OUR WEDDING

After a long wait, Forest and I are finally married!! Wahoo! We have been married for a month now and it has been great! I have absolutely loved being married! I love having my own kitchen and having been cooking tons. Also, living with Forest is amazing!! I love being able to spend so much time with him! A lot of our time was cut short because of a 20 minute drive from his parents to mine, so it has been really great to do that drive together when visiting and never at midnight when we are sleepy! Anyways, back to the wedding....

After over a year of planning, it seems crazy to talk about our wedding in the past. We had our ceremony and our reception at the lodge at Traverse Mountain in Lehi. The night before after our rehearsal, we drove up and set up everything up, so that the day of was less stressful. I kissed fiance goodnight as I drove back to my parents house one last time. For tomorrow not only would I be married, but I would be moved out which was crazy!

The morning of my bridesmaids, mom, and I all got to the Lodge early and got ready! It was so fun to listen to music and get ready! The Lodge has a bridal room and a conference room with a big table and chairs that was perfect for getting ready, but the problem was, it was on the wrong side, so there was not an exit to the front door. It was very important to me that I walk down the isle from the very back of the room, so my bridesmaids covered me up and I ran across the room to the other side of the building where the door was to the main entrance. We sat over there for what seemed like forever as I waited to walk down the isle, when finally it was time. The bridesmaids walked in, then the flower girls, and then my dad and I got the okay to go. As I took my first step down isle I was overwhelmed with emotions. This was such a happy moment for me. Not only did my dad get to walk me down the isle, but I was about to become Forest's wife.

Our ceremony was very personal to Forest and me. The pastor from Forest's church officiated our wedding. My cute friend Brooks did a reading called "The Union" by Robert Fulghum. (read it by pressing on the words The Union) We had a pianist come and play one of our favorite songs, "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran during our sand ceremony where we symbolized our two lives coming together by pouring two different colored sands into a picture frame. We wanted it to be very personal, so we each wrote our own vows and then also did a traditional vow set to supplement our personal vows. The whole ceremony was very emotional for me. I will cherish our ceremony forever because as I said in my vows, "This is the happiest moment of my life, because I finally get to be a mitt wife for the rest of my mitt life" (if you don't understand this, find the proposal story, it explains it all). As we walked back down the isle as Mr. and Mrs. Riekhof, my mouth hurt because I couldn't stop smiling!!

So, even though we had been planning this for over a year, you can't plan for everything. Less than a week before our wedding, Forest's grandma fell down her driveway and got very banged up. After a quick release from the hospital she was "making a recovery".. or so we thought. After our ceremony we heard that she was back in the hospital and had a deflated lung and a brain bleed and things were declining quickly. Of course, we were already sad she couldn't make it to our wedding, but this made things more difficult. Luckily some of his family stayed with her to ease our minds knowing she was with loved ones. We ended up leaving a little earlier than we were planning on, because we were a little concerned, but she made a recovery and just celebrated her 88th birthday on Wednesday, which is a relief.

Now time for the reception. Forest LOVES donuts, so of course we had to have donuts at our wedding. We had a dessert buffet with donuts, chocolate, cupcakes (made by my amazing mom and sisters), brownies, and cake. The DJ introduced all the bridesmaids and groomsmen and then introduced us and Forest and Maddie Riekhof (which was super exciting to hear my name followed by Riekhof)! We had about an hour of mingling and got to talk with all the amazing people that came to support us (thank you all!). It meant so much to have all those people there for us! After the mingling portion of our reception, we had a few speeches. Forest's borthers (Kohl and Kirk), My sister's (Ally and Brooke) and our sister-in-law Paige all gave terrific speeches! Next it was time for the cake cutting.... my favorite. Forest and I got our cake from Granite Bakery. Forest is a full fledged vanilla cake lover, and I am a chocolate girl so picking a cake meant compromise. We ended up with a marbled cake with cream cheese filling and it was delicious (I am looking forward to our 1 year anniversary when we can eat the top half )! We hadn't really talked about the cake cutting part of our wedding, except for the fact we would use my parents wedding knife and server as our "something borrowed". We cut the cake and fed it to each other and were both very nice about it, when all of the sudden, Forest grabs another piece and shoves it right into my face. The pictures show it all.... I grabbed a piece and did the exact same thing. I did not expect him to do that at all, but I thought it was very funny.

Next up, the bouquet toss and garter toss. All the single ladies came out dancing to the song "girls just wanna have fun" and I threw the bouquet. Everyone grabbed for it and it landed directly into my bridesmaid Kenzie's folded arms. She was trying not to catch it and it was just meant to be since she caught it in her folded arms. For the garter toss, the DJ played "Pony" by Ginuwine.... yes the "Magic Mike song". I tried not to be embarrassed as Forest went up my dress to grab the garter and he grabbed it with his teeth and got it off in impressive timing haha! He threw the garter and Forest's friend Mitch leaped through the air and landed on the ground with the garter in his hand! He was very determined.

As a child I remember watching Tarzan with my mom and dad, so when it came time to pick a daddy-daughter song, it was easy. My dad and I and Forest's mom and he, danced to "You'll be in my Heart" by Phil Collins. This was a very special moment that I shared with my dad. He told me that the first time my mom left him with me and my sisters, was when he took us to see Tarzan, so the song meant a lot to him and to me. After the parent dance, I got to have my first dance with my husband!! When "Thinking out Loud" by Ed Sheeran came out, Forest and I both loved it, so after 3 years of singing it, it was natural for it to be our first dance song (we obviously love Ed Sheeran if you can't tell). We danced to our song and spun around and then Forest lifted me up and it was a very happy moment! After some dancing with everyone, the DJ and groomsman got together and had a plan. We came inside just in time to hear the start of YMCA as the groomsman walked in wearing hats ready to dance. After watching the groomsman's moves for a bit, we all joined in.

After some more dancing, it was time for our send off. The DJ asked everyone to grab a glowstick and head outside. As we left we were surrounded by amazing family and friends. And we got in our lovely mustang (AKA my Jetta) that our friends had decorated and drove off.

Our wedding day was certainly a day to remember and we are so lucky to have such supportive friends and family to welcome us into married life.