Skip to main content

Wedding, 2018: My friend, Sarah

You know the old adage "We can't choose our family, but we can choose our friends"?  The best choice I ever made was Sarah Moran.

I could hardly believe it when just a few days before the wedding, Sarah texted me:  "We received Mark and Allison's invite today. I wasn't planning on coming to the wedding, but I found a great deal on a flight.  Is it too late to book the rooms at the hotel with the group rate?"

My mouth hit the floor.  And the tears started.  And I couldn't respond fast enough to her:  "Holy smokes, Sarah, that's AWESOME!"

Sarah and Jared, always coming through for us Kennedys.  When people ask who they are, it never feels right saying, "They're friends from Germany," because c'mon, they are so much more than that.  The Morans are what are family should be--they know our kids, they love us and our kids, and they show it.  Yeah, BABY!

You know one of the things I most appreciated about Sarah this weekend?  She is so flexible and willing to just help out and go with the flow.  I never needed to worry when she was around, and she wasn't any kind of maintenance, low or high.  She was just there.  She went and got pedicures and manicures with us even though she's not really into strange people touching her.  She came with us to a video game bar even though she doesn't play video games.  She did it all.

She helped me remember different things we needed to bring or do.  She hemmed Glo's gown that was three inches too long without blinking an eye.  She went grocery shopping with me and rolled egg rolls.  She sat next to me during the sealing.  She even rode in the "death trap" of the Monte Carlo without complaint :-). And come to find out, Sarah is ALWAYS helping various people.  She would just casually mention in conversation, "When I was {feeding the poor} {painting an old house} {caring for orphans}, I ...."  It quickly became apparent that helping others is just what Sarah does.

Mostly though, she was just there for me.  I didn't feel like I needed to entertain her or take care of her, but she was a listening ear for all of my stresses and worries and a support by my side while my extroverted husband took care of everyone else ;-)

I told both her and Breanna, the photographer, that if I got nothing else that day, I wanted a picture of Sarah and me together.  Between the two of them, it finally happened!



And after everything was over, she was willing to sit on the couches with us while we all took naps, and made me feel like all those lucky walking ladies who have friends to talk to while they walk when we ourselves went walking together.

As the memories of the wedding day fade, I don't want to ever forget that Sarah was such a big part of the day for me.  In the words of Sarah Bareilles, Sarah, I choose you!

And Sarah, my friend of all friends, chooses THIS as her favorite picture of the two of us:


Comments

  1. I got a post?!?! Thanks Larisa, for always being my friend, for making me feel like one of the family every time I visit, and for a great weekend. Now we just have to find a job for Jared and every weekend can be as awesome. The only thing you forgot to mention was my Staedte und Ritter victory!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Larisa, I've just finished your wedding posts...love them! As I was reading I was remembering so many of the same things from Allison and Nate's wedding. The dress shopping (I found mine at Ross for $22.00, so I could not have been happier!), the dreaded heels (I wanted sparkly gold, which I got, but my feet lasted only about two hours and they had to some off), the venue decisions, the photographer (we knew who we wanted, but didn't think we could afford her...we finally decided she would be worth it, and she traveled from Orlando to shoot the wedding...then got engaged herself the next day!), and the best friend (my BFF came from Oregon and I could not have gotten through the day without her). Treasured and glorious memories, all of them! I can see that yours are exactly the same and it's been fun reading about Kennedy family fun!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Johannah's Bridal Shower

One of the only reasons to lament my daughter not living in Utah anymore? Sister Mecham.  When I think back to the absolutely classic, beautiful, elegant, heart-warming bridal shower she threw for Glo, I literally sit in awe.  Her talents and abilities are unmatched! Believe me, I was hoping anyone  would volunteer to throw Hannah a bridal shower.  Being only two weeks post-op, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to stand up let alone host the thing.  I even asked several people about me throwing it, thinking they would tell me it wasn't  up to me, but do you know what they ALL said? Of course  I should host it. This is what we do, baby! So I took a deep breath and decided to do it the best I could do it, knowing that I would never equal what Becky Mecham could do. Since Hannah's wedding colors were Tigers colors, and since Hannah loves baseball, I figured a baseball-themed bridal shower would be perfect for her.  And she agreed! But l...

Saying goodbye to KitTen

Last week, we said goodbye to KitTen.  Sadly, it was way too early for him to die. When I worked at Interlochen during the summers, I knew a medical assistant who fostered animals before they were put up for adoption by the local humane society.  She got a Siamese-looking kitten after I had already left camp and posted a photo of him on FB.  I reached out immediately. Growing up with Siamese cats, I really do love them.  I love their personalities, especially how vocal they are.  I adopted KitKat back when we lived in Dayton, but in a strange turn of events, a girl who was cat-sitting him before we left for Germany wouldn't give him back.  Since then, we've had mostly tabbies (with the GRAND exception of Hootie), so I was excited to start an adventure with another Siamese. We were living in PA at the time, so Mark and Allison brought him out to us.  Because he was going to be MY cat, I was determined to give him THE most perfect name, but in the end, w...