The fall crops have been planted, fresh hay for the winter is in the barn,  back to school sales are prominent in every store front, and while the garden is still in full swing and production is high, summer is slowly coming to a close.  Which means that Nick and my wedding is quickly drawing near. The last few months have been busy as we balanced working on the family farm, house hunting, Nick's job, and preparing for our "do it yourself" wedding:

There have been some challenges...

• the combination of drought and squash bug mass attack leaving the 1000+ sunflowers we planted for the wedding looking like they might fit in more in a horror film
• waking up two weeks before the wedding to my entire body covered in a raging red rash from poison ivy
• finalizing decisions and making choices when the options were limitless

And there have been some great joys...

• sampling local wines for the reception with my brother and his girlfriend
• raising the pigs that will be roasted for the feast (and catching them when they escaped their pen!)
• watching our living room slowly fill with baskets, bright fabrics, mason jars, candles, and other fun decor
• brainstorming with family and friends and working together to create a truly magical celebration of love

It's been a wonderful summer of planning, but now we are ready to celebrate!  

As one of our final preparation tasks, Tuesday we embarked on the task of taking the pigs to the slaughter house.  It ended up being much more of an adventure than we anticipated, as the pigs were not too keen on going into the scary red trailer, which was not part of their usual scene.  Even with four of us coaxing and herding them, even with yummy slop tempting them, it took us a good half an hour and many different tactical approaches to successfully get both pigs loaded into the trailer. 

Nick chasing one of the pigs

Trale luring the pig

Wedding feast finally loaded and off to the slaughter house