Our Engagement Portrait

On Super Bowl Sunday we had a few friends over to watch the game and eat dinner. While they were here I ended up telling them about this fabulous portrait we received as a Wedding gift. I was so frustrated because I could not find it and words can not do it justice! I finally found it a few days later, and it has been sitting around since then. I have decided to share it with each of you, some of you may have already had the privilege of seeing it, but I will allow you another opportunity!
I'll give you the story of what happened when we opened this. It is a tradition on the Taylor side (my side) to open wedding gifts in front of everyone the day after you get married- or sometime after you are married. For Darrell and I it was the day after because we weren't leaving on our cruise till the next day. As we were opening gifts there were the normal ooh's and ahh's. When I got to the portrait I started opening it when Darrell was just finishing one. I knew my Manager at Albertson's had told me she had been working on our gift for 4 weeks each night, and had to smoke pot quite a few times to keep herself from getting frustrated with it. I was excited to see it! I opened it..... and immediately tried to hide it! I knew how hard she had worked, and I knew everyone would laugh. Right as I was trying to hide it, I believe it was my sister Lea Ann noticed I had opened a gift and she was the note taker for thank you's- she asked what I just opened. I tried to be very subtle and say oh I'll tell ya later. That of course got everyone's attention. I know they all thought it was lingerie- I am quite a blusher when it comes to that stuff and a little naive- so I knew everyone was waiting for me to pull out something slinky. Now let me tell you who all was there- my Mom and Dad, Darrell's Mom, Darrell's Grandparents, all my siblings and family who hadn't left, so probably 5 or 6, and Darrell's siblings- 3 of them. I tried one more time to blow it off- and said to Lea Ann it was a portrait, but I knew my face was beet red. I had to pull it out and I so wish we had everyone's reaction when they saw this!


I didn't get a good look at it when I first opened it- all I noticed were my HUGE eyes staring at me and quickly tried to hide it. When I pulled it back out I noticed more of me and then noticed Darrell. How many chins were painted on him, and doesn't he kind of resemble the guy on King of the Hill?! Now don't get me wrong- I could NEVER create anything that looked remotely close to humans on canvas, so she did really good, but it was just so funny to see how she painted us! Everyone was very quiet and Darrell's Grandpa said, "Well you'll never need a security system, hang that above your door and you'll scare everyone away!" That did it! All of us started laughing! So now I share our engagement portrait with all of you! I promised my Manager it would always be hung in our house, and since I couldn't find it when I needed it, I have had it sitting above our fireplace mantel so everyone can see when they walk in! It's funny to watch how people react, they don't know if one of us painted it and don't want to hurt our feelings, so I just stand there and let them fumble with words for a minute and then I rescue them. Here is our engagement picture that she painted from. Sorry for the glare, but the only one I have kept is in this shadow frame.