Wedding Day

Hello! So after enduring a magical yet exhausting weekend I'm so tired I don't even feel like blogging about it. But it was just too wonderful to not blog about. My husband and I had been spending hours at my parents house helping prepare for the wedding. One day, Thomas shoveled 5,000 pounds of leftover landscaping stuff into a trailer and then he reshoveled it out into the dump. William stayed up late with us while we finished preparing and I was even found crawling around in the ground with my six month pregnant tummy cleaning out the plant beds.
Suffice it to say we showed up to the wedding a little beaten up. Even William was showing signs of exhaustion (a.k.a temper tantrums and serious whining!).
The festivities began with a super fun bachelorette party. I issued 'official orders' to all the attending guests letting them know they were invited to a special basic military training in preparation for Janessa's marriage into the Air Force.  The guests arrived and they were given air force t-shirts and hats and then their faces were painted with army paint.  We then hurried off to our Boot Camp at a ropes course. Oh yes... we totally rocked it.... swinging on ropes from one platform to another, jumping off platforms over 20 feet high to grab a ring hanging from a tree about 10 ft from the platform, and climbing up logs to great heights only to cross from one tree to the next walking on an 8 inch plank.  Awesome! I even joined in... climbing the log was the hard part. Next Janessa had to answer questions according to the way Zach would have answered them.  If she got them wrong we all did pushups.  I was shocked by how well these two knew each other.  I had asked Zach, "What is Janessa's favorite thing about you?" He said, "Well she'll probably say, 'Oh Zach is good'" Which is EXACTLY what she said. We were all shocked!  I guess that's what happens when you have a long engagement.

Next the wedding day, it was beautiful.  So many wonderful friends and family came to the sealing and then the luncheon and reception.  President Ashton a friend from our ward who is also the Provo Temple President sealed them.  I loved the thought he shared before he sealed them.  He shared the scripture about how the husband should love his wife as the Savior loves the Church.  He talked about how the Savior loves the Church.  His love is selfless and self-giving so much so that He gave His life for the Church.  President Ashton then said that the husband needs to love the wife this way and give of himself even his own life to love and care for his wife and then that frees her up to nurture and care for the children.  Interesting that he explained it that way, because that's how I've always seen it and that's how I've seen it played out in my parent's marriage.  Anyways, there was a special spirit present and the happy couple just shined.  They are so in love and happy and it was so fun to see that.  The only sad part was that Karissa was missing... it was REALLY sad.  I knew she was really sad too.
The reception was GORGEOUS!  I heard one guest say that they came and wanted to leave soon after but it was so nice that they stayed to the end.  They even stayed to watch the surprise firework show displayed for the couple right before they drove off to their happily ever after.  I thought it was so cute how nice the newlyweds were to each other when they cut the cake.  No smashing or smearing of any kind.  They are so sweet to each other.  So...the decorations were gorgeous, the food great, the guests wonderful, the atmosphere warm and welcoming, and the firework show breathtaking.  But I have to say that my favorite part was the dance at the end.  William was the best dance partner ever.  He is such a cute little dancer and he stuck by me and kept me dancing.  How fun!  What a great day....  Almost perfect, we were just missing a member of the family and then it would have been perfect.
The only problem is recovering from it now.