Wedding Day Part 4 :: The Temple; March 14, 2015

The temple....it was my favorite part of the whole day.

It has been my dream to be married in this temple ever since the announcement was made in the General Conference 2008. All throughout my high school life, I watched this temple be constructed, anticipating the day for when I could finally enter. It was dedicated while I was on my mission in Uruguay. 

I love everything about this temple. I love the design, the golden brass doors, the gardens, and most of all the spirit. Our sealing ceremony was something so special. We received so much support from so many family and friends. Family from all over the country traveled here to be apart of our special day. We felt so wonderful. Grant and I had been praying and fasting that the spirit would accompany us on our wedding day, and that it would be present during our sealing. Heavenly Father not only heard, but answered our prayers. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my entire life testifying that this marriage was right and good. It's cool to think that even our future posterity was accompanying us on that day. I'm sure they were shouting for joy.

Did I mention that we had SO much support??!

WE DID IT!

I know that this part of the day will be engrained in my memory forever. The JOY that we felt was something so indescribable. I felt like I couldn't wipe that smile off my face and we couldn't stop kissing. I felt so thankful for the gospel and for the wonderful Plan of Salvation where I can create my own eternal family unit with my eternal companion. I felt so grateful for the prompting that I received as a 15 year old, telling that I had just met my future husband. I am so thankful that prompting came true, because I married my best friend and the love of my life.

Wedding Day Part 3 :: the dress and the ring

Grant and I both agree that we felt and are feeling Heavenly Father pour down his blessings upon us. We have felt it especially while planning our wedding. Grant likes to call it his paycheck from his mission. While preparing to be married and sealed for time and all eternity, I received so many confirmations that Grant and I were doing Heavenly Father's will. We were marrying the right person, at the right place, at the right time....and for that, everything, literally EVERYTHING fell right into place with hardly any bumps in the road. 

One of our many greatest blessings was the dress. Finding a beautiful, modest, but good priced dress is hard work. The day after Grant proposed, my mom and I went on the hunt to find the perfect wedding dress. I knew I wanted something elegant, form fitting, white, and 3/4 length sleeves. The task of finding all these characteristics in a dress seemed almost impossible. Every dress was so expensive! But, Heavenly Father always hears the prayers of a worried bride....not a few days later, my dream dress literally fell into my hands. My dear friend and now sister in law found this dress on a facebook page. Within hours, my mom and I were at the house of this dress trying it on. The dress fit like a glove, hardly any alterations were needed. It was perfect. You better believe I said one million prayers of gratitude to my Heavenly Father. The best part was, the veil and the dress combined equaled a grand total of $200. 

I loved every detail of this dress from the bead work to the lace from the train to the veil. 

My ring is another beautiful story. Grant originally proposed with the band and just the diamond. He went ring shopping alone before he proposed, but really had no idea what I liked. A family friend of the Boyds who designed Grant's mother's ring, made mine! Together, Grant and I designed what we wanted the ring to look like. We loved the design of the infinity sign. The ring was made for such a smokin' deal and the best part is that no one will ever have the same style as my ring. I love it because it is so unique.

The best part was that my man LOVED it. It was exactly what he invisioned his bride wearing the his wedding day. We felt beyond blessed.

Wedding Day Part 2 :: The First Look

I didn't have many expectations for our wedding. I knew that it would be perfect no matter what. Something that I did want, though, was to capture "The First Look." The intensity of our special "First Look" was definitely building up. Grant wanted to see my dress so bad, and I wanted him to see me in it too!

"The First Look" is when we recorded the first time my groom saw me in my wedding dress. I understand that tradition says you should wait until the wedding day to see the bride in her dress, but did you know where that came from? It was from arranged marriages so the groom wouldn't back out once he saw the bride. haha I don't think that was ever a problem.

On our wedding day, we didn't have time to slow down and enjoy the moment, so I am so grateful my sweetheart and I were able to share this moment. The moment I tapped on his shoulder and he saw me and I saw him was definitely a feeling and moment that I never want to forget, plus it was so much fun. As I began walking behind him, he heard my voice. My man was giddy, nervous, and smiling ear to ear. I tapped him on the shoulder and that was the end of it....we kissed. a lot. :)

SO happy!

Wedding Day Part 1 :: The Formals

Welcome to our wedding week! This week will feature all of the details about our wedding. Today's post has some of my favorite pictures of our formal session held before our wedding. We did these so we could put some pictures up at our reception, which I am so thankful we did. Our wedding day was so crazy and fun. It was so nice to have pictures already taken. Something that was so important to me for our wedding was having a good photographer. Ellej was our photographer and she did an excellent job. We loved how she was able to capture the excitement and love. She commented that she had never seen a more "in-love" couple. She hit it on the nose. I personally know how in-love I am with my man, and I definitely know how he feels. ;) My mom likes to say that Grant's love is "overflowing" for me, which I am totally okay with. I am so happy and thankful for eternal marriage, meaning that I will be with my best friend for eternity! 

Ever since I received my mission call, I dreamed of taking a picture like this on my wedding day. Now, this exact picture is hanging in our room. What a powerhouse picture. The blessings of serving missions are real and wonderful.