It takes an army

I have often heard those words.   Well, I am here to say how true that is. I am most thankful for my army of friends who were there for me recently...The wedding was over 6 weeks ago. It is a wonderful memory NOW.... but during the planning and getting ready stages, there were several times in my mind that things could have gotten a little stressful..... if I had tried to resolve small problems on my own. Thankfully, that is when my army of friends showed up at just the right time... So, so many people to thank , who were there for us. So many friends helped throw parties and offered their time to help us, and loaned us things to use.  But here are a few highlighted members of my army.... and they probably don`t even really know what an important part they played.I always think that no party of mine is complete without favors and this wedding was just a big party that we were planning for the reception..so, I was on the search for the just the right party favors.   I finally saw these really pretty cookies, all iced with the initials on top, and zeroed in on them.   I really wanted to duplicate them and have them in little clear bags, tied with a little saying on there.In my mind, again, I thought it would not be that difficult after I found the right recipe.  I found the cutest little ridged cirlce cookie cutter at Michaels to use and I was ready to get started.I made the shortbread cookie from a borrowed recipe from Pam,  and for three nights, I made a 5 dozen cookie recipe... Things were looking pretty good at this point and the cookies looked good so far. My friend, Pam, had made these before and used fondant to place on top, so I wanted to do the same. thing as she told me about it.... I got the ingredients out,.... 16 oz bag of white mini marshmallows, 3 tablespoons of water, 2 pounds of powdered sugar and 1/2 cup crisco shortening.My two grandsons were over that day, Heston, 9  and  Leif, 3, so they happily came in the kitchen to help with the fondant process.. LOL... they liked the part about the crisco. You dig your hand in the crisco can and coat your hands with it then knead the other ingredients together.. until it is all smooth.. We worked on that stuff for a long time and got it smoothed out pretty good , mixed and ready to roll out. But after adding the blue food coloring, it was a really dark blue and not the pretty aqua that I had wanted. and invisioned in my mind.!!. It was good practice but not what I could use...I went back to get more food coloring and found a different blue. This time, I added just a drop and it went a long way and was the most beautiful Tiffany blue color. Yay!!Pam insisted on coming to help me ice them.  She told me later, much later after the wedding that she just had felt so sorry for me doing all of them by myself, and wanted to help!!! I didnt know I was that pitiful!!  With both of us working, it went much easier and faster.   She got the fondant shapes wet after I cut them out and then stuck them to the top of the cookies. They looked so pretty at this point . She had to leave for an appointment after we were finished with the fondant, but I assured her that I was ok and could easily put the W on the top of them....  We even tried a few W`s before she left to be sure I knew what I was doing.......Big mistake..I tried to push the icing in little baggies and cut the tiny hole in it, but the letters looked horrible and were all different sizes.  After trying for a while , I just had to rub the messed up letters off the top of the cookies, so I would be able to correct the mistakes, I tried again.   I soon realized that I just couldn`t make it work to look good. Now, I could have easily, at this point, sat down and had a good cry, LOL... and I did consider that but then another friend came to mind. She had made cookies for Lara to use to ask her friends to be  one of her bridesmaids...I took a chance that she was in town, and gave her a call. She was not only in town but eating at Chick Fil A, right around the corner from me and said she would be glad to stop by and get them and do the W for me.. Oh my, what a weight was lifted as I handed all those pans over to her to take home... I didn`t worry any more about them...When I picked them up the next day, Kristen had put those W`s on there perfectly, each one looking exactly like the other.  Cookies done, but it took my army  of friends to make it work.We tied those cookies up in a little plastic bag, and put them in this huge bucket with gold ribbon  and beads tied around the top of it. They were placed on the table by the door at the reception, for the guests to take one as they were leaving.. I almost forgot to take a picture of them, but got this one before they were all gone...The week before the wedding, I had the programs all layed out and ready to print, with the sketched image of the church on the front of it. My daughter in law, Rebecca, had drawn  it for a wedding gift for Lara and Steven and had sent me the digital image to use. I got the paper ready, I thought I could print 50 at a time. I did the first 50, the fronts and as I was turning them over to put them back in to do the back, I noticed a smudge on the front of one. I got my glasses  on and looked closely only to find out the smudge was on all of them!!!!! Something was going on with my printer that was causing it to do this on each one. OH MY GOODNESS... less than a wekk to go, and I was trying to cross this off of my list to do that day.  I had planned to go see my friend, Patsy, who owns Village Press in Mountain Brook, after I had them printed that day. She had told me to bring them down and she would help me score and fold them . I had to call to tell her I couldn`t come that day, that I had to figure out what was going on with my printer.  She immediately told me to send her the digital file for them to print for me.    "No, I didn`t mean to have you do that, I will try to  figure it out and come Monday to fold them. with you."   I will never forget what she said to me, "Don`t take away the joy it would give me to do this for you".  With maybe a tear or two forming in my eyes, I told her that I would send it on to her. Wow.... it was mid afternoon when we talked. After dinner, she shows up at my door, with the programs in hand, all printed and folded and ready to take to the church the next week in a beautiful white wicker basket.This is the beautiful drawing that Rebecca did and let me use for the program.Thanks to my army of friends, Pam and Kristen who saved the cookie project...Patsy graciously solved the printing problem before it had time to get huge and cause stress in the Lazenby household.. caught just in time... She was a huge, huge part of my army who stepped up on my behalf, as was Rebecca, as she shared her drawing before she gave it to them, for us to use on the program.I cannot close without including my sweet Tom. He usually is in the background, just encouraging and watching as we get things done, but willing to do whatever we ask.  The last two things that popped up that  week before the wedding..... were pretty large....  to be continued in part 2...Thank you for reliving these special times with me..  it was truly magical to look back and see how it all came together...Have a great week,Love,Jane