THE DAY (Part 2)

We made it to the reception center by 5:00pm with a few little wedding glitches like usual. We rushed through some more family pictures trying to be all done and ready by 6:30pm for the start of the reception. We had our reception at Aspen Landing in Murray off of Redwood and 6400 S. I loved it there. It was like a cute little cottage, perfect for a Valentine's weekend wedding. It was pretty much overcast all day with clouds, but nothing wet, which I was worried about. The day just seemed to go by so fast it didn't seem like we really could stop too much, I wish I could have done that a bit more, but there were just so many people to see and things to do. I loved it all. We stood in our line with our parents on each side for almost 2 hours! Wow, it went by really fast actually. I was a bit sad that I couldn't just sit and talk to some of those good friends/family for hours since they had come all that way. But, that's a wedding for you huh? It was fun meeting David's people and also getting him to meet all the people I knew. Anyway, it was finally time for the partying :) :) We cut the cake, did the bouquet and garter, and then my dad played the Wedding song traditional for our family by Kenny G. Then we did the daddy daughter and mother son dance - some people in tears - and then finally - the cute couple (hello, ... yep, us) danced our first dance!! We danced to Never Gonna Be Alone by Nickelback. Jeff my cousin was our DJ at the very last minute, which I loved so much. I totally wanted that. And then after 'the dance' we invited everyone else up to get their groove on. The crowd was a little slim at the end, but I didn't notice and just had fun before the night ended. We got all ready and headed out to sparklers and all our loved ones wishing us well. Oh... our car... was ... totally ... trashed ... really badly. We actually had to stop and wash it since we had a bit of a drive ahead of us. Yay!! What a day!!! It really was perfect. Loved it all. Wouldn't have changed a thing.

THE DAY (Part 1)

Okay there's really not much to write here that can explain the happiest day so far in life.... I got up and ready, drove to Stephs so she could do my hair and dropped of Lexie and Spring. Then David came over and we headed to the SLC Temple together. I loved that part. We were at the temple by 11:30am for our 1:00pm sealing. Parents were showing up shortly but we went ahead and just got started, I couldn't wait much longer :)... Anyway, I think the BEST part of our marriage was the TEMPLE. Of course, I've thought about it practically my whole life, but still it couldn't have been better. I loved walking into the sealing room and seeing so many family and friends from different times in our lives - all together. I felt so loved and supported, like wow, this is what I've been waiting for!!! Anyway, it was a beautiful experience, one I will always treasure. We got dressed in our Wedding clothes and headed out the doors of the temple about 30min after the sealing. All our crew was there to hoorah and cheer as we walked out the door, kissed, and had our huge grins on our faces. We have hundreds of pictures of these special moments. We then took a whole heck of a bunch of pictures with our different family groups. It was chilly outside, but I didn't notice too much, my dress was worm (that is totally not usual for me, I'm always cold!)... Then David & I took some couple shots with our photographer before we had to rush to Part 2 - the reception.... Couldn't have been a better day.

Pasta Bella Noche

After waiting for what seemed like forever... we finally made it to the "Night Before" !! We set up a dinner with all our family and friends who were in town at the Spaghetti Factory!! YUM!! A little Italian never hurt right? I think I've known for years that I wanted to go there because of the spamoni ice cream - that's my FAVORITE!!

Well, we showed up a bit early and organized our family's seating arrangements as they all came in. We figured it would be best to mix them up a bit since our families hadn't met each other at all. It was actually entertaining for me at least to watch one family across the table from the other family and see if they would interact and how, or if they would ignore each other... it probably was a bit awkward, but I decided not to worry about it. Our parents at least were big boys and could mingle if they wanted :)

David & I pretty much ran the show during the dinner. Actually, I let David do it all since his voice was a lot manlier, louder, and lower... We walked around the 2 long tables together and introduced each person sitting at the table. David was pretty good with them all, it was cute when he mixed up my uncle for the grandpa for a second, but that was my fault as well since I should have been helping. It was a bit loud since we were on the top floor but could hear the other people downstairs. So, we just basically introduced during the salad and let everyone chat after that. I really enjoyed having everyone getting to know each other in an informal setting.

Oh, another memory from this night was one of my BYU/Mission best roommate Courtney couldn't come because of a crazy storm on the East coast, her flight was cancelled. She told me Wednesday but it didn't hit me till Thursday when I saw our other friend Megan - that wow, she won't be here with us!! I totally started crying uncontrollably for a few minutes - yikes! I hope not too many people saw because they could have thought - what's wrong with the bride? Cold feet? Problems? No way... Just missing a friend who we also promised to be at each other's wedding. Stupid weather doesn't always permit it. I just told Megan and others to not mention "Court" and I would be fine. It was a crazy moment, but I guess I like the memory since it shows my feelings of my whole wedding - all I really cared about was having all my FAVORITE people there supporting and partying with us. That's really been my main priority since planning our wedding. And watching other brides-to-be that I know now, I'm glad for that desire, because in reality, who's going to care about the little decorations, food, or anything weeks or years later? The part that sticks with us are the memories. Okay... a little too deep maybe ... since my point of this post was PASTA... but oh well. My thoughts. :)

And the next day we knew would be the WEDDING!! Everything was ready, just a bit of packing. David & I had about 40 minutes later that night to just sit, stare, and get excited for the adventure in the morning. Awe.

Best Friends

In high school I had 2 best friends. SPRING & LEXIE. We were basically connected at the hip. I remember several late nights/mornings when we'd stay up chatting - we'd always talk about boys, dating, future marriages, children, etc etc. You know.. girl stuf...

One particular night I remember us parked in one of our cars, sitting outside our house. The two in the front had their chairs reclined both staring at the car ceiling. And the one in the back laying down as well. We all were just throwing thoughts out there as to when we'd like to get married, how many kids... I remember telling them that I wanted to get married 1st so that I could then go to both of their weddings. They came back saying that wasn't fair and they also wanted that. We put in guesses as to who would be married first and who would have boys, girls, and what types of mom's we would be. I don't think I realized that those days would actually come to pass sooner than we thought. We probably had this conversation in 2001 or 2002.

May 2003 - SPRING was #1. She got married to Corey when still a teenager :) And now they have 4 cute kids!! Lexie and I were her bridesmaides (so were her sisters in different outfits). We wore our yellow dresses and greeted everyone at the reception and asked to take their picture...wow. That was a fun memory!

January 2004 - LEXIE was up next... She married Rob after a short dating spell as well... And now has 3 darling boys that bounce off the walls in their NJ home... seriously! Spring was prego at Lexie's wedding, and she had her wedding close to Christmas so we'd be in AZ, not UT for the holidays. I was a bridesmaid in black and red and got her bouqeut (couldn't find the place!) and danced at the reception etc etc.

......... 6 years pass .......... am I going to get married? I'm the last one for sure, but the good thing is that the way we had thought about it was that the last person could have all 3 of us in the sealing room together while the 1st only had themself... Looking at the positive.

Febuary 2010 - I tied the knot too finally! I married David and how awesome was it to have SPRING and LEXIE both be able to fly to UT from NJ or AZ, leave their families, and spend a few days with me before the wedding??? Totally amazing! I think I was pretty caught up in "I'm getting married" and wedding details, but looking back now - that wasn't even something I would have imagined! So, we went to all of each other's weddings! Sweet!

Wednesday before the wedding, Lexie flew in and I picked her up, showed her around, took her on errands - and that evening my Mom & Steph took us to do peticures, dinner and embarrass me with "bride to be" outfits :). Spring flew in on Thursday and we went to Chik-fil-A and ate, looked for a shirt for me, got new lipstick....They ironed my dress, and helped me pack... I had them at my home those 2 nights... a little crazy to get sleep, but it was fun (my downstairs neighbors hated us for being so loud!). I still just can't imagine how amazing it was that my 2 high school buddies with husbands and 3-4 kids each left it all and flew out to see me. They're just GREAT! I remember in high school our parents would say, "friends will come and go" and I remember us 3 saying, no - we're different! And so far I love that we've stayed in touch and that our wedding dreams have come true so far. Thanks girls, you're the best!!!!