Russ and Michele's wedding-First event of the summer

I wrote this post in June but finally attached some pictures so I have reposted it so you can see with the pictures. Enjoy!

Bride and Groom w/family

Russ and Michele are married! On June 4th, Paul's brother finally married the girl he has been dating, off and on, for 5 years. We all wanted him to marry her, it just took him a little bit longer to figure it out. It was very exciting and I even got to help out with some of the wedding decisions which was pretty cool for me. I think I might become a wedding planner (totally kidding, I've seen bridzella, what a nightmare!).

The first thing I was asked to do was to help with the invitations. They had all the colors and designs picked out but I recommended a place here that saved them a lot of money. The owner is a friend of mine (PG Printers, if anyone is in need of invitations). When I got there I didn't realize that I had to choose the paper. Very stressful for me because I was choosing for some one else. I think they liked my choice.

I was able to help with the bridal shoot. We went to a place in Lehi behind "Nooks and Crannys" that doesn't charge and has a lot of places to take cool pictures. All the pictures turned out gorgeous!

I'm not sure how I got involved in everything but suddenly I am looking for ties, hairbows, bridesmaid dresses, flowergirl dresses, jewelry for the bridesmaid. It was so much fun! I found ties at a place in Fashion Place Mall. I brought my mom and sisters knowing they can help me in finding a good tie. We found a tie that we all loved. Everything had to be send via text or email. I sent a picture to Michele and I don't think she loved them so I bought one, put it on Paul, as my model, with a good camera to show the colors and send it to her. Russ and Michele's sister loved them so I bought them a couple days later.

Paul is my model to show Michele to see if she likes the tie. Russ loved it!

I found the hairbows from a neighbor who sells them to stores like Roberts, Michaels, etc. This is the best story. Michele had a certain green she wanted, not a forest green or a lime green but more a grass green. I looked all over for the specific color and found green hairbows at Robert's. After confirming that the color was what she liked, I went to my friend and asked him if he had any hairbow that color green. He said "Those are my hairbows and I can get you as many as you need for $1 each" Yippee! I was so happy because I knew I would not find 18 hairbows at one store and I did not want to go all over Utah finding them. We put 2 on a headband for each of the flower girls and 1 for each of the bridesmaid.

The flower girl dresses were easy because we just used my sister's from a few years ago. They were creme and we accented them with green. We had all the sizes we needed. Flower girl dresses checked off.

Cousins in the flower girl dresses. Don't you love the cute hairbows?!?

Bridesmaid dresses were a little bit harder. Eventually we just went with a simple black dress and yellow shoes (her colors were yellow and green). I found a necklace that had yellow and green, pearl bracelets and pearl earrings. Another cool story with the earrings. So we were looking for jewerly one Saturday, Michele in Vegas and I here in Utah. We would text pictures of jewerly we found to see if we liked. This went on all day. I found the bracelets but could not find earrings I liked to go with the ensemble. I went to Kohl's as one of my last stops towards the end of the day. I found the perfect earrings but they only had 2, I needed 5 so I asked them if they could call other stores. One store in Salt Lake had 3 more but then I thought why not have them call their Las Vegas stores which they did. The store had 5 and they put them on hold. I texted Michele and told her to pick them up. She was about 5 minutes away and she loved them plus they gave her a discount even though she didn't have any coupons. I love Kohl's!

What was the most fun was planning the bachelorette party. Paul was doing a bachelor party for Russ with his friends and I wanted Michele to have a fun night the last night she is single. Her sisters came and we ate and played fun games. One game was asking Russ questions and Michele had to guess his answers. They have known each other for 5 years, she should have gotten everyone right! Each one she got right, she got to pick a present. We had good presents and pranks-like presents (lotions, pregnancy test, her favorite candy, mints, etc). My favorite was large underwear/lingerine. Just something we give to family getting married. Lots of Laughs. The other game was questions I asked to all the sisters (and me) about marriage, relationships, tips and suggestions. It was a lot of fun!

Of course, you have to have large underwear at a bachlorette party. You should have seen her face as she was opening it up. It was priceless. She told me later that she thought it was the ugliest thing and didn't know how to tell me she didn't like it but soon realized it was a gag gift. So much fun!

The wedding was beautiful. I love weddings. I love live sealings. It reminds me of my wedding day (so nervous, so young, so lucky). It is so good to hear the ceremony again and all the great advice from the sealer. One thing I remember from the sealer is he said to hold hands often even in public (if you know me I do not like PDA) because it then says to You Belong to Me. I am trying to do that more now. Then it was pictures and a luncheon at the Northampton House. Then they were off onto their honeymoon.

The tradition Just Married on the car except I added FINALLY. :)

Sunday night we get a call wondering if they could open their presents. It was fun for the kids to help them. Then they wanted Paul and I to come to their cabin at Sundance and spend the night. I thought they were kidding but they weren't. So we had my mom and sister watch the kids and we crashed their honeymoon. Wierd? Not at all. They practically have been married for years. It was a lot of fun and lots of wonderful memories!