Wedding 04.22.16

Our wedding day. The day that we had been waiting for. That BIG day I dreamed of since I was a little girl. And it was all done in the right place, at the right time, with the right guy.

There are so many little details of our wedding festivities; rather than writing down the story chronologically I think I’ll break it down by explaining it piece by piece. (Sorry if I leave something out!) Here goes:

INVITATIONS

I designed the invitations with some inspiration from pinterest, then we worked with both Costco and Alphagraphics to get them printed and mailed out. Then the hardest part… we had to actually assemble the announcements with a strand of lavender tied with hemp. If I remember right it was like 400 total. We even made it into the Caribou county newspaper!

CRAFTS/ DECORATIONS

It was a busy week. After school got out in early April I left Rexburg to stay at my grandma’s house in Utah for a little while. While there I was the crafting woman. I painted, sewed, glued and cut all kinds of things to be able to have the decorations that we needed for the receptions. These ranged from frames, to tea-light flowers, paper pom-poms, burlap banners, and photo-booth props. Grandma was a good sport about having me take over her house and make a mess with crafty things. We also did lots of shopping which was fun. Grandma even took me to get my nails done with acrylics, they have never looked so fancy!

THE DRESS

I posted about this earlier (see HERE) but didn’t post any pictures because I didn’t want HIM to see! haha. Here are a few pictures of trying the dress on, it was the perfect combination of lace and tule. I felt like a princess in it, so thats what matters, right?

FLOWERS

My mom did an amazing job with my flowers! She made all the boutonnieres, corsages, floral decorations and the sister bouquets! We bought bulk baby’s breath from Costco and a few other loose fresh flowers from other florists. My temple bouquet we bought from Flowers on Main in Lehi, Utah. They did a great job to get the colors and flowers to be just what I wanted, while still staying in my price range. My colors: blush pink, lavender, mint green, and white!

FAMILY

My family all came out to Utah a few days before the wedding. We had several other family events going on from preparing for a mission, going through the temple, to College graduation. There are no dull moments. Luckily we were able to squeeze in a big family dinner at the spaghetti factory.

I didn’t have bridesmaids- BUT I do have sisters. They looked great in their matching white lace top and pink flowy skirt combo. My dad also bought the perfect lavender colored suspenders just for the occasion. (I wish I had a picture!) It was awesome. Grandma and Mom had similar silver lace dresses that looked just stunning on them.

BRIDALS

We took our professional bridal photos the day before our wedding. (Thursday 21) We had them done by Lavon M. Click HERE to view the next post with all those pictures; there were too many great photos to combine them all together in this post!

THE TEMPLE

We were married in the Mt. Timpanogos, Utah LDS Temple. It was a truly special day. Sheldon and I signed official marriage paperwork. We spent some special time together there. It was beautiful, all of it. We had SO many people come to support us, and even some surprises I didn’t expect to see. I knew this day would come, but I was truly touched to be able to make promises with both God and Sheldon that day. We were sealed for time, and also for eternity. I love him THAT much!

Camilla S did some photography for us of family and friends on our actual wedding day (Friday 22). She was great at managing so many people and took some artsy pictures for us to enjoy. She really captured the emotion and happiness we all felt on such a perfect day. Here are a few of those shots:

OLIVE GARDEN LUNCH

After the temple ceremony and family photos we all ate at Olive Garden for a late lunch. They did a wonderful job, their service was quick and they had a great atmosphere for us to enjoy each other’s company, and of course the food was amazing!

GRACE, IDAHO RECEPTION

After our wedding night in a Paris themed hotel, we had to race back up to the Thatcher Ward Building to start decorating! Thankfully we had lots of help. It ended up looking nice, my favorite part was the rustic doors and lights above. We served cake and punch along the back wall. Someone…. even trashed our getaway car… haha.

If you haven’t yet noticed we decided on a bike theme- because  marriage is like changing from a personal bike to a tandem. We are now doing this life journey on a bicycle built for two.

Many people had a lot of fun at our photo-booth: we provided a backdrop and props for a little extra entertainment. We encouraged people to share their photos on social media with the hashtag #ForeverTheLloyds.

ST. CHARLES, ILLINOIS RECEPTION

The Illinois reception was done at a park district forrest preserve nature center. It was an old mansion house. It was an unconventional location but allowed for a fun atmosphere. There were different rooms; one for food, another for dancing, for the wedding line, etc. We were very well supported. Many of our family and friends came from far away, so thank you for those who made the long drive!

Also HUGE thank you to the kitchen help! We had many people who came to help with both food and decorations before the event. We didn’t have much time to do it, but it was ready on time. So thank you!

We had a beautiful birch tree cake made by CocoaBean in Geneva. Notice the little tandem bicycle cake topper! and the flower sprigs my mom made. The details were perfect! Plus it was a chocolate cake with some lemon and white chocolate embellishments. Yum! When we cut the cake we both made sure to be very careful to feed it to each other without any mess. 🙂

One of the fun parts about our wedding is that we got to celebrate with so many people we love. It’s hard that Sheldon and I are from opposite sides of the country but it made for double the party, and twice the love. Thank you to anyone and everyone who helped make these celebrations so special for us! Each event was made memorable thanks to your support. Most importantly thanks to my special forever man who has been with me through it all! I can’t wait to spend forever with you Shel!

Wedding slideshow link: HERE

Utah Friends

Our first weekend back together and we went road tripin’. There were 2 wedding receptions we had been invited to. Though we could only make it to one, we decided to make a weekend out of it. Driving is good time for us to talk. We talk about about plans, our personal thoughts, and expectations of our future together. Side note, Idaho is beautiful this time of year- just sayin’.

We visited my Grandma. She made yummy dinner and bought a cake to celebrate my birthday a little early. She’s always sweet, plus its nice to spend time with her. Grandma was also a rockstar and booked a place for our wedding lunch!

I also got to see one of my favorite mission companions- Paola (Hna. Escobar)! She is from Guatemala but is living and going to school in Utah for now! Poor Sheldon was so good and patient as we talked in Spanish for awhile. It was fun to catch up though.

We couldn’t be so close without going to see McKinsey. So we picked her up and went to Zupa’s for some chocolate strawberries and a quick dessert we all shared.

The main reason we went to Utah was for Spencer’s Wedding Reception. It was a really nice atmosphere and had cute decorations. The best part was getting all dressed up for the evening with my handsome fiancé. I did see a few familiar friendly faces at the reception from back home, which was fun. We didn’t stay too long though because Sheldon wanted to get back and watch the end of the BYU basketball game (they won btw).

 

Then Sunday we drove back to Idaho to go to church with his family before returning to Rexburg. I think we decided that it was a 970 mile endeavor in all. Shel was the super driver the whole time too.

Thankfully I’m back in Rexy now and ready for classes again. Fun trip!

Engaged! (how it happened)

On December 5th 2015-  The man of my dreams and my very best friend asked me to marry him. 

 

Heres how it all went down:

Saturday (yesterday) we planned to go to the temple in the morning, then go to Idaho Falls to do some Christmas shopping, lunch, then in the evening go to i-jump with some of Shel’s friends. I thought it was a pretty packed day already- so I didn’t expect anything crazy to happen.

6:30- Wake up and get ready for the day

7:00- Leave my house for a Temple session (but we didn’t get in until 8:15)

10:30- Got back to my house to change to normal clothes

11:15- Drive out to Idaho falls

11:45- Arrive at Taylor’s house (Sheldon’s twin brother) wait for their little boy to wake up, and talk about our days plans for shopping. Also they convinced us to join them for lunch and take family pictures for their little baby’s birthday.

12:30- We ate lunch at Reed’s dairy. (Grilled cheese, Chocolate milk and Ice cream. Yum!)

1:30- We got to the Greenbelt to help them take family pictures by the beautiful wintery/ icy waterfalls.

1:35- I ask if Sheldon wants to take a “selfie” there as Taylor and Rachel walk around to the other side and leave Sheldon and I there alone.

1:40- Sheldon asks what our favorite memory is together and I think; “hmm… we have too many, maybe when we went to general conference” I said… And then he replied; “mine is right now” then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

1:41- Through a HUGE smile, I said YES! and hugged my new fiancé.

1:42- I then realized that Taylor and Rachel where there the whole time taking pictures. So sneaky, it was all set up.

1:45- They took more pictures of us and of the ring.

 

Basically the rest is history, we did end up doing some christmas shopping, and went to i-jump that evening. We celebrated with some chocolate pie too. But our day turned more to the excitement for our future and we called family and friends to share the news.

I LOVE my ring! So we actually went ring shopping while in Utah (previous weekend adventure) so Sheldon could see what I like, well he ended up ordering it and proposing before I could suspect anything. He’s also happy because he got a pretty good deal on it.

We are SO excited for our life together! As of now we do not have an official date set, but are planning for a wedding in the middle of April, after the winter semester ends. Then we will be sealed in one of God’s Holy Temples for time and all eternity .

I am one happy girl!

#ForeverTheLloyds