Honeymooning!!!

Matthew and I went to Palm Springs, California for our honeymoon. We took advantage of Matthew's Marriott discounts and my parent's time share. We made several stops in St George, Chandler, Vegas, and at the end of the week had our second reception in Snowflake, AZ.

The best part of our honeymoon I would have to say was that I had my 29th birthday during it. I can't think of a better birthday gift than a husband. And my husband was the best to pamper and spoil me for the occasion including shopping, dinner, and presents.

Our awesome findings.

A massage gift card and GPS, what more does a girl need??

In Palm Springs, we spent our days seeing the sights, hot tubing, floating in the lazy river, and watching movies. The stress of the wedding finally came down on both of us hard and we both caught colds, but what better time than a honeymoon to just relax and get feeling better.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

The highlight of the honeymoon was the night in Vegas that we got to go to Blue Man Group, Matthew's pick. He had always wanted to see their performance. It was amazing.

For those who missed out!

Since the weather was like this.......

I know that most of you weren't able to come to our reception. So I am going to give you a overview of the amazing reception you missed.

The theme was argyle. I was inspired because Matthew was wearing argyle the first time I met him and I had coined him upon meeting as "Argyle Boy." Our wedding invitation has an argyle background, the photobooth prints had an argyle background, the cake was a "preppy argyle" cake, the ribbons on our flowers resembled argyle, our nephews wore argyle sweaters, my pedicure, Matthew's socks, and we did anything we could to display argyle in wedding. 

 

We decided that with our wedding budget we wanted to have a fun gimmick for our guests. We did research and discovered a fun new way for a sign in book. A PHOTO BOOTH!! The guests would get two striped of  four frames, one was for them and one to be placed into our sign-in book. Since we had a lack in guests, our nieces and nephews made it worth our money.

 

Our colors were blue, black, and charcoal gray.  Unfortunately find the charcoal gray wasn't as easy to find as I was hoping. But the blue made up for it.

A fantastic wedding video thanks for Matthew's brother

Wedding Video

Adorable centerpieces made with love by Mandi and Matthew's mom

We had the perfect refreshments for a blizzardy night...........cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate with all the fixins' for anyone that was risky enough to leave the comfort of their home.

Through the event, I wanted a way to physically feel like I had my brother and "Best Man" with me at the wedding. This memorial was just a tiny thing I could to commemorate how much I wished how I could have had Marcus at the wedding. Through the chaos and eventful day, I could feel Marcus's spirit there.

I had promised Matthew I wasn't going to be "mean" during the cake cutting/ feeding. I will admit, I went back on that word and started a good food fight between the two of us. We had to spice up the evening somehow. But I think he forgave me by the end of the night.

Look at my niece's anticipation for a piece of that delicious cookies and cream cake. 

The Daddy Daughter Dance was to "Sentimental Journey" by Doris Day. A song I remember my brother's performing often as a barber shop quartet while growing up. And Doris Day was my favorite actress thanks to the countless movies my mom and I would watch together.

My father than passed me on to the new man of my life to dance to our song "Love You Forever." Because of Matthew and my height difference, it really makes dancing very hard for the two of us. We had originally thought to avoid the kinked neck and hurt back, we would learn a hip hop dance for our 1st dance but we just ran out of time. So we just made do.

Man and Wife....through rain or shine!

Every little girl dreams of her wedding day. Since I was getting married at 29 years old, I had a lot of time to know what I wanted. And a December snowy, cold wedding was not what I had visioned. But Matthew and I had decided more than weather conditions, it was more important to have our wedding at a convenient time for our family to all be here. But December 29th turned out to be just that...the blizzard of 2010. When I woke to gray skies and light flurries, I will admit I let myself have a quick cry before remembering there were no time for tears. I had every second of my wedding day planned out from getting my hair done by my dear friend Aly to allowing LOTS of time for pictures. The night before I had my sister Mistie, sister-in-law Colleen, and life long friend Sarah stay over to be to help me with getting ready the next morning and help calm my tears.

The reality of this long awaited miracle really hit me when I put on my white wrapped taffeta dress. I had put it on several times before, but this time it was REAL. Besides "something new", I was honored enough to wear an old necklace that my Grandma gave me that she had gotten from my grandpa during their countless years of their marriage. I wore it in hopes that this token would rub off on me and give me the perfection that they had in their marriage.

One advantage  of December was the lack of popularity for weddings at the Mount Timpanogas Temple. After the choas of getting ready, I was pampered by the temple workers and had the Brides Room to myself. I was very grateful for those quiet moments that I could ponder on how blessed I was to be able to find such an amazing Priesthood holder to take me to the temple like I had always dreamed of. As I walked into the sealing room, I was overwhelmed by all the many faces of loved ones who have influenced me in so many ways and, like me, had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Although the weather was wet, slushy, and cold I was determined to get the pictures I desired. During my wedding plan preparation, I made it a point to find a photographer that I knew would do the best job for us. I took lots of time to get referrals, have countless consultations, and find someone I trusted to make our pictures beautiful. I was successful when I met with Carrie Butler for the first time. Upon meeting, I clicked with her spunky personality, creative talent, and loved her enthusiasm.

The luncheon provided by Matthew's family was amazing. It gave us some individual time to spend with our family and close friends. With that, we were also able to express to all of them publicaly how happy we were to find each other and unite our lives.



Through getting to know my photographer, we found a common bond that both of our brother's had been suffering from cancer. She was very supportive and understanding when I called her with the news of losing my brother. After the luncheon, Carrie came to me with a very familiar look on her face. Her brother was getting worse and they weren't sure he was going to make it through the evening. Thinking of my recent lose, I knew I had to let Carrie leave early to say the good-byes I had always wished I could have said to Marcus. With my families all too empathetic heart, we rushed to get the family pictures completed and Carrie on the blizzardy road home.

Wow! Was this picture difficult to get even this good.

All my best friends!!!

After years and years of dreaming of my wedding day, I will admit that the day didn't go exactly to how I had planned it. But it is just the first of many lessons during marriage that things don't go according to plan. But the one thing that did go according to plan was that I married the most amazing, patient, understanding, and kind man and I would have never change that.