If you know me at all, you know that my wedding was my baby.
They were 7.5 of the longer and harder months of my life, with Steven 125 miles away, long days at school and work and weekends spent in the car driving to Logan or waiting for my babe to make it down to me..but with all that said, our 7.5 months of engagement were some of the happiest and exciting months of my entire life. I look back to our engagement with extremely fond memories of wedding planning and dreaming up our soon to be new life together!
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but our wedding planning began months before our engagement. I was that crazy that was determined to have my friday-morning-in-june-in-the-salt-lake-temple-or-else wedding and to insure that that dream of mine came true, I forced Steven to call and schedule the temple in the second week of September, not even 3 months after we met. I was at work when he made the temple reservation. He was pacing in the Logan Old Navy parking lot when that conversation went down in history as one of the more awkward in his life. It went something like this:
Steven: Hi, I'd like to schedule a sealing.
Temple Worker: Wonderful! Congratulations on your engagement! What is your name?
Steven: (Well I'm not actually engaged yet...) It's Steven Jensen.
Temple Worker: Okay Steven, and your fiance's name?
Steven: (Well she's still just my girlfriend...) It's Abigail Richards.
Temple Worker: And Abigail's parents names are?
Steven: Umm, her mom's name is Mary, and her dad's name...well, I just call him President Richards?
Temple Worker: What is Abigail's birthday?
Steven: It's May....May 27th I think?
Temple Worker: What year was she born?
Steven: In 19....um, well lets see, she's 20, so that would be...um, 1992. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's 1992.
The temple worker went on to ask questions about my home address, my bishop's name, and other things Steven didn't know, and finally, with a little hesitation in her voice, just told him that she'd schedule it and to just have me call in later and confirm the information he had given.
We got engaged two and a half months later.. To say I jumped the gun a little with the temple reservation is a little bit of an understatement, but come on, I'd watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to know that if you weren't married in June, you had no hope..
After months of ring shopping and all the drama that comes along with that, it was officially official on November 24. It was thee perfect night and I was finally engaged to my perfect man.
The following weekend, the dress shopping and venue scouting and luncheon food decisions were in the works! I planned every single detail down to a T. With almost eight months to get ready, my wedding really had no hope but to be perfect. If I could give anyone advice on planning a wedding, it would be to plan it yourself!! I loved nothing more than making all the decisions and seeing my dreams come to life. That said, I had my own little wedding planner, my big sister Bethy. I made sure that she knew my every thought and was let in on every detail so that when the big day finally came, I didn't have to worry about a thing. And I didn't! She had everything under control and it was seamless.
There were only a few wedding hiccups including my dress being stuck on a boat coming from China not knowing if it would get here on time, and making the mistake of taking our engagements during finals week and hating nearly every picture, but other that that, wedding planning was so fun and easy.
Now I could bore you with the details of every single thing that happened from the second I woke up at 4:47 am on June 14, 2013, or you could look at a million photos from my absolutely perfect day. Almost a year later and I look through these a good 3 or 4 times a week, so I may as well share the love. :)
Photographer: Mariko Hesterman of Mariko Kay Photography
Videographer: Ryan James
Flowers: Pam Thompson of Pam's Floral Garden & Design
Wedding Dress: Abella Bridal
Luncheon Dress: Shabby Apple
Steven's Suit: Overstock.com (for $109!!)
Steven's Tie: JC Penney
Dad's Ties: JC Penney
Groomsmen's Ties: Handmade by Steven & his mom, Janine
Groomsmen's Pants: JC Penney
Bridesmaid's Dresses: Handmade by Debbie Matheson (Linen from Hancock Fabrics)
Venue: Cedar Hills Golf Clubhouse
Luncheon Catering: Cafe Rio
Luncheon Pies: Marie Calendars
Reception Food: Brownies, Cheesecake Bites & Fruit from Sam's Club
Wedding Cake: The Chocolate
Live Jazz Band: Tom Young & Band
Hair: Haley Johnson Witt
Make-Up: Kim Huber
Oh what I would give to live this day over again!
Grateful I get to be stuck with that handsome red head forever.
xoxo Abbs
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