A Mountaintop Wedding Weekend

We attended the wedding of our nephew in North Central Arkansas this past weekend.  He and his fiancé built a lovely "cabin" at the very end of the road and on top of an Ozark mountain, overlooking the Buffalo River National Forest.

Nothing was left undone on the inside in order to capture this amazing view.

Family and friends came from far and wide to witness the union of Lee and Jacqueline.

Each location was marked with this most clever sign.

In order to accommodate the out-of-towners, Lee rented several RV's of varying shapes and sizes, and parked them in the large yard of good friends.

We were upgraded to the friend's cabin which was more than accommodating and gave us our own mountainside view.

The rehearsal supper was reflective of Lee's Louisiana roots - a grayfish boil.

Of course there were other choices for those who did not hail from Cajun land.

Saturday morning breakfast was prepared by those same good friends from down the road and it was delicious.  Anything eaten outside on a mountaintop tastes good.

After breakfast, our host took Dick and me on a most interesting Kubota ride along the whole mountain ridge and valley.  It got rather scary at times, but thankfully we had a very experienced driver.

I had never seen coloring with an outline like this before.

If you look closely, you can see that we are on a ridge overlooking the wedding cabin from an opposite perspective.

From the top of the mountain to the bottom. Along the way, we found some large Arkansas stones that we brought back home.

Can you find the old cabin?  We were told that a family of six lived here only a few years ago.  Now, that would be truly living off the grid.

And then, it was time for the wedding.

Jacqueline's daughter made this beautiful 5-tiered masterpiece.  As you can see, each tier was doubled.  She also made the grooms' double chocolate cake and it was equally beautiful and delicious.

Dick sang prior to the wedding vows and also read an "ode" that he had written for the couple.

The anticipated sunset did not disappoint.

The wedding dinner consisted of a variety of charcuterie boards and topped off with a Louisiana gumbo made by the groom and his son, Clay.  It could not have been more perfect.

On Sunday, we drove to Deer, AR to visit friends we hadn't seen in 20 years.  They left Louisiana several years ago to carve out a space in the Ozark mountainside, to build a beautiful log house.  Our time with Kennon and Sandra was much too short, but it was wonderful to see them again.

Without a doubt, this was a recipe for a perfect weekend.