A Lovely Luau Wedding

I had only one gig this past weekend, but it was a very special and memorable one---a beautiful backyard wedding Hawaiian-style!

The first surprise was when I pulled into the driveway, where my client (the bride) had told me I'd have a space just for me. She didn't tell me it would be a personalized space!

The amazing thing, aside from the thoughtfulness of it, was:  this was the very first event I had driven to in my new car! After many years of faithful getting-me-to-all-manner-of-gigs service, I retired my old Honda for a snazzy red baby! It wasn't something I'd planned on mentioning on this blog, but the happy-parking-space-karma made it impossible not to. :-) Thank you, Pat and Doug!
(They did it for Famous Dave's, too.)

So much love and planning went into this wedding, by the artsy-craftsy bride--check out all the decorations she did herself:

She could start a business doing signs! Below, the dance floor:

I arrived after the actual wedding, but I did get to see the (bubbly) first dance:

MMMMmmmmm Barbecue! Famous Dave's is definitely good!

 The cake was made to resemble Doug's shirt. There was also a little custom sculpture of the couple for a cake-topper.

Okay, now for the caricatures! First, the bride and groom, then their guests:

After everyone was drawn, amid much laughter, a pinata awaited in the front yard:

Anyone who knows my fiance JB would do a double-take, as I did, when I met the brother of the bride (man on right in above photo.)  Except for his eyes, nose and massive eyebrows, he could be JB's twin--same coloring, height, build, hairstyle, posture, clothes choice, etc. I mentioned this to the gentleman and his wife, showed them a photo on my phone, and then we came up with the idea for this:

Haha! Here's a photo of JB and I taken the next day (Sunday) to compare--his hair is being smushed by the sunglasses, normally it  does stand up.

Yeah, this is a good excuse for a photo of my better half on my blog ;-)

You better believe I took some video at the wedding!

Finally, my client sent me a nice email afterwards...I am so lucky to have such wonderful clients! Thank you Pat and Doug!!

Emily,  I can not truly begin to express how pleased Doug and I were to have you at our wedding.  Having you draw the caricatures of every one of our guests was the perfect addition to our wedding reception.  Your caricatures will be displayed in homes from Oregon - to Colorado - to West Virginia, and of course Delaware.  We are already thinking of our next family reunion and how we can manage to have you be part of that event.  Thank you so much, you were truly welcomed and appreciated.