Wedding Day - The Temple

October 20, 2012 was a fantastic day - I absolutely loved it!!!  And I think the bride and groom did too!

The day started early in the morning for some people - like the bride, her friend Angi (the hairdresser), Jaime (the photographer), and some sisters.  I slept in as long as I could! 

 

 

I like the multi-tasking bride - texting her almost husband, and eating breakfast, all while getting her hair done!

 Good thing Angi used a ton of hairspray and bobby pins - the wind was going to be our biggest challenge!

 

Having a last chat with Daddy before leaving for the temple.  Sweet to watch!

Flower girls, Katia and Haylee, saying goodbye to the bride.  Rich, Chelle and I needed to be at the temple an hour before the ceremony, so we left first.  That's the wedding dress there on the back of the couch.  Everyone else came later, in time to see them come out of the temple.

 

The next few hours were wonderful and I'll always remember them.  We were about fifteen minutes late arriving at the temple and the poor groom was getting a little anxious.  He seemed rather relieved when he saw Chelle!  Even though we were a little late, the temple workers were completely calm and unrushed.  They did the usual paperwork, checking the marriage license and everything.  Then Chelle and I went off to the brides room - that gorgeous room with the big mirrors and pretty lights, and roses inlaid in the carpet and painted on the walls - such a happy room!  Once she was all changed and ready to go and looking so beautiful and calm and happy, I went back down to the waiting room.  I walked in and wow!  Family!!!  They were there - lots of family and loved ones.  This is when my high water table kicked in and I lost it.  I just felt so filled with joy at being able to be in the temple with these special people, who had all made sacrifices and special efforts to be with our family at this wonderful time.  I found a scripture that described my feelings perfectly: 

"And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears"  (3 Nephi 4:33)     

And so I gushed!!!  It was truly wonderful!  Then the workers came and led our happy little group up to the sealing room, with the magnificent mirrors reflecting eternity.  Once we were all settled, Chelle and Logan were brought in.  The temple president spoke to them, and all of us, with wonderful words of wisdom and advice.  Then the bride and groom knelt at the altar and were sealed together as husband and wife for time and all eternity.  I loved the tender moment when Logan reached across and gently wiped a tear off Chelle's face with his thumb.  And then they kissed!!!  It was about then that I realized that, hey - we had a son!!!  The newlyweds exchanged rings and then we all did a whole lot of hugging.  Such a special, special time!

 

Then Chelle and I went back to the brides room to get her ready to go outside.  She looked radiant.  We were just chatting for awhile, all ready, but waiting on word that the groom was ready (he wore white in the temple and had to get changed into his suit).  Eventually the word came, so I left first and went outside to the people waiting, while the bride and groom greeted each other.   

 

There's Rich with the Marriage Certificate - so handsome! 

Those in the wedding party were now pinning on corsages and boutonnieres, and finding bouquets.  Everyone was gathered in the temple courtyard, getting their cameras ready and waiting for the bride and groom to come out . . .

. . . there they are!!!

They looked so happy!!! 

It was so cute because we're all just watching them be in love, and snapping pictures, and then Mackenzie went running up to them.  She had been so excited for this day and her "lellow pwitty dess" for so long.  Logan scooped her up and she was in quite a few of their pictures!

Hugs for the other sisters . . .

 . . . and yes, it was windy!!!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs.

 Then we spent time taking a bunch of pictures and visiting and going into the Visitors Center from time to time to get warm.  We'd been watching the weather forcast for days before the wedding, but it changed every day - from sun, to cloud, to rain, to snow.  Even the night before it was calling for precipitation.  But we got a beautiful sunny day, about 6 degrees.  The wind sure made us feel cold though.  I couldn't even take my jacket off for pictures.  I don't know how Chelle lasted so long, although she did have a new husband she didn't mind snuggling up to!!!

 

 With the parents . . .  



. . . and the grandparents, 

   

. . . and the brides family. 

Lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents sharing this day.

 

With our beautiful daughter and our handsome new son.  Ha ha Logan - you're stuck with us now! 

                     



Rich and I decided to get in on some of the kissing action that was going around!!!

 

 

                                 Our new family picture!!!

I like what the wind is doing with our hair in this picture.  Rich and I should have switched sides, then he could have been the wind block.  My hair was constantly being plastered across my face.  But wind or not, what a great looking family we have now!

 

 

                                                        Our beautiful daughters!!!

                                     The Wedding Party 

    Jordyn, Danielle, Jasmine, Chelle, Logan, Mitch, Kevin, Cody

                  Plus flower girls:  Haylee, Mackenzie and Katia.

 

 

Some of my favourite shots of my favourite couple.

 

 

                 There always has to be a jumping picture!!!

 

 

 

                                     Time and Eternity

 

 

                                        Our children!!!

                            Our Family!!!  My joy is full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Our Fall of Wedding Preparation

Our fall was a flurry of wedding preparations thrown in between our regular life schedules.  At least with Jas moved out, we had one less schedule to work around, but also one less person around to help with things!

 

This is a summary of the Love Story that was happening around us with Richelle and Logan.  From the day the ring was on her finger, we had 5 weeks and 6 days til the wedding day.  Our lives were completely full of wedding stuff, but it was a wonderful time!!!

 

 

In June I had the brilliant idea to start sewing chair covers.  Our happy couple weren't even a couple yet and had only gone on a date or two when I bought my first bolt of white fortrel polyester fabric.  I just thought that this could be a good summer project for the girls and I, just to sew chair covers whenever because we'd need them someday for all the future weddings.

I ended up sewing 118 over the summer.  It was funny as their courtship evolved and Richelle said to me one day, "Mom, maybe you weren't too premature in making those chair covers after all!" 

 

Then there was other sewing going on.  Chelle found her dress and the dressmaker was working on making it modest.  We found outfits for the bridesmaids and fabric for the flower girls and sister's skirts.

 

This is a game:  can you spot twenty differences between the two pictures?

Katia modelling her dress with two different sashes.  We ended up going with the black sash.



There were a ton of other projects on the go too, lots involving wood and paint.  This plastic was covering the carpet for a long time so we could do the mindless painting while watching movies and drinking milk.

Chelle painting centerpiece bases.

 

Our house really was a mess for quite a while - housework was not a priority!!!

The office was a mass of bits and pieces of various projects.

It was so nice to finish projects and scratch them off the list and store them away somewhere.  Eventually we could see the desk top again.

 

Mackenzie wanted to get in on some of the painting action . . .

One day I found the green paint job, and the next day I found the teal one!

 

There was even spray-painting shoes going on!  The garage was the spray-paint center.  We even spray-painted white flowers in the colour of teal we wanted because we couldn't find actual flowers in that colour.  Spray paint is awesome!  But stinky - so glad we could use the garage.

 

At this time we were especially grateful that Richelle didn't meet Logan last summer.  Could you imagine all this wedding preparation if we were still living in the workshop and finishing the house?

 

Total random picture!!!  But it was funny.  Whenever it's time for the blessing on our meal, Richie takes off his hat and tosses it like a frisbee - always aiming to have it land on the newel post of the banister.  Sometimes it even gets close!  This time he was just sitting in the living room and tossed his hat and whamoo - it landed in between the couch cushions like this.  We had to get a picture because I don't think that will ever happen again!

 

In the beginning of October the office turned into a flower shop.

Chelle making her bouquet.

She did hers, the bridesmaids' bouquets and Logan's boutonniere, and I did the rest.

I made all the flowers on top of all the centerpieces while watching the Saturday sessions of general conference on the computer.  Those aren't pictured here though.  After making all the necessary flower projects, I turned the rest of the flowers into arrangements to use for decorating the reception.

 

Since it was fall, of course it was volleyball season! 

Jordyn made the Junior Varsity team - she's the yellow 4, playing libero.

 

They had a really good season, winning the silver in their league.

Carlee played on the grade 9 team and was one of three setters.  Her team really improved this year and got second in Divisionals and in Zones.

Jenna also played at the grade 6 level.

 

There were other little details for the bride to take care of - like practicing hairdos.

 

 Since it was October, there were other things going on . . .

. . . like Carlee's 14th birthday.

She got a camera!!!

She requested a mock cheesecake for her birthday dessert.

 

Jasmine also had a birthday, but that was four days before the wedding and she wasn't living at home anymore.  I think we took her out for dinner or something - can't really remember.  Obviously it was a very special celebration for her 18th birthday!!!

 

The youth in our ward also took a bus trip . . .

. . . to the Temple Open House.

It's a gorgeous temple!!!  We went to tour the open house as a family on Thanksgiving Monday.  It was General Conference weekend.  We watched the Sunday morning session at home and the afternoon session while on the road to my sister Rebecca's house for Thanksgiving Dinner.  We went to the Open House on Monday morning and the line-ups weren't too bad.  We about froze to death though in the wind and rain but eventually got inside.  There was a beautiful spirit in the temple, even though there were parts of it that weren't completely finished yet.  Work crews would work all night and members would come in the morning and clean up before the Open House began.  I couldn't help but cry with joy in the beautiful Celestial Room.  The sealing room was wonderful for our girls to see because they were able to be in a room that was a lot like the room Chelle and Logan would soon be sealed in.  It was so fantastic to be able to take our girls into a Temple of the Lord.

 

Time was marching on and the wedding date was getting closer.

Logan was a most helpful groom when he wasn't working tons of extra-shifts or sleeping.  He's making wedding favors here, looking very thrilled about it!!!

As we completed things, we'd do little mock set-ups so we could see if we had everything we needed.

This is our practice guest book table and card basket.  They used a calendar as their guest book and had guest sign on their birthdays.

 

 

Finally it was the day before the wedding!  We had gone into the church the night before after all activities were finished, and vacuumed and set up the tables and chairs.  So once it was decorating day, all that grunt work was already done and we could focus on making it beautiful, being finished as early in the day as possible.

My friends Cindy and Sarah tied all the chair sashes.  Katia and Mackenzie were very good at distributing the chair covers (don't they look marvellous!) and sashes to all the chairs.

Richie and Richelle arranging the food tables.  And mounds of other things on the floor awaiting their various locations!  We got it all finished around 5:00pm.

 

Logan worked that last day but then showed up with his dad (in the red shirt) and they helped set up the last thing, the back-drop.

Then we went back to our house where my brother Andrew had arrived with his daughter Victoria.  Richelle and Logan opened the lovely quilt that Diana had made for them.

And they opened a laundry basket full of treasures from that couple sitting beside them on the couch - Kevin (Logan's brother) and Ashley (Kevin's fiance).

 

Then everyone left until it was just our family left for one last night together.  Jasmine had come home by now and we were all together again.  Daddy gave his big girl a blessing and we had some special time together, talking, laughing, reminiscing and crying.  Mackenzie was oblivious to it all and kept prancing around singing the same phrase of a song over and over, making us laugh.  (Too bad none of us can remember which song it was!).  She was just excited that tomorrow she was finally going to "mawwy Logan and Wichelle in the temple in her lellow pwitty dess".

 

Richelle left us with one last gift on her last night at home - she flooded our bathroom!  She didn't have the shower curtain right somehow and there was water everywhere.  We mopped it up and thought that was the end of that, but later in the night when we were sleeping, Carlee (who's room is under our bathroom) woke us up to tell us that water was dripping from her light fixture onto her floor.  So after mopping it up again, we got to sleep, again, only to dream of that special day tomorrow . . .

 

. . . when Richelle and Logan will take that big step and begin their eternal journey together!