wandering through Packwood. People were stopping to take pictures of them, and even though I was born in the valley, I though, well heck, I'll act like a tourist too and snapped a few pics.
After getting everyone settled in we drove down the highway to my cousin's place and helped with wedding set up. I was put to work on dip prep, and set about dicing several pounds of bacon while some of my five cousin's 18 children ran around. Seriously, there are 18 kids between them, with two more to be born next month as on of my cousins is pregnant with twins!
Holy hullabaloo! What a fracas! Most of the 18 are under ten and there was absolute chaos everywhere. And babies, I held a lot of babies when I wasn't preparing dip for the reception.
And dogs, lots of dogs.
It was all just so glorious.
The following morning we all went back to the farm in our fall colored wedding attire and the first thing I saw upon exiting my daughter's SUV was The Hulk. In the wedding invite my cousin said if the kids want to come in costume that would great!
And I have to say, I really enjoyed watching The Hulk, a pirate, a ninja, Captain America, and others ride (and crash) scooters and bikes down the hilled driveway. My ribs hurt from laughing actually.
My cousin and her siblings went all out on the Halloween-themed decor, everything had a shades of the season color palette going on. There were skulls, blackbirds, gothic colored flowers, and shades of orange and black everywhere.
When my family all came out for the ceremony we all snorted a bit when my hubs loudly said, "Ahh, look at all the girls in their rightful clothing
For my cousin's were all garbed in long rust orange flowing dresses and black cloaks. The bride was resplendent and cascading black lace dress with her ruby tinged black hair all curled, and my new cousin Super Steve looked glorious in his white and black Carhart suit.
The ceremony was short and sweet, with a mixing of the wine symbolic ritual that made me smile, and afterwards, when my cousin had a sec I strolled up, hugged her tightly, and whispered, "I am so proud of you for being yourself"
For you see, most of the time ritual and tradition, while not bad things, are not representative of who you are on the inside, and my cousin's wedding was a colorful representation of who she is, a sweet, loving creature who adores the gothic and macabre side of things. Everything about her ceremony represented her and I admired her expression.
As I admire her new husband who told me, "I wanted her to have the wedding she wanted."
And she did, they both did, a countryside Halloween-themed wedding.
Honestly, my face hurts from smiling, and my stomach is still full from the smoked mac and cheese and brisket. I'm the oldest cousin and I spent a lot of time babysitting all my younger cousins growing up. It makes me so incredibly happy to see them all doing so well, their families growing and such. It was the first time we were all together in years and it was a blast!
