our wedding day pt.I

on june 14, 2014 kenneth and i got married in the newport beach lds temple in southern california. it was such a wonderful day and while it may sound cliche, it really was the best day of my life.

warning: long post ahead, with more to come…

ah finally time to write down about the whole experience. mostly this post is for me so that i don't forget, so here it goes.

wedding planning is not my thing. i could write a whole post just on how overwhelming planning a wedding was for me. but i promised myself that come the day of, i would try my absolute hardest to just forget about all the other details of wedding planning and just enjoy it. if things weren't done by that point, there was no purpose in me stressing about it so i just decided to let it go [que the soundtrack to frozen].

the morning of, kenneth came over to our rental house (not sure if most brides see their groom before they get married, but it was so comforting to see him and just hang out for a bit). then laura ek came over and did my hair and make up. she did a fabulous job i might add. also, krystal holmes gave me eyelash extensions earlier that week which i also loved. but as most things go for me, things ran a little later than anticipated and kenneth and i were 30 minutes late to the temple! ahhh. the drive over there was seriously so hilarious looking back. kenneth and i rushing to get there, me forgetting my wallet, but then later finding it hidden in the car. we basically were sprinting up the temple stairs and passing all our family and friends along the way and they just looked confused as ever as to why we were just now arriving haha. it's a good thing they tell the bride and groom to get their an hour before so we still had time even though we were 30 minutes late. but once we walked in i felt like i could finally breathe & relax.

marrying kenneth was an easy decision. i felt so much peace and comfort that day. i can't imagine what it would have been like if i was unsure if kenneth was the one. wedding planning was stressful enough. i've watched movies and heard other stories of those nervous brides and grooms and for us it really was nothing like that. minutes before we got married we had some time to ourselves to just talk and be together. we both just couldn't stop smiling and laughing and talking about how this day was finally here. i can honestly say i didn't feel nervous at all. we were ready. kenneth and i dated on and off for about 3 years before we got married. we have been through some tough times together and some amazing times. kenneth is my absolute best friend. who wouldn't be excited to spend the rest of their life with their best friend?! our ceremony was so special and filled with lots of good tears. i can't even begin to describe the feeling of having our family and friends with us that day. i wish i could relieve that moment over and over again. it was perfect.

when deciding where we wanted to get married, we both really wanted to be married in the laie, hawaii temple. mainly because hawaii is where we met, fell in love, and got engaged. but it didn't make sense to get married in hawaii when no one would be out there. we decided on california because most of kenenth's family lives in california now and it was really important to us to have all our family there. so now we just had to decided between the los angeles temple, newport beach temple or san diego temple. all really gorgeous temples! but the newport beach temple stood out to us. we liked the simplicity of it and even how small it was. it made for a more intimate and personal setting. we both really liked how unique it was compared to other temples and the location was perfect.

weird fact… ever since i was in high school, i always had this weird feeling that i would get married in california. and when i was dating kenneth i thought, well i won't get married in california because we will get married in hawaii or georgia probably. but then his parents moved to california and suddenly it became the best option. how weird right?!

right before we walked out of the temple to greet all our family and friends, one of the flowers in my flower crown fell out (it was directly in the middle of the crown haha). so we just stuck it in and hoped i wouldn't move my head too much and it would stay until my florist mother could fix it haha. luckily it stayed in for about 3 minutes and then fell right out. good thing my mom and sister fixed it right up.

such a perfect day. not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was perfect too!

how awesome is this photo of our nephew weston?? haha

my people.

my grandpa and grandma flew in from utah. it was so sweet to have them there. my grandpa reminds me of the grandpa from the movie up. when he's not all dressed up, he's wearing a flannel and suspenders. i guess you could say he was a hipster before it was even cool haha.

my amazing mom. she's the best. my mom got her masters in horticulture and used to be a florist. so she made ALL the floral arrangements, bouquets, boutonnieres, flower crowns, everything. how lucky am i to have such a talented mother! i'm so grateful she's taught me how to make floral arrangements. sometimes i think about doing it as a business because i love flowers so much and i think it's so fun and soothing to put them all together. it was so fun to go to the wholesaler and pick out all the flowers i wanted and create it with my mom.

my wonderful family. i feel so lucky that they all made it. my brother had to take his kids out of school a few weeks early in order to make the trip from ecuador. they're the best.

my sister and brother, beka & chris.

okay… this picture kills me. how cute are my nephews?! such studs.

the elledge clan. kenneth clearly has more siblings than i do so it was our personal mission to try and get everyone in his family there. we almost accomplished it. just missing his brother-in-law dan and his older brother jacob.

love my cute flower girls! poor amy, it was a struggle to get all our nieces and nephews smiling for the photos. she did a fabulous job at trying to capture it.

i feel so blessed to have had my aunt & uncle and cousins fly in all the way from georgia. i love them a whole lot.

my beautiful bridesmaids. love them all a lot.

my sister was my maid of honor. she went above and beyond to help me out with everything for our wedding to make it perfect. love her so much.

our amazing friends

kenneth's groomsmen.

my mom and sister-in-law norma, made all of their ties! the poor guys all ordered these pants we found online. we were just looking for something cheap for everyone to buy and the pants ended up being ridiculously tight on all of them haha. literally hilarious because they could hardly walk or sit down haha. such troopers.

kenneth's best man was his brother jesse.

the original gator house.

all the houses in hawaii have names because they don't have apartment complexes. i lived in the canal house, kenneth lived in the gator house. these guys will forever be our best friends.

it was so special to have sonny and his wife amy there. it ended up being completely lucky that they were visiting sonny's home in southern california the same weekend we got married. it was a joyous reunion. also, let's talk about the fact that amy is 5 month's pregnant in this picture?! she is TINY.

we all went to high school together. love these guys so much. still can't believe they all flew in from georgia to be there.

i loved my flowers so much.

i'm going to do a separate post to talk about my wedding dress and all the work that went into designing and making it, but here's a little glimpse of all the beads i put on… one… by… one.. (i do not suggest other brides to ever do that)

as most people know, my dad unexpectedly died 10 months before i got married. it was really heartbreaking to not have him there so i tried to include parts of him the best i knew how. this is a piece of one of his favorite blue shirts and we sewed it to the bottom of my dress. and the other ring that i wore i borrowed from my mom. it was a gift to my mom from my dad. it has 3 different stones in it (mine and my siblings birth stones).

so amy asked us to close our eyes as she was taking this picture and when i opened them, i saw some random lady next to amy taking a picture of us haha. she responded with "oh hi! i'm here for another wedding, but i just love your dress and everything and i just had to take a picture of you guys! you guys look so great!" haha too funny.

my dad came up with these gold lockets to give to all of the girls in our family. it has an engraved B on the front with a little message on the back. i was too afraid of losing it if i used that actual locket on my bouquet so my mom bought another gold locket and put photos of my dad inside and attached it to my bouquet. it was really special to be able to look down throughout that day and see him.