Emily's Wedding

My niece Emily (who is only a year and a half younger than me) got married on Friday.

Here is Emily & Jon


Emily & Jon with Emily's immediate family


Jon and Emily kissing and my Sister Brenda and her husband Larry being big dorks!


Yay Jon and Emily!!!


Emily REALLY wanted to have her reception outside, and USUALLY, June is a great month for outside weddings... unless of course, 2009 which has been Utah's "rainy season". So months ago, when Emily got engaged, she chose to have her reception at my Aunt's house, in the yard. So as this week has been approaching, we were getting a little worried about the weather. We have all been diligently checking the weather to see what the latest forecast would say. And they all said, it was going to rain on Friday.

After much deliberation, Emily decided that she would rather risk the possibility of rain, and have the reception outside anyway (after all, weatherman are wrong all the time).

So, Thursday morning, we started setting up the reception for Friday night. We worked pretty much all day Thursday and all day Friday setting up. We mowed the ginormous yard. We put up 100+ chairs, 17 tables, a gazebo, arches, yards and yards of fabric draped across the fences, patio, and arch. We hung THOUSANDS of white Christmas lights. We tied beautiful bows everywhere the eye could see. We hung ivy, we set up flower pots, we hung bridal pictures on easels, displayed wedding gifts, set up all the center pieces, lit 8 million candles. We set up the "ice cream sundae" bar including 9 different toppings along with napkins, waffle bowls, spoons, punch bowls full of water, cups, 2 ginormous commercial grade ice cream making machines (each weighing about 150 lbs.). We got the DJ all set up among several other things and the time for the reception finally came. We looked at the sky and it was calm and blue. Well... that sure didn't last long.

The reception started at 7:00 and by 7:30, the sky was angry. The wind started blowing so hard that all the centerpieces were blowing over. The DJ had to put his stuff in the garage so his equipment didn't get ruined. The bows, fabric, lights, table cloths, and ice cream bowls were blowing all over the place because the wind was blowing SO hard. Well we thought that was bad... then the rain came. And it wasn't a gentle Summer rain, it was a mild hurricane. I have tried to block most of it out of my memory, but all I remember is watching 2 FULL days worth of toil and strife, and a whole lot of money, get absolutely destroyed. Everyone huddled in the garage and under the patio until we were able to get a key to the church down the street and then we moved everyone there and finished the "reception" there. It was ridiculous. Everyone was soaking wet and let me just say, the hairdo's needed a bit of tweaking by the time we got out of the rain.

However, Emily was all smiles and that is all that mattered. It was her day, and she was happy either way. So we all made the best of it and had fun anyway. It was definitely a memorable wedding day. But I can testify, that it was the LAST reception my sister will ever agree to having outside!!!

Here is Emily and My Sister Brenda (before the hurricane)


Emily's Family-before the hurricane (notice how beautiful it is outside)


GOOD LUCK JON & EMILY!!!