There have been quite a few things nudging me the past few months that have reminded me of the importance of keeping a journal. Last night I was preparing for my Sacrament meeting talk and stumbled upon a goal list I had created back in January - tucked tightly between the pages of my Gospel Principles manual. I had promised myself that I would blog once a week.
Today, my visiting teaching companion and I went visiting to a lovely woman in our ward and she mentioned something about blogs. I asked her how often she blogged. She told me that she has posted AT LEAST once a month for the past ten years. I thought that was pretty amazing. It's just a matter of making it a priority in my LIFE. And I'm afraid that I haven't.
So who is up for second chances?
Let's start by wrapping up the adventures of mine and Bill's wedding day!
We held our reception at my parent's ward house. You will recall the craziness that had ensued with the decorators being locked out of the church building. They did a fantastic job of making up for lost time. The carpeted cultural hall looked phenomenal!
There were curtains laced across the ceiling and curtains hanging off the walls to hide everything that made the room look like a gym. There was back lighting placed behind the drapes and coverings over all the chairs and tables. Each were decorated with pretty yellow bows and blue table runners. The flower center pieces were as pretty as I could have hoped they would have been. The boutonnieres and corsages were lovely as well! My parents had gone and placed our spray-painted picture frames throughout the room in advance. And the refreshment table looked divine!
We arrived at the church at around 5:00 and we were pleasantly surprised to see that our close friends Al and Loraine had shown up early. :) They came with us inside and we visited for a few moments before the photographers whisked us away to take pictures with everyone in their wedding outfits. Apparently the lighting in the cultural hall was terrible, but the photographers made the best out of it. Pictures with moms and dads and siblings. Just siblings. Just dads. Just moms. Individual families who happened to be in the room at the time. Just Bill and I. Bill leaned in a little too close and the gigantic flower in my hair got stuck to his glasses. :) That was pretty funny...and slightly embarrassing as we tried to detach ourselves from one another. Hehe.
Sorenson Family
Kiefer Family
Jen, my dad's cousin and my cake designer, came in with the most beautiful cake! It was just what I had imagined, if not prettier! It was three tiers with an open space between the bottom and middle layer for fresh flowers in between. The bottom and top layers were made out of peanut butter rice-krispy treats, and the middle section meant for cutting was a vanilla-something (it was so good!) My only regret of my whole reception? Probably that I didn't ever get around to picking a cake topper. We placed some hydrangeas on top, but by the end of the night, they were all wilted. But you know, if that's my only regret? I can't complain too much.
Jen also came with Bill's chocolate groom's cake of his favorite wireless Linksys router. My cute husband is a Nerd - yes with a capital N. ;) The moment that the clock struck 6:00, guests began forming a line...and they kept coming, and coming, and coming! There was not a single break in the line from 6:00 until 8:30 when we finally said that we needed to cut the cake and throw the bouquet. :) As terrible as I've heard the "line experience" can be, I actually really enjoyed it! I loved seeing all those people who have played such important roles in my LIFE and in the LIFE of Bill.
Greg - and the line. :)
We wish so badly to know what was going on in this picture!
I saw a lot of high school friends...and one table turned into the "reunion table" amongst my friends. :) Family came through the line. Super old friends that I love to pieces (Megan Seegmiller and Alyssa Cawley/almost Hoffman and family). My dearest of dear, dear friends, my roommates (who naturally spent the day at a park killing time until the reception and showed up rosy and sunburned! Haha.). Folks from the "Layton ward" that are dear friends to the Kiefer family. Ward members from each family. Our parent's co-workers. Man! We felt so loved! Rather we recognized how much our families are very, very loved!
Jord got us a drink at some point in the evening. And I think after we had cut the cake (which was a semi-sloppy business, but entertaining) and thrown the bouquet (which Val Gal caught), someone brought us a chocolate mouse...I mean, mousse, parfait. :) It was super tasty! But I never got to try any of the other refreshments! Bill and I are still bummed about that til this day!
All I can truly say is that I am grateful for the photographers who took pictures of all the decorative details of our reception - because I hardly had the chance to look around and enjoy it all! I've had many people tell me it was lovely and had delicious food. After looking at the pictures, I believe them!
"Mouse" parfaits
After that sweet experience, we went on our way!
We left the gymnasium and there were all of our closest friends cheering us on as we walked out to our get-away car! The kids of my family had decorated Lex with yellow and blue crepe paper and filled it with balloons. It even had a hand-written "Just Married" sign taped to the bumper. There were billions of googly-eyes taped all over the car with a note on the steering wheel: "We're watching you." I loved it. :)
Thank you family for not making it too difficult to clean up. (We drove down the hill to my parent's house and lovingly threw all the decorations into their dumpster.) Lex still has a piece of blue balloon attached to his antenna today. And we found googly-eyes all over the place for weeks! Haha.
Fred, Val, Jade (Marie's friend), and Olivia
And then we were off to our honeymoon!
