I need to get better at writing! I've sucked it up the past few weeks! I'm going to warn all of you right now that this blog post is going to have a bajillion wedding day pictures and be super long...but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
June 9th, 2011
The day before our wedding consisted of me having a major freak out about my slip being 12 sizes too big (don't worry...I tried it on wrong...it actually fit perfectly once I had it on my body right...oopsie), having a fruit cutting party at my house, Petey and I putting together a wedding playlist, taking a LONG relaxing shower, packing, checking that we had everything packed (12 times), then heading up to Salt Lake. Petey had to leave that afternoon to go up and spend time with his family and to help set up the luncheon.
Once we got to SLC we checked into our hotel and decided to go to The Gateway for dinner. My parents decided to let me choose where we ate since it was my BIG day tomorrow...where did I chose to eat? The Gateway Food Court :) Yep, nothing sounded more appetizing to me that night than eating Hot Dog on a Stick inside the Food Court! My mom even bought me dessert from there. My dad ate Panda Express and decided to give me his fortune cookie. He told me that the he dedicated his fortune cookie to me. When I opened the fortune cookie, my fortune said "Happiness is around the next corner, wealth is down the street" -- I've never had a better fortune in my entire life :) !! I've carried that fortune with me (in my wallet) ever since that day. After dinner I got a call from Petey asking us to come help set up the church for our luncheon the next day. His family wanted our input on how to set everything up. After we set up the church, Petey and I said our goodbyes, and we headed our separate ways.When we got back to our hotel in SLC I got a root beer float with my family, watched an NBA finals game, and waited for my bestie Caitlin to arrive. Once she came we were off to bed.
June 10, 2011 (WEDDING DAY!!!)
I didn't sleep well during the night...but I'm guessing most brides don't sleep well on the night before their wedding. I woke up around 6am and Caitlin started to do my hair. THANK GOODNESS SHE KNOWS HOW TO DO HAIR!!! (I'm completely hopeless when it comes to doing hair). Once I was ready to go my mom, dad, and I headed off to the temple.
Once at the temple I met up with Petey and the temple workers double checked that all of our information was correct. After that we were sent to change into our temple clothes. On the way to the dressing room I saw my good friend Kathryn Peterson (formerly Hopkins), who was getting married on the same day!! It was so fun to see her! We had a group of friends that was there to see her come out of the temple, and 2 hours later watched Petey and I come out. After getting dressed in our temple clothes we had a little time to relax and take everything in. We got married at 10am :) It was amazing to walk into the sealing room and to see are family there. During our sealing our sealer talked to us about how we should say things that we love about each other daily. He also joked with Petey that the woman is always right :) happy wife = happy life. Haha. The ceremony was beautiful!! After we were sealed we changed into our wedding attire. I was excited to show off my dress :) Here are some pictures of us fresh our of the temple:
Coming out of the temple :)
Husband & Wife
The dress, the bouquet, the ring
After getting lovies from all of our friends and family at the temple it was time for some pictures. I absolutely LOVE our photograper (Kelly Samson @ Gallery Photography)!!!
My amazing family!
Petey's lovely family!
I love my girls!
The handsome men
The wedding group
Love this one
I LOVE LOVE LOVED my wedding dress. It was literally the first dress I tried on!! It was also the cheapest one I tried on (which made Daddy happy haha). The only thing that disappointed me was when I went to my dress appointment to have the dress hemmed, the seamstress said that she didn't think it needed to be altered/hemmed at all....so we didn't do anything. The dress was a little too long, so I struggled with stepping on it during our wedding, but oh well. I loved it :)
Love him!!
The Cook's
I refused to wear heels, I wanted to be comfortable and to be able to walk, so I was very happy when I found red flats!
After we had taken our photo's on the wedding grounds it was time to head to our luncheon. My family left during our couples pictures so they could help set up with the luncheon. When I got back inside the temple I had to try and find the dressing room on my own (the Salt Lake Temple is huge!!!). I finally found the dressing room and the sweet temple workers helped me get my things. Once I was in my luncheon dress, I walked into the bridal room to find my wedding dress with my SHOES on...which wearing shoes in that room is apparently a big NO-NO. Ooops. Once I found Petey, we were on our way to get some lunch!
We arrived to our luncheon a few minutes behind schedule and everyone was starving when we got there. We had sandwiches, fruit/veggies, and chips for our food. We wanted to keep it simple :) After eating our immediate family (and my grandpa) all got up and told stories about us (some that were embarrassing), gave us advice, and gave us their blessing. OF COURSE MY ENTIRE FAMILY HAD TO BRING UP MY MANY CAT STORIES. I laughed so hard I was crying during the telling of my many cat stories (hey...I love cats!!)! After lunch was over we headed down to Spring Lake, where our reception was being held. We realized when we were on the freeway that I had left my bouquet at the church house (don't worry, I left it in the bridal room too and had to go back for it earlier in the day). So we turned around and went and picked it up.
Once we got to my house in Spring Lake we just relaxed. It was a busy day and we wanted to have energy for our reception. We decided to have our reception in the backyard of my church house in Spring Lake. I've never wanted to have a reception inside a cultural hall, I always wanted to do something outside. The backyard of my church in Spring Lake has lots of big trees, green grass, and is fairly spacious. It was my mom's brilliant idea to have our reception back there! I decided it would be cute if we had red and yellow (the wedding colors) lanterns hanging from the trees, and lights in the trees to add some decoration. I loved how it turned out! Since the reception was outside, and May's weather was full of rain we were really nervous that we would have to move it inside. We checked the weather multiple times and day and luckily the weather was perfect and beautiful that day!!! These next pictures were taken in Spring Lake before our reception started. I am in love with these pictures!! The field and the barn look amazing!
These photo's were taken in the beautiful Spring Lake
I LOVE these ones!
Bridesmaids: Kyrie, Caitlin, Jennie, Emily
Bridal party
My amazing parents
Petey's family
My Grandma Saunders made it to our reception :)
Our reception was lovely. It was a beautiful night that was filled with family and friends. My family spent countless hours trimming trees, spraying ants, and raking up pine needles/pine cones to help make our reception look beautiful. I love them all so much and am so thankful for all their hard work! We were so happy to see all of our loved ones show up to our reception! For our food we had a little candy bar filled with twizzlers, peanut butter m&m's, lemon heads, and bubble gum. We had a fruit bar with cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, and pineapple, We also had yummy lemon bars and brownies that were served. Here are some pictures of the reception:
Love my friends
Our delicious wedding cake: The top tier was red velvet, the middle tier was lemon with blueberry filling, and the bottom layer was vanilla with raspberry filling = delicious! One cool thing about the lady that did our wedding cake is that we can contact her on our 11th month of being married, and she will remake the top tier of our wedding cake in time for our one year anniversary!! I love that and think its so fun! No nasty, 1 year old frozen wedding cake for us!
The lights and lanterns we hung in the trees
Yep, I had cake up my nose
Daddy-daughter dance: during the dance with our parents we danced to Adele's "To Make You Feel My Love"
Our FIRST dance as husband and wife: During our dance we danced to the beautiful piano piece by Hans Zimmer called "Maestro" - if you haven't heard this song before look it up (right now) it is soooo beautiful!! The song was been featured on the soundtrack for the movie The Holiday (which happens to be one of my favs). I'm in love with that song...and with the boy in the picture :)
The bouquet toss/handoff: the bouquet toss was quite the event. Last year at my brother & sis-in-laws wedding, my sister-in-law and I had planned in advance that I would get the bouquet. Instead of throwing the bouquet over her head, she turned around and threw it right at me :) my lovely friend Caitlin and I decided that we would keep the tradition alive! I was married a year later....so maybe the pattern will continue!! I love her!
My bestie got the bouquet!!!
Oh dear...the garter toss: Petey refused to get the garter off with his teeth (which was FINE with me...I always think that's awkward/sketch), he used his fingers and got it off so fast that I didn't even know what was happening. He flung the garter and my little cousin Ethan (who is like 6 years old) caught it..haha.
Leaving after our PERFECT day!!! We loved having the sparklers, but we were scared that the little kids were going to burn us during our departure...they got a LITTLE excited about having sparklers. It was still amazing though! When we left we were on our way to California for our honeymoon!
So there you have it! That is the story of our wedding and the events leading up to it!! Everything turned out beautifully and I couldn't be happier. Thank you all for making our day so special!!
