"Save the Dates", Engagements, and Bridals/Groomals

McKay is one of the sportiest men i have ever met. He played football, soccer, and baseball in High School and is dang good at every single sport he plays. So, for our "Save the Date" pictures, we decided to make them baseball themed. Here are a few of them taken by my lovely friend Ellie Macdonald. Enjoy!

We wanted to do our first set of engagements outside, but the weather wasn't giving us our way. To avoid the windy and rainy weather, we went inside to snap some photos. Our photographer had a trip planned to Europe a few days after the shoot so we asked him to hurry and get us the pictures before he left. He said he would, but ended up only getting a few of them up on his blog. The pictures below are the ones from his blog. i tried to get the pictures on a CD from him the whole time that he was in Europe, but he never got them to us. So, we had to take another set of Engagement pictures (which i ended up liking a lot better anyway). Here are the first set:

My family took a trip to California, so we decided to have my sister take a few pictures for us with my camera while we were there.

 

Then came our Bridals/Groomals. We decided to take pictures together before the wedding day because you don't really walk down the isle in your wedding dress in the Temple, and we wanted to capture the moment when he first saw me in my dress on camera. We tied a blind fold around McKay and he had to wait for me to untie it before he could see me in my dress. The suspense was killing him. i teased him for awhile, but when i finally untied it he grinned from ear to ear and looked like an excited little kid. It was so cute. 

Photographer: Trish Strobehn

All the picture taking was a blast. i'm not so sure if McKay enjoyed it too much, but he was a trooper and never complained once. He is always willing to make whatever i want happen. i have to be careful not to take advantage of this guy because he never tells me no! Although i have to admit, i have a hard time telling this handsome guy no as well. i guess we must love each other or something. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Thanks for reminiscing with me!

Wedding Festivities

i've been thinking a lot about my wedding lately, and i realized that posted about my wedding day, but i forgot to post about everything leading up to the big day and all of the pre-wedding festivities! Although it was a little bit stressful, it was oh so much fun. The first thing we had to do was hire the wedding planners, Amber Anderson and Cindy Harris (link to their FB page here) I knew that i wanted an outdoor reception, and my parents just redid our backyard a few years ago for my sister's wedding so it was the perfect venue. We had a meeting with Amber and Cindy to discuss ideas. i brought a binder full of pictures and ideas for them to look at. here are some of the inspiration photos:

Along with all of the planning came the fun stuff like my bridal showers and bachelorette party!

My sister Beth and my wedding planner Amber threw my bridal shower in Vegas. it was a tea party theme and turned out so cute. There was a collection of eclectic china, gold silverware, and champagne glasses that we used to sip our pink lemonade. There were all kinds of delicate finger foods, monogrammed cookies, and tea cakes. We talked, opened presents, and ate way to much delicious food. I tried to distract my guests from looking outside the windows and seeing McKay and my brother swimming in the swimming pool. At the end of the Shower, they handed out miniature jars of honey imported from England as the party favor to our guests.

my pretty sisters.

my sisters in law

my second grade teacher got to come!

Utah Bridal Shower

my adorable niece, McKinley.

Bachelorette Party

My bachelorette party was a blast thanks to my amazing friends, Kayla and Ellie (the two on the far left). We played games, ate yummy food, and had a dance party. it was so much fun to celebrate with some of my closest girlfriends.

There was only 3 months left until the Wedding and i still didn't have my wedding dress! I wanted my Mom to be there, so McKay surprised me with a plane ticket to Las Vegas to go wedding dress shopping with my Mom and sisters. We went to Alfred Angelo Bridal and the second dress that i tried on was it. A tear came to my Mom's eye when i walked out in the gown and that's how i knew that it was my wedding dress.