Wedding Wednesday - First Dance

It's Wednesday again, so that means it's time for Wedding Wednesday. I love doing this posts and revisiting aspects that I love about my wedding.

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

This week is all about our song and our first dance. Our song, that we danced to was You and I by Michael Buble. I love this song!

One of my favorite things about my wedding was our wedding dance. We took dance lessons! My friend Meagan's mom is a dance teacher and she competes all around the US. She's fabulous! She was the best teacher we could have asked for.

Now we weren't amazingly fabulous or anything, but we gave it our best effort. We only practiced once in my dress, about 5 minutes before the reception started.

We didn't tell hardly anyone that we were taking lessons, and only 1 person even saw our routine before the wedding. So you'll see in the beginning of the video that we tried to fake everyone out just by doing the typical dancing. During the dance I kept telling Hal what move was coming up next. He was so nervous that he kept forgetting the routine. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we only messed up once...but it was a pretty big mess up. Opps. You'll see it at towards the end of the video. In fact, from the mess up comes one of my favorite pictures from our whole wedding day.

Funny story about this, we had 3 people taping this dance. One didn't end up taping it, another had their computer crash and lost the video, and the third thought she had lost it also. It wasn't until this summer that she found it on her computer and we finally saw it.Ok, enough talking, here's my wedding dance video!

One Month To Go

via  littlethingsstudio

You know when you want something so bad, and you work so hard to get it, and when you finally get it, you stick your heels in the mud and think "this is happening too fast" You know? Please tell me someone else knows what I'm talking about.

Yesterday Hal and I hit the one month mark before we leave for Cambodia. Today we received our flight information. This weekend we are moving out of our apartment. Almost all of our furniture is listed for sale online. We have only packed 4 boxes.

It's so hard to someone like me who is so mentally organized to see everything such a mess. Everything in different steps of being finished and being started. I may have freaked out on Hal the other night because he had bagged up all of our non refrigerated food and everything was a mess and I wanted him to make me some rice for my leftover curry, and all he was doing was reading the news online. I hastily got up, made my own rice, did the dishes, and folded all of our clean laundry. I felt a lot better about the state of our apartment after that, but in the process I had freaked Hal out too. How can you not get overwhelmed? Is that possible?

It's hard when we were just sitting and waiting for over a year to hear something. It's been just over a month since we found out we were leaving and a month until we go. Kind of a whirlwind experience.

Don't get me wrong. I'm so excited. I really am. I'm just kind of at a point where I'm realizing all of the things I'm going to miss. It seems you just have to decide are those things worth missing? For me, they are.

Wedding Wednesday - The Cake

Sorry if things get a little weird around here in the next few weeks. Today is one month until Hal and I move to Cambodia with the Peace Corps. Ahhh..

Ok, that;s a whole different post, today is Wednesday, so today is all about my wedding!

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

Today is all about my cake and food. Honestly, this is probably the most boring part of my wedding. We've only become foodies within the last year or so, so we didn't really care what we served for our wedding. Since we had so many people invited and most weddings in Utah are pretty informal we decided not to serve dinner, and just do a dessert instead.  And what's one of my favorite desserts? CHEESECAKE! This is the only picture I have of our cheesecake bar that we did. We had a bunch of different toppings set out so you could decorate as you please.

And on to my cake. See, I told you this would be the not as exciting as the other posts. If I could re-do my wedding, this is the first thing I would change. I had a friend of a friend do my cake. I had seen some of his work, and it was awesome, but apparently this awesomeness did not transfer over to my cake. He decorated it awesome, it was exactly what I wanted, but...it was a little bit lumpy. But what matters the most about cake? That it tastes good! I don't remember if it tasted good. It was a white cake with raspberry filling. Hal and I only got the one bite, when we cut our cake. No one thought to save our cake or our cheesecake leftovers for us. I hope the cheesecake and the cake was delicious, I guess someone who was there will have to let me know!

No we didn't shove it in each other's faces. It was actually something that we had never talked about. But I'm glad we didn't When you've spent that much money and time on your dress, hair, and makeup, why would you want to ruin it with cake?

Wedding Wednesday - The Reception

I can't believe we've made it this far. We've made it to the part about the reception. I'm going to do it kind of like how Chloe did it, because my ceremony wasn't at the same place as my reception. So I'll post pictures from where we were married, and then the reception. You call claimed there wasn't picture overload last week...well, we'll see about this week, because I'm posting even more pictures.

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

Hal and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 20th, 2008. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can find out more information about our religion here.  Our ceremony was at 12:20 p.m. Oh it was the perfect time of day! Since you have to be to the temple an hour early we had lots of time to get ready, but we were somehow still late. In fact, I forgot both Hal's ring and our marriage license in my car. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long and my uncle came to the rescue.

Here is us coming out of the temple. The first pictures as husband and wife.

Then we were greeted by everyone and lots of hugs were given.

We had so many family and friends who came to see us get married, it made it feel so special.

Photos above by Amy Hansen

Photos below by Duston Todd

We took lots of pictures with family and then the wedding party, and then finally just us

Later that day we had our reception at the local church building. I don't have a ton of pictures on this computer from my reception, so you get to see what I've uploaded from facebook.

Photos below by Amy Hansen

As a tradition in Hal's family they make a quilt for all of the newlyweds. For us they did an advice quilt, so all of the squares stand for a piece of advice about marriage. We lucked out and people made so many squares that we got two quilts. Look at the second one, the monkey is supposed to be Hal and the calla lilly is supposed to be me. My mother in law made those and they're my favorite ones.

Funny story... In high school my two friends and I made a list of the qualities that we want to find in a husband. My friend brought mine to my reception and we read them. So funny. I don't know where that list ended up by the end of the night, otherwise I would post it!

After getting our dance on we ended the reception by running out quietly to our poka dot and Halloween themed car. But they caught up to us. P.S. if you decorate someone's car, put flameless candles in their back window. Ours stayed there the entire drive and set a great mood because it was dark and rainy outside, but we had flickering lights all throughout the car.

GoldenDoodle time

Remember how I love dogs? And how both Hal and I lost our family dogs about a year apart from each other. Ever since then I've been dying for either of our families to get a puppy. I've been dying. I went a few times with my mother in law to look at puppies that she was considering getting. She came close to getting one of these puppies.

I had like 5 of them asleep on me at one time. They were so sweet, and I was bummed when they didn't end up getting one of them.

Yesterday we went and looked at a puppy. It's a goldendoodle who is 6 months old. His pictures were so adorable, so we drove an hour away to go see him. He's a big puppy to say the least.

His name was Jegar...yes, as in meister. No go. They decided to rename his Charlie. I totally think he looks like a charlie. I can't believe how big he is for his age. He doesn't recognize how big he really is, he quite literally thinks that he's a lap dog, as you can see from that last picture. He's so clumsy because he doesn't recognize that he's huge. I already love him and am so excited to have a puppy around for the next month!

Look alike picture

Do you remember this post? Where I talk about how my mother in law thinks I look like Greta Garbo?

Well, guess what Hal and I bought at Ikea this weekend?

Bam! And it was on sale. Happy birthday to me!

We hung it in our in-law's house while they were out of town this last weekend. Don't worry, they offered to babysit it for us. Now my mother in law will see this awesome picture every time she uses her sewing machine.

Wedding Wednesday - accessories

I'm excited about this week's Wedding Wednesday because accessories are how you make your wedding special and different. Are you ready for some picture overload?

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

I looked forever for red flats in the right color. I finally settled on these oxford inspired HushPuppies. Super comfy and perfect for standing all day long.

You want to know something awesome? My friend Monica who took me to get my dress, used to work at that store, and her boss was awesome. She was SO nice and on the dl just gave me my jewelry.

And when I went to pick up my dress, somehow my veil wasn't included in my order, so she said oh, it must have been that month that we were doing free veils or something so she just gave me my veil. Now that is good customer service, and an awesome connection. So go support the Allyses in American Fork. I loved loved loved my veil. It was super long and had beautiful beading all along the edge, was one tier and ivory. I lent it to my friend Meagan for her wedding. I believe this is my veil.

Above photos courtesy of Duston Todd

Below photos courtesy of Amy Hansen

All of the boys wore red suspenders, and the little boys wore bow ties!

And finally my bridesmaids all wore simple red dresses that we picked a pattern out for and they all made themselves.

Holy picture overload. Sorry if I picture overload you in these Wedding Wednesday posts!

Getting ready with Pinterest

For my friend's wedding this last weekend I had a hard time deciding what to do with my hair and what not. So what did I go to for inspiration? Of course Pinterest!

I went to my hair board and searched through and settled on this.

via Pinterest and loveMaegan

And here is my version

 via MaddieThomasPhotography

I obviously didn't get the best picture of it, and I didn't get one at all from the other side...so hopefully someone else there got a picture of it. It didn't turn out as darling as the original, but I really liked it. It stayed in all day with no problems and was great with the wind and the cold.

I also found another source of inspiration on Pinterest, for my nails.

via Pinterest

and here is how mine turned out.

In that bottom one I still had newspaper print on the sides of my fingers, haha. I took pictures for a little tutorial on how I did these nails, but I can't find them now, so I'll have to re-do it. 

-You paint your nails all pretty. I just used a nude color. 

-Soak some newspaper in Alcohol, I used Vodka because it said it was the best.

-Press the newspaper to your nails for 30 seconds, peel off, and voila! 

-Paint over with clear nail polish and you're all set!

Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

We had a pretty big weekend this Memorial Day Weekend....maybe because it was someone's birthday...uhh, THIS someone. And by this I mean, ME! But before the birthday extravaganzas started, my friend got married on Friday, and I was so lucky to be a bridesmaid. I didn't get too many pictures because I spent a good portion of the day wrapped in a blanket because dinner was outside and it was freezing. The little cottage where she had her reception was darling, and they decorated it really nice.

 Her reception ended rather early, so Hal and I went to the movies and saw Water For Elephants. I had just read the book, and Hal was 2/3 of the way through it. He told me that his summer as a carnie is forever romanticized now. The movie was pretty good. They didn't have super great chemistry, and the changed some things at the end that didn't really need to be changed, but I bet you would like it if you hadn't read the book first.

On Sunday we had my family birthday party! Yay! Now Hal and I have a huge dinosaur sheet cake from Costco that it very slowly getting eaten. You want some cakes, pie or cupcakes? Come on over! I got some great stuff that I'm sure I can use in Cambodia, and I got a pair of boat shoes that I've been wanting for literally years.

My mother in law scored these amazing vintage dresses and told me I could have whatever I liked. I took home 4 amazing vintage dresses. Seriously amazing. Funny thing? I'm a size 2, and all of those dresses that I tried on from the 40s and 50s said size 13 on them and they fit me perfectly. Isn't it crazy how much the sizing has changed?

On Monday we continued the celebration by going to the Hoogle Zoo with some friends and my sister's kids. My sister's kids really like the Zoorassic animatronic dinosaurs they have at the zoo right now. They were seriously impressed/scared of the life size T-Rex they have.

Our friends that went to the zoo with us were so nice and took us out to dinner for my birthday! We went to a place called Eva. SO good. We were all really impressed with what we got. It's Mediterranian/ tapas, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was down right good. I loved the white pizza and the spinach gnocchi.

via

For my actual birthday I had to teach my ESL class. So I made the most delicious cupcakes to bring to class. I only had one student, but she was so nice and brought donuts to celebrate my birthday!

My favorite part of my birthday? When Hal came into my work to bring me these:

Thank you to everyone to who took the time to wish my a happy birthday!

Wedding Wednesday - The Dress

It's Wednesday, and that means that it's time for Wedding Wednesday! Yay! I can't believe that I've already done 6 weeks of this. This week is all about the dress!

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

I bought my dress from a place in Utah that's really popular, it's called Allyse's Bridal. I looked on their website, and it looks like they don't carry my dress anymore. They specialize in modest wedding dresses. My friend who got married this weekend used to work there. She helped design one of the lines a few years back. She is the one who took me to Allyse's. I tried on a few lacy simple dresses and they were pretty, but they weren't exciting. I saw my dress on a manequin in the store, but it was in white. I asked to try it on, but they only had it in a size 0 in brilliant white. So I tried it on. I couldn't breathe very well, but I knew that I loved it. I was lucky, their Provo store had it, in my size and in ivory like I wanted. The minute I put it on, I knew it was it. I was always afraid I wouldn't have that moment of "this is the dress" and not be really sure of it, but once i put it on, I knew.

Funny story. I never had my dress altered. It fit perfectly, but I'm short, so that same friend used pins and added another pickup to raise the hem, and then she created a bussle from just pins also. It worked out perfectly. I bet you'd never know it was being held together by pins by looking at it. I've even worn it since my wedding day and they have still stayed in.

 Above photo courtesy of Amy Hansen

Below photos courtesy of Duston Todd

I loved loved loved my dress. I love that it was modest so I didn't have to worry about slipping or sliding and it was comfortable. It was just what I wanted with the lace, especially the scalloped lace around the neckline, the sleeves, and the entire bottom. I love the vintage feel it has. I still have it, and have been thinking about preserving it before we leave the country. Do you guys have any advice about preserving wedding dresses?