The Wedding

Alrighty, now to talk about the wedding. It was SPLENDIFEROUS! Yeah, it was that amazing. All of the planning was a killer and there were many fights and arguments and hurt feelings all around. And my parents still have three more daughters. Tee hee* But in all seriousness, it was a really fun and exciting experience. I am so glad I have my sisters and mom to ask for advice, and who were so excited that they couldn't wait to jump into planning. It was neat to see everyone's enthusiasm. I especially loved that my step-mother-in-law was so helpful and so much fun to talk to. I love her so much. At the beginning of the planning, I was having difficulties because Patrick had gone back down to California for summer break and because the lease on his apartment was up. It was perhaps the most horrible experience I've ever had. I literally went through a withdrawal. I would go to the store with my mom and see some goldfish crackers (which are his favorite snack) and burst into tears. Then I'd end up carrying them around the whole time only to have my mom tell me to put them down and knock it off. Needless to say She didn't take me with her to the store very much. It was thuper duper exciting when Pat came back up to help me out with the rest of the planning. His dad, Jim and step mom, Valerie, were really helpful with everything. I cannot express my gratitude enough for all that they did. Well, I didn't want anything too fancy and was only thinking about inviting a few people. Then I realized how many people I kept naming and that we were going to have a lot of invitations to send out. Plus there were all the guests from Patrick's side of the family and all of our friends. I think we ended up sending out over 2oo invitations. AND there was the issue of an open house in California for those who were unable to come to Utah. The color scheme was beautiful. It was mostly centered around my ring, and my taste for clean and crisp lines and photography. So I went with purple, black, and creme. Everyone I told would tell me that it sounded austere, but the pictures and everyone looked fabulous. Plus, they were colors that complimented everyone. The men lookd dashing and the women looked classic. And thank goodness for my sisters' idea to use purple ribbon as their sashes. I couldn't find the right color anywhere and low and behold, my mom had extra ribbon from the table decorations that matched perfectly. And didn't look half bad either. I think the funniest part of the whole experience was choosing a vest for Pat. I had initially chosen black on black, but upon seeing the ensemble, decided that it was too bland. So I chose a jewel-toned purple vest and it looked totally awesome. I was thinking about a purple suit but he said the vest was pushing it. We were all set to go to the Salt Lake Temple on 06/07/08! My dad's family had come up from Arizona and I was so thrilled to see all of them. I hadn't seen them in 3 years and it was nice to hug all of them again. We went ice skating with my cousins, aunt and uncles the day before the wedding and then had an impromptu dad's-famous-chili party that night because the rest of the family, Pat's and mine, had arrived and were famished. Everyone loved the chili. Later, while the men were talking, I had my bridal shower. I hadn't been able to have one earlier because all of my friends had gone back home to their respective states at the end of school. It was actually a bit of a surprise. My mom had decided to get all of the women together and throw the shower the previous day. It was wonderful. The story of us was told, I received fabulous gifts, I had a veil fashioned of all my gifts, and even had the ring test administered to find out how many children I would have. (Apparently I'm to have 5 children, 3 singles and a set of twins or a combination of one child and twins. We'll see.) We all bundled into the car and were off to the temple the next day. I wanted my dad's family, who are not LDS, as well as those who couldn't be with us in the temple to enjoy themselves while we were being sealed, so my mom arranged for them to take a tour of the temple grounds. Which was magnificent and in full bloom for late spring. I thought my uncle Terry would really enjoy the architecture of the temple, since he's an architect and that my grandmother would enjoy the flora since she likes to garden. The sealing ceremony was so sweet. Our sealer was the nicest guy ever, who read a beautiful poem that his wife wrote. Before the ceremony, because there were so many weddings that day, they had us wait in the Celestial room. There were at least 6 other couples in there and more still coming in. We kinda joked and laughed, reverently of course. After that we were led to our sealing room. Kneeling across the altar from Patrick I couldn't stop smiling. My jaw ACTUALLY hurt. In retrospect, it's kinda funny because Patrick was crying. Everyone was so happy for us and I was so relieved that there was enough room for everyone. I hadn't contemplated so many people R.S.V.P.ing to be in the sealing room with us and was worried that some wouldn't be allowed in. It all went by so fast and then we were hugging people and making our way to change. After we changed we went to take pictures. My photographer is such fun. And AMAZING! It was funny because, there were so many marriages being performed that day, that everywhere around the temple we had to wait in line to take our pictures. After about 4 hours of photos, we went to change and then were on our way to the dinner being held for the family. About half way to Provo, we got some calls asking where we were. We told them we'd be there in a half hour. Little did we know that there had been a time limit on the place reserved for dinner and that we weren't going to make it in time to even eat. After this news, which put me in tears, me and Patrick, who were starving, quickly grabbed some chicken nuggets and a Powerade at McDonalds and then some tacos at Del Taco before we got to the reception. I sometimes think about that incident and it still makes me sad. That everything was going perfect until the dinner.
When we got to the church, for the reception, no one was there yet. So me and Pat just chilled for a little bit and waited. Then everyone started showing up and we all set up the cultural hall for the reception. It was awesome. So many people showed up and gave us advice and hugs. We all had a party and danced and did all the things typical of a reception. during the traditional "I feed you cake, you feed me cake" ceremony, I was nice and kinda smashed cake all up in Patrick's face. He, on the other hand, was vicious. He not only smashed the cake straight in my face, but came back for a second round. The jerk. Ah, I love him. We ended up staying until the reception was over. Which was surprising because I was really tired and we had a lot to do still. After the reception we went to my parents house to pick up my stuff and say goodbye to everyone, then we stopped by our condo to pick up Pat's stuff and finally we were on our way to the Honeymoon. Yay!