Thank You

A few weeks ago, one of my old friends wrote a post on her blog about what she would have done differently for her wedding. In hindsight, she wished that she had "faux-loped" to the temple with only her parents and in-laws present. Her post was hilarious, and I thought that I would post something similar. I sometimes think about things I would have done differently. But I think that we all do that, and maybe you do that the longer you've been married as trends change over time.

I actually loved our wedding. We were extremely poor and couldn't really depend on our parents for too much help. My parents still had a missionary out, and I felt guilty asking them to pay for a wedding. I tried to do a lot of it on my own dime or homemade. In an ideal world, we would have had professional invitations, a caterer, a reception hall, etc.

I recently got my hands on some footage of our wedding and recption. I guess it had been lost, and this was the first time since we've been married (7 years!) since I had seen any footage from that day. As I watched Peter and me outside of the temple and at our reception held in a church cultural hall, my heart swelled with gratitude. I feel ashamed for wishing that things could have been more "perfect." As the camera swept around the gym, I noticed the many people who even made our wedding possible. I saw one of Peter's brothers manning the background music in the corner, my uncle and sister-in-law taking pictures, my aunts and cousins who helped decorate and arrange flowers, and Peter's brothers, who spent the evening before stringing a ton of twinkly lights overhead. I watched my parents and Peter's parents stand next to us and greet our guests. I watched some Relief Society sisters from my grandmother's ward serve food. And all this because my sister, Lexie, was willing to film it all. I know a lot of hands went into creating that evening for us. I loved our wedding. Seeing it happen before my eyes reminded me of how much I loved it then too. And as much as it would have been fabulous to have a live Big Band there, I didn't need it. Our day was special because of all those who loved us enough to make it happen.

So thank you to those who helped put our wedding on, those who came, and those who wished they could have come. Our wedding is what it is, and I loved it.