Beach Wedding!...otherwise known as "Sometimes your kids can surprise you with a really great idea!"

So...

We got home from our marvelous trips to Florida

and Savannah.

It took us 4 days of butt-numbing travel by car

to get back to the U.P. of

Michigan.

And, a fewdays later: my daughter called and told us

that her and her fiance

wanted to

move up their wedding.

They wanted to do an

"elopement ceremony"

rather than have a big wedding.

In two or three

WEEKS!~!!!

Back

in

Florida!!

They wanted a small, private

beach wedding.

So...

that meant

we had to go BACK to Florida.

This time we went by plane.

And it was gorgeous.

Just perfect.

My daughter did not want her wedding pictures

on the blog.

But, she was fine with me posting the "no people"

wedding photos...

So, here goes!!:

The wedding arch.

I loved that you can see two chairs beyond the arch in this photo!:

They had a heart in the sand

where they stepped into to do their vows.

I thought it was such a cute idea.

Oops, So I broke the rules here

and DID show you the bride and groom!:

( I sure wish I could've been barefoot for MY wedding like they got to do!)

More decorations:

The walkway into the rest of their lives together:

When the guests arrived at the wedding, they were greeted by two signs.

This one told them to take off their shoes!  Loved it!:

The wedding was wonderful

and the day was gorgeous...

In the 80's with warm, balmy sea breezes.

It ended at sunset, as planned....

Sometimes your childrens' wisdom

surprises you.

But it always delights you.

We had a wonderful time of family love and happiness

which will remain in our memories

for the rest of our lives.

And?

I got a new son-in-law in the family to love, too!

********************************************************

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at midnight..

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The May 2011theme is:

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Birds, & Brush!

I am behind in posting photos from the end of our Savannah trip, our Florida trip

and getting back to the U.P.

in the late winter/early spring.

So today, I am posting a mixture of these photos to catch up a bit.

Enjoy!!

For some reason, Cardinals are elusive for me to capture with my lens.

They do not come to my feeders or come to my yard often.

So, when we were visiting my cousin in Savannah, I was thrilled to see a Cardinal in her back yard.

Of course, just my luck....

she told me it was elusive for her to try and take pictures of it, too..

So..

the challenge was ON.

I must have had to take 20 photos to get a few good ones but at least I did capture one or two:

I was thrilled to see the little female too!:

When we were hiking in Savannah, we saw some awesome driftwood

and old wood on the forest floor:

I love doing them in black and white too:

And THEN??

We came back home.

To snow!

But, there was hope!

A few geese had flown from the south back up to the north, as we saw in this pond:

I was so happy to see that we had received

the FIRST sign of spring....

the geese were back!

The geese were back!!!

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia: Part FIVE

This is the last of my series on the beautiful headstones and nature park

that is

Bonaventure Cemetery

in

Savannah, Georgia.

If you ever get the chance to go there, I recommend it.

It is a nature walk, an art museum

and a place to reflect on life and death.

It is especially poignant to me as I write this blogpost today

because I lost two friends to death, very unexpectantly a few weeks ago.

One was a man who I worked with for years and he died of an unexpected massive heart attack

when visiting downstate to pack up his daughter and her belongings from college..he was only 58.

One was my 63 yr. old girlfriend who was very, very active in organizing art shows

in our area, and she possessed a spirit that cannot be squelched...she died of a totally unexpected

massive aneurysm.  She was cremated, but if I could, I would get her a headstone like one of these beautiful ones I have shown you in these past posts.

Treasure life..it is so precious.

Treasure friends and family..they are irreplaceable.

Quite the monument:

This ENORMOUS archway/headstone sat right on the river waters!:

The carved detail in it was undescribable!:

Jesus statue on the arch:

Amongst all the grandeur and huge, decorated headstones

was this simple grave:

And this HEARTBREAKING one, the loss of TWO babies:

A sad, sad angel:

I loved, loved the Spanish moss growing on

this headstone:

Rose carvings:

Gorgeous:

Many family plots had ornate, wonderful gates and fences around them:

Like the gates into heaven!

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Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia: Part FOUR

Continuing on with the fabulous architectured headstones

from the

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

The statues and headstones were simply amazing.

Look at the shape of this little mausoleum....like a pyramid or Silo!:

I fell in love with this headstone. According to the history of the headstone, the woman who died had a lifesized statue made of her by her family for her headstone...three-dimensional. It as just amazing:

The detail was atonishing!:

It was so beautiful:

Look at the detail of her hair and the view from behind her.

She has been sitting on her headstone for a long time, looking out at the beautiful views

of this gorgeous cemetery:

Sunlight on her face.

I wondered if the family strategically placed her statue in that position?:

She was a beautiful woman in life and remains so in death with this statue:

Here is another one where the deceased has a statue of her likeness made and put

on her headstone. Look how sad she looks!:

It was more like an art museum than a cemetery. I wished I had more time there:

I am almost done with my series on Bonaventure Cemetery.

I hope you haven't found them too inappropriate, but I truly think

they are gorgeous headstones full of history and art.

Part Three: Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia

I know it sounds weird to love cemeteries and to equally love photographing them.

But I really do, on both counts.

Visiting a cemetery is like going to a park to me, and an obvious reminder

to live your life to the fullest while you are blessed to live on this earth.

And a reminder to honor those lives that were lost before ours.

I always wonder what the people were like under each headstone...

what their culture and home life was like.

Who they loved, who they lost, who they fought, what their hopes and dreams were.

So today, I am posting more pictures of the most awesome cemetery (Bonaventure Cemetery) I have ever seen. (If you missed Parts ONE and TWO, just drop below this post to see them).

The headstones were ornate and more like art.

The setting was gorgeous with huge, ancient oak trees hanging with Spanish moss.

We wished we had time to read each and every headstone, because they all told their own stories.

But most were so ornate!:

One of the most famous headstones and gravesites

was the one of

Little Gracie.

Please click on the link above to learn more about

this dear 6 yr. old little girl.

Many people leave flowers at her gravesite.

I loved the rod iron fence surrounding her gravesite:

And that GATE! I loved it.

The little pink ribbon some visitor left at her gravesite put a tear in my eyes:

Her headstone was made in her EXACT likeness.

Read about it HERE:

There were several HUGE mausoleums like this one. Gorgeous, ornate doors, some with stained glass!:

This gravesite was amazingly covered with a tree and moss:

 The way I love the giant oak trees and the Spanish moss, it is my dream cemetery plot.

But wait, I thought I wanted to be creamated when my time comes....

Now, after seeing this cemetery, I am having doubts.

Then again...they could bury ashes and put some huge angel on me, right?

Some people would find humor in that...

All the headstones were so different, so unique...

Another one of the gravesites covered in plants and moss and trees!:

What an honor for this Mother and Father. A beautiful tribute!:

Loved this angel:

You'd think about being in a museum, rather than a cemetery...it was wonderful:

As you probably would have guessed, I still have more photos of this wondrous

cemetery to share with you next time...