seven years, no itching

seven years ago today i married dave.
i had a ton of pictures scanned and ready for this post,
and then we came to my parents house for a few days and i don't have them,
so you'll just get to see a few that i scanned here at their house.

the things i loved and wouldn't change:

• my bouquet
• my cake (the only thing that cost more than this beauty was my dress!)
• the individual martinelli apple juice's in glass bottles with bendy straws (picture to come when i get home!)
• my dress
• the guy

things i would change:

• i wish i had hired a real, professional photographer

• if i were doing it now, i would choose different bridesmaid dresses, but at the time, i LOVED these, so i guess that's what counts.

  (left to right: back row, joe russell, dave's brothers doug and greg,
  

  front row my sister ellen, my friends jen and jessica).
  
  

  my mom made the skirts (i think? now i can't remember) and the shirts are from banana republic. i had seen them earlier in the summer and loved them, and when i chose them to go with the skirts, of course the shirts were gone. i looked online, i talked to everybody i could, and they said they didn't know if they would get anymore. then a few weeks before the wedding, i walk in banana and there they were! i was so excited! i think my bridesmaids were less excited since they were like $68 or something, but at least they are definitely something they could wear again. i actually liked them so much i bought one for myself.
• i wish i had had my hair done instead of doing it myself. it looked fine, and i loved the color that kelly did a few days before the wedding, i just wish i hadn't done it myself.
  
• i wish we had done toasts of some sort so joe russell had a real purpose for coming all the way out to our wedding!
• i wish i had worn pearls, they would've looked fantastic with that dress.
  

the night before the wedding we had a bbq at my house. i was feeling really weird the whole night, mostly wanting to be alone, so it was a relief when dave and i got to go pick up his brother doug and bring him to my house, just because i got to be away from all the hubbub for a few minutes. later that night the guys went to an indian casino to do a little gambling (classy, i know) and me and my sisters and best friend went to double rainbow to get dessert. my sister-in-law holly took her video camera, and at the time i wasn't super excited about it, but i am so glad to have that video now, it's one of my favorite parts of my whole wedding video (so thanks, holly!). i wish i knew how to get it from a tape and put it on the blog, because i gave the camera a MURDEROUS look when holly walked in with it. but i am so glad to have it, because i don't have any pictures of that night and it was so fun.

that night i was supposed to sleep in my old room with my best friend but i was seriously freaking out and just wanted to be alone, so i slept on the couch in my dad's office. then that morning, i woke up totally calm. i showered, did my hair and make-up, and got dressed. i was ready to go way before it was time, and we actually ended up being late because my mom was slower than me...that's got to be a first for a bride.

we drove up to the temple and dave was standing outside with his dad, and i could see the relief on his face when i got out of the car. i think he was thinking i wasn't going to show up. in fairness, i had been really nervous the night before and i probably freaked him out a little. we met with our sealer for a few minutes (robert pixton, he was the stake president who replaced my dad), did a short veil ceremony, and got to sit by each other in the celestial room while we waited for everyone to get there. it was a really nice, calm morning. then we walked into the sealing room and the skirt of my dress was so big that when we sat down it knocked the chair into the wall and made a huge crashing sound. so embarrassing. the sealing was great, and i cried the whole time.

we had a luncheon at gardunos, my favorite new mexico restaurant, courtesy of my new in-laws and our reception was in my sister alice's backyard. it was beautiful and casual and fun (me and the bridesmaids went barefoot!). i really think the reception was beautiful. we used lots and lots of tulle and it was so pretty, i think--pictures to come when i get home!) and the food and cake were deLISH. i didn't want to throw my bouquet because i thought it was too pretty, so my bridesmaid jen let me throw hers and my cute cousin diane caught it (not the best picture, i know, but i have a better one scanned at home...ugh).

i got really lucky when dave chose me. thanks for seven great years, dude.