Wedding Day

My youngest brother Aaron married Lori on July 26th.  Brian, Bridget, and I went to the wedding luncheon at the Lion House, then the wedding in the Salt Lake Temple, then the reception in Midvale.  Whew!  Notice Emil and Colin were not mentioned.  A-ha!  Because we left them with Brian's parents for 10 hours, that's why.

First, a wedding luncheon at the Lion House.  Almost 20 years ago my oldest sister, Jen, had her wedding reception there.  TWENTY YEARS AGO!  Such a lovely setting.  Hey, Jen and Ben are in the background of this photo.  I did that on purpose.  This is the only photo of mine that worked inside the Lion House.  It's cute Cousin Ian coming over to say hi to Bridget.  He is so polite. :)  Brian and I were both very impressed with Aaron's speech at the luncheon.  Brian mentioned it several times.  Neither of us could have done what he did almost 17 years ago at our wedding luncheon.  It was nice to get Lori's side of the story, too.  Aaron chose wisely.  Of course.

We had a little over an hour to kill between the luncheon and the sealing, so Brian, Bridget and I went to City Creek to walk around, glue my eyelash back on (pretty sure it melted off), and get Italian sodas at Blue Lemon.  While we were waiting for Brian on a bench (I made him go back to the car for the camera), a woman stopped and told me I looked like Jackie O.  Yes!  That's what I was going for.  Really, though, I'm almost 40 years old and it takes a long time for me to look my best.  I'm on the verge of not trying anymore, so a compliment from a stranger goes a long way.

The sealing was beautiful.  Aaron and Lori looked so happy.  I loved being in the room with all my siblings and their spouses.  What a treasure.  I have to mention this part because it was my favorite thing that happened all day, a really large Polynesian woman burst into the room toward the end of the ceremony and sat down on a chair with a heavy sigh.  She wiped sweat off her brow, sighed a couple of times, then looked up to see a bunch of white folks she didn't know.  Oh, man!  It's making me smile again.  As soon as there was an opening, the woman left.  Hee!

After the sealing, it was time to wait.  There's a lot of waiting on wedding days.

Allyn with her girls, Emma and Lilja

Bridget's twirling was making Bryce laugh.

Finally it was time to go out and wait for Aaron and Lori to appear at a doorway that is not part of the temple.  Everyone takes photos here.  I think they should make the doors look more official - put a beehive on them or something.

I did not have a good seat for this part, so I'm using Melissa's photo.  Aren't they cute!  And so young.  It looked like they were the oldest kids getting married that day, though.  Yikes.

They said we could cheer silently.  I think Makenzie knows best here.

The photographer had everyone go to the hot side of the temple, because we're all so cool.  I love that Jeff is anticipating being put in the back.  I was going to wait until I had access to the photos of everyone on the steps, but then I realized that might be never.  This is what I got.

Kind of a lot of Bridget photos.  What can I say?  She's my sweetheart.  We were remembering a lot of nice moments from our sealing day with her in the Salt Lake Temple. :)

Once the step photos were taken, we had a few hours before the reception.  Not enough time to go home and change, but time to get fig newtons and Dr. Pepper from 7-11.  I think we were the first ones at the reception.  I've already forgotten the name of the place.  It was really pretty.  We were ready for pictures at 6:30, but then we ended up taking photos at 8:15.  Wedding days go by so fast!  You think you're going to have time...

 It's Noah!  'Member how we thought he broke his ankle on the trampoline?  He's okay.  It's fine.

I have a photo of Henry and Ben, but Melissa's is better.

Claire, Brian, Jeff, Melissa, Jen, Henry, and Ben chowing down.

This is Chance and Ruby pouring dirt on each other.  Emil and Colin would have been doing this if we'd brought them.  Only... more?

That's my parents with Margot Butler.  This looks like she's presenting an award to my Dad.

I stole this from Melissa because Claire looked so pretty that night. :)

Bryce over his Mom's shoulder.

Melissa taking a photo I will probably steal.  

Awww.  It's my family!  Front row: Katy, Aaron, Mom, Dad, Jen.  Back row: Allyn, Makenzie, Rob, Melissa, and Nicole (me).

While we were taking the photo of "just the kids" with my Mom and Dad, the in-laws (minus Matt, who was getting a slider) got a photo.  I wondered if someone showed me this photo when I was a kid if I'd be able to pick out who was married to whom.  (Right?  Grammar police?)

All together.

Lee kids (from Melissa's camera with Aunt Julie shooting - mine was totally out-of-focus).

We're missing most of the grandkids here and there are still a lot of people in this photo.  That's what happens when you have eight children, I guess.

We left soon after this photo was taken.  It was fun to visit with everyone, but we knew we were pushing our luck for future babysitting from Brian's parents.  It was a perfect day.  So happy for Aaron and Lori.  And our parents. :)

This happened after we left.  I love it. :)