On March 15, 2014 Melissa and Blake were sealed in the Bountiful, UT Temple. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't be more thrilled to have Blake as a permanent part of our family! We all love him, and love how happy the two of them are together. I was blessed enough to be able to help them with many things with their wedding, and I'm so grateful that they let me be such a big part of their special day.
Anyone who knows much about me, knows that I absolutely love weddings. I love pretty much everything about weddings. I love looking at them from afar and being involved in them all close-and-personal like. I loved going dress shopping with Melissa and I truly can't believe how well her dress turned out. It was a floor model that she bought for $200, it was pretty beat up and dirty and both my mom and I were a little worried that the wear-and-tear would show. But after several alterations, a good dry-cleaning, adding new sleeves, removing all of the fuzz-balls/loose threads, and sewing on all of the buttons (all of which I was responsible for - ack!) it turned out beautifully. I'm so glad that I ended up altering her dress for her, because it meant that she had to come over to my house for many, many, fittings so I could make sure I was doing things right. We got to spend a lot of time with M&B and it was so fun to have them over so much. I also helped make her bouquet, make the sash for her dress, and even ended up making all of the boutonnieres and corsages the night before the wedding. I don't include this list of "things I helped with" to be showy or prideful, I simply want to remember all of the things I was involved in and how much I loved each step of the wedding planning process.
The photographer that she ended up with was such a stroke of luck! I came across Jenisse Photography and sent the link to Melissa in an e-mail along with about 20 other photographers. Melissa liked the style of the photos and so we contacted her to see if she was available. Turns out, she moved to Saint George (cue the "wonk wonk wonk"), but then she said that she would be happy to travel to Northern Utah for no additional charge. She was absolutely fabulous to work with and all of the pictures turned out amazing. This is one of the biggest blessings of the wedding, but it's just one example of how everything just seemed to fall into place for them. The wedding announcements turned out beautifully, the bouquet that we made from flowers at Hobby Lobby is stunning, the dress, veil, shoes, and even the bridesmaid dresses all just worked out so perfectly.
One of my favorite parts of the pre-wedding busyness is that Jenna and Camille came down and stayed with us the week before the wedding. We got to play with them all week and loved every second of having them down. Lydia loved "Baby Mill" and I realized just how much I loved having my sister close enough to spend lots of time with. Now I am in an active job search for anything that Kevin might be interested in that would get them to Utah. We altered our bridesmaid dresses (that were actually maternity dresses that were on super sale so we bought them, took in the sides, and lined the sleeves), went shopping for last minute wedding things, and just enjoyed spending time together.
Jenna had volunteered to make the wedding cake for M&B, and she did a fabulous job. She did it in steps over several days: fondant one day, cakes the next, assembling the cakes, then the night before the wedding, she put on the fondant and boxed them up for travel. Our kitchen was one part bakery, one part floral shop, because while she was working on her cake - I was working on the centerpieces and boutonnieres/corsages. The reception was being held in a gorgeous victorian reception center, and Melissa just wanted the centerpieces to be simple, airy, and pretty - so we went with baby's breath and leather leaves. The corsages and boutonnieres reflected that theme, with billyballs for the boys and moms. This is what I was most worried about, because you make the flowers the night before. You cut them and they don't have any water! I was terrified that we would wake up in the morning, pull them out of the fridge, and that they would be dead. Really, really worried. But they stayed beautiful throughout the whole day! I love the way the looked with the tan suits. They looked so professional, and I was giddy as a school girl that they worked out. But even with as nice as they looked - it was far surpassed by how beautiful and professional the cake looked! Jenna did a fantastic job. Also, a favorite part of the night was that Melissa and Blake stopped by on their way to Bountiful. We loved spending the time with them on the night before their wedding. We knew that they needed to get to where they were going, because they had a big day ahead of them - but they stayed long enough for us to all feel loved and even more excited for them. (I'll always be grateful to Blake who was willing to stay as long as Melissa wanted so that she could spend the time with her sisters before her wedding.)
The wedding day itself was beautiful. Warm and happy (as warm as a Saturday mid-March can be) with just enough sun to keep the chill off (for the most part) but enough clouds to make for great wedding pictures. Lydia looked darling in her sweet little dress. This dress was another example of things just working out - we actually had purchased different white and green lace dresses but then less than a week before the wedding I walked into Carters and found this beautiful white dress. I had extra fabric from the sashes that I made for our bridesmaid dresses and immediately saw a vision of Lydia and Camille in these dresses with little green sashes and matching bows in their hair. (This vision may have been prompted by a text message picture of the dress that Blake's niece was going to be wearing to the wedding. I was feeling a little bummed that they wouldn't match better, and when I saw these dresses - I knew that it HAD to happen!) She ended up looking so cute, I can't believe that we almost missed out on these dresses by just going with the old ones. I love it so much.
The ceremony was the most beautiful ceremony that I've ever attended as a guest. It was completely focused on the covenants and purpose of the temple, and was absolutely amazing. It was exactly what a temple wedding should be. So beautiful. After the ceremony we took pictures at the temple and then headed to Eldredge Manor for a delicious luncheon with all of our family. It was a wonderful day and everything really did turn out so wonderfully. I will now dispense with my many words and let the pictures do the majority of the talking (because, let's be honest - it's not like I would be able to keep myself from adding in some more dialogue here and there regardless of how great the pictures are).
What a wonderful family we are blessed to belong to.
We are so glad that Blake is now officially part of the clan!
It makes my heart happy to see this picture of my Doctor Who loving family in front of the Tardis (that just happens to be hanging out across from the Bountiful Temple). Melissa introduced us to Doctor Who and it has brought much joy to our lives. It is fitting that there is a tribute to The Doctor on her wedding day! (We may be nerdy, but I love us anyway.)
The photographer caught some of the sweetest pictures with Lydia and David. I love them!
They also caught some amazing pictures of her at the Luncheon and Reception. These aren't even all of the ones that they took, it's like whenever they had a free minute they followed her around because she is just so darn pretty. They did a great job of capturing the reception, everything was beautiful!
The only pictures that I took the entire day (the pictures of Lydia at the very beginning are complements of David) were of my little brothers playing the piano between the luncheon and reception. I got a video of them playing and singing, but haven't uploaded it yet. They are so talented and it was neat to see them play together.
Also, you should know that in order to supply enough picture frames to scatter around the reception hall, our family room collage wall looked like this. My parents bought most of the black picture frames for our wedding, so it was fitting for them to be used again for Melissa's wedding. I teased that our picture frames looked better with their photos than they did with ours - but in all honesty, their photos were amazing and it was nice to have so many of them scattered around the reception.
The night ended with a sparkler send-off. It was so fun and pretty! In addition, clean up was SO easy. It was so nice to have someone else in charge of cleaning up all of the messes and just have to gather our stuff - basically just picture frames because they supplied all of the vases, tablecloths, and pretty much everything else. It took us less than 1/2 hour to clean everything up (which is amazing compared to the time that it usually takes to clean up after a reception) and then David and I just walked around for a while because we were so surprised that everything was already done.
Several people have asked me if I'll be glad/am glad that the wedding is over because then I won't be as busy - but in all honesty, I'm a little sad. I loved being able to spend so much time with Melissa and Blake and am sad I won't have an excuse to see them as often as before. I am SO happy for them though, and so glad that the day turned out so beautifully!
We love you guys!
