I'm so glad that I had the day off that day. I ate my weight in Thanksgiving food the day before so I definitely had fallen into a food-coma and slept in way later than planned.
Jayson and I got up and headed for the church building to set up for our reception. I'm so thankful for Relief Society, especially ours. We borrowed all of our decorations, with the exception of the table runners. I think we got to the building around 10am? I honestly don't remember... but let's just say it was 10am. Looking back on it now I can say that set up was pretty simple, but in the moment I remember wanting to just shoot myself. I'm not a very good decision maker, and I don't have an eye for design. Jayson didn't really care what the 'theme' or 'look' for our reception was, he just wanted it to be cheap and easy. I was all for that!!! I just started calling people in RS and asked them what they had and I feel like I said yes to everything that everyone had and was just hoping that everything would at least look like it matched..sort of. Thankfully it did!
When we got to the church building I started pulling out tables and chairs and staggered them in a half circle in front of the stage. When that was done I had to figure out how I wanted the center pieces to sit on the tables. I honestly didn't have a clue what to do. I finally just started stacking things.. I grabbed the glass block and put it in the middle, put a lantern on top of it, threw red roses around the base of the glass block, and put two disney princesses around the lanterns. Ta-da..? Well, it looked pretty. And I loved it :]
After the tables were set up, I pulled the sofas and chairs from the foyer. My grandmother had just had hip surgery and I wanted to make sure she had a comfy place to sit. After that everything else just fell into place. Jayson and a few others strung lights across the room for several hours (they weren't done till almost 8pm!), I put candles here and there, decorated the pathway leading into the building, swept up the floors, cleaned up trash, made sure everything was set and ready to go and was done around 5pm. I went home to take a shower and put hand fulls of face masks, moisturizers, creams, you name it on my face because I had a really bad break-out due to stress. Awesome.. #not.
Jayson and I crawled into bed around 9pm. We laid there for about 10 minutes and then realized that we didn't have our slideshow done, and that I had forgotten to paint my nails. We both got up, and he started working on the slide show while I got to work on my nails. When he was just about done with the slide show it was around midnight. He came into the bedroom and told me that he wanted a video of us telling our 'love story.' I wasn't really for the idea because it was so late and wanted to sleep, but I wasn't tired so I decided to go with it. We kept laughing and messing up what we were saying so by the time everything was said and done it was almost 2am! And guess what? We didn't like the end product. At. All. Video in dim lighting in your bedroom in the middle of the night is just awful. We decided to just go to bed. At that point I was so glad that our sealing wasn't until 1:30pm.
Saturday, November 30th, 2013
I woke up that morning around 7am. I can't remember if Jayson was with me or not... I think he was for a little bit.. I washed my face and tried one last face mask in hopes that my acne would look a little bit better and prayed that my concealer would hide everything. I ate a little bit of breakfast and then straightened my hair. I had about an hour before our photographer, Erik, was coming over to take pictures of me getting ready. I had about an hour before our photographer, Erik, was coming over to take pictures of me getting ready.
I ironed Jayson's shirt, vest, and tie and then sat around on the couch and played with Nala. She had only been with us for about two and a half weeks, so that day was going to be the first day that she would be alone without us for 90% of the day. She was definitely a little more than scared and upset at the fact that we were getting ready to leave.
Finally 11am came. It was time to leave!! I'm so glad that Jayson and I decided to drive ourselves to the temple. It was so nice to just have the two of us together before we turned our marriage from 'Till Death do us Part' to 'For Eternity and Beyond.'
Side Note *: Have you ever been to the Los Angeles Temple? You know how the door swings open automatically? I thought they just did that as you walked up! I didn't know that you had to wave your hand to open it! Now I understand why Jayson always says 'Wingapo' when we walk up to the doors ;]
After I changed into my dress, and we were waiting for our guests to arrive so we could start our ceremony, Jayson and I sat on a bench. No, we don't have 'our bench' like the rest of you do.. I just picked the bench that was closest to me because.... it was closest to me! While we were sitting there waiting, I was thinking about the last time I was in that room- right after my endowment session. As I was thinking about that, I looked down at the carpet and thought to myself 'I wonder how fuzzy and soft the carpet really is..' (Yes, I'm weird, I know... but these things bother me.) So what did I do? I bent over and touched that carpet. AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT?! It's not nearly as soft and fuzzy as it looks. And I was angry about it.
So finally it was time to be sealed :] I was so nervous I could barely walk! My shoes were falling off, my dress was heavy, and I tried for the life of me not to trip and fall on my face. Once the ceremony started I was bawling my eyes out. And my breathing was getting a little ridiculous. I sounded like I was gasping for my last breath. I'm pretty sure I sounded like I was dying, and that is not an exaggeration! And the most embarrassing part of the day? MY NOSE DRIPPED LIKE A LEAKY FAUCET. So gross. So embarrassing, but Jayson was so great and stuck a tissue into my hand and giggled. I took it real fast and then stuffed it in his coat pocked hoping that no one noticed (but the truth is, everyone probably noticed).
And then.. the moment I had been dreaming of (besides finally being sealed) was about to happen...
We finally got our turn to walk out those doors!!!!!!!!
~ ~ ~
After we took pictures with family and friends, we headed down to the beach at Santa Monica Pier. Parking in LA, especially down at the beach is always ridiculous. You're lucky if you find a spot next to the beach.. Usually you have to park in a neighborhood or down some weird alley. Jayson and I drove into a parking lot looking for a space for us and for Erik. Jayson and I found one for us and then he spotted another car that was backing out. We parked and then jumped out and ran toward the other spot and stood in it while we waited for Erik to find us. Standing in a parking spot in Los Angeles in a wedding dress has its perks- like no one being rude to you :p
As we sat in traffic back to TO, we were both exhausted. We didn't get any sleep, my dress felt like it weighed a million pounds, we were starving and we couldn't wait to go to bed. If it wasn't our own reception we probably would have bailed out and gone to bed. But we went and we had tons of fun :]
At the end of the day, it came and went faster than I had hoped, but I'm so grateful for the blessings of an eternal marriage. I'm grateful for my in-laws who spent so much time and energy on getting everything set up and ready for us. I'm grateful for my ward family and for their willingness to help us with set up and lend us decorations. I'm grateful for our amazing photographer and the hundreds of photos he took and the hours he spent editing them all. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.
Photo credit ; Hokom Photography
SO CUTE!!!! I love your dress, hair.. everything!! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteahh! thank you SO MUCH! :)
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