Wedding Dos and Don'ts on my 15th Anniversary

Utah Dad and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary today. We had hoped to take a cruise this year and tried to plan one with his parents who have been married 60 years on Friday and his sister and her husband who celebrated their 30th anniversary last spring. For lack of funding, most of us backed out. Utah Dad's parents are enjoying a cruise to Alaska in the stormy seas right now.

So, instead Utah Dad and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. Tonight we are enjoying a cozy evening at home. He beat me at The Farming Game.

We've had a mostly wonderful 15 years and I am so grateful to be married to my best friend. If I had to do it over, I would definitely marry him again.

Today, I've been reminiscing about our wedding day and the things that I liked and would do differently. I should say that my wedding and reception were very simple. I like that. We [my parents] spent exactly $2,400 TOTAL. I'm serious.

Things I really liked :
1. I look at my dress now and think "yikes" but it was the 90's and that style was in, so I'm OK with it. I rented it which is so nice because I don't have to store it in the back of my closet or try it on to see if it still fits and feel bad that it doesn't.

2. We got married in the Manti Temple on a Friday afternoon. Our reception was on Saturday. After the wedding and the pictures, we ditched our family and the rest of the day was ours.

3. I loved that we held the reception in my parents' backyard. It's one of my favorite places on earth and my family did a great job setting up. The weather was perfect that September. Just perfect!

4. The cake was beautiful and delicious. I wish we had eaten the top that night though. It didn't taste great a year later.

5. In spite of all the driving required of our guests, I'm still so glad we chose the Manti Temple as the location for our wedding. I am grateful, of course, to be sealed for eternity to my spouse. But there is a special, quiet and calm feeling at the Manti Temple, that I know doesn't exist during the hectic and rushed wedding season at the Salt Lake Temple. Also, my parents and grandparents were married there (later two of my brothers would also get married there).

Things I would do differently :
1. I would definitely hire a professional photographer. It's worth the cost.

2. I would have gotten my hair done by a professional. My hair was fine and hello! that veil-thingy was HUGE but it would have been fun to be pampered. Maybe I would have left my hair down.

3. If you've been to a LDS Temple Wedding, you know that typically the guests gather around the exit to wait expectantly for the bride and groom to make their grand exit. The photographer will be sure to capture this moment on film. You know this, right? Well, I didn't. I hadn't been to a temple wedding before my own. I went to get ready to leave the temple and Utah Dad went to get ready. I felt like I had taken forever and surely men were faster than women, so when I came down to the foyer and didn't see Utah Dad, I figured that he was already outside waiting for me. No one told me that I should wait for him. Not my mom. Not the workers at the temple. When I exited the temple, our families weren't waiting outside. I had to search for them. They were all playing on the hillside lawn. And Utah Dad wasn't with them. He was still inside the temple attempting to put on cuff links and a bow tie by himself. Feeling deserted, he wasn't exactly happy when he finally made his own way outside and found me hanging out with our families who were still playing on the hillside lawn.

If I could do it over, I would definitely make sure our families and the professional photographer were waiting excitedly just outside the temple doors as Utah Dad and I came out TOGETHER.

Since we can't go back, I'm just very grateful that we get be TOGETHER in this life and for all eternity. Fifteen years later, I'm still very grateful.