Wedding October 31, 2009

Ok. So I decided that instead of thinking that our lives are nothing worthy to blog about, I know there are people out there who think our lives would be a fantastic thing to read about Especially those family members who don't get to see us often and don't have to put up with hearing is all the time. :)

So the last entry was off of our engagement website. On to the wedding.

October 31, 2009 Richard and Kristin were sealed in the Boston LDS Temple for time and all eternity...

And so the story goes...

Some days the day seemed like it would never come, others like it was coming to fast. So much to do and what seemed like so little time to prepare. It was an odd feeling rushing towards my favorite holiday which is now my anniversary. How cool is that?! So with Halloween fast approaching  and work demanding more and more of my time my parents moved out west. Back to good ol' Las Vegas. How could mom just up and leave like that?! I was mortified. Who was going to help me with all the planning?! Good thing I don't know how to delegate and take all the responsibility on myself. Eh its ok. Its the way know how to do it. You can only trust things to get done right if you do them yourself. Boy was I wrong. I mean things don't have to be done right to be done. I have a long life ahead of me learning that.

I had so many ideas for everything and my ADHD, and OCD kicked in full force. With that combination and being female how does anything ever get done? Slowly but surely things were coming together. The months rolled by. We got the design for our invites done and got them printed, put together and out the door. Note to anyone reading, 300 one half inch wax seals are not fun to do. I love my wax seals but never again will I do that many at a time without being paid to do it. We got a bit of a shock when we got to the post office to send off the invites. When we got up to the counter they informed us that every single one needed an additional 20 cents added because of the wax seal which no one had bothered mentioning to me when I took the invite in to get weighed. Oh well. They looked amazing and I am still proud of my handy work. It is so rewarding when you conceive and follow through with something start to finish. It makes it even more personal that way.

A couple of days before the wedding I was still trying to get my vacation worked out at work. I had planned for a different time but when we moved the wedding to Halloween work all of a sudden was having a hard time getting me vacation. No wonder they make us plan all our vacation a year in advance. It is hard enough trying to plan it a year in advance let alone 2 months ahead that turned into a few days ahead. The days were ticking down and I kept adding more projects to the list. Most everything I wanted to do for the reception kept getting shot down because of code violations or something like that. I was trying really hard not to be Bridezilla however I know on a couple of occasions when I lost it. I put myself in a corner to sort it out. I had to keep telling certain individuals that it was my wedding and to butt out.


The day before the wedding I had a serious break down. I was all sorts of ready to call it off. I wasn't going to have anything to do with it. There was still so much to get done and I felt like no one wanted to hear what I had to say or listen to me about it, and it was my wedding after all. Richard just kept telling me that he would be happy with it as long as I was happy and i just wanted him to give me an opinion on things. There were still a lot of projects to do and things just seemed insurmountable. At this time I feel like i deserved a break down. Luckily my family was there to save the day.

My Grandma and Mom made the cake. My sister (Kat) and her husband (Brandon) wrapped the ribbon around the bouquets I put together. I was having the hardest time with the ribbon. I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Brandon is also wonderful with a sewing machine and made a cover for our card basket. My brother (John) and his wife (Melanie) helped push me along to finish the adorable cake toppers that I had been trying for so long to make. I kept getting discouraged, they weren't turning out how I had planned and I kept running out of time to even look in the mirror let alone work on wedding stuff the past few weeks.

With the help of my family everything got done. I was up until about 3 am and my mom and grandma were still up when my bestie (Amanda) came over to do my hair. 4am. What a wake up call huh? The last few days had been non-stop running around from airport to work to shuttle people around. The house was full and I was getting overly stressed and to top it all off our honeymoon plans fell through. Oh well what else is new. We will get on one eventually. So Amanda did a fantabulous job on my hair and Richard got to the house late to pick me up so we could get to the Temple. I didn't care to much because it is our wedding and they can't have one without us. It would just have to start when We got there. I did my makeup on the way down to the temple in the car. Once again I rock at being able to get things done in a pinch. Give me a dealine and I am all over it. If I don't have a set deadline things don't seem to get done.

We got to the Temple not too late actually and went and got ready. I got to sit with Richard alone in the chapel for a few min before the ceremony. There was such a calm and peaceful feeling about everything. All the running around and no sleep didn't mean anything. This is what today was about.  The ceremony was beautiful and so simple and intimate. I wouldn't have wished for it any other way. I was able to wear my mom's wedding dress and the spirit was so strong. I knew that everyone I love that had passed was there with us. We sat for a minute just soaking in the peaceful quiet that surrounded us. And then we went up to the sealing room. There we were married and sealed together for time and all eternity. There is no better feeling in the world than knowing that as long as you live life righteously no matter what happens you will never be separated from your best friend. Richard is my one true soul mate. Heavenly Father prepared him especially for me. I know this because who else would be able to put up with me and the train wreck of my past.

We had close friends and family there at the ceremony. I honestly didn't even notice. I only remember one thing clearly from that day besides the ultimate calm that came from knowing that finally, finally I had found him after all the years of mistakes and searching. I found HIM. I couldn't tell you what Richard was feeling but it was like we were connected. We were two and we became one. I felt our souls merge that day. Marriage really is about two becoming one. Sitting here now typing this out the feeling is washing over me again. It is simply amazing.


I remember looking over my shoulder at my dad, and he had the biggest smile on his face that I have ever seen. He was so happy. There were tears running down his cheeks. I looked back at my mom and she was crying too. They were so proud of me and it made me feel even better knowing that after all I had put them through I had finally done something right in my life. It took a little longer than I had imagined, but I was there, with him, and it still amazes me. I am proud of myself being able to overcome and conquer so that I could be with him. I can't even express how Richard completes me.

After the beautiful however brief ceremony we got up and looked in the mirrors on either side of the wall. The one way it was as if you could see eternally into the past. I knew that I have always known Richard and he came to me when the time was finally right. We turned around and looked in the other mirror and you could see forward into eternity and I knew that I would never have to be alone again. He promised me that much.


After the ceremony I went and changed out of my mom's wedding dress and into my dress. I am still a little sad that I didn't get my pictures done in my mom's dress. Things seemed to be so hectic after the ceremony. It was almost as if time stood still during the ceremony and then we had to catch back up to it while changing. We went out and took pictures (the lovely Lara Brookes came all the way from Arizona to do them for us she also did engagements in NYC for us.) and mingled for a bit. It was a sunny slightly overcast day that turned very windy. After pictures everyone left and we went to the luncheon that Richard's parents prepared for everyone who had attended the ceremony. It was the go-between after the ceremony before the reception.


At the luncheon it was nice and relaxed. We were trying to set up for the reception in between taking bites of food. (Did I mention I had too much to do and not enough time to do it?) Richards dad had made split pea soup, chili, and his seafood bisque/chowder. I don't like seafood too much yet (its growing on me) but I can not get enough of this stuff. In addition to a whole sandwich spread and goodies.

At the reception we had over 16' yes, 16 FEET worth of a candy table. My idea of course. I love Halloween and the candy that goes along with it. What would have made everything even better was if we could have all dressed up. I am looking forward to being able to have a Halloween party every year as an anniversary celebration. Even though everything wasn't exactly how I had envisioned it, it was still perfect. I had a lot of help from a lot of people and it couldn't have been pulled off without them. Even though I thought I could do it alone. Not many people showed up to the reception even though we thought there would be more. We now have a lifetime supply of candy. (You won't hear me complaining)

Bishop Hardy did the ring ceremony and Amanda sang "God Bless the Broken Road" by Rascall Flatts. Amanda put together our wedding play list and Nick (Richard's bestie) was our DJ. By the end of the evening we were pooped. Falling asleep standing up. We stuck around and helped clean things up. (Shows you how OCD I am) and then we went off to the hotel where Richard had booked us a suite. We promptly passed out from exhaustion. We told everyone that we would be back to hang out later that evening after the kids went trick-or-treating in Amherst, NH. We were so out of it we didn't even hear the wake up call or the alarm or the multiple times my Dad called us. We were only 30 min later than we said we would be. Not bad.

We hung out for a little bit and went back to the hotel. We were way exhausted we almost slept through breakfast on the presidential suite floor. We made it home in time to pick up Lara and be late for church. I am glad that we made time to hang out with everyone who traveled so far to come to the wedding. Weddings are kinda crazy because people come from everywhere to see you and you only get a few min to see them. I felt so bad. The weekend was crazy, but looking back I don't think I would change a thing except for getting pictures in my Mom's wedding dress. I am hopefully going to be able to get some taken this fall. I shouldn't have changed too much in a year.

This is way long but I am thankful to everyone who helped pull everything together at the last minute. My family and friends are lifesavers and I hope I wasn't too much of a pain. It felt really good planning everything out on our own and being very hands on with the wedding/reception. It made it so much more memorable and intimate for me to know that my creative genius was behind it all. From the invitations to the last vase of candy.

Thank you everyone for being a part of it all. It was magical.