A Wedding Story

Last Thursday, my niece Carlee married her sweetheart Eric.  I don’t know Eric as well as I knew some of my other nephews-in-law before my nieces were married, but he seems like a very nice guy.  And, most importantly, he loves and adores Carlee.

Because most of Carlee’s immediate family live in Tennessee, all of the festivities were scheduled back to back so her family could be there for everything.  I’m glad I had the chance to participate in most of the festivities surrounding this joyous occasion since my life is so busy right now.  The only things I wasn’t able to go to were the family get together, Carlee’s bachelorette party, her endowment session, and wedding luncheon.

My niece Aymee, Carlee’s older sister, and Carlee’s new sister-in-law Maren threw a bridal shower.  Aymee made all the cute decorations for the shower and the reception, including Carlee’s bouquet.  (Aymee’s very talented and definitely received some of my mom’s crafting genes.)

Carlee and Eric got a lot of really great gifts that should help them get started on their new life together.  Everyone even brought their favorite recipe to help them start a collection of recipes they can use.

The shower was a lot of fun.  There was a lot of yummy food.  My favorite was the water because it was slightly flavored with strawberries and lemons.  And, even though my brownies didn’t look very pretty, they still tasted fabulous, if I do say so myself.

I enjoyed seeing my mom, some of my sisters, and some of my nieces at the shower.  (I just reread that sentence, and it sounds like I wasn’t excited to see all of my sisters or nieces, but that’s not it at all.  What I meant is that I was excited to see the sisters and nieces that came to the shower because not all of them could make it.)

I was the only one who brought a camera so I was assigned as the official photographer for the party.  Unfortunately, I forgot to have someone take a picture of me while I was there.

Carlee and Eric were married in the LDS Salt Lake Temple.  It was a very nice ceremony.  The sealer said many profound things as they often do during the ceremonies.  I always enjoy listening to the sealer because it helps me imagine the types of things my sealer would’ve said to Corey and me since I don’t remember most of the things said during our ceremony.

When Corey and I walked into the waiting room of the temple, we were greeted by several of my family members.  My brother Jared came down from Seattle for the festivities.  My dad, my sister Shari, my sister Cindy, my brother-in-law Brett (Cindy’s husband–one of three brothers-in-law named Brett), and of course, my niece Aymee, my nephew-in-law Dave (Aymee’s husband), and my sister Becky and her husband Brett (Carlee’s parents) were there.  I saw Becky at the shower, but I hadn’t seen Brett yet.  The last time I saw him was last summer when the family came out for Sophie’s blessing.

When I saw Brett, my jaw dropped.  I knew he had lost weight from a picture card Becky and Brett sent us for Groundhog Day, but I didn’t realize how much weight he had actually lost until I saw him in person.  He has lost 55 pounds, which is awesome except that I can’t get over how much he doesn’t look like my brother-in-law anymore.  (I was glad his voice sounded the same so I had some frame of reference from the past.)  His face is different enough that he just doesn’t look like the Brett I know.  It totally creeps me out.

I kept giving him a hard time that he looked like a cancer patient who just got done with chemotherapy (other than the no loss of hair thing) because he doesn’t look like he has a lot of muscles anymore either.  I also gave him the nickname of Auschwitz.  (I realize now that nickname was kind of tasteless.  It wasn’t meant to offend or make light of the Holocaust in any way, nor to make Brett feel bad.  It was said in fun or at least meant to be said that way, and to help me cope with his sudden change in appearance.)  Obviously, those of you who don’t know what he looked like before won’t realize how much of a change this really is.  Also, this picture doesn’t do his weight loss justice!

After the ceremony, the family (and a friend) gathered on the temple grounds for pictures.  It was a beautiful day! Many of the flowers were in bloom and the grounds, of course, were beautiful.  Carlee’s pictures should be gorgeous.

I wanted to show the progression of getting Sophie to smile for us in the picture I used for Project 365.  It’s kind of funny and really, really cute.  The picture used for Project 365 is the third in the series.

Carlee and Eric had their reception at the Salt Lake Hardware building.  It has really neat aesthetics and went really well with their theme and colors.  Their colors were a dark purple, fuchsia, and black, and their theme was very vintage.  They served cookies and milk as their refreshments, which are the best wedding refreshments I’ve ever had.  And, they had a program in which Jessie Clark Funk, Brett, and Carlee and Eric sang.  It was really cute and caused a lot of tears, especially the song Brett wrote about Carlee.

Because I don’t get to see Becky and her family very often and because I wasn’t able to attend the family get together the previous Sunday, Corey and I decided to stay the night at Aymee and Dave’s place after the reception.  Becky and her family wanted to leave early Saturday morning because they drove from Tennessee and they wanted to stay ahead of the predicted snow storms in Wyoming.  Even though I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them, it was nice to spend some time with them, with no worries about the wedding, before they left.