A couple things I really don’t regret about our wedding day:

Having a photographer and videographer capture all these moments
Using voice recordings to remember everything that happened
Being surrounded by the most loving, incredible, supportive friends and family
And — most importantly — marrying Matt

If you don’t want to read the rest, this video sums up our day very accurately:

Before the big day, I recorded some thoughts in a voice memo:

“I feel like I’ve done all that I can to prepare for marriage… I just try to get what I need to know, and take in all the advice I’ve been given and just know that Matt is definitely the right person and my best choice and my favorite choice, and is so kind and so patient with me…I’m just really grateful for him and I’m so excited to get married…
It’s also fun to see everyone from all these different spheres of my life, starting to interact and be together…
The forecast was 90% chance of rain on Saturday for the wedding and now there’s 0% chance. It’s just another miracle, and I feel like God is looking out for us. The more I trust in God, I know everything will be ok, even if there was rain…(Honestly, it stormed like crazy the day before – I am extremely thankful the weather cleared up in time! It truly was a miracle.)
I keep telling myself: at the end of the day, the most important thing is that we’re married. And we have our friends and family there, and there’s just not anything else we really need.”

If I’ve learned anything these last two years of marriage, it’s to expect the unexpected and that you really can create a good, or a bad, marriage. We have to choose everyday what we’d like to create. It’s been so good, it’s been so challenging, it’s been a growing and evolving experience and I am still, two years later, very glad I am married to Matt. My life is better for it, and I especially know that recently after being apart on our different internships this summer.

As far as the day itself, it didn’t feel like a blur when I was present in it, but looking back, it went by so fast. It wasn’t until we saw some photos and the video even that I really felt like we had a wedding. Just seeing everything together and all these moments, and even moments that we had missed like the Italian Soda bar, were beautifully captured and it made me feel like I was there all over again.

Using my audio recording to remember all the little and big moments, I’m going down this beautiful memory lane:

Getting ready with all of my bridesmaids was more relaxing and fun than I thought it would be! It was just nice getting to hang out together. The most special moment was when my mom helped put on my wedding dress and started to cry.

One of Matt’s super talented groomsmen, Adam, drew this on a napkin for us:

After our beautiful and sacred sealing ceremony at the Nashville temple, and some photos outside, we had an hour or two before we needed to be at the ring ceremony/reception venue. So we hung out at our apartment for awhile with most of the bridesmaids who also brought us some smoothies.

Our ring ceremony part was next and was the more traditionally expected wedding. Livy did a really good job as a flower girl. As Matt said, “She was throwing down as a flower girl, literally” (she took bunches of flower petals and threw them with much purpose down on the ground. Kalai (who is now 3 years old!) was a great ring-bearer (with the help of his dad Scott), and Bishop Johnson did a beautiful job of explaining eternal marriage and what we did at the temple before letting us share some vows and exchanging rings: we shared five promises to each other — one of Matt’s was to always offer/give me the last bite of food he has, and one of mine was to watch the Tour de France with him.

Our photographer, Eden Ingle, asked me to write a list of all the photos I wanted and I definitely requested a lot of photos — I mean, how many more times in our life would we have both sides of our family and all of our friends in one place? So this was my chance to get some good photos. I highly recommend if your photographer doesn’t ask for this, that you make one anyways. It was worth not being able to go to the Italian Soda bar so we could get all these great photos with everyone. I also really like how everything turned out during the transition hour — we wanted to include some baby photos and some pieces from our engagement, like all the photo ornaments that Matt used on the tree when he proposed.

Once we made our entrance, we actually got to be the first people to eat. This was really good because Matt was getting a little hangry – as he said, “too many photos, not enough food.” However, the delicious cake? We only had one bite and never got another. Matt still talks about that cake and how that’s his one regret is not getting more of it. I loved the cake stand though from Etsy — our wedding song was “Better Together” by Jack Johnson. And at least when we did the cake tasting it was the best cake I’ve ever eaten.

The reception really came together. Flowers can get pretty expensive, so we went for minimal decorations. Everyone got a little picture frame as a souvenir.

One part of the day I find really funny, is when my mom came over after we were done eating, and she was saying how beautiful Matt’s vows were and saying how she was so happy to have Matt as part of the family, and she made a welcome gesture and knocked over a full glass of lemonade onto my lap. I was soaked. I didn’t really care though. All the pictures were taken, and it’s lemonade, not wine or something that you could really see.

One of my favorite parts of the day was having Annemarie and Anne Parkes sing for us. AP (who is now an official wedding singer so you can have her sing for you too!) actually wrote us a song and I still cry listening to it (it’s the music in the first part of the video).

I loved the toasts and that my best friend since before kindergarten talked about Baby G watches from elementary school. I realized I haven’t shared our dating story on here… but it’s a funny one. In fact, Matt set me up on a blind date with his friend who was also a groomsman in our wedding (he actually got married a few weeks before us!). I’ll have to share the whole story one day.

Dancing with my dad was sweet. And seeing Matt and his mom dance together was also so cute.

It was pretty hot, and we were sweating profusely as we danced, but we just kind of let it go and it was cool seeing my family on the dance floor and dancing with them. We danced until we had to go. I loved it!

A magical part I hadn’t anticipated: some people had never seen fireflies before, and they glowed all over the yard next to the tent.

Basically, I loved this special day. I loved every part of it. And I especially love that I get to spend the rest of eternity with the greatest guy. Happy Anniversary Matt!