#3 The Wedding.

Rehearsal Dinner

Thursday night (last week) my father hosted a wedding rehearsal dinner at the Lion House in downtown Salt Lake City. I have never had the rolls their and now find them to be one of the best I've ever had - really good. Anyway, there was a microphone up at the front for my dad to thank everyone for coming, but it seemed to turn into open mic night, as most of her brother's got up and gave speeches about how proud they were of their sister. I felt bad that no one in our family was getting up, especially since their family kept looking over at ours. I finally decided it was enough and got up and spoke about Rick, and then one of his groomsmen got up too and spoke about him. I felt much better - it almost felt like testimony meeting- very strange!

The Groom

Rick looked extremely nervous the night before the wedding, but on the day of the wedding he was very relaxed. It was such a neat thing for us to see Rick change so much - it's true what they say about how a good woman can change a man!

Angie and her family.

Angie's family was a fun bunch. The guy with the sunglasses is Angie's father and what a fun character he was. Our family is so small in comparison to hers, we felt quite pitiful next to them! Her younger brother, who couldn't be at the temple, escorted her down the aisle at the reception center for the short ring ceremony.

The father of the groom.

My dad was doing a lot of this! He was very calm through the whole thing and looked very proud to see his son accomplish so much in the past couple of years. He used to be big in to photography, so it was double nice seeing him snap so many photos. And yes, he was first in line at every meal!

The Mother of the Groom.

My mom kept her cool the whole time. My sister and I complimented her on her outfit and although unplanned both the mother of the bride and the groom, matched their outfit colors perfectly.

The sisters of the Groom.
...and The dress!

There was plenty of teasing going on during this little photo shoot and it was fun all being together again - it had been a long time. As you can see, I'm the short one of the bunch. But, enough about that - what do you think of the dress? Unfortunately, no one's dress fit them all that well, we think it's the style of the dress. She had 10 bridesmaids and we liked to joke that number 9 (Jenn) and 10 (me) looked the best! Just silliness really :)

Although everything seemed to be planned perfectly, the decorating of the newly weds vehicle was left in the dust. It was agreed that the brothers of the bride would at least pick up some oreos on the way to the reception and the sisters of the groom would at least bring some lipstick to write on the windows; however, the men forgot their part and the car was left to us. We were only able to decorate the windows, kind of lame, but at least we thought about it and tried!

The flower girls!

Cici and Nini were asked by Angie to be the flower girls for her small five minute ring ceremony she did for about five of her brothers who could not attend the temple. As shy as my girls are, they did a really good job. They stood on the sixth step up and on cue came down the stairs through the aisle between all the guests and stood in front of Craig. They were so so so cute and I was proud of them for having the courage to go. Look at those cute faces! I ordered dresses online, which never came and no one from the company is answering their phone. I ran to Southtowne Mall where I had frequented before and went to a dress shop on the top floor. I purchased ivory dresses with a mesh or net skirt. I put the leaves inside the double mesh skirt and tacked down the leaves down so that they would stay neat through the night. Her decor was all fall and it all turned out really cool!

The best man.

We left Nini's cowboy hat at our friend's house on Halloween, and since they knew our family and Rick they brought their family to the reception. And yes, Craig wore this hat for most of the last hour of the reception.