Wedding Review

happy Year &1/2 to us!!

to commemorate mine and travis' year and a half anniversary, i decided to do a wedding review post. if you ever happened to have any questions about our wedding, ever, here are the answers.

colorofficially, my colors were pink & yellow. but, i used mismatched fabrics & patterns to give my wedding a more personal feel. i never like to feel confined to a color scheme {smile}
dressfor our wedding, i never put myself through the stress of finding the "perfect dress". i looked through what david's bridal had to offer, tried on the two thousand dollar dresses, and grew attached to a lot of them. but i just could not get over that i'd be paying so much for a dress i'd wear only once. for a girl who gets all of her clothes from thrift stores or garbage bags that people want to throw out, the idea just did not fly with me. 
i found my dress via craigslist for $150. the lady we bought it from was a smoker so, the dress smelled unpleasant for a while... but when i tried it on in her smoky little house, it was a perfect fit. it didn't even need hemming! which is saying something, since i'm only 5'1". i took it as a sign.



bouqueti made my bouquet. i am in love with flowers, but flowers die. i liked the idea of being able to keep my bouquet forever, without it being tucked away in a box at the bottom of a closet. instead, i handcrafted a billion little brooches and pendants, all of which could be individually un-pinned from my bouquet, and worn today as hair flowers or brooches. i am a smart cookie.



wedding partyonly a few of trav's groomsmen could make it down to arizona for the wedding. because of that, and because of that whole i-probably-shouldn't-have-17-bridesmaids-when-you-only-have-four-groomsmen type-o-thing, we had a more intimate wedding party than we originally planned. the girls dresses are from downeast, with an added sash & brooch made by me, and the men's shtuff are all from Men's Warehouse.





ceremonyour temple sealing, by far, was the most beautiful & special part of our marriage to date. in reality, i didn't need the fancy dress, the yummy cake or the tumults of guests to make august 6th 2010 the most perfect day; i only needed my handsome man and the eternal sealing powers of the gospel. read more about our sealing here. 




receptionwhen i was a little girl, i used to dream & dream about having my wedding in the cultural hall of the church. which, is probably weird, since the cultural hall isn't exactly the most glorious place ever. maybe it's the interior designer in me, but i always loved the thought of taking such an ordinary space and turning it in to something completely beautiful. and, i think that's what we accomplished!Sandy Hestand helped provide most of the shtuff for the reception, including the lighting & all of the flowers. the unique dressers we used for the food banquets were borrowed from Blossom Salon & Boutique in downtown Mesa, my favorite little shop in the history of ever. 











the Young Womens program has a special place in my heart. ever since i became a laurel, i sort of became their mom. i deeply wanted to include my girls into our wedding somehow, so i whipped up a few aprons for them and asked them to be my wedding waitresses! it meant so much to me that they were willing to help.


hair & make upa cute chick from my home ward did my hair, i was going for an asymmetrical t-swift do.my hair flower was made by my main girl candace at peace republic clothing,and i did my make up while in the car, driving to the templei guess i can't be fabulous all the time, lol.


photographyAnnie Randall was our wedding photographer, and ohmygosh she was the most perfect thing we could have hoped for. she is an adorable little ball of talent, and i highly recommend her if you ever need to photograph anything. She got all of out photos to us the next day & every image was gorgeous enough to be on the cover of a magazine. in fact, one did end up on the cover of a magazine. huh. see our bridal sesh here




tablesfor the most part, the small decor items at our reception came from my bedroom at home. i was all over the bird cages and the glass bottles and vintage candles. however, i've noticed my style beginning to evolve. maybe i'm growing up?weird.




cakei was madly in love with my cake. traditional cakes are cool, but cupcakes are so much cuter & user friendly. i stuffed daisies in the bare spaces & voila! a non-traditional traditional. & it tasted dang good too.






garter tossmy twin brother caught the garter at out wedding. it is equal parts funny & awkward.read about the bouquet toss here.





dancingMine & Trav's song is Let's Get Married by Archie Starr. A little nontraditional, but that's us.With my daddy, we danced to Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney. Which, we learned, is an extremely long song.
As for the rest of the night, I really wanted our wedding to be fun. So, it turned into a dance party instead of a bunch of ballads in a row. it was too perfect.









the groomthe man. my man. on our wedding day, i honestly thought i knew him better than anything.boy, was i wrong. i've learned so much more about him in the past year & a half than i thought was possible. like, if he ever sleeps in past 10am, he's too tired to do anything for the rest of the day.and he's meticulous about his teeth. floss, brush, mouth wash, the works. he always gets the same look on his face when he's angry. it's a "how the heck is this even happening?" face. and, he talks to himself when he works on the TV, under the kitchen sink, under the hood of the truck, etc. 
i can't wait till a year and a half from now, all of the other things i'll learn about him. i still feel like we are such babies.

etc.my only regret about our wedding, was that pinterest wasn't around to help me plan it. i feel like that is the biggest jip.but, everything else was beautiful. i can't complain.


xo lauren

our anniversary

{which actually happened a week ago} 

On the morning of our wedding, I woke up to sun pouring in through my windows onto the purple walls of my old bedroom at home. It seemed to be an ordinary day. After fluttering my eyelashes once or twice I caught sight of the gorgeous white gown hanging on my bedroom door, and I remembered. 

Today was my wedding day.

The rest of the morning was a complete blur. I ate something, I tried to work out, I laughed with my brothers and sisters, I was an hour late to my hair appointment. I met up with Travis to drive to the temple before the rest of our family or guests, and I did my make-up in the car (that's talent, friends). 

We were almost late, so we rushed into those big rotating doors and we rushed into our temple clothes and we rushed to get everything taken care of before our family came for the sealing. Before we knew it, we were given a bench in a quiet hallway and a few moments to ourselves to wait for the sealer to arrive. 

Sitting on that bench alone with Travis and thinking that soon we'd belong to each other was amazing. Nothing had ever felt more real to me. Everything else- the reception, the prepping, the planning- it didn't matter. On that bench with Travis, I knew what was important. 

He was important. We were important. The Lord was important. 

Travis & I made promises to each other that day. I cannot put in to words how much those promises mean to me. I can't describe how they have become such a beautiful part of my entire being. They are wonderful. The way in which Heavenly Father has designed for us to live as husband and wife, and in families, is wonderful. While on that bench we also dreamed of our future littles, and I wished they could know how important this day was to their own lives. 

In the sealing room that day we smiled & we cried, 

and I knew that our love would last.

Even though our marriage is far from perfect, we know that we can make it last an eternity.

We will always be grateful for the chance. 

this time, last year IV

this time, last year

i had my last minute bachelorette party with all my favorite ladies.

we had a lingerie contest,

and painted our nails

it was super chill. we had a blast!
& because we stayed up too late, we wended up falling asleep on eachother.

and behold, it was good.