West-side warm and wonderful wedding

his weekend we took a quick jaunt over to the west side of the state for a friend's wedding. (This is the follow-up to that fabulous girlfriend Whidbey Island weekend over Memorial Day, yes indeed, the reason we all got together to celebrate Kate!)

The wedding was held at a beautiful garden in Mt. Vernon. About nine (of the 51 total) acres are landscaped into beautiful gardens, ranging from formal rose gardens to more informal perennial beds. I don't think we walked all of the grounds, but we did do a bit of exploring after the ceremony, before it got dark, and there were many beautiful flowers and shubbery on display.

The entrance to the rose gardens.

One of my favorites: hydrangea!

There were apple and pear trees trained horizontally between fence posts. Very cool.

Lots of paths like this through flower beds... it was nice to wander in the shade!

The flowers inside the dinner tent were pretty amazing as well.

There were a few chalkboards with quotes on them, around the garden.

Kate on her way down the aisle. It was an unbelievably warm day for that area--around 90 degrees, I think, which is average for over here. But for that side of the state it was like a furnace! The shade extended during the course of the ceremony to include most of the audience; sadly the bride and groom never got shade... but they made it through just beautifully.

After the ceremony we went to see Tabris, the garden's resident pygmy goat.

Handsome son just finished with taunting the goat.

Megan and I posing by our handiwork. My woodworking/painting skills combined with Megan's painting/lettering skills and voila! A sign is born.

The dessert buffet--how fabulous! It was quite amazing, and I sampled a great many morsels.

I do believe these little blueberry cream tarts might have been my favorite.

I can't remember how many layers are in this coconut cake, but it was very tasty!

And how about this espresso gem? Heavenly.

Really, something for every sweet tooth...

And, in between the ceremony and dinner, there were passed hors d'oeuvres on the lawn, and gelato! Four amazing flavors: strawberry, apricot, espresso and salted caramel. I had three of the four, and no, I don't think that was overdoing it!

See, small servings. Really.

Kate and Tony having first bites at the sweet treats. They were such a joyful couple. It was wonderful to witness their first evening together as husband and wife!

A dark picture of the "Whidbey Women" just before we cut loose on the dance floor.

I think this was my favorite quote of the evening.

We three went back to our hotel and slept quite soundly, woke up and came home. Whoosh. The sound of a weekend zipping by... but a happy one, and one that we were so blessed to be a part of.