Small Missouri home fills with people as they congratulate the new couple and eat cake!

We had to leave Nauvoo somewhat earlyish Saturday morning so we could make it back to Missouri for the reception that night. As I mentioned in the previous post, it was quite an entertaining ride and very fun. When we got home it was go go go to get ready and have everything finished before people got there. My sister started on my hair right away and then I got dressed for family pictures before getting dressed again in my wedding dress. This was the first time in YEARS that we've had a family picture with everybody there so it was a pretty big event...plus there's a lot more people to put in it now and much harder to do! It was great though, I was SO happy and grateful to have everyone there for one of the biggest and happiest events of my life. I was glad that both Mark's siblings, his parents, and his Aunt/Uncle/Cousin could all make it out too! I had so much family there and so many friends I felt kind of bad that there weren't many people there for him that he knew so I was glad they all could make it out.

It was a lot of fun with so many people there...our new house was really great for such a big event too! I LOVE my parents new house...it was so nice to have to fit everybody for the reception, it was perfect! I'm so glad that I got to have it there. It made things so much nicer! Or so I thought. My mom decorated it all up with old fashioned wedding pictures everywhere along with wedding/marriage/love quotes next to them. She also had lots of red and yellow (my colors) throughout for the tables and the flowers and everything else. Oh and of course she had pics of Mark and I too. She did amazing job though! She's so creative...she doesn't think she is but anyone who's seen her house or some of the stuff she's done/made in there would say much different. Her house is so cute...it looks like an antique shop almost with all the stuff she has! The only questionable item in the house was this "antique" rhino she found and put on the main island where all the food was and she even "decorated" it by putting a veil on it for the occasion....she thought it was cute, I thought it was...interesting...but hey! That's just my mom and I love her and she's so GREAT and I love everything she does.

Anyway- back to the reception. It was pretty casual. We had lots of food so people came and ate and talked and that was pretty much it! I was so happy to see so many of my friends there! I didn't have much time in Missouri so if they didn't come to the reception I didn't get to see them so I was glad to see those that did come. It was a lot of fun though...I had fun introducing my new husband to everyone and especially showing off my dress :) I wasn't going to really wear it ever again after that so why not?

Well we kinda didn't really do much of the usual wedding things...mostly cuz I kinda forgot and by the time I remembered most of the guests had left except my fam. So we didn't do the whole garter thing or throwing the bouquet...pretty much the only we did was cutting the cake and I think that kinda made up for forgetting everything else cuz it was pretty good. First of all we didn't really know what we were doing so we just stood there for a bit looking retarded. Then we just decided to cut it...who cares how well we did it. Then we both took some...pretty big chunks too....that was my #1 mistake. I pretty well knew he wasn't going to be nice about it so I threatened him beforehand that he could do whatever he wanted as long as it didn't get on my dress...and he did. I was kinda trying to judge by what he did of what I would do so he got me good and I tried to get him back but ended up throwing my chunk all the way to a different table. So that was pretty funny and everyone was laughing. Then someone was like, "hey you got some on her nose, why don't you get it off?" And this is where I made my second mistake...so he went in to give me a kiss and kinda get some of the cake off my face and I believed he was going to be nice now but no...he just went in again and smushed even more all over my cheek. He thought he was so clever! It was really funny though and my sister Annie so nicely video taped it for us, although I still have yet to see it.....hint, hint Annie... :)

The rest of the evening was spent with the fam talking, eating more cake, opening presents, and then sitting out on the porch, enjoying the wonderful thunderstorm passing by! It was a pretty awesome and a perfect way to end the day. :)

Wedding Photo Gallery

Sorry it's been awhile...I've been having computer complications...aka, my laptop is being sent in for some work and I've been forced to use our PC which is a bit slower and the key board stinks! But anywho- this blog is just pretty much all pictures from the wedding, especially for Grandma Rose!

May 9th, 2008: Two lives change forever as they enter into the bonds of matrimony

Now for the actual wedding day! I was surprisingly calm that morning...I woke up, ate, and then Mellisa started working on my hair while everyone got ready around us. I just sat there listening to everybody and trying to stay awake cuz I was really tired! Mellisa did a fabulous job on my hair though! I loved it! Maria, Mom, and I left before everyone since we had to be at the temple earlier than everyone else so we left and got there around 9:30. I got changed and met up with Mark and we got to spend some time alone together in the Celestial Room, which was so nice! It helped me calm down any jitters/butterflies that I had. Then we went to a room where our Sealer spoke to us and then we went to the Sealing Room to get married! Of course I realized like right before we walked in the door that I had forgotten Mark's ring in the dressing room so I had to give Maria my key and we had to wait for her to run down and get it, which was fun cuz we just sat in there with all our other family members and chatted for a second before the ceremony started. When I told Maria I needed her to run down and get it she just looked at me with her classic Maria look, shook her head, like..."typical Tara"...(which is totally true) and went and got it like the amazing, awesome bridesmaid she was!

Like I said in the previous post there weren't too many people in there with us, maybe 15 or so, just family and Maria :). The ceremony was short and sweet and pretty much amazing, although I really couldn't tell you what the Sealer said at all...me and my memory! I really feel like an old lady sometimes cuz I can't remember anything! Anywho, when the ceremony was done Maria, Mom, and I went down to the dresser room again where I changed into my actual wedding dress and laced it up and put my veil on, which took a bit of time...but Maria was a pro by then so it looked great. (Maria and Whit did a pre-wedding trial lace up with my dress the night before we went to Nauvoo so they wouldn't have to figure it out the day of...it looked awesome though!!!). Then I went out into the foyer and met up with Mark and we went outside to greet our family for the first time as husband and wife! So weird I tell you...

I was so ultra happy though after we walked out of the Temple (well, inside too :) I even didn't mind all the picture taking that took place for the next long while...and if you know me you know that I really, really, don't like to have my picture taken. I'm sure I'd be more willing if I looked as beautiful as I did that day everytime I got my picture taken! It helps when someone's done your hair and make up for you so it looks fabulous and when you're wearing a beautiful dress. When Sarah and I were trying on dresses she kept saying she wishes she could wear a wedding dress everyday! Which I'm sure would get old and wouldn't feel as special after awhile but it's still fun!


Anywho (sorry I use that word a lot but I get sidetracked and then have to get back on track and that's my favorite transition word... :)-we did take lots of pictures. We had our main photographer (who we had lots of fun with, he was pretty cool) and then all my sisters had cameras and my roomies and there was just tons of pictures...but I love pictures and wanted LOTS so we took lots! We started with family pictures cuz my family had to leave right after to head back home, so that was fun getting everybody together and looking at the same camera at the same time and everything...VERY hard to do with over 20 people! That didn't take too long though and then we got to do individual pics of just me and Mark and we definitely had fun with that! I wanted cool pictures, not just the traditional serious ones and we did just that! I think it shows our personalities though...kinda...well the ones with my bridesmaids sure did :) THOSE were great!

The best part was all the awesome red accents I had with everything. I had the red lace up on the back of my dress, red flip flops, and then the red umbrellas which were especially amazing! The umbrella's were a result of Maria's fabulous genius, she saw them at Target and we HAD to get them! And I must say it was brilliant...simply brilliant. Really made the pictures. My aunt was walking around the historic area of Nauvoo and started to talk to some lady, a temple worker, I think, and told her that she was down there for her niece's wedding (there were actually four weddings that day) and the lady was like, "was your niece the one with the red hair and red flip flops?" And my aunt was like, "yeah, she is" and the lady was like, "oh my goodness! I thought she was so cute and I loved the flip flops!" So apparently I was a big hit with the temple workers :) But I couldn't help it, I looked amazing!

I really was very, very happy though with my pictures and have been having a fun time scrapbooking it all...I ran out of page inserts in my album though and have to buy more to fit them all :) I'm actually doing a real 12x12 album instead of an 8 1/2 x 11...really breaking out of my shell this time! I don't know if I'll go back or not...the bigger pages are so much more fun!

Small Illinois town is overrun by a mob of Missourians...again

Now that Sarah is gone I can catch up with the previous month...which might take a couple blogs or so.... :) so here goes!

Well, to start off I guess I'll begin with all the traveling. My dear roomies came out to Missouri with me to be at the wedding and to help me from going insane. They did a marvelous job and were such a HUGE help to me and my fam! I hope they enjoyed themselves a little bit....or at least were entertained a bit by my crazy family :) Who wouldn't though? We are DARN funny! My dad is ridiculously hilarious and crazy and is too hard to explain sometimes...you just have to meet him yourself to find out. Anyway, I'm not going to go through all my family cuz there's way too many...but I'll just say we're funny and my roommates had many the opportunity to have a good laugh during their visit. Anyway- we spent most of the day traveling and we were so tired cuz we stayed up late the night before playing Mario-Kart...those two things just do not mix. Traveling is so tiring anyway, so it's not smart to begin it with little sleep in the first place, but Mario-Kart is so fun! :) (It's the only video game I like to play...everything else is stupid).

So we finally made it to MO, which I was super excited about. One of my roomies, Whit, is from Arkansas so she is used to the humidity that is so plentiful in Missouri, my other roomie, Maria, was born and raised in Utah and has nice, long, THICK, curly hair and absolutely hated the humidity. Whit and I were excited the moment we got out of the airplane and Maria was complaining she couldn't breathe...poor thing! Now she knows how we feel in UT with its disgusting, awful dryness...this was the least of her worries though...a few hours away was an extremely excited 14 year-old girl who absolutely adores Maria, despite the fact that she had never met her in her life. Maria had the lovely privilege of riding all the way to and from Nauvoo with Sierra in the same car, which was SO funny! She also got to spend almost an entire day with her because Sierra stayed with them in their hotel the Friday I was married...I was laughing inside quite a bit imagining how fun that would be for them...it really wasn't too bad though, Sierra's a great girl and SO freaking cute! She can do her hair in the cutest ways that I could never ever do with my own...she was even giving my older sister (who is a hairdresser) tips on how to do my hair for the wedding! She's just amazing at everything she does. She was a tad bit hyper on the way home from Nauvoo though and I think Maria and Whit were about to throw her out of the car. She was crammed in the middle of the two (there's not much room back there as you can see) and she was just going crazy. Then she wanted to cuddle with them but they were NOT about to let that happen...especially Maria...she's most definitely not the cuddly type. Me and Mark were cracking up in the front seat. It was great and such a memorable moment of our wedding weekend! :)

To go on though, we all got to Nauvoo just fine and Maria and I went to the temple for a bit before going to my Aunt Ramona's for dinner, which was delicious. The best part though was that we all just sat out on the porch talking and singing together. It was so great. My aunt lives on the Mississippi River and it was just so perfect and gorgeous and all my sisters and everyone was there and we just sat there singing all the old family songs we always sing and it was the greatest thing ever. I love my family so much! They are so amazing and talented! It really was just the perfect night to spend with them before the actual wedding.

So that was all Wednesday when we drove up and got to Nauvoo. Thursday was an amazing day too though. My oldest sister Melissa decided to go through the Temple for the first time, the last of us sisters to do so, and it was just a fantastic experience for our family! My parents and all my sisters were together in the temple and it was just simply one of the most special moments we've had together. It not only made that day special but the next as well because I got to have all 5 of my sisters in the Temple with me for my wedding, which made me SO happy! There really weren't that many people in the temple with us, just our parents, siblings, and aunts and uncles, but I'm just so happy that my sisters were there with me!
Anywho, I'll get to the wedding day the next time I post. I still have to finish up Thursday.

So Thursday night we kinda had a pre-wedding dinner thing at the Adventure Zone. We just had pizza and talked and the kids played and THEN we rode the go-karts. Now THAT was SO much fun! The first round it was mostly us young adults, me, Maria, Whit, Sierra, Mark, his sister, her boyfriend, and then my little 4 year old nephew rode with my hubby in his car. I love go-karts though! It was so much fun! The second round was pretty darn funny though, my dad and Mark's dad were both out there along with my aunt, my sister, my little niece, my hubby's sister and their niece, and their cousin and uncle, and it was just so funny! My dad is SO competitive! He was having way too much fun out there just bugging everybody, blocking them, getting them turned around...it was great! He was whoopin' and hollerin' the whole time and it was just too funny. He tried to race my hubby's dad one time but he was just cruisin' along enjoying the ride and wouldn't race my dad.

It was such a great time though and so much fun for us to just hang with our family and friends the night before my wedding and enjoy being together and get to know each other since a lot of us were just meeting each other for the first time. After we were done there though my family went to my aunt's again to relax and sing again so that was fun too. When we got back from there most everybody went to bed but Maria, Whit, and I stayed up eating junk food, drinking Dr. Pepper, and talking. Maria was so hyper and it was really funny cuz she's usually not the hyper type. It was a perfect way to spend our last night together as single girls and the last we'd all three really have together, very sad I know, but we're all moving on to different things now- Whit's engaged and Maria's going on a mission so we won't really have time to do anything like that again. It was fun though, although we were all SO tired the next day cuz we stayed up too late! They were such great roommates and friends and I couldn't ask for anyone better!

Two young adults wreck havic on local shopping scene: no casualties or damage have been reported as of yet.

So this weekend was quite fabulous. Sarah and I had a fabulous time hanging out, watching movies, shopping, and, of course, eating! Sarah has been on a boat for 5 weeks and therefore has had no contact with any yummy foods, and we like our food so the very first thing we did was eat at Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio is simply superb and quite delicious!!! She was so excited and happy to eat real food! What a better way to start than with Cafe Rio? There's really nothing else that can compare!

Anywho- the real fun started Monday where we spent half the day at the mall where we had fun buying clothes and trying not to spend more money than we had. Sarah got a HUGE free duffel bag at Victoria Secret which she is very pleased with. Seriously...look at it! It's awesome! She also got these AMAZING shoes at Forever 21 which she proceeded to wear right away and got a huge blister on her foot after 5 minutes...not so smart but they were so cute!

After we were done with the mall we decided to take a break and drive up to Ikea to begin shopping all over again! Except this time it was way more fun. We spent a lot of time in the showroom exclaiming over how CUTE things were...we basically said it about everything cuz everything is CUTE! We had some fun taking pictures too, although I'm not too sure if it's allowed but we didn't get caught so all is well!

Sarah fell in love with this round bed and almost went home with it. She wouldn’t get off it for like 10 minutes but I finally made her and we continued on our wonderful journey through Ikea. When we finally made it through the showroom we went downstairs to the market room where I almost got into trouble cuz there were so many things I wanted to buy! We made it through though without too much of a dent in my bank account :)

Now I’m sure you are thinking this day couldn’t get ANY better than all that but I’m here to tell you that it did. Unbelievable, I know, but we did it. First of all we were driving along and noticed the hot light was on at Krispy Kreme so of course we had to make a quick stop there for a quick snack. Then we continued on to a bridal store where Sarah took my ring and pretended she was engaged and tried on gorgeous wedding dresses. It was quite fun although I think the consultant ladies knew something was up cuz they weren’t too nice to us. When we told my hubby what we were up to he just shook his head and laughed at us. He didn't understand at all why girls like to go try on dresses that we'll never get but he just doesn't know how much fun it is! Really, it is... I don't think I'll ever get tired of doing that.

Well we finally made it out of all the stores and went back home where we went out to dinner (with my hubby…it was our one month anniversary…we had to do something) and got some yummy, yummy pizza. The best part was that there was a balloon animal maker person who could make some really cool things. Sarah got a koala in a tree and I got Cinderella. She really was amazing though!

After all that eating though we felt kinda gross and lazy so we went on a walk up to the duck pond on campus to try and feed the ducks and take more pictures of course :) . Sarah got fed up with the ducks though because they wouldn’t eat out of her hand so we left them and just walked around campus instead.

Today we’ve been kinda lazy after all the excitement of the weekend so we had lunch and have been sitting around talking and watching T.V. and movies…ridiculous I know but it’s a tradition of things Sarah and I do so we had to do it at one point in our long weekend. My hubby joined us this time though since it was his day off but I think he was ok with it, except now we're kinda sick of that too and just feel ultra lazy and bored so I think we're going to find something fun to do! Sarah is leaving me tonight so we have to go out with a bang...or at least something better than sitting around watching old re-runs.... :)