A Little Rodent Gets Married!

My little sister (who I affectionately refer to as Rodent) got married this summer! Yeah for her! I am so happy for her that she found a really great guy to marry! His name is Kevin, and my whole family thinks he is pretty cool. Especially Zac who loves that now there is another guy to do sports things with, and I am happy so now when we get together for craft weekends Zac will have someone to play with so I can do my crafting! She got married on August 14th, which happens to be the same Friday Zac and I got married on two years ago (only it was the 17th then). It just happens to be the perfect weekend to get married because it gives you a week for a honeymoon and a week to move before school starts, it made sense for us then and so it was natural that it should make sense for them now. Anyway, as you may remember from an early post, I was made the official wedding planner, so I came out a week before the wedding to help plan, design, and prepare for everything that needed to be done. In all honesty though, I still feel a little guilty that I didn't help enough because my sister was at home during my wedding so she probably helped me more overall, but I tried to help as much as I possible could being so far away.

Well the first thing that I did when I got home was actually to drive up to Forks, WA to see my cousin Landon give his farewell talk in church before he left on his mission for 2 years to London, England. I am really happy I got to be there and hear him speak- even if I did have to sing in Sacrament meeting! He is going to make a great missionary and I am so proud of him and his decision to serve the Lord; he will certainly be blessed for it.

This is the cousin flock-shot of all of us who were able to make it. (Bryce, Landon, Kelsey, Christi, Kira, Kayla, and Kandice)

This was all the family that was able to make their way up to the rainforest for the farewell. From what we are told (although I'm not sure I believe it- since I have never seen an all sunny day in Forks) apparently it had been sunny and warm and hadn't rained in Forks in 2 months, but of course the weekend we got there it was cool, rainy, and overcast- go figure right? Anyway after church they had a really great BBQ in their really beautiful backyard, and it was really great to sit and talk with Landon. I am really grateful that I was able to spend this time with him before he left. Any way we left after lunch, and Landon left for the MTC that Thursday.

Then on Monday Kayla, my mom, and I went to the greatest stylest on earth to get our hair cut before the wedding. This is me, with my cute new hair cut, and Kayla with her cute new haircut all up in curlers as they did a practice run for the wedding day hair-do. This is all of us with Melanie our totally awesome stylest. Kevin even came and got his hair cut too! How cute! (Plus I took Zac later that week when he got there and he got his hair cut too. I have been doing it for the last year, and I learned that I have been doing it all pretty darn wrong! Now if only I can remember everything she taught me so I can give Zac a better haircut!)

After that we went and got manicures and pedicures so that we could all be picture perfect for the big day!

We like to make it a big group event. This is Sandy, Linda Lyons, Kevin (yes even Kevin got a mani and pedi!), Sheila, Kayla, and Kira. Its always fun to get pampered!

After that Sandy (Lexy's mom) held a Hadenfeld/ McKay party for Kayla and Kevin. The Hadenfelds have been very close family friends for like 18 years so they were pretty bummed that they wouldn't be able to go to Kayla's wedding so they held a little party to celebrate before they left. This is Audrey (Britney's mom), Britney and myself at the party.

The next day was a long day of bridal pictures with my cousin Alan. Alan took all my wedding pictures too, and he is so awesome!!! I have gotten so many compliments on our engagement, bridal, and wedding pictures. Alan is an amazing photographer, and I would definitely recommend him to anyone and everyone! Of course Kayla was Alan's assistant and my wedding dress fixer, so naturally it was my turn to return the favor and hold the reflector to shine light in all the right places, and make Kayla look absolutely luminous! I got to arrange the dress train, try to keep if from getting dirty, and fix the flyaway strands of hair. Alan took some amazing pictures, and I am sure he will win more photo contests with them! (He won a photo contest with a photo he took from our wedding.) Here are just a few of his amazing pictures!

The next day was a lot of wedding day preparation like planning the table decorations, Aunt Linda making the cake, and Aunt Bibi and her daughter Alysia making all the flower arrangements. And in the evening we went to the the temple for Kayla to take out her endowments. It was a really great experience to get to do that with my sister. After that we had a huge dinner at the Olive Garden which was fun for the good company and good food!

On Thursday we did more wedding prep during the day, Zac came the day before for the endowment session, and he took the opportunity to go golfing at a really nice golf course on this day since he isn't really into the whole sewing and crafting thing. :) And later in the evening some of the guys went to go see a movie; and my dad, Kevin, some of his friends, and Zac went bowling while us "women folk" had a bridal shower for Kayla. Britney Holland, one of my best friends since 5th grade also happens to be like an older sister to Kayla, and thus Britney and my other best friend Lexy (another pseudo-older sister) were two of Kayla's bridesmaids. I certainly tired to help Britney with the shower, but I was definitely over stretched this week, so in all honesty she did pretty much everything! So thanks Britney for everything you did! It was a ton of fun for Kayla and for all who attended!

Well that brings us to the big day! Friday August 14th was the day of the wedding! The wedding was at the Portland temple, and the ceremony was beautiful and wonderful. You certainly take in a whole lot more when its someone else's wedding. I remember I really liked what the sealer said at our wedding, I just can't remember exactly what it was. Anyway, the ceremony was great, the sealer was inspired and Kayla was beautiful!

The first picture is the bridesmaids and sisters: Lexy, Nabphreet, Britney Holland, Kayla, Britney (Kevin's sister), and Kira. The second picture is the bridesmaids again.

This is the groomsmen and brothers: Kevin, his 3 friends (I didn't really catch their names, you'll have to see Kayla's blog for that info), Zac (yes the short one- poor Zac- he really isn't that short, its just Kevin and all his friends are really tall!), and James (Kevin's sister Britney's husband).

Here is a few pictures of Kayla with me and my mom and dad.

The happy couple.

Here are some pictures from the reception. It was held at Vancouver Lake Park, the same place where we had my reception. We already had all the table cloths (even though we found out once we got there that they shrunk about a half a foot from being washed! We made it work though- duct tape works wonders!) the park was a beautiful really great location so it made sense to have Kayla's there as well. I designed the table decorations for Kayla's tables too and I think they turned out pretty nice so I thought I would include a few pictures of those. :)

All in all the wedding was beautiful, and it ran so smoothly! Luckily for Kayla we worked out a lot of the kinks at my wedding! (My wedding was great and we didn't have any real problems, but we worked out the timing a little better for Kayla's wedding.) I am so proud of my sister for finding such a great guy and for being prepared to marry him in the House of the Lord for time and all eternity. I know she is going to be so happy and I wish her and Kevin all the best as they start this new chapter in their lives together!

P.S. The Monday after we got back was the 17th of August, which marked 2 wonderful years of marriage to my best friend! Zac and I have been so blessed, and we are so grateful and thank the Lord everyday for the many ways he has and continues to bless our lives. We have a beautiful apartment with everything we need, two working cars, good jobs, and best of all wonderful families and each other. I am so lucky to have Zac in my life, he is truly my best friend and I couldn't imagine my life without him! Happy 2 years to us!