bridesmaids

Valerie and Eston 2015

9:30 PM



I adore this girl. From the first time I met her, we clicked. We were assigned to be companions while serving LDS missions in Argentina. I hadn't spoken English for nearly 9 months (other than emails home to my family, which were awkwardly half Spanish, half English anyway) and Valerie was still working on her Spanish. It was an awkward and hilarious time. So many experiences that bonded us like no other 5 weeks in anyone's life could have. Without going into Too Much Information, she took care of me when I was crazy sick, we survived several days without electricity to heat our apartment or water in dead of winter, weird food and broken toilets. Extreme bonding time.
So when she not-so-slyly told me that she was getting married in March, I HAD to be there!

President and Sister Gulbrandsen are some of my most favourite people on the planet. Steff flew in for the day and it was lovely to see her. We were all companions at some point. Love these people.

I mean, we're really cute. haha

Some of the friends that just hung around the temple for a while. Mostly because of our insane love for Val Pal. (Jess, Katherine, the beautiful bride, me and Steffannie)


Oh yeah! Eston was there, too.... haha

All photo credit goes to Mikki Platt, wedding photographer extraordinaire, who also did our wedding pictures. I will forever be obsessed with our photos and Valerie's are just as amazing! Mikki has photographed cousins and friends since our wedding and she's not only a talent behind the camera but the sweetest person ever!

bouquet

One month and a little bit

4:50 AM

I am so anxious to re-live our wonderful celebration and creation of our little family through pictures and video of our most precious day yet. Looking back on that windy day in November, everything went as well as it possibly could have. Of course we had no way to plan for unkind, temperature-dropping wind but other than that the day couldn't have gone better!

Of course I didn't have the time nor the state of mind to snap pictures on my phone or anything. Luckily friends shared on social media so I can have those for now.

My lovely bridesmaids took bunches of pictures. Thanks heaven for them and their treasured friendship. These women are so special to me.


(Dominique Stay...soon to be Tecklenberg, Jo Wulffenstein, my sis, Steffannie Peña, Valerie Whitehead, and Kiley Kapp...soon to be Stewart!) not pictured, for some unknown reason, is my sister-in-law Natalie. 


My darling Jo-nana (ps she won't like it if you call her that. It's reserved for yours truly)
We have been friends since 2009 when we road tripped to a magical place: Disneyland. It was an epic trip that triggered all the years that followed. We were inseparable for a year. I tell this story because even my family had no idea of the extent of our friendship. Hence, bridesmaid status. Love her. 


This gal. What a doll. We went on missions to meet each other. I love her sense of humor. And she's just really, really pretty. It's inspiring. 


Steffannie Peña. This is the girl that brought Taylor and I together. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stood a chance. Steffannie's visit to Utah fall of 2012 is the reason we had a wedding fall of 2013. 

Kelli. What can I say? She's irresistible and I love her. A roommate that enriched my life in so many ways! Best pillow talk of my life. 

The high school friends who made it! Love these guys. Friends for eternity. The Brown's, Jolley's, Klemetson's and my cousins, Brigham and Jessica :)

Yummy, beautiful cake from One Sweet Slice. Chocolate raspberry cake was 
A-MAZ-ING. 

Groom's cake :) So appropriate for my husband.

Marvelous Catering a.k.a Molly's in Provo. I don't think you could go wrong with this catering service. I've loved everything I've had from them from our wedding to my parent's work parties, never a disappointment. 

There's Natalie! Complete bridesmaids. Freezing a little in the 50 mph wind. Sorry ladies. 

Our very unique send off. Flashing lights in those white and purple balloons. The extremely strong winds of the day whisked those puppies away. 
If you didn't catch on, purple is my most favorite color. I know tons of brides have used purple but I am most definitely partial to my shades and usage of iris, lilac and eggplant. 

More pictures of my beautiful bouquet to come. So amazing and spectacular, especially considering my florist debacle which gave dear Jerry Rose of Hillside Floral about 2 weeks to pull this off. I feel really badly about that but I will be eternally grateful for his fantastic work! 
I've already told the story of my ring in another post :) Also, don't judge how weird my hand looks. Can't explain that away. 

Life together is GREAT! Being with your best friend for time here on this earth and for all eternity is the best thing I could ever wish! 



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