bridals & groomals

Colby and I just had our three-month anniversary. 

Yay us. 

I taught a lesson at church a little over a month ago, just after our two-month anniversary, and to spruce up the table a little bit I brought the flowers Colby had gotten me for our special day. I happened to mention what they were for as I was introducing myself and all the cute ladies in the class gave me this adorable look that (very kindly and gently) said, "That's precious dear, but you ain't seen nothin' yet." I can see all of you married people doing the exact same thing, but I like to celebrate the little things, thank you very much.

In honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd get back on the blogging wagon and talk about my wedding and the days leading up to it because it was such an incredible time and unless you were there, you may not know much about what happened. 

A few days before our wedding, Colby and I went to take pictures in our nice wedding gettup so we weren't so stressed when it got to be crunch time. Well, crunchier time.

I picked up my dress from Gowns by Pamela on Tuesday, and it was the first time I'd put it on since I tried it on over three months before. I decided to rent my dress (which I would definitely recommend), so I didn't get to have it for myself until the week of the wedding. Luckily I was still just as in love with it three months after I decided I wanted it. 

My absolute favorite things about my dress were the sleeves, the neckline, and how fantastic I felt wearing it. It didn't hurt that it was also very long, aka the perfect length for my fabulous five-inch heels. 

My mom probably didn't love lacing me into it, but she had plenty of experience with my two older sisters and, even though it had been a while, she became a pro at wedding dress lacing.

This was her first time lacing me up on her own, and my judgement was a little off, so I gave the thumbs up to how tight she was doing it. Needless to say we got a little carried away with the corset cinching (and I or may not have had to risk exposing myself later in order to de-cinch it so I didn't pass out). I couldn't bend over and I had an itch--major issue. But that's what sisters are for, right?

Colby hadn't seen me in my dress yet, so my family situated him in the yard so we could catch his reaction on camera.

Side note: I absolutely loved my hair. Tasha Ricksecker did it (she works at Seasons Salon and Day Spa in Orem) and she is definitely my kind of perfectionist. She transformed it from a seemingly ratty mess into this and I can't say enough about how wonderful she is. Thank you, Tasha!

Our first stop was a beautiful trail in the neighborhood. We scoped it out on a walk a couple months before and thought it would be perfect. The leaves were gorgeous and it was a lot cooler under the canopy of the trees, thank heavens. 

Once we walked to the money spot

we worked our modeling magic.

Not entirely sure what's going on here, 

but we were all laughing so we must've been doing something hilarious.

I guess we do have our funny moments sometimes.

It's rare, but possible.

(We may or may not be making fun of an awkward Facebook photo of a friend of mine. 

Gotta love FB.)

Here's me when I'm oblivious

and then me when I'm in the loop 

(as in, when Colby and I are N*SYNC).

Straight faces aren't really our thing, but I think we made it work.

And kissing was a completely different story.

As for smiling--we did a little bit of that too.

You may have noticed from some of the previous pictures that the Timpanogos Temple was covered in scaffolding. The entire north and east sides, part of the south side, and the spire, had been turned orange. When I first saw it a few weeks before our wedding, I called my mom (who was a great sport) and just cried. Don't get me wrong--it's a lot funnier now and it's a pretty interesting bit of the story, but at the time I was pretty devastated. I'd always wanted to get married in the Timpanogos Temple and my perfect pictures and perfect memories seemed to go out the window at that moment. Obviously I was exaggerating things in my head and that wasn't the case. No matter how well you plan, there are some things that are just plain ol' out of your control. We learned that a couple of times. Even so, I took a good thirty minutes to mope . . . but then decided to take my mom up on her offer. When life gives you lemons, right?

She bought us hard hats for our pictures. 

It matched the overall theme of the area a little too well, let's be honest. 

Kudos to Mama Camp for helping me love my pictures even more than my amazingly fantastical and wonderful photographer, Kiara, already did.

Speaking of things I love,

I also love our bling.

Colby's ring belonged to his Grandpa Ron, who did our ring ceremony. It's the same ring that Colby's grandma, Audrey, gave to Ron when they got married. She passed away a few years ago, so it is very special to Colby.

As for my ring, Colby picked it out and he nailed it. He knew, generally, what I wanted, but he still ventured away from the ones I initially pointed out and I am so incredibly glad. 

It's absolutely perfect.

My bridal bouquet, which was put together by my best friend's aunt, was also gorgeous about I loved it. The flowers were beautiful, the ribbons were a great combination, and there were pearls in it, which was fabulous.

Last but not least, the classic hand pose. 

I couldn't resist,

even if we didn't have a temple doorknob.

Plus, Colby had just gotten a manicure, which is definitely worth a snapshot.