I couldn't believe it when I woke up the next morning: it was my wedding day! I had never been so nervous and excited in my life! The wedding was at noon in the Boise, Idaho LDS temple, and I had to be there at 11am. I had booked my sister's favorite hair stylist for a 9am appointment (which was before their salon even opened, thank you SO much Amy!), and she worked WONDERS with my hair! I remember trying hard not to burst into tears when she turned my chair around and saw myself in the mirror - it was perfect! She did SUCH a great job, it was exactly what I was hoping for, probably even better. I didn't have much time to prepare after that - I quickly rushed home and did my own make up (I couldn't think of anyone who I would've trusted, I'm a little picky. haha), and my mom drove me to the temple. It was the greatest feeling in the world to see Colin waiting for me, and it was even better when the time actually came for us to be sealed for all eternity. Yes, I cried. :) It was the most perfect day that anyone could ever ask for! That's right, folks, I get to keep Colin for good!It was the perfect day. Better than I ever could have asked for. Was it the result of our planning? Nah... It was because I was sealed to the most amazing person I have ever met in my life. :) My bridesmaids were gorgeous that day. My two sisters Abrie and Lainey and my best friend Ivy Smedley. Thanks for putting up with all of my crazy stress and wearing the dresses and jewelry that I chose! You guys are great!

Our pictures were taken by my cousin, Garrett Gibbons, and they turned out gorgeous! He is truly an amazing photographer, and I couldn't thank him enough for capturing those memories for us.

The reception that night turned out perfect as well - I swear, everything seemed to be going unnaturally smooth - the Lord was definitely on our side. :) Our friends and family were all gathered together, the music that we had chosen was the perfect way to set the mood. I saw friends from high school and even before that I hadn't seen in a while - Colin and I's families had the chance to meet and get to know one another. The food was AMAZING! We had quiche with delicious dinner rolls and an oriental chicken salad. I was only able to get a few bites - that's probably one of the only things that I regret from that day. I was too busy talking to friends and mingling to really think abou

t eating anything. The cake was DELICIOUS - pistachio on the top three tiers and pumpkin chocolate chip on the bottom(in honor of my mother for her birthday). There were so many people from both sides of our family that helped out with food. I could never thank them enough for everything they did for us.After the reception was over, we were surprised by my brothers and brother-in-law: they had left the reception without us knowing and totally trashed my car! It was a huge mess, balloons and confetti everywhere, they wrote all over the windows, and they even tied pop cans to the back of it. I KNEW we should've hidden the car! haha! 

All in all, March 25th was the best day of my life. Everything went perfectly! Nothing was late, no one broke anything, everything turned out JUST the way we had been planning. The Lord was really helping us out that day, we are SO blessed to have the Gospel in our lives. I have loved every second of married life, and even though it can and will get hard sometimes, I know that the Lord will be there to help us get through it.

Wedding Plans Continued... Finally...

Having said that, I will now continue to explain - in as much detail as I can remember - what happened between my last post and March 25th. Wish me luck. :)

After we had acquired a decent amount of home furnishing, we continued with the wedding plans. MY biggest concern was the reception - due to our lack of funds, we were forced to have it in a stake center (something that I vowed I would NEVER do when I got married). This made me twice as determined to make sure that everything was BEAUTIFUL. I wanted the church to look as much NOT like a church as was possible, and I had no clue how. It was pretty stressful. But then, I was talking to my sister about it one day and realized that she had someone do the decorations FOR her. Her wedding reception was PERFECT - they rented a beautiful venue in downtown Boise, and the decorations were absolutely amazing! I had a stroke of brilliance - Patty Wilkes (the lady who did Abrie's reception), was going to do mine as well. I called her up as soon as I could and arranged a meeting for Colin and I, and after that it was a piece of cake. For one price, she was willing to provide all the decorations(picture frames, vases, chair covers, the arches, lamps, mirrors, etc.), set them up for us beforehand, AND take them down afterwards. It was like a dream come true! All that stress that was on my chest was instantly lifted, and I seriously felt like hugging her every time we met to discuss the arrangements.

If I were to give advice to anyone getting married in the future, I would definitely say to hire someone to decorate your venue. Sometimes it may be a bit pricey, but it is COMPLETELY worth it. She did an AMAZING job! We decided on using gerber daisies, which turned out gorgeous, and we provided pictures, and she pretty much did the rest.

Next came the cake. I honestly can't remember where we got the recommendation from, but we talked to a lady named Tammy McMorrow who owned her own cake business and she agreed to do ours. Surprisingly enough, I had no clue what I wanted our wedding cake to look like, but apparently Colin did. HE told Tammy exactly what he wanted - I didn't contribute at all. It turned out BEAUTIFUL! She did such an amazing job. It turned out to be 4 tiers, shaped like a hexagon(which may sound strange but it turned out awesome), with green and black ribbon lining the bottom of each tier. The rest of the cake was an off-white, he wanted it simple. It was AMAZING. She provided a foundation for it to stand on, and I provided the cake topper(which I bought at Zurchers, thanks to Ivy Smedley). But seriously, this cake was all Colin. My dress was purchased from Margene's Bridal (thanks to my awesome cousin Kim Hessing). It was the first one of six or seven that I had tried on, and I just HAD to have it. There was really no other comparison, I loved it way too much to consider anything else. :)

I received my endowments on March 19th, the Saturday before the wedding. It was an amazing and beautiful experience. :)

The week of the wedding was a pretty stressful one: I worked a split shift everyday up until the wedding at the daycare from 7:30 to 12:00 and then 3:30 to 6:30. It was rough. :/ On Monday I had to pick my wedding dress up from the lady that altered it for me, on Tuesday I got my nails done, Wednesday I had my hair dyed and my eyebrows waxed, and on Thursday I got my legs waxed. You would think that things like that would be super fun to do, but I was so crunched for time that I was stressing about even the smallest of things. I about had a heart attack when I realized that I hadn't scheduled myself to get my legs waxed - Colin was actually the one who found the place online and booked my appointment for me. :) Thursday night was when things finally calmed down, however. Most of Colin's family was in town for the wedding, and our families had a dinner together that night at Flying Pie Pizzeria. Colin's sister-in-law Missy made a slideshow of pictures of us that she showed, and Colin's mom (who is now my mother-in-law) had a lot of fun activities that she had us do together. Overall it was a really fun night, but it was VERY strange to say goodbye to Colin for the last time in our single lives. I didn't know what to do with myself! :)

Epic Fail... ^_^

Alright guys, I kind of figured this would happen.  ;)

I got a little behind on my blog updating, as you can clearly see. Seven months behind, in fact, hence my post title "Epic Fail". haha I apologize about the delay - I know that ALL of you were just DYING to know what happened next.

In all honesty, things got a little crazy after my last post as far as wedding planning goes. Colin and I were super busy from then on with things like decorations, cake designs, dress and tuxedo purchasing, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, I am not going to explain everything in this post. No, this post was merely an apology to the two or three people who actually read this. haha I'm sorry about taking so long... I promise to be better. That is all. :)