Fabulosity. Yes, of course it's a word. Sheesh.

This past weekend found us in Denver for our niece's wedding. What a fun weekend!

. . . . aaaaaaand I wrote that 9 days ago. What's wrong with me? Why have I blown off Karenpie for an unprecedented 14 days? I mean, the guilt alone should have motivated me. But I must confess - guilt has never, ever been a motivator. I'm pretty good at rationalization, justification and any other -ation that helps me avoid the hard truth.

So, where were we? Oh yes, our niece's wedding! Which let me tell you was beyond fabulous. She is creative, artistic and very gutsy. She's also an architect. And organized.

She's an organized, gutsy, creative, artistic architect.

Or a gutsy, artistic, architectural, organizational creator.

Or maybe a . . .

Shutting up.

Let me start at the beginning and show you all the fabulous details.

When we checked into our hotel, we had a goodie bag waiting for us, marked with this cute tag. Alli (the bride) and her mom had made them for out-of-town guests. It had a map and bottled water and a bunch of candy in it. My kids gave it a very high score because of the candy alone.

And - speaking of hotels - we spent a lot of time in ours. Weddings are crazy busy. There was no time to just relax with the family and hang out. They all had to-do lists a mile long. I don't know why I was surprised - this particular wedding was full of cool little details and somebody had to follow through. But, that somebody wasn't us so we did a lot of relaxing.

And the kids did a lot of this . . . . . .

. . . and this. Be aware that the down escalator is on the left and up is on the right. My children have discovered the inimitable entertainment in going the opposite direction on a moving escalator.

I'm proud to say I taught them how to do it.

You should all be lucky enough to grow up with mothers who could care less about multiplication tables or learning Spanish but by gosh, we're gonna have us some red-neck fun on the big-city movin' stairs!

Yee.

Haw.

Continuing on . . .

The wedding and rehearsal were in a beautiful, old historic Methodist church in downtown Denver. It was made of this beautiful stone that you see in the walls behind the kids (if you can tear your eyes away from the sheer beauty of my children, all smiling perfectly for the camera).

There was beauty all around us!

The gorgeous bride and groom. Look at her headpiece - it was small with netting that covered just a tiny part of her hair. Very cool.

Beautiful maids-of-honor, cousins Emily and Madi!

Aunt Pam and Uncle Dave, the parents of the bride (Duane's sister and husband).

Duane's brother and his family.

Long-time friends, Lori and Dave. We all went through Jr. High and High school together. Lori and Duane have been friends since they were fetuses. Yes. It's possible.

Moving on, let's check out some more beautiful people. Our family is full of them.

Here is a beautiful usher, wearing a tux for the first time in his life . . .

. . . and beautiful gift attendants . . .

The beautiful gift attendant loved the bubbles -

Bubbles we blew as the wedding party left the church.

Then it was time for the reception! Oh the reception - talk about details - let me show you some fabulosity.

Centerpiece flowers in all shades of purple. Note the white feathers.

There was a mashed potato bar on the buffet. Served in martini glasses. You could choose mashed white or sweet potatoes with all manner of toppings. The kids were in heaven. Mashed potato heaven.

But this - this - was the most fun! A candy bar. A bar for candy. A buffet of purple candy! The centerpiece is a tall vase of white feathers and circling the vase were block letters spelling out "LOVE IS SWEET" and "I DO". There were apothecary jars, trifle bowls and vases full of M&M's, gum balls, gummy bears, rock candy, jordan almonds, malted milk balls - it went on and on. There were scoops by every jar so people could scoop out candy into small paper bags. Those were the wedding favors. No small net bags with 4 jordan almonds in them for my kids. Oh no, we went for the bucket-o-candy size.

It was so colorful and festive. I'm trying to think of some way, short of having a wedding reception again, to do this - maybe for a Christmas party or Halloween party? Wouldn't that be fun to let your guests go crazy at the end of the night and serve themselves a little take-home treat? Just what we need for a Halloween party - more candy at the end of the night.

We had a blast! Did I already say that? And we got to dress up.

It isn't very often we all get to be high maintenance at the same time.