Pete's Wedding

Beautiful memorial candle for Mom

During the last weekend of February, Nate and I were on our way to Mexico for Pete's wedding!  We flew out early Friday morning to San Diego and met up with Mike/Colleen. We rented a car and drove about 2 hours south into Mexico.  The wedding was located near Ensenada, Mexico in a wine valley.  The wedding was small, about 20 people were invited.  We all stayed at a charming hotel with beautiful surroundings.  On Friday evening there was a cocktail hour and we enjoyed getting to know the other wedding guests.  On Saturday morning we relaxed.  The DeMaster family has never gotten together without children (at least in the 15 years I've been around.) It was so nice to chat with the family and realize again, "hey, we're fun when there aren't children around!" We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant and they also served cookies for breakfast! They were speaking my language.  In the afternoon, a group of people took Pete off the hotel grounds for awhile.  Jess and Pete didn't want to see each other and Jess was getting a little stir crazy in her hotel room.  The group went to a place that advertised hummer adventures.  There was a hummer, but it wasn't much of an adventure.  The hummer pulled a hay wagon type trailer behind it.  The hummer adventure is really meant to transport people along a winery trail, so I guess it would seem fun with some wine on board. 

That afternoon, Colleen and I gave Jess a couple gifts.  Colleen had painted a picture based on the flowers on their wedding invitations.  It was beautiful. We also gave Jess a family scrapbook. We had the DeMaster and VanStelle aunts/uncles write a welcome/congratulations note and include a family picture.  That way Jess could "meet" the extended family.  

And Jess wore Antoinette DeMaster's wedding gown!  Antoinette is Nate's deceased Grandma. The dress is from the 1930's and Jess looked amazing in it.

The wedding ceremony took place on the hotel grounds in the late afternoon. I'm just going to share what I wrote on facebook about the wedding. 

The whole weekend was a wonderful celebration of them. The ceremony was achingly beautiful. I was aware of the rootedness of generations of family who love Jesus. God is so faithful to us imperfect people. There was much evidence of Mom's beauty and legacy of faith surrounding us this weekend. We cried and we celebrated. And we had lots of A-mazing wine. 

 After the ceremony we hopped on a bus and went to a local restaurant.  Pete had told us to expect the best food of our lives.  We were not disappointed.  This was a top notch restaurant.  There is no menu, the chef makes new things everyday.  I lost track, but I think we had a 10 course meal.  (They were small portions.)  And with every course there was a new glass of wine!  I couldn't drink the wine fast enough and at one point I had 3 glasses in front of me.  Dad helped me out and finished one.  I have not had that much wine, well probably ever.  We were all feeling gooood.  It was a great day celebrating Pete and Jess.

Sunday morning we left around 8 am.  We took a different route back to the border because someone said it would be a faster border crossing.  Well, it wasn't.  We sat in line at the border for about 2 hours.  We got into San Diego just in time to drop off the rental car and catch our flight.  We arrived at Grand Rapids around midnight and the Shoemakers brought us home.  

While we were gone, our family was busy watching the kids.  My Mom watched the kids on Friday and my Dad came out that evening.  Steph flew in late Friday evening.  My parents and Steph spent the rest of the weekend caring for these hooligans.  The kids were very excited to have Aunt Steph here.  Steph and I got to spend Monday morning together before she flew home Monday afternoon.  It was too short, but it's always good.  In about a month we'll be celebrating Steph and Ben's wedding!