The Wedding Rug

I have a friend, a dear friend, who got married in May in beautiful Dana Point, CA.

It's a long story, the story of the road to this wedding, a story full of its own stories.

Let's just say the happy couple is a "match.com" made in heaven!

And now, they are livin' the dream in their beautiful beach house - three minutes from the beach!

So, the Wedding Rug... 

(In truth, this did not start out to be a Wedding Rug.) 

The idea for this rug got into my head and I pretty much dropped everything else and started it!  The initial inspiration came from an area rug I saw on the CB2 website.  If you haven't heard of CB2, you have probably heard of Crate & Barrel (that's where the C and B come from).  CB2 is clearly younger and hipper than Crate & Barrel.  I first heard of it when my younger and hipper son took us to their store in Chicago.

It measures a little over 25" by 40".  Each square is 5"x5".  

I would say the rug is a little less bold than it appears this photo, just a little bit softer-looking. 

I was about a quarter of the way through the rug when the following conversation took place:  

Mike:  "That doesn't look like the colors you usually use.  Why are you making that?"  

Me:  "I'm not really sure, but I feel strongly compelled to make this."                     

Later that evening I spread it out to see how it was looking.  There were about 9 or 10 squares finished out in the middle.  My immediate reaction was that the rug reminded me of the beach. The colors were sand and shell and sea glass and water and sunset.  I laughed out loud - there was my answer to Mike's question.  I finally knew why I was so compelled to make this.  This rug was going to beach.  At that moment it became a Wedding Rug.

The wedding was in mid-May.  I knew it was totally possible to get it finished in time so that was not an issue.  I planned to ship it out there in advance, but then got nervous about that.  So, I rolled it up and put it in my suitcase and off we flew to Dana Point.   

One square below the upper left corner you can see their monogram.  Luckily their initials were easy to work in the straight line design.

The wedding was a whole weekend event!  How many couples plan a beach hike for the morning of their wedding???  Here we are ready to hit the beach.  That's the bride in the blue t-shirt that says "Pray for..." on the front.  She happens to be standing right behind the groom, so it looks like... Pray for... Marc!

 

Here's what it looked like on the way down to the beach.

 And there were guys like this...

 The wedding was at their beach house.  Romantic, funny, emotional, beautiful, unforgettable.

 The Wedding Rug has found a home... at the beach. 

Now I may have to make one for myself.  I kind of miss it.