Turning point
When the kids and I arrived at the farm the day of the wedding, I got out of the car and the farmer said, “You’re wearing black?”
My son went to the hen house to collect eggs. The farm cats love eating raw eggs, but on a farm, you only feed the cats scraps. My son saw a chance for an exception. He said to the farmer, “Since it’s your wedding day, can we give the cats an egg to celebrate?”
We dressed the boys.
My son said, “People don’t dress up on farms.”
I said, “They do for weddings.”
And then I tucked his shirt in for the twenty-sixth time.
The four of us were more than half of the guests at the wedding. My youngest son said: “Where is everyone?”
I said, “The important thing is that I have the three people here who I love the most.”
And he said, “Who?”
When the boys noticed the free-form nature of the ceremony, they spontaneously added their own touch: A lively rendition of the Sh’ma and a tear-jerker rendition of “You are My Sunshine.” Then the boys gave us the rings.
The after-party was kisses, a rope swing, and mattresses left over from moving out the farmer’s stuff to make room for all of us.
It took only twenty minutes for the farmer to lose his wedding ring. But it seemed okay: I love this picture because one thing I love about him is that he’s always looking for something.
And I think I am that way, too.
Very sweet :)
Precious, in the best sort of way. Thank you for this one.
Thank you for sharing the pictures. It is true, a picture is worth a thousand words. I wish you, your husband and your sons great happiness.
Breathtaking. A beautiful bride (of course) and oh, my those gorgeous boys! And the farmer! Olala!!
I’m so freaking happy for you.
E.
Congrats! Best wishes from my family to yours. The photos are precious…especially feeding raw eggs to cats.
Congratulations to you all! I love how personal the day was to your family. Thank you for sharing.
I’m a lurker, reader of your blog. It’s such an interesting thing, watching your life unfold in real time. Like Jack Bauer of the work/life continuum…
There are times I wish I could jump forward a few years and see the results (yes, I read the end of books first as well)…while there are times I think…geez, if this doesn’t work out, will she really really REALLY regret sharing this?
That said, congratulations on the wedding, move, new life focus and calming of the spirit. You are the best online!
Yay for the new Mrs. P. Farmer!!!
Congrats Penelope. Hopefully this is the start of a new and wonderful chapter in your life.
Joy, joy, joy to y’all!!!!
Wow!
Favorite post ever. This wedding looked perfect…and especially perfect for you, the Farmer and the boys. I felt calm and happy just reading it.
Congratulations!
Every wish for your happiness, you all look great and I love it that you wore black. The post has a fantastic feel.
Thank you for sharing your special day, I’m so happy for you! Congratualtions!
Congratulations!!!! Nice to see the Farmer’s face, and to see you so happy. Thank you for sharing this with us! (And thanks to the Farmer for letting you post his photo.)
OMG. Never thought we would get to see a photo of the farmer! Yay. Just so beautiful. Brought a tear to my eye. Especially photo of the four of you looking so happy and content. Thanks for sharing.
From one of your biggest fans in Australia….. Congratulations!!!
COngratulations to you and your family. Thank you for sharing (generally) and thank you especially for sharing photos of your wedding. May you always remember how happy you were right then. Best wishes for your future together.
Mazel tov! May you and your family continued to be blessed with great love, happiness and health.
Thank you for this very beautiful and big share.
YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY! <3 <3 <3
Love the simplicity of the wedding! Congrats again!
Mazel-Tov! Best wishes for a long happy and healthy life together.
To quote one of my favorite movies “how very optimistic of you”, Penelope! Seriously, congratulations and best wishes for the future to both of you. :)
Congrats!! For the 100th… (200th?) time! I hope you aren’t so happy all the time now that you aren’t able to write your awesomely wonderful angst ridden articles that come from frustration, anger and life’s difficulties :) Just kidding. Happy for you.
You got married! P, that’s incredible! And the Farmer looks like such a sweet guy! And even more commendable, he allowed his picture to be published to your fans. That takes guts!
And you are a lovely looking bride!
And the kids are cute too.
(Sorry for all the gushing.)
Irv
You wore black too. Lol. Love it:) This is beautiful news and the pics have made my day. He doesn’t look like a farmer at all – so handsome, clean and smart. What a gorgeous family. xoxo to all of you from Australia.
Great post! So good to finally see pics and see this side of you! Love your blogs.
Congrats and much happiness to you all!!
Congrats!! May your new chapter be filled with joy and hapiness. Your boys are soooo cute.
Congratulations!! I loved this post. While many of your posts are personal in nature, they all sound so matter-of-factly and the emotions are hidden behind the words. I loved this post so much I smiled the whole time. Thank you for sharing!
This is beautiful!! In the last six months I have been devouring your blog and am now attending the webcasts, and I adore you! I think these pictures are great because in them all is great… and in the afterglow, in that high, the reservations came down and up went the pictures of your beautiful new family in whole. The farmer let you post pictures!
Loving the love in all of this!
Mazel tov!
I’m happy that you posted this about the wedding. I wasn’t sure you would but I guess you knew the blog readers would be interested and wishing you well. Congratulations, you all look so happy. Wishing you all the best!
Congratulations! Loving the pictures. It is nice to put a face to a name.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Great photos and a great ceremony. All the best for a really great stretch of years as you grow your loving family out on THE FARM!! Here’s to following yer heart, P.
Awesome. I get married in a month, 16 people, just family.
LOL @ “Starting a new job”
You are going to be on a cloud. Should not feel like work. :)
Congratulations. Wishing you lots of love, luck, laughter and lust for many happy years.
Slainte- from Ireland
Really lovely! All the very best..
Let me add my congratulations P.
Those photo’s are just fantastic so I know the day itself was priceless.
:D
Congratulations! Wishing all of you much happiness, romance and fun in your life. And dear Mr. Farmer, thank you for letting Penelope post your picture and pictures of the farm, it was a brave move on your part and makes us heart you even more. Your kids are just adorable, you’ve done good on all counts P.
OMG pics of the farmer!!! I thought he said he’d NEVER have a pic of him on the blog!!!!
Hi Penelope,
Your post made me cry. So beautiful. It doesn’t take a big crowd or fancy traditional white dresses to make meaning. What counts is finding and being with the ones we love. Accepting them for who they are. Accepting ourselves.
I am very happy for you.
DB
Congratulations! :)
Wish you a wonderful, conflict free (inasmuch as possible) married life together! :)
And – yay! to more pics!
Congratulations! Stay happy! Lovely family.. :)
I left for a short while and THERE!!! Such a great turnaround :O !!! I like the new pic-style of the blog. Blog should be all about visual first impact, shouldn’t it? But how comes a picture of THE FARMER ?!?!?! X’D ! Anyway, congrats!!!
I’m so happy for you, Penelope. Your wedding looked fabulous. My husband and I eloped with four friends 2 years ago and I’ve kind of been mourning not having a
“real” wedding. Your story and pictures remind me that it was a real wedding because we were there and love each other.
On a side note: I don’t know why, but I always pictured the Farmer to have a long, scraggly beard!
Congratulations Penelope. I love the picture of the four of you.
What a wonderful wedding! Congratulations to you all, your blogs are fab. Best wishes from England…… ;-)
Penelope, I love the fact that you posted this to the “Starting a new job” category. So true! Keeping up a healthy and exciting marriage can be a lot of work. To some, it comes naturally (like writing good blog posts comes naturally to you). To others, it takes a lot of practice and discipline.
Congratulations on your new ‘job’!
Awww! So sweet – congratulations! and tell the farmer thanks for sharing with us (because: pictures were posted).
CONGRATULATIONS!
CONGRATULATIONS! What handsome little gentlemen you have and the Farmer is quite handsome too! I wish you much happiness!