Wedding

This weekend I went to my sister-in-law's wedding at a ranch outside of Elkton, OR, which is little less than 1.5 hours SW of Eugene, where she lives. It was super hot and dry (90+F), and they smartly decided to do a short ceremony outside then have the reception inside. The ceremony was really nice with their own vows, a very enthusiastic officiant, and a cute and nerdy soil ceremony, where Julie and Mike had the state soils of Maryland (tan) and Oregon (reddish) respectively and mixed them into something that looked like sand art. They are both soil scientists, just for the record, and I loved it. They also left out all of the traditions that I really find annoying (rigid vows, fire & brimstone service, the bouquet and garter traditions that just make me feel icky) and focused on the union of a family, as Mike has preteen daughter who was also included in the ceremony. Of course, my opinion of a wedding really isn't important, as long as they like it, but I did really like theirs because they didn't focus on tradition for the sake of tradition but instead focused on their life together.
We stayed in cabins at the Big K Ranch, which makes it sound rustic, but other than my cell phone not getting reception, there was air conditioning and wifi at the lodge. I am still not used to huge family yet (Chris has 3 siblings and his parents have multiple siblings, too), so that was, well, intense and emotionally exhausting. But I survived and even got to do a 30 miles bike ride along a river, which was nice.
There were no pictures of me from the wedding, at least not on my camera, but I did catch some scenary and such:



If it weren't for the basalt and conifers, this area in the Oregon Coast Range looks so Appalachian it's amazing.



The rehearsal (it's in the 90s in this shot, for what it's worth):


There was a lot of wildlife, including snakes, lizards, and horses that Chris tried to commune with (there were also tons of cows and some turkeys, but I didn't capture them):