So Southern--Joshua and Ashley Moreland

They were married under a hundred-year-old oak tree on the outskirts of Houston, with ribbons hanging down like Spanish moss. It was Saturday afternoon, May 29, and 90 degrees outside. No problem. There was ice water for the guests, and a flute quartet played, next to petunias in deep purple, Ashley's color.

Both Michael and I snapped all the pieces of the wedding ceremony,

including:

Vincent and Janice, as parents of the groom...

the mother of the bride...

The bridesmaids and groomsmen, including Charlotte and Tony, Ben and Daniel...

the groom (Joshua) with the "minister"--his bishop...

and, finally, the bride and her father, exchanging last hugs and kisses before she became a married lady.

The bishop read the ceremony....

and Ashley and Joshua each read their own promises and hopes.

Then, the ceremony was all over...

And everyone posed for pictures.

Joshua and Ashley will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on December 29, as Vincent and Janice travel here with their family on a skiing vacation. Ashley will then have been a member of the Church for a year.

The night before the wedding, Janice and Vincent hosted a rehearsal dinner in their elegant garden. Nancy, Charlotte, and Janice had spent two days, just cooking.

Charlotte decorated the tables and arranged the flowers.

There were buffet tables for appetizers, dessert, and the entree--herbed shrimp with quinoa/corn cakes and bean salsa,

And finally, after all those preparations, the guests arrived--Dad and Grandma Spendlove, Nancy, Daniel with the girlfriend who will join him at Texas State University in the fall, Joshua and Ashley, and Janice, as well as another 40 relatives.

Vincent was very comfortable as master of ceremonies.

After the wedding, the gang gathered once more at the clubhouse at Belters Landing, an elegant new development, for Ashley and Joshua's wedding reception. I rested from my labors as photographer.

Early on Saturday, Michael and I slipped off to the "Wall of Water". It was just outside the boundaries of Michael's mission, so he heard about it but never got to visit during the two years he lived in Houston. Some missionaries disobeyed the rules and went there, and it was all the more alluring because it was forbidden! There was a truly Texas-sized building next to the Wall of Water.