A couple of years ago, my divorced daughter met an outstanding human, Steve. They took things relatively slowly, as they both have kids and they wanted to be sure of the relationship first. They became sure, and on a backpacking adventure, Steve popped the question. Steph answered that yes, they would indeed become a "Brady Bunch" family!
One of the most heart-warming aspects to watch in this budding relationship was how well the kids got along with each other. I think it's more than just "ok, I guess these kids aren't the worst in the world." They would all talk about their future life in terms of "when we get married." Marriage, for the whole combined family, was not just between the parents - they were ALL getting married.
Wedding planning began...and became a source of stress. How big should it be? Who should be invited? Where could it be? Who would cater it? You know, all the usual wedding planning stuff. But it didn't seem quite right to my daughter...a bit too stressful for a second wedding. Since they had decided before the engagement even happened that they wanted to take all of the kids to Italy as a Christmas gift, it eventually became, "well, why not do it in Italy then?"
So that's how the story of a wedding in Italy started.
Settling on early April, planning for an Italian wedding began. Probably the uniquenss and limited guest list (plus the allure of the rest of the Italian vacaction) made this version of wedding planning not quite so stressful - although of course there still were moments.
We arrived on a Sunday; the wedding was set for Tuesday, which dawned as a beautiful day in Italy.
The ceremony was held on one of the terraces. Because Steph and Steve wrote something to each of the kids to say what they thought was special about each one, both their own and their "new" kids, it was a longish ceremony. But so, so beautiful! The kids all sat in the front row, and they were definitely an integral part of the commitments made that day.
I don't have any of the "official" wedding photos, but I thought these taken with Steve's phone were especially beautiful. At the point they took these, the ceremony was over, and the new family had gone into the Amalfi village to take photos.
As I said, it's been so fun to watch the kids together, and especially the youngest four. They all get along so well! So much so that Teague and Owen inisted on sharing a room back home (luckily, it's a very large room). And the focus between Kaiya and Ivy in this photo (and several like it, this is just one example) is so cute!
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