Remembering

Despite all the excitement that goes along with my drama-free wedding planning, there's one thing that still gets me down. I am the first grandchild whose husband (or wife)-to-be will has not met my granny.

For those of you who read this who did not know my granny, which is probably all but maybe two people, my granny was an amazing human being. She would do anything for anyone. She was the kindest person I've ever known. She hemmed my pants to the PERFECT length every. single. time. She mashed the best mashed potatoes on the plane. She let me eat green sherbert from a coffee cup when we had slumber parties every other Friday night. We never went on outings because she didn't drive, but she would buy me a Golden Book when we went to the grocery store with my mom. And she had this nack for making a game out of nothing. I would spend hours stringing buttons at the kitchen table while she sat in the spare room and worked on her antique sewing machine. She even made washing dishes fun and made me "aprons" out of trash bags so I wouldn't get my head wet. All she did was cut a hole in the top and two holes in the sides for my head and arms, but I thought I was a dish washing master in those things. My mom and I used to go to the library and rent old movies for her, those featuring Shirley Temple being her favorites. Most heroic of all, she listened to me jabber on about vikings and explorers when I learned about them in fifth grade and acted like she was interested in and fascinated by every detail just as I was.

To me, my granny is the epitome of a Christian lady. She would always sing hymns under her breath while she was mashing those awesome mashed potatoes or baking countless pans of sourdough bread, or rolling out biscuits, she didn't miss a Sunday of church unless she absolutely couldn't help it, and went to bible study every week.

I need to find a way to honor and/or remember Granny at my wedding. I can't do a candle because it's outdoors and a candle wouldn't stay lit. And I don't really want to do flowers because we are only doing flowers for bouquets. I finally decided to attach a small framed picture of her to my bouquet, like this.

I really think this will be the perfect way to honor her and keep her with me on my wedding day without shouting memorials from the rooftops.