Danny and Spencer got engaged in September, the Saturday before Kevin, Kody, Brooke, Papa, Grandma, and I went on our cruise to Alaska-yet another post I still need to do!
So the planning began when I got back. We had great plans, but getting them all to work out was not as easy as we had hoped that it would be. To look back on it now is kind of funny..........no, it still isn't funny, maybe someday it will be funny, but for now it is still a bit frustrating.
Lets start with the sisters outfits. This was one that we started on at the very beginning and we were still working on them days before the wedding.
Danny and I had gone out looking at different dresses, skirts, tops, sweaters, you name it we looked at it. The problems ranged from being to expensive, wrong colors, wrong sizes, or not modest enough.
We started looking on-line. We found a cute little dress at Newport News that was pink, with an empire waist, and cap sleeve. So we got everyone size's and I ordered eight of them, yes eight. They finally came, I tore open the box and opened one of the dresses. They were the right color pink, but that was it! The dresses had a regular waist with a gathered skirt, and the sleeves, well there weren't any. I went back to the online description and picture. It listed sleeves, and an empire waist in the description. The picture also showed these same features. I called the company and finally talked to a real person. Who said that yes there are sleeves on that dress. But there really wasn't sleeves, so I had to send all eight of the dresses back. We began our search again.
Danny and I thought that we could get a cute brown skirt and a green or pink top. So the search was on for brown skirts. We looked everywhere, there were no brown skirts to be found. We also kept our eyes open for brown dresses. What no brown dresses either???!!!????
Brooke found a cute little brown dress at a little Asian store in Clearfield. So Danny and I went to the store on Danny's lunch break. The dresses were very cute, they only came in small med. and large. Danny tried on the large, it barely fit her. It was very tight, some of the sisters, are not as small as Danny, Jenny pregnant with a cute little belly, and one of Spencer's sisters is pregnant and will be delivering her baby right before they come to Utah for the wedding. So that dress just wouldn't work. They did have some brown skirts. I bought all of the large's that they had, I think that I bought 12 skirts. We let everyone try them on and pick out the style that they liked the best, then I took the rest back to the store.
We had found a cute little lime green top and I ordered eight of them. When they came we realized that the sleeves were very sheer. So we tried putting white t-shirts under the tops. That looked awful. So it was off to Joann's Fabric store to find fabric to make some lining for the sleeves-you remember how I hate picking out fabric and paint. True to form this was not an easy job. I finally found some green fabric that matched the tops.
I talked to Debbie about how to make a pattern and how to sew the lining in. It was going to be hard. So I put it off like I always do when I have something hard to do.
So the first part of December, I start on this project. It took forever to do one top. Summer (she and the boys had made it to Utah) put the finished top on. It now looked like the top had wings. Instead of laying down like sleeves a supposed to, they stood up and even flapped like wings. I burst into tears...what are we going to do now. So I gave up on lining the tops.
We decided to try to find a t-shirt, maybe brown would be better that white. So the week before the wedding we went back to the mall. We went to the Down East t-shirt shop in the middle of the mall. They had the right color, the right neck line, but no sleeves, we tried the Down East Store that had just opened in the mall. We found some new t-shirts that had just come in. But they didn't have all of the sizes that we needed-I was very frustrated, sorry I took it out on all of you that were there trying to help. They called around and found some more sizes at another store, Summer and Jenny went and got the tops. But then when we went to divide them out and give them to everyone, we still had the wrong sizes, somehow. So I went back to the store and exchanged the t-shirts for extra larges instead of smalls. We finally had the sisters outfits. I think back and wonder if it wouldn't have been better just to buy the dresses that Danny had wanted in the first place-who cares its only money!!!
We also had some trouble with the invitation, but Danny's friend at school helped her find a company to cut the invitation out, and then Danny's friend Josh at Alpha Graphics did the printing for us. The are beautiful!
We finally got the flowers picked out. We went to a flower shop in Ogden. She did a great job!
Then it was time to get all of the ingredients for the "cake". Danny had chosen a square cake, with chocolate frosting and dark chocolate fondant. I had seen the fondant at Orsen Gigyies, but hadn't bought it because I wanted it to be fresh.
My mom was flying into SLC the week before the wedding and we decided to leave early and go into SL to pick up the fondant. To my dismay Gigies was out of the chocolate fondant. We asked them if they knew anyone else that sells the chocolate fondant, they sent us to Bakers Cash and Carry. I went to the airport to pick up my mom while Summer, Jenny, Hannah and Blaine took off to this new store.
Jenny calls me while I am waiting for my mom to arrive. They don't have the chocolate fondant, but they have some jell that you knead into white fondant to make it dark brown-I just didn't want to do that, what a mess. So I called my friend Kelly Salmond who does wedding cakes for a living. She told me about another place that sells the chocolate fondant. I sent Summer and Jenny there.
Jenny called while I was getting mom's luggage, the new place had the fondant, but they only took cash! Cash??? you mean that green paper covered with germs? Who uses that stuff anymore???!!!! Well, we didn't have $70.00 dollars in cash between us. I was talking to mom to see if see had any cash, and I would pay her back, she was short $20.00. There was a nice man that had talked with mom before and during the flight, that took out his wallet and gave my mom $20.00 and said Merry Christmas, we both tried to refuse but he wouldn't take the money back. What a nice guy! Thank you-whoever you are.
Jenny and Summer ended up finding an ATM and with drawing the cash, going back and buying the fondant. Wow! But we finally had the fondant. Thanks, Summer and Jenny!
There were other things that kept happening-new Christmas lights that wouldn't work, misplaced temple recommends, lost lime green food coloring, table clothes coming after the reception started, marshmallow hearts that looked like dog bones, doors to the house being left open all day and the police almost being called, flowers delivered early, outside lights not working during the receptions, outside candles that didn't get lit, people coming to the reception early, Spencer's family having a car accident(no one was hurt-thank goodness) and getting to the reception late. The list goes on and on. I keep trying to remember that all of this stuff really doesn't matter.
But the most important thing went right, and that was that Danny and Spencer were sealed to each other in the Salt Lake Temple, by an elder of the church who held the proper authority. They continued the unbroken chain of good choices and began their own eternal family!
Spencer and Kevin painting the entry.
