Marc's Salt Lake City Wedding

President's Weekend we had the opportunity of flying to Salt Lake City, Utah for a wedding: Eric's younger bro, Marc, got hitched to a gorgeous "Princess" named Rachelle! The weekend was too short, but filled to the brim with festivities and unforgettable moments. The best part, or at least ONE of the very best parts for me, was that Gwen took naps and went to bed when we put her down so that when she was awake she was always in a great mood. It made for a thoroughly enjoyable trip!

Gwen wanted her giraffe and her princess water to have their own seats in the terminal.

And unlike our last flying experience, she did a FABULOUS job allowing us to buckle her up--so long as giraffe got buckled in too. She kept telling him it was to keep him safe and that it would be okay.

We got there in time for the family dinner the night before the wedding. We had a gorgeous view of the SLC temple. Gwen called it a castle.

Poor thing, she was exhausted. Can't blame her. Between getting up 2 hours early to make our flight in the morning, the 2 hour time difference, and the start of the dinner...well, let's just say she started to melt down majorly around 8:30 pm (ie 10:30 pm here) and begged for her binkie, giraffe, and bed. Luckily, she is totally in love with her grandpa. He succeeded in getting her to --gasp!-- fall asleep in his arms! Which she NEVER does for us!

Eric, Bryce and Collin serenaded the happy couple with Kiss the Girl. You will have to take my word for it, but Eric makes an AMAZING Scuttle!

Day of the sealing: what a beautiful ceremony! I was reminded of how I felt when Eric and I were sealed, and of course that made for a very special, grateful feeling that stayed with me all day.

Here's my knight in shining armor. I love him so much. Attending a sealing just brings all those feelings to the fore like they are brand new.

Gwen kept repeating over and over and over again: "I wanna get married! I wanna get married! I wanna get married!"

It was rainy and cold while we waited for the newlyweds to come out.

Everyone sought shelter under umbrellas.

Or coats if umbrellas were lacking.

Did I mention it was rainy and cold? It wouldn't have been so bad, but in all the technical challenge of figuring out who went in which car to the temple, Gwen and I got separated from our warm coats. And that necessitated some improvisation. She was happy with Grandpa, once again.

Elise was a lovely Bridesmaid, though the casual jacket hides the elegance of her dress--hand made by my talented MIL.

Yay, Marc and Rachelle finally emerge, kissing photos abound, and the professional photographer pretty much took over from there.

That evening, the reception in Provo at the library:

color is bad thanks to the romantic lighting, but you get the idea.

Gwen got some face time with her new Aunt, Princess Rachelle.

Unfortunately, all of the photos of have of Eric and Gwen together are blurry like this one. They were so sweet, though. :) Eric's only complaint was that they never did a slow dance that we could dance together. They only did Mother-son and Father-daughter dances. Oh well, we both got plenty of dancing in. I think I was more sore the next day than I've been so far in the third trimester.

Gwen looked lovely in her beautiful blue dress, hand made by the bride's mother just for Gwen. As soon as Gwen saw it, she said, "ooh, I wear Cinderella dress! My fairy God-Mother (she puts a long emphasis on the "ah" so it sounds more like "Maaahther") made for Gwen!" and she could hardly be persuaded to put down her flowers. She made exceptions for eating and dancing...

And she did plenty of it. She danced with me (yes, this is a less than flattering photo, but it documents the crazy amount of dancing that my father-in-law feared would put me into labor)

Rachelle, aka, the "Princess"

Uncle Collin (who favored all of us with more dance moves than one might expect... I think he had some extra incentive. More on that much later from now)

and of course, with Grandma. She also made her jacket. See, I told you she was talented!

And lastly, aren't Marc and Rachelle so handsome together? Ah, I feel the love. :)

2 Years!!!... and the Shoes that Started it ALL!

It is INCREDIBLE to think that Eric and I have been married for 2 years now! We celebrated our anniversary yesterday... and it doesn't seem that it has been a whole year since the last time we reminisced and walked down marriage memory lane! Wow, we've had some good times!
Since I did a 'top 10 things I love about Eric' post on his birthday, I think I'll just share a tiny tidbit of our story for those of you who may not already know it. I'd like to talk about the shoes that started it all.
Eric and I were "just friends" and REALLY that's all we were from August 2001 til April 2006! We were in the same ward, went on friendly dates, wrote each other consistently as we each served missions, came home and took an awesome class together, and continued to go on dates just to keep up with each other and have a good time together. But it was always clear in both of our minds that it was only friendship we were cultivating here. We dated other people, crushed on other people, and shared those details openly. Until I had a dilemma.
I had my first big crush since my mission. He was handsome, witty, and popular (apparently), and he was giving me mixed signals. Finally I came to the conclusion that he was struggling to make up his mind because we worked together (at the MTC)... and he only saw me in missionary attire... and couldn't disassociate me from Sister Missionaries who are definitely not "pursuable". So when he invited me to a party, I determined that I was going to look HOT so that he would get over his mental speed bump and decide I would make an awesome love interest in addition to friend and coworker. My roommate and I went to the mall and found the perfect outfit... complete with 4 inch black heels. These heels had a black strap that wrapped around the ankle and a slender band that went across the top of my foot. They were AWESOME and I felt GORGEOUS in them! Well, I'll leave out the details, but this guy made it clear that night that he wasn't interested. I was pretty frustrated. Afterall, I'd hoped that when he finally made up his mind, he would be deciding to date me, not discard me.
The next weekend was General Conference. (There's more story there about how Eric and I ended up going together, but I'll leave it for another post.) Suffice it to say, I talked his ear off on the way up to Salt Lake about this 'dufus' and how could he decide he wasn't interested when I looked THAT good? I think I planned to wear the shoes that day JUST so I could look really good walking around at General Conference just to spite him. Eric is a very good listener. So by the time we got to conference, I was already feeling very validated and supported. Since I was driving, I wore other shoes on the way up (4 inch strappy heels are tough) and stopped to change when we arrived. Of course I pointed out to Eric that these very strappy sandals were the ones I was wearing and asked "aren't they hot?" to which he could only reply "yeah, they are!"...
So the story goes from here that he looked at the shoes at my request... and then had to look again... and then couldn't stop looking the entire time we were out at Salt Lake. Somehow these sassy black sandals helped Eric to see me in a different light. I felt the change too... somehow indescribable, but flirtatious in a way we had never been before. The day was wonderful, and I knew something had changed. (I would only find out later the important role the shoes played in it all. :) He later told his roommates and described the shoes as "bikinis for feet" and determined he had to ask me out again when I WASN'T wearing the shoes just to see if the connection we had both felt was legit or whether it was just the shoes. Thus began our new adventure as our friendship was forever altered into something more! Turns out the shoes didn't work their magic on the person I originally wanted them to...but even better! They worked on the person I love more than anything in the world!

Wedding Flowers!

Making Amber's wedding flowers was quite a production! I'll spare you the long, detailed, and somewhat stressful story about ordering the flowers, supplies, etc. online in an effort to save money by getting wholesale prices... I don't think we actually saved that much in the end! Oh well. I definitely learned a lot and have lots of tips to offer anyone who is a non-'professional' trying to do wedding flowers themselves. I'd do several things differently if I ever got asked to do another wedding... first off, I'd probably decline doing flowers for a wedding in a state other than the one in which I live unless I could be there for atleast a week before the wedding!
Amber's colors were 'earthy' natural blues and greens. I knew immediately I wanted to use a blue or blue/green Hydrangea and Stephanotis with blue pearls in them. The Jade roses circling the Hydrangea and the Salal leaves followed that plan easily. The Dutch Spiral hand-tyed method worked out beautifully and the details only made the design more satisfactory to me. I loved the ribbon I found: it had light green edges and unified the entire design by running down the length of the stems. I was very pleased with how beautiful the bouquet looked! The boutennieres were also lovely, especially the day we made them.


Anyway, with a TON of help from Aunts, parents, and my dear friend Mo, the flowers turned out lovely! After the lil Hydrangea accents in the boutennieres started to warm up, they got pretty limp. Overall, everything looked much better the day before and quickly began to wilt in the Manti sun and heat (and we DID have some disasters, but luckily you can't tell that from the wedding pics)! So, here are a couple of photos.

one of all the immediate siblings... and Justin. I include it because Ambie looks so lovely, despite how goofy Spencer looks or the fact that my eyes are closed! Tamara is normal, atleast. :)