8 crazy years!

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary. I gushed about Michael on his birthday 2 months ago, so I'm going to talk about details from our big day. Michael and I were married in the Manti Utah LDS temple on a warm December day. I pictured snow cascading over the hill, my mom made a white cape to keep me warm, but I didn't need it and the melted snow showed dead yellow grass underneath. But it didn't matter, I had my perfect day. The sky was blue, and it was nice enough to take lots of great pictures all around the temple. We got married in Utah because it was a central location to my family in Texas and his family in California. We also had lots of friends from BYU and my extended family that were able to come because it was in Utah. I'm still not sure why I chose Manti out of the 10+ temples in Utah. Probably because it was a bit more unique and out of the way than the many who chose Salt Lake or Bountiful. My brother was also married in Utah 1.5 yrs. before and I thought it was beautiful.

We also were able to celebrate and have receptions 3 different places. Utah, Texas, & Cali. So I got to wear my wedding dress more than the usual bride. I didn't have a sister to be a bridesmaid, but I had many sister in laws, my best friend growing up, and several "honorary bridesmaids" that included college friends. My mom and mother in law made burgendy dresses and My "H.B." I asked to wear something black. I wanted all my dear friends to feel included and a part of us coming together, as many of them played a role in our courtship.

My mom made my dress. She is an excellent seamstress, and after tears just hours before each Prom/homecoming event I swore I couldn't have her do my dress. Just too much stress right up until the last minute. When I couldn't find the dress in my head, I asked my mom to make it on the condition that it would be "mostly done" by Thanksgiving. It was, but we still had to do some alterations the night before our wedding day due to my mom saying I lost weight in those few weeks and the dress shifted differently.

I was pretty "no frills" about the details...had Target make my cake, found a local lady to do my bouquet. My one main requirement is that on my wedding day, I did not want to see basketball lines in my pictures. For those of you who know our churches, that is fairly common. I found a great building that USED to be a church converted to a reception hall. One might think that I interviewed hundreds of photographers, but I didn't really even research that. The hall gave a discount if we used their photographer, so I went with them. They did a great job, and I even had my friend Laurie do candid shots during the day with black and white film. One of my biggest splurges, which I DO NOT REGRET is having a videographer come. It was quite new at the time, and definitely a luxury, and still is. I love our wedding video.

The 2 songs for our video came out around that time, and had a lot to do with us, so I love them. The first is Shania Twain's "From this Moment." Michael and I had some back and forth in our courtship, and when we got engaged and truly committed to each other, the phrase, "From this Moment on....." really meant a lot to me. Then the Tarzan theme song, don't think of the human ape, but the phrase, "From this day on, now and forever" is similar to the previous song. I took my little camcorder and videoed the television for our 5 mintue wedding video, if anyone wants to watch. You'll see the horizontal lines, but watch it if you'd like. We love it, and so do our kids, and that's what we'll be watching tonight as a family:)

This was taken today when I took a little treat to him at work:

I've never doubted that I've made the best decision of my life in the person I chose to marry. We complement each other well. Through ups and downs we know, this is for forever.

Our video from my camcorder to the tv to here:) (wow, this screen shot is enticing, isn't it?)

My Montage 12/17/07