Our Wedding Day

Our wedding day was absolutely amazing!!! I remember standing outside on the temple steps with a shawl around me, an umbrella overhead with Mark's arm around me and surrounded by family and friends... we were looking out towards the photographer who was standing in the snow/rain mix gently falling... it was one of the most beautiful moments that I can recall.

Following the sealing, Mark was sitting on a bench as I rounded the corner in my wedding dress. His eyes completely lit up and then he stood up as if to get a better look... he was so handsome in his tux with the green vest and bowtie. He just kept looking at me as I approached. When we finally hugged, he told me that I was wrong... my dress is not "sooooo pretty" as I have been telling him; instead it is "sooooo gorgeous." He was in complete awe.

We had chosen to exchange rings during our wedding luncheon. One of my dear friends sang a beautiful song about finding each other... it was really sweet. Then our Bishop shared some advice and a story which related to a beautiful silver server that he gave to us. We exchanged our rings and then Mark shared some words... as he spoke, he was pulling something out of his tuxedo pocket. I was very confused and surprised as he pulled out a wedding band to join my engagement ring. We had talked about how my ring can totally stand by itself, so a separate wedding band is not needed. Yet, he also remembered how when we first started looking at rings that I had been interested in a wedding set with an engagement ring and band. Even though, I didn't feel that a band was necessary... he remembered my earlier feelings and had a band custom made to fit the engagement ring. This was one of the sweetest moments of the day. Seriously, I married an amazing man who is extremely thoughtful and caring.

The reception felt like a fairytale or dream... we stood in the receiving line as another world existed on the other side of the room. There was an endless flow of people and we were told that the wait in line was about 55 minutes... Yet, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we have been told that it was a very fun wedding. We had a DVD playing with pictures of us growing up along with pictures of the day... I still haven't seen it, but hear that it is wonderful. Our guest book consisted of our engagement photos as people signed around the pictures. A friend had decided to place some of our childhood pictures on the wall and another friend brought a small backyard waterfall that mesmerized the kids. We also had more childhood pictures on the tables around our centerpieces - round mirror, glass bowl, with floating battery-operated tealights and floating daisies.

The thing that amazed me the most about our reception was how people seemed to stay and mingle with others. I had imagined that they would come, eat their refreshments, and leave... but several people stayed for the entire evening. When it came to cutting the cake, we used the cake knife that my mom used at her wedding and used the serving piece from the cake knife set that his mom had purchased for us. Mark was very gentle as he fed the cake to me... just as I had imagined that he would.

Then for the bouquet toss, we purchased 12 individual artificial daisies and tied little charms to them with bridal spray. These daisies were on a vase by the guest book. When it was time for the toss, I grabbed the daisies out of the vase and Mark announced that our bouquet toss was unique as several people would be catching a flower with a lucky charm and it doesn't mean that they would be the next to be married. For that reason, we wanted all of our female friends (single and married) to participate in catching the bouquet. Afterall, our entire wedding is unique and the bouquet toss will continue in that trend.

While we changed out of the wedding dress and tux, my older sister distributed ribbon wands to guests. These wands were waved at us as we left the reception and went to his truck. It was extremely hard to leave my little sister as she would be going home to California in the morning. So, before we left, I had an opportunity to have some alone time with her to express my gratitude and love.

It truly was an amazing day!!!