THE GOOD...
- Brandon's parents were SO amazingly supportive of our marriage and of "my" kids. They took on all 4 of us as their own...no questions asked. The wanted Noah, Lily, and Ash to call them grandma and grandpa from the beginning. They bought bunk beds, and set up an extra guest bedroom in their home just for when we come to visit! They definitely went out of their way to make us feel at home, and to help me and the kids to feel loved and accepted.
- I got to meet almost all of Brandon's family before the wedding...and I will have to say that he really does have a great family! They are all really supportive of him, his dreams, his goals, his choices, and especially his choice to marry me. In fact, all I heard the entire week before the wedding was,"we have been praying that he would find someone like you for years!" Comments like that cracked me up!! Who knew that I would be such an answer to other people's prayers? His Grandma Baxter even made the comment that they had been praying for Brandon and putting his name on the prayers roll at the temple for years! I think is is SO funny that he had so many people praying that he would get married!
- I thought Utah was absolutely beautiful! The weather was perfect, and the sun was shinning all week! We were really truly blessed to have such beautiful weather the week of the wedding!
- I got into my dress...barely! But I got into it! Who's cares that I couldn't breathe...or eat...I got into my size 6 wedding dress that I found on Craigslist for $225! With the help of a corset of course! But I did it!
- Brandon was my knight in shinning armor! Anytime I wanted to run and errand, or needed to go and do something, he would volunteer to watch the kids, or he would take them out to do something in town so that I could work on projects. He took on the whole daddy role so easily!
- The day of the wedding...ABSOLUTELY beautiful!!! The weather was perfect. I got to have all 5 of my siblings there to support me! We got had lots of Brandon's extended family there to support us. But the biggest and best thing of the day...we were able to be SEALED!! 7 days before our wedding day, my temple cancellation from Salt Lake came through! What a relief, and what a blessing! That was by far the best part of the day, and the best wedding present we could've asked for! Kneeling across the alter and being sealed to the love of my life for time and all eternity was priceless. I even cried the whole way through it!
THE BAD...
The night before the wedding I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep, and on Saturday morning I was so tired I hit the snooze multiple times...you know what that means right?? I didn't have time to do my hair or Lily & Ashlyn's hair before I rushed off to the temple!!! Now, when I look back at the pictures, all I see is my hot mess of a hair do!! URG! It's seems small, but to a bride and a beautician, it was a huge frustration!
I was up to 3:30a the day before the wedding making homemade corsages and boutonniere for my parents, Brandon's parents, Brandon, and Noah. Yup, spent the money, the time, and lost sleep, and yet where were they on my wedding day? In trunk of sisters car!! No one to blame for that one...it was just a mere miscommunication. But how sad, because I thought they were beautiful!
THE UGLY...
- People always say that the week of the wedding is the most stressful...I can HONESTLY say that the week of the wedding wasn't stressful to me at all...until the day before!!! How do I put that day into words?? Well, parts of it were priceless...like going to the temple to do a family endowment session with most of our family members there. And the huge family dinner after the endowment session was so much fun too! BUT...by late Friday afternoon I was on the verge of a mental breakdown...actually, I think I had a mental breakdown. It all depends on if you classify me locking myself in the bathroom and curling up in a ball on the floor and crying uncontrollably as a mental breakdown...yeah, I think that was my lowest point...definitely a huge breakdown! Luckily, I have an AMAZING husband (fiance at the time) who kept knocking on the door until I let him, then he sat on the floor with me, and scooped me up in his lap, held me like a baby, and wiped away my tears, and told me that he loved me more than anything else in the world! And luckily he did, or else he still might be single! Just kidding...kind of. :) No, I am. I LOVE Brandon more than anything, and I can honestly say, as corney as it sounds, that I never knew true love until I fell in love with him. BUT, it was just really hard being in his hometown, around all his friends, his family, going to the temple that his family preferred, & staying in his childhood home. It just all got to be overwhelming...I felt alone...and having his sister mad at me didn't help! Plus, you of course add in the there the bride drama, like how one of nails broke the day before the wedding, so I had to get married with 9 long nails & one stubby one...and a few other stupid things like that, it just ended up putting me in tears.
- Some of Brandon't friends...bless their hearts...they just wanted to do something really cool for him on his wedding day, and decorate our car, just like he did theirs on their wedding days. BUT, we weren't driving our car away after the reception, we were driving away in my parents. We were switching cars so that my parents would have more room to haul the kids, and then we would have the compact car for just us to escape away to our honeymoon destination. Well, when my brothers hid my parents car, per my mom's request...all hell broke lose. They didn't want to decorate our car...just my parents car since that's what we would be driving away. We gave them permission to do our Explorer, and told them to go at it...have fun, and decorate away! But that wasn't what they wanted...so my brothers got confronted by the "friends mob" aka, Brandon's overprotective friends, and I got chewed out by one of the wives...yeah, that was a great hi-light to my reception! NOT!!
Coming out of the temple
Our first family picture...
Everyone that came to the temple for our sealing...
Us and "the mob"...aka, Brandon's friends. Just kidding, aside from the car incident, they really are great friends!
Grandma Speth, Grandma & Grandpa Baxter, and Us...
Ashlyn and "Grandma B" & "Grandpa B"
Harrington Clan...
Just my parents and the siblings...
Speth family...Brandon, his sister Angela, and his parents...
Speth clan...
Our reception hall...LOVED this place!
Brandon's boss in the blue shirt...flew up in his plane with his whole family to surprise us at the reception! Now that 's a GREAT boss!!
Our cake...
Decor over the mantel at reception...
The head table...notice Brandon's specially catered dinner complete with steak!
Wishing tree...and Noah signing our guest sign-in frame.
Ash, and her hot mess of a hair do!
Noah got a whole plate of just croutons...
