The Wedding Day!

08-08-08
Since the time I was five, I believed that my wedding day was supposed to be the most perfect day of my life. However, everyone fails to mention the incredibly high level of stress that there is. I, of course, did not sleep at all the night before my wedding. It seemed so unreal to me that I was actually getting married. Although I was up at the crack of dawn, it still did not feel like there was enough time to get ready. My best friend as well as my whole family stayed over at our new apartment in Holladay. I figured that since it was 3 mintues away from the luncheon location and only 15 away from the temple, that we couldn't be that late! My family has quite the reputation for being late, so we figured that by sleeping closer, we would beat the odds. Sadly, we were a half hour late to the luncheon! However, everyone was so sweet when Austin and I walked in hand in hand to the luncheon. All of our family and close friends were in attendance. The program was wonderful! Diane and Gene started off by welcoming everyone and then allowed my Dad to introduce all of the members on my side. The program started with the slide show of Austin and I. It showed pictures of us growing up side by side. I was lucky enough to have my uncle put the whole thing together and it turned out beautifully. We then started on the meal and then had the sibling baskets. Each sibling comes up with a few items that are for the spouse of their sibling. These items are essentials and will help the spouse better care for their sibling. It was such a wonderful idea! It was so fun to hear all of the funny stories that each sibling told about Austin growing up. It helped to me to get to know him a little bit better. We then had the other wonderful food courses and then had some down time to walk around and visist. I took advantage of this time to take pictures with as many people as I possibly could! We then closed the luncheon by showing our wedding video that had been created by David Perry. We had so much fun making the film and the outcome was so beautiful. It still makes me cry everytime I watch it. We then ended with thank you's and headed out with both of our parents to the temple. I could really feel the stress settling in about this time as it became more real that I was actually going to be a married woman.
We arrived at the temple and to no surprise, there were a parade of brides running around temple square. I guess that's what happens when you pick the most popular day of the year to get married. We went into the temple and were welcomed by all of the sweet temple workers. This really helped to put all the stress at ease. The ceremony was beautiful and I will never forget how wonderful it was to look around the room and see my parents, all grandparents, my best friend's parents, all of my uncles and aunts and all of my soon to be family on Austin's side. After the ceremony was over, we were able to hug and talk with everyone in the room. It was so nice to hug my new sisters and brothers. Throughout the whole ceremony Austin looked like he was going to throw up but as soon as the ceremony was over and we were standing around hugging our close friends and family; his whole face changed and he looked so much more peaceful. I went back to finish getting ready with my mom and new mother in law! They were both so sweet to help my touch up and make sure that everything was absolutely perfect. As soon as I was finished with the last bit of mascara, I walked down the hall and saw Austin sitting at the end waiting for me. His face lit up immediately and he came towards me with his hands stretched out. We walked hand in hand to meet our photographer. She snapped shots of us as we walked outside and our family cheered for us as we kissed as husband and wife. For the next hour and a half we took tons of pictures with our family and had the best time! The stress was now over and now it was just all fun! When we had finished taking the last picture, we went to change into regular clothes. We gave my family one more hug goodbye and drove off to start our honeymoon!! :)



My beautiful mom!




Sweet little sister Makayla as my flower girl!